Genetic Literacy Project
The ‘tangled web’ of aging
Aging is far more complex than just an advancing clock. It's a tangled web of molecular changes that don’t play ...
Viewpoint: New York Times’ series ‘What to Eat on a Burning Planet’ is elitist hubris (and also gets the science of climate change wrong)
Journalists, academics and policymakers often talk about the “global food system.” But if there is such a thing, it isn’t ...
The hornet has landed: Scientists combat new honeybee killer in US
In early August 2023, a beekeeper near the port of Savannah, Georgia, noticed some odd activity around his hives. Something ...
Only cyber-humans could settle on other planets. Creating them is possible.
When considering human settlements on the Moon, Mars, and further afield, much attention is given to the travel times, food, ...
How has climate change reduced crop yields over the past quarter century
Agriculture is arguably the industry most sensitive to changes in the climate. Crops need CO2, water — not too little ...
GLP podcast: Processed food doesn’t speed aging; Ozempic may treat addiction; When science journals won’t retract junk research
Does processed food speed up the aging process? A recent study says yes, but we have our doubts. The blockbuster ...
“I really want to take control over how I leave this world” — More terminally ill patients are deciding how they want to die
In the 18 months after Francine Milano was diagnosed with a recurrence of the ovarian cancer she thought she’d beaten ...
Psychedelic drugs offer healing potential, but slow legalization stalls wider use
An operations manager finds relief from her depression with the help of psilocybin, the primary psychoactive component of “magic mushrooms.” A ...
Breakthrough Institute report: New technologies are poised to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture — if public financing is forthcoming
In recent years, startups, university researchers, and government laboratories have developed a suite of new technologies capable of revolutionizing agriculture ...
Much of what we’ve been told about secondhand smoke is wrong
In 2003, UCLA epidemiologist James Enstrom and I published a study of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)—also called "secondhand smoke" or "passive ...
Viewpoint: How to resist the allure of science disinformation swamping social media
If you haven’t been following my social channels, I just returned home from CSICon, a fantastic conference filled with presentations ...
Viewpoint: Why the entrenched environmental movement is incapable of solving the climate change crisis
Photo credit to Seaver Wang Every now and again, a series of events unfolds in such serendipitously perfect succession as ...
Viewpoint: Broken trust — American Association of Pediatrics embraces a rogue scientist’s anti-GMO and crop chemical obsession
Trust is essential when parents seek advice from their pediatricians. It must be fact-based and free from politics and special ...
Human consciousness: How and why it evolved?
Why did the experience of consciousness evolve from our underlying brain physiology? Despite being a vibrant area of neuroscience, current ...
While comprehensive gene editing liberalization in the European Union still appears distant, individual countries are making research progress
Using the gene editing method researchers at the University of Milan have started field trials of a rice genotype that ...
Viewpoint: Promotion of social science drivel by Science magazine editor-in-chief Holden Thorp undermines the credibility of his preeminent journal
Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal Science, described on Substack a discussion that occurred during the recent meeting of the American Association ...
Viewpoint: Land sharing vs land sparing — How can we increase crop yields without sacrificing climate and biodiversity goals
It is 12 months since I highlighted the scientific evidence pointing to the urgent need to take forward a land sparing ...
No-burp syndrome: 20,000 people on Reddit’s “I can’t belch” subreddit spread the word of a Botox cure
In a video posted to Reddit this summer, Lucie Rosenthal’s face starts focused and uncertain, looking intently into the camera, before ...
More than 40 gene-edited crops will be available to European farmers only when the EU deregulates crop biotechnology
In agricultural production, high-yielding variety genotypes are effective in increasing yield per unit area, beyond the contributions of fertilizer and ...
GLP podcast: From medicine to Monsanto—Why one physician left health care to work for ‘Big Ag’
"Over the years, the bureaucracy began to grow. Before you knew it, you went from spending lots of time talking ...
Viewpoint: Vani Hari’s food recipe: The Food Babe promotes 100% fear, 0% facts
If you haven’t heard of Vani Hari, consider yourself fortunate. For many of us in the science, nutrition, and public ...
Viewpoint: The story of RP11, whose DNA mostly defines the first genetic blueprint of humanity
It sounds as if the donor knows who he is,” wrote Francis Collins, former director of the then-called National Center for ...
Humans are adapting to global warming. What are the policy implications
On [September 23rd, 2024], the New York Times ran a David Wallace-Wells column called “Our Adaptation to Global Warming Is Largely Fictional” featuring ...
Why Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be catastrophic for science and America’s health
Today is a dark day for the US, the rest of society, and our planet. The above header was actually ...
Viewpoint: Is the age of environmental activism coming to an end?
For the last 50 years, from the time of Greenpeace activists chasing whaling ships to today’s green NGO coalitions directing ...
GLP podcast: Break out of your echo chamber—an ER physician explains how to win over vaccine skeptics
Dr. Liza Dunn has an impressive resume. She's cared for malnourished children in developing countries, treated drug overdoses in the ...
Viewpoint: Elle MacPherson claims she cured her cancer using ‘intuitive and holistic’ alternative medicine. She’s ‘lying’ and why it matters
I’ve been wanting to start to dig into cancer pseudoscience for a long time, and in my other pieces, I’ve ...
Inching toward a global treaty on plastic pollution
Delegates from 175 nations are working on an international agreement that would tackle the vast amounts of plastic waste in ...
