Boston Globe
Trump’s wacky science: He’s now blaming mothers for autism
The Trump administration’s targeting of women’s behavior as the basis for autism evokes the disgraceful mid-20th-century era of so-called refrigerator mothers, ...
What is ‘therapy speak’ and why is its proliferation so dangerous?
Psychiatric diagnosis has taken on a new role in public life. Turbocharged by social media, “therapy speak” has permeated every ...
Profiling the people now guiding America’s health policy
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary, he didn’t just bring with him an unconventional and controversial approach to ...
Viewpoint: Trump is MIA in his response to bird flu. Here’s what the administration needs to do, and fast
First, vaccinating poultry is critical to preventing flock outbreaks and must be a cornerstone of the nation’s avian influenza prevention ...
5 actions the Trump administration could and should take (but probably won’t) to contain bird flu
First, vaccinating poultry is critical to preventing flock outbreaks and must be a cornerstone of the nation’s avian influenza prevention ...
Viewpoint: US biotechnology innovation efforts dim with biomanufacturing a key laggard
The United States has been the undisputed innovator and leader in biology and biotechnology. Molecular biology and genetic engineering were ...
Left-leaning suburban moms lurching towards health and environmental conspiracy theories
Today, the term ['crunchy mom'] has taken on a new meaning. Yes, the crunchy moms are still organic, still love ...
Methane-releasing cow ‘burps’ are a major global contributor to climate instability. Could a vaccine fix that?
The methane emitted by the world’s billion-plus belching cattle has roughly the same impact on the climate as all the ...
The future creeps closer: While two-thirds of Americans say they’d pick an embryo based on genetic profiling, some concerns escalate
Nearly one third of those surveyed even say they would consider going through IVF for the sole purpose of such ...
The investment bubble surrounding indoor farming has burst. One plodding but high-tech startup is bucking the trend, and here’s how
Indoor farming startups seeking to revolutionize the nation’s food supply have endured a rocky year. Investors have significantly pulled back ...
Why carbon capture alone will not put a dent in our ballooning health crisis
Technology that captures carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and stores them underground is being touted as necessary ...
Ovaries in a dish? Lab-grown eggs are on the horizon
George Church is known for pushing the boundaries of biology. Now one of his latest projects could have enormous implications ...
Can genetically engineered mice permanently curb Lyme disease?
As spring emerged on this island of manicured estates and idyllic beaches, a group of scientists from the Boston area ...
Who owns the rights to CRISPR? In startling blow to Nobel Prize winners Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Boston’s Broad Institute awarded patent
Ending the latest chapter in a years-long legal battle over who invented CRISPR, the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled ...
What happens next after the Omicron wave abates? Only the coronavirus knows for sure
The surge fueled by the Omicron variant will likely fade in the weeks ahead in the United States, experts say, ...
Vaccine opponents often cite concerns about new mRNA technology. Can science dispel those fears?
Thanks to Moderna’s and Pfizer’s highly effective COVID-19 vaccines, “messenger RNA” has become a household term — and a source ...
Is science really about evidence? How convention trumps new findings on obesity and health
In 2005, Katherine Flegal, a senior scientist studying obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published a counterintuitive ...
Viewpoint: Republican war against ‘cancel culture’ moves from targeting Dr. Seuss to transgender children, claim LQBTQ activists
What does a wave of legislation targeting transgender children in state houses across the country have in common with the ...
COVID variants present new threat as US virus cases plateau
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a leading expert on infectious diseases, ...
After watching family member suffer ALS-related anxiety, family launches campaign to encourage patients to try medical marijuana
[Pete Frates, a] Boston College graduate who had been diagnosed with ALS years earlier, was already seeing top psychiatrists and ...
Vitamin D from sunshine or supplements does not reduce risk of depression
According to [a] study from Massachusetts General Hospital released [August 5], vitamin D, also known as the sunshine supplement, does ...
Disease-fighting GMO mosquitoes are coming. Was EPA too quick to approve them?
[In May], the US Environmental Protection Agency approved the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. Under a 2-year Experimental Use Permit, ...
‘It’s the only strategy’: Coronavirus pandemic cannot end without herd immunity
For weeks, the most pressing policy challenge has been relieving the life-and-death pressure on our hospitals. But all that justifiable ...
‘Soylent,’ ‘clean meat,’ ‘Impossible Burger’: What we call food is just as important as how it tastes
When we talk about the food of the future, we conjure images from science fiction: the pureed brown stuff in ...
Hypoallergenic foods: Genetic engineering could help prevent 30,000 US ER visits annually
Hortense Dodo has genetically engineered a hypoallergenic peanut. But she isn’t targeting people with peanut allergies. Not directly, anyway. ...
Viewpoint: Why ‘do-it-yourself’ genetic testing is a dangerous game
A few years back, I learned of a patient who had her DNA tested by one company and then interpreted ...
Future of biofuels: Are alternative, sustainable, GMO bacteria-based fuels a pipe dream?
[Joule Unlimited] was designing a system that would produce diesel fuel or gasoline using nothing more than the sun, carbon ...
Life hacking: Gene editing won’t solve all of society’s problems
Science is threatening a new era of “market-based eugenics,” whereby gene editing in combination with in vitro fertilization techniques will ...
