Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Cosmic cuisine: Synthetic biologists are exploring cellular agriculture to grow food in space
[P]roducing food in space is incredibly difficult. There is very limited space aboard spacecraft, and microgravity impacts the growth of ...
Viewpoint: For European farming to innovate, patents are critical
EU policymakers are currently negotiating new rules for developing innovative plant varieties through new genomic techniques (NGTs). These techniques allow plant breeders ...
With 23andMe’s bankruptcy, questions emerge about the the private genetic data of its 6.9 million customers
23andMe has faced financial hardship for years, struggling to overcome the fact that many people who went to the website ...
Bayer plans appeal and hopes for legislative relief after $2.2 billion Roundup-glyphsate verdict
A Cobb County, Georgia, jury awarded plaintiff John Barnes $2.065 billion in compensation and damages on March 21 in ...
Viewpoint: Here’s a reminder of what life was like in RFK Jr’s.’ ‘good ol’ pre-vaccine days
In the early 1800s, some people rejected the smallpox vaccine because they didn’t trust the doctors and scientists promoting them, ...
While raw milk increases health risk by 70,000% percent, cheese made from raw milk is safe to eat
The only real way to wipe out H5N1, the bird flu that has been ruining egg prices since last year, ...
Viewpoint: Social media’s herd mentality undermines how we view farming and food
The information superhighway has many potholes to navigate and treacherous off ramps that will result in people getting lost on ...
Sociogenomics—How our environment molds genes and shapes our
The new field is called sociogenomics, a fusion of behavioral science and genetics that I have been closely involved with ...
Vaccines for cancers? It’s coming, and we’ll have COVID response-spurred mRNA vaccines to thank
Cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research before the pandemic. There was nothing. Apart from one exception, pretty much ...
Ultra-processed foods lead to chronic diseases? Bread, breakfast cereals, yogurt and dairy desserts are all associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes
[G]iven the prevailing sense of certainty that ultraprocessed foods are a prime culprit in chronic disease, it may surprise you ...
RFK, Jr. calls the HPV vaccine ‘dangerous and defective’. He’s made millions of dollars litigating this falsehood
HPV is a virus that can live and replicate in certain cells on the surface of the skin and mucous ...
Viewpoint: Health officials and the media largely got it wrong—Once widely derided Covid lab leak theory now seems the likeliest explanation for the orgins of the pandemic
Five years after the onset of the Covid pandemic, it’s tempting to think of [the debate between lab leak versus ...
Are humans in decline and doomed for extinction? This book argues ‘yes’
Sure, there’s always the threat of global nuclear war and a massive planet-killing asteroid or cometary impact. But in his ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate hysteria pushed by RFK, Jr. and MAHA allies throws a dark cloud over modern agriculture
[L]ooming concerns such as talk of a possible glyphosate ban and tight time lines for national carbon emission goals have ...
Animals throughout the world show signs of being perplexed by shorter winters
Temperature plays a role in determining when bears wake from hibernation and when birds return from warmer regions. If temperatures ...
Greenpeace USA faces possible dissolution after losing $667 million defamation suit for orchestrating ‘unlawful’ demonstrations against a North Dakota pipeline project
Energy Transfer filed the colossal lawsuit in 2019, accusing Greenpeace of providing resources, including supplies, intel and training, to encourage ...
Viewpoint: India has a huge opportunity on gene editing:—This isn’t about corporate-controlled GM crops. It’s about empowering farmers with healthier and more resilient plants.’
Imagine mangoes growing in the deserts of Rajasthan, wheat that thrives in extreme heat and provides higher nutrition, or rice ...
Combating global micronutrient deficiencies: Israeli scientists deploy gene editing to develop vitamin-rich lettuce
Israeli scientists successfully used CRISPR gene-editing technology to develop a nutrient-enhanced variety of lettuce, marking a breakthrough in efforts to ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is like banning life-saving medicines because some patients take overdoses’: Pakistan debates banning key agricultural chemicals that some say are misused
A proposed government ban on 12 widely used agrochemicals has triggered alarm across Pakistan's agriculture sector as experts warn it ...
RFK, Jr. claims that the measles vaccine ‘causes deaths every year’. He’s wrong, that’s activist propaganda
Parsing every claim about the measles vaccine that [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] has made would take a long time, so ...
Could reprogramming our genes stop the aging process?
Cellular reprogramming is now hailed by its supporters as the most promising scientific approach to improving human healthspans and lifespans. Proponents ...
Does eating organic foods lower your risk of cancer?
Overall, when it comes to crops that produce food like fruits and vegetables, the main difference is that organic is ...
Promoted by RFK, Jr. and food influencers bashing seed oils is in fashion. Nutrition scientists shake their heads at this mass ignorance
[‘Seed oil’] is the catchy description coined by internet influencers, wellness gurus and some politicians to refer to common cooking ...
Missing teeth? A drug that that spurs regrowth shows promise
Teeth ... are not bones. Although they’re made of some of the same stuff and are the hardest material in ...
Planting trees to slow climate change—there’s a method to it
Any tree will suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into plant tissue. But it adding a little ...
Guided by RFK Jr.’s scientifically illiterate advice, many Texas families with measles-infected children avoid going to the doctor, sometimes until it’s too late
Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on ...
The brain scans its surroundings in a steady rhythm and only turns off during deep sleep
The brain is not only concerned with where we are right now. It also explores places we haven't been yet ...
