Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Gene drives minimize biodiversity loss while optimizing productivity
Chinese scientists have reportedly engineered a way to use gene-editing technology to bypass natural plant behavior and force crops to inherit genes ...
Genomic prediction: Start-up claims to offer parents a way to select ‘desirable’ traits like IQ. Will it work?
There is broad scientific consensus that intelligence is partly inherited and that genes play a significant role. But pinning this ...
Ancient DNA can be an indicator of your ability to digest carbs
If you’ve ever struggled to reduce your carb intake, ancient DNA might be to blame. It has long been known ...
Rwandan farmers and scientists turn to genetic modification to rescue disease-threatened potatoes, maize and cassava
Rwanda could soon start using genetically modified maize, Irish potatoes, and cassava crops as confined trials are underway. Maize is ...
Intelligent food labels: Technological innovations to prevent food waste
With everyone talking about the problem of food waste worldwide, its effects are reaching way beyond just the food industry ...
What’s a burger, sausage or a steak? European Union court rules can legally be used in marketing vegan products
The news that France or any member state can’t ban meaty terms in plant-based food labels has given [the] industry a ...
Pakistan drops ban on importing GMO soybeans
The federal government [of Pakistan] has officially authorised the import of genetically modified (GMO) soybean by granting licences to dozens ...
Viewpoint: Is the anti-corporate MAHA—pro-big business Trump alliance viable?
[Robert] Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) wants “to dismantle the corporate stranglehold on our government agencies that has led ...
Trump’s prospective ‘Health Czar’ RFK, Jr. says new administration will push to ban fluoride in water
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged ... that a future Trump administration would seek to remove fluoride from drinking water as ...
Brains and risk: The genetics of politics
Elections tend to bring out strong emotions in people. As voters evaluate the candidates, emotions can rise. Political disagreements may ...
Over regulation or protecting the public? Republicans and Democrats have very different visions on how to regulate AI
If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November, the guardrails could come off of artificial intelligence development, even ...
Viewpoint: How progressives have undermined their stated agenda and slowed the introduction of new drugs
With the rallying cry of corporate greed, each year of the Biden-Harris administration has brought successive government interventions in the ...
Electrostatic ‘thinking’: How insects evolved to navigate the world
For years, biologists have wondered whether bees have [some] grand sense that we lack. The static electricity they accumulate by ...
Health alert: Here’s what you can expect if you take anti-aging supplements
Among the many wonder products out there on the market, there is a type that inspires equal parts fascination and ...
Food-crippled Malawi rejects GMO crops, claiming they cause health problems
Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale has ruled out genetically modified organism (GMO) food supplements as a solution to Malawi’s perennial food ...
Artificial nose in development may make it possible to easily detect spoiled and damaged food
New artificial nose technology developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) could make it possible to reliably ...
‘Banning pesticides would upend the US food system’: Farmers alarmed that the Trump-RFK, Jr. alliance could cripple US agriculture
Donald Trump’s embrace of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his fringe health theories is triggering a flurry of outreach in ...
Lab-grown fish face unique obstacles to create and scale
One of the main challenges that lab-grown fish startups have encountered is keeping cells from sticking to the sides of ...
Mexico’s ban on GM corn ‘could disproportionately affect the nation’s lower-income consumers’
A fully implemented ban on genetically modified corn in Mexico could disproportionately affect the nation's lower-income consumers, according to a ...
‘Milestone moment’: Drought-tolerant wheat trait deregulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but it will be years until its commercially available
For 20 years, genetically modified wheat traits were set on the back burner, but now GMO wheat is back on ...
Echolocation: How tongue clicks allow the blind to ride bikes
Human echolocation has at times allowed people to ride bikes or play basketball despite being completely blind from a very ...
Viewpoint: Trump leverages RFK Jr.’s endorsement to rally support for his ‘radical deregulation agenda’
When [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.], the country’s most famous anti-vaccine activist, suspended his campaign to endorse Donald Trump, it [represented] ...
15 ‘skinny genes’ may be key to losing weight
The secret to losing weight could all be down to a combination of 14 ‘skinny genes’, a new study has ...
Why many mathematicians say that ‘the number zero is mankind’s greatest achievement’
From zero sprang the laws of the universe, number theory, and modern mathematics. “Zero is, by many mathematicians, definitely considered ...
Following new Idaho law, doctors delayed the pelvic exam of a pregnant 13-year-old girl because they couldn’t locate her homeless mother
[Mom-to-be Aleah], 36 weeks pregnant, was having mild but frequent contractions.... In most cases, physician Caitlin Gustafson would have begun ...
Viewpoint: As the UK edges closer to limiting regulations on gene-edited crops, concerns mount that precision breeding of farm animals will be left behind
It is encouraging that Defra food security minister Daniel Zeichner has since confirmed that the Government will introduce the necessary ...
Vegetable oils are often maligned as “industrial seed oils” that cause inflammation and oxidate damage. What does science say?
In the nutrition world, few topics are currently as polarizing as vegetable oils! While mainstream health guidelines typically advocate for ...
