Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Podcast: Scientists harness gene editing to engineer disease- and climate-resilient wheat
By 2030, Africa will account for 53 percent of the world’s population living in hunger, primarily due to climate change and ...
AI will influence human evolution. Here’s how
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies raises new questions. A ...
Excuse for eating dessert? Is your sweet tooth genetically determined?
New research has found that people with a genetic defect in their ability to digest sucrose eat less cake, sweets, ...
You are taking Ozempic or Wegovy and aren’t losing weight? 20% of patients are in the same boat. Here’s why
In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of ...
New Scientist viewpoint: We must use genetic technologies now to avert the coming food crisis
There are two monumental problems with the world’s food system. Firstly, hundreds of millions of people can’t afford to buy ...
Viewpoint: Scientific American editor Laura Helmuth notorius for putting woke ideology ahead of science resigns under a cloud after a rant against Donald Trump
When magazines like Scientific American are run by ideologues producing biased dreck, it only makes it more difficult to defend ...
Republicans wary about RFK’s pledge to ‘wage war against ‘industrial agriculture, industrial meat production, factory farming and chemical based agriculture’
Republican Senators on Capitol Hill ... share their hesitations about [Donald] Trump’s preferred candidate to lead the Department of Health ...
Food tech trends for 2025
Over the past few years, food technology has seen an upsurge in innovation. In areas like precision fermentation and cultivated meat, ...
Lab grown Japanese quail is the latest cell grown food in restaurants
Hongkongers can get their first taste of cultured meat, also known as lab-grown meat, after an Australian food-tech start-up became ...
A.L. 288-1, better known as Lucy, was unearthed 50 years ago. Here is how a pile of bones reshaped our knowledge of human evolution
In 1974, researchers unearthed fossil AL 288-1, more commonly known as “Lucy”, in a 3.2-million-year-old deposit in the Hadar region of ...
Meet Daisy: The AI grandmother who is fighting back against scammers
AI-generated UK grandmother named “Daisy” is [making] scammers’ jobs a bit more tedious.... Using ChatGPT-like large language models, Daisy will ...
What can the food sector expect in a Trump administration?
In his first term, Donald Trump rolled back over 100 climate policies and pulled the US out of the Paris ...
From genetics to the generation: What does the future hold for agrifood systems and food culture
Today we stand at the dawn of a new era. The challenges we face now – the climate crisis, biodiversity ...
Do ‘forever chemicals’ impact seafood? The FDA wants to know
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be investigating the presence of “forever chemicals” in seafood, [to understand] how such ...
Born athletes? Identical twin studies show the balance of genetics vs training
[A] new study finds that, of all fitness domains, flexibility is the one most determined by your genes. The study, ...
The queasy possibility that humans and AI could ‘evolve’ in tandem
For the sake of engaging in a wholehearted discussion, assume that AI is evolving.... We then have these two ideas ...
Clinical trials involving animals can have a 99.6% failure rate in some instances sparking researchers to find alternatives
Animal-based studies have contributed to important findings and lifesaving medical advancements. The COVID-19 vaccines, for instance, were developed in animals, ...
Urban farming is getting a modern makeover
Urban farming is [getting] a modern makeover thanks to technology. From beautiful gardens on top of tall buildings to sleek ...
How genetics has revolutionized animal breeding
When geneticists talk about genetic information, [they generally refer] to the DNA that makes up our genes. These genes function ...
Does eating ultra-processed foods speed up aging?
Ultra-processed foods have been associated with poor nutritional quality and potential health risks. Now, a new study suggests that high ...
Viewpoint: Overhauling the teaching of genetics is necessary to eliminate the concept of race
On a lengthy bus ride in the early 1970s, University of Chicago geneticist Richard Lewontin passed the time by doing some novel math ...
If humanity goes extinct, this is the likeliest creature to ascend and become the next civilization builder
Professor Tim Coulson, a leading zoologist and biologist at the University of Oxford, suggested that octopuses could evolve into the ...
Will 23andMe survive after the ancestral data leak fiasco?
The genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Monday it would cut about 40%, or 200 employees, from its workforce and ...
In rare cases, coming down with COVID-19 could save your life
Viruses don’t often come with silver linings, and infections don’t generally lead to positive health effects. But during the pandemic, ...
25% reduction: People genetically prone to breast cancer, diabetes and other diseases would benefit from gene screening
A simple genetic screening test has the potential to stop almost a quarter of premature preventable deaths from common diseases ...
Pong addict? You should take a shot at playing a human created lifeless blob—that gets better over time
Inspired by recent advancements in brain organoid systems, researchers have designed a simple hydrogel-electrode array that not only can “play” Pong, but ...
Health care policy uncertainty has lobbyists up in arms, hope Senate will reject RFK Jr. nomination
Lobbyists expecting a more conventional pick to lead the government’s $3 trillion health agency than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the brash ...
