Genetic Literacy Project
Viewpoint: Europe’s anti-GMO activists copy smear tactics of extremist US organic lobbyists
Some bad ideas have originated in America. Reality television, spray-on cheese, pineapple pizza, and deep-fried Hostess Twinkies come to mind. But the ...
Viewpoint: Activists promotion of ‘fog of misinformation’ about GMOs challenges science communicators
Activists spend all day peddling nonsense. If they spent that kind of time on constructive issues…sigh. [A] local radio station ...
Beyond pesticides: Engineered crops that fertilize themselves from air
Plants are surrounded by nitrogen, but it's unusable as found in the atmosphere. Scientists may be able to change that ...
Defining life: If it’s created in a lab, is it really alive?
Describing life is difficult and evasive. Will we fully understand life if we can create it through synthetic biology? ...
Gender and the brain: Are there hardwired differences between men and women?
The idea that genders are different in a neurological sense is picking up considerable momentum in the hard sciences. It could have ...
Viewpoint: Frankenstein’s legacy is a ‘distrust of science’—and GMOs
The novel ushered in a concept that actively harms the Global South two centuries later ...
Is it time to rethink evolutionary timeline for Earth’s animals?
New research suggests that animal origins happened much earlier than previously thought ...
Viewpoint: Why consumer DNA tests are more dangerous than you might think
Commercial DNA testing isn’t just harmless entertainment. It’s keeping alive ideas that deserve to die ...
Canada’s suspect move to phase out neonicotinoids to ‘protect bees’ sets stage for US regulatory battle
Canada’s PMRA—its environmental regulatory agency, part of HealthCanada—rolled out for public comment its tentative decision to phase out almost all ...
Who should we thank for all those wonderful fruits and vegetables? ‘Not Mother Nature’
Half of the vegetables grown in the United States are from California. “California is famous for three things: “Hollywood, Silicon ...
Talking Biotech: Thalidomide once caused birth defects—now it treats cancer
The sleep medication thalidomide caused thousands of birth defects in the 1960s. But experts say it's also a powerful cancer ...
Sustainability advantage: ‘High-yield’ intensive agriculture outpaces organic farming, large study shows
Opposition to “high-yield” agriculture has taken many forms: Accusations of corporate takeover of the idealized family farm; preference for organic ...
Race and genetics: How our ancestry both limits and exacerbates disease risks
Members of different ethnic groups living in the same region may have widely varying life expectancies. A wide range of ...
Trust issues: Scientific credibility suffers when industries sponsor research
Industry plays a central role in scientific research and development. But research shows that when companies fund science, credibility suffers ...
Understanding the brain’s record-keeping system
The brain has a temporary way to keep track of memories ...
Opportunity lost: Has Uganda paid a price for not embracing GMOs, biotechnology?
It has been more than two decades since the commercial introduction of GMO crops. They have delivered a range of ...
When the nose never knows: Exploring the genetics behind a missing sense of smell
Imagine life without odors. Food tastes the same regardless of how congested your nasal passages are or how damaged your ...
Video: How the Environmental Working Group manipulated the math on glyphosate safety levels to create ‘Roundup in Cheerios’ scare
The weed killer glyphosate (aka Roundup in patented form) is lauded by farmers as a safe, effective herbicide. However, there ...
Why are humans so much smarter than other primates?
By counting the number of neurons in brains, one scientist revolutionized our view of why Homo sapiens and nonhuman primates ...
How anti-GMO research is manufactured: Challenging two Séralini-lab studies that fueled renewed safety concerns over GMOs and glyphosate
In the wake of the decision by a California federal court concluding that Monsanto’s Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, ...
Talking Biotech: There’s a worldwide vanilla shortage. Can science save our favorite food flavoring?
Vanilla is the world's favorite food flavoring—but there's not enough to go around. Thankfully, scientists are developing new ways to ...
Sexual reproduction may not be the best evolutionary strategy. So why do we do it?
In many ways asexual reproduction is a better evolutionary strategy: only one parent is needed, and all of their genes ...
GMO wine: Are we ready for it?
Genetic modification of grapes could help wine growers deal with a range of challenges -- if they can be convinced ...
Things to consider before taking a genetic test for Alzheimer’s risk
Genetic testing is available to people who want to know if they carry a variant of a gene that confers ...
Viewpoint: UC-San Francisco is the ‘academic home of the anti-GMO movement’
Being anti-GMO is the biotech equivalent of being anti-vaccine. The scientific literature overwhelmingly and definitively has concluded that GMOs are safe ...
Do children have a right to know about a parent’s serious hereditary disease?
Genetic diagnosis is getting ever more sophisticated. But as doctors uncover diseases that are hereditary, who needs to know? Shaun ...
Ontario study: Some good news about glyphosate
These days we are exposed to a great deal of negative, one-sided and inaccurate information in the media and online ...
Viewpoint: No, wild bees haven’t been decimated by neonicotinoids, glyphosate
Bees and pesticides (and not just insecticides) have been the focus of activists and scientists alike, particularly since a 2006-2008 ...
