Big Think
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Coronavirus vaccine created with synthetic biology would be ‘more potent’ than flu shot
As companies hurry to test potential vaccines, the National Institute of Health (NIH) is hoping new bio-engineering techniques to help ...
Infographic: What the US public thinks about tinkering with human genetics
The Pew Research Center published a fascinating roundup of studies that revealed the opinions of the U.S. public on a ...
7 things to know about autism, including why it’s unlikely there will ever be a ‘cure’
To help spread awareness — and cut through the falsehoods, half-truths, and misinformation — here are seven things everyone should ...
Life on Earth is carbon-based. But that doesn’t mean other planets have to use the same building block.
All life on Earth, and thus, all life we've ever observed in the universe, shares a few basic characteristics. Its ...
Lab-grown meat is coming soon—but will anyone eat it?
As 2018 wraps up, the average American is poised to have eaten 222 pounds of beef over the course of ...
Boltzmann brain: You may be living in your own simulated reality
The paradox of the Boltzmann Brain can really pull the rug from under you if you follow it to all ...
Americans think they know about GMOs, but poll shows consumers still badly confused
As a non-expert consumer, it’s hard to know what to think about GMOs. Of course, we’re already consuming them, with ...
Is there a link between food allergies and autism?
A new study from researchers at the University of Iowa reveals a link between food allergies and autism, though many ...
Persistence and perspiration: How sweating allowed humans to dominate other species
Millions of years ago, digestion consumed most of the calories we ate. These days, our brain takes 20 times more energy than ...
What would happen if we suddenly stopped dreaming?
Rowan Hooper, the managing editor at New Scientist, reports that chronic dream deprivation is damaging our waking hours in numerous ways. … This ...
CRISPR can fix gene that causes intellectual impairment in men–fragile X syndrome
The fragile X syndrome is the most common form of intellectual impairment in men, affecting 1 out of 3,600 boys. Now, scientists ...
Price of evolution? Schizophrenia linked to development of complex brains
Schizophrenia affects only about 1% of the US population. The condition is typified by confused thoughts and speech, delusions and hallucinations. Symptoms ...
Video: Ancient virus could explain how human memories are formed
The particulars surrounding how our memory works has baffled neuroscientists for decades. Turns out, it’s a very sophisticated process involving ...
Lucid dreaming linked to higher creativity
Have you ever had a dream so real, you mistook it for reality? This is a state called lucid dreaming ...
Why human-like robots are creepy
The robot revolution is on the horizon...One report says that they’ll be commonplace by 2025. In another case, a professor claims ...
Brain damage may spur extreme religious fundamentalism, study finds
Scientists found that damage in a certain part of the brain is linked to an increase in religious fundamentalism. In ...
Feeling blue? Depression may have offered evolutionary advantage to our ancestors
Depressive symptoms have been found in every culture on Earth and throughout history...Unlike other psychiatric disorders, which are rare, depression ...
US next in line to test CRISPR gene editing technology on human cells
You probably know about CRISPR-Cas9. It’s the recently developed method for genetic engineering that’s brought costs down by 99%, and ...
Vaccine may soon help patients fight Alzheimer’s (along with some red wine)
Five million people in the US today struggle with Alzheimer’s...and approximately 47 million globally are stricken, this being the most ...
Pentagon wants to develop ‘safe genes’ to stop biohackers from making weapons with CRISPR
[T]he Pentagon is moving to...find a “safe course” to rein [gene editing technology] in. But it will be a difficult balancing ...
Researchers may have found key to cancer cure in four-strand DNA
One problem with cancer treatments today is that they attack all cells indiscriminately. Chemotherapy for instance, hurts healthy cells and ...
Creation of first synthetic genome may lead us closer to superhumans
[G]eneticists are now getting ever closer to, not just removing and replacing genes, but rewriting entire genomes...[G]eneticists at Harvard recently ...
Stanford biomedical ethics chair predicts end of reproductive sex
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. [H]ow [do] we navigate ...
In GMO debate, what’s worse? Biased scientists or uncritical media?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The headline on the ...
Fear of Fear: Will Campbell’s support for mandatory GMO labeling break impasse?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The Campbell Soup company, ...
Is Big Organic guilty of ‘Merchants of Doubt’ behavior?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Is Exxon Mobil’s behavior ...
Carcinogenic conundrum: Why we fear glyphosate but love bacon
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. But beyond putting the ...
Beware mudslinging: How abuse of FOIA derails discussion of science and GMOs
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. In general, FOIA requests ...
