Genetic Literacy Project
Viewpoint: ‘War against the West’: Russia powers global vaccine rejectionist movement even as it inoculates its own citizens
Anyone active on social media is aware that there is a great deal of passionate but ill-founded opposition to vaccination, ...
Podcast: Nature makes ‘GMO’ fish; Biology and gender; Curing sickle cell with CRISPR
Anti-GMO groups have long warned about the dangers of AquaBounty's genetically engineered salmon. But as it turns out, transgenic fish ...
Message to social media ‘prophets of doom’ Drs. Whistle Blower, Anti-Vaxx and Dangerfield: No, COVID vaccines aren’t dangerous and are incredibly effective
It’s hard to ignore the wave of anti-vaccine videos circulating on social media. Curiosity makes us click, and we watch ...
Playing victim: People who claim grievances more likely to lie and cheat, but victim status comes with evolutionary benefits
Victimhood is defined in negative terms: “the condition of having been hurt, damaged, or made to suffer.” Yet humans have ...
Podcast: If you get a COVID vaccine, you’re pro-GMO; 5G conspiracies; Lab-grown humans?
All the approved COVID-19 vaccines were developed with the help of genetic engineering. If we rely this technology to end ...
Pesticides and Food: It’s not a black or white issue — Part 3: How dangerous is glyphosate?
Although pesticide toxicity and biodegradability has decreased overall during the last few decades, many consumers are still worried about pesticides ...
Brain fog, fatigue and depression: Solving the mystery of Long Covid and what can be done about it
COVID-19 entered my home a year ago today when my 16-year-old daughter Molly first developed the tell-tale cough. By March ...
The mRNA vaccines battling COVID-19 are revolutionizing virus fighting strategies. Here’s how
British economist Thomas Babington Macaulay challenged a thread of pessimism writing in 1830: “On what principle is it that, when ...
Viewpoint: Here’s what ‘whole grain’ really means—and it’s not the health claim you’ve been told it is
Consumers have been so saturated with vague marketing claims that nearly 50 percent can't correctly identify what is claimed to ...
Podcast: Giving nature a helping hand – how humans are shaping species
Dr Kat Arney explores the impact that humans have had on the evolutionary trajectories of the species we share the ...
Afraid of Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ list? Here’s 12 reasons you shouldn’t be
Many regular food shoppers anxiously await the results of the Environmental Working Group’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list. Even if you ...
Which offers more protection: Vaccination or natural immunity?
According to Sen. Rand Paul – an ophthalmologist, not an infectious disease specialist – natural immunity is better. While not ...
Podcast: This GMO ‘almost’ wiped out all life; Here comes AquaBounty salmon; Pregnancy, chemicals and junk science
Did you hear about the genetically engineered microbe that almost wiped out all life? It got widespread attention in the ...
Viewpoint: Will 5G harm you? Activist groups succeed in stirring conspiracy health risk phobias, as New York State legislature prepares to debate ‘growing evidence’ of harm
Two bills were recently introduced in the New York State legislature (in the Assembly and in the Senate) to establish ...
Anti-GMO groups struggle to preserve Europe’s stringent crop gene-editing rules in post-Brexit UK
Following its political and economic divorce from the European Union, the UK has been forced to tackle an incendiary question: ...
Why some diseases confer lifelong immunity and others do not
Some diseases, like the measles, infect us once and usually grant us immunity for life. For others, like the flu, ...
Anti-GMO activists launch final effort to block AquaBounty’s fast-growing, sustainable GM salmon as US sales loom
As biotech firm AquaBounty prepares to harvest its GE AquAdvantage salmon for sale in the US, activist groups have trotted ...
Viewpoint: Skeptical of pesticides? That’s because you don’t know what life is like without them
Our greatest public health challenge isn’t chemicals -- it's ignorance and fear-mongering about them ...
About bats and COVID: Why the Wuhan ‘lab leak’ theory shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand, and other reflections one year into the crisis
Winston Churchill famously observed that in wartime the truth must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies. Many of my ...
What is regenerative farming, and is it a solution to climate change?
At a high level, Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming practices based on decades of science and applied research that ...
Viewpoint: Heard reports that dozens of environmental chemicals found in pregnant women pose health dangers? It’s junk science, and here’s why
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, of the University of California San Francisco, frequent collaborator of anti-vaccine activist and organic industry trade ...
Podcast: Save the earth—get a vasectomy? Glyphosate science vs emotion; Will Biden ban safe pesticides?
For the sake of women's rights and the environment, increasing numbers of men are getting vasectomies. How could this impact ...
Viewpoint: Consumer-focused GM and gene-edited products throw anti-GMO movement’s future into doubt
The bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory that has swept the nation and embedded itself in our political discourse is a prime ...
Can big data fight cancer by identifying those genetically predisposed to disease?
Present-day cancer care is reactive. When an individual begins to have symptoms of cancer, a tumor has typically already formed ...
Just how ‘green’ are biofuels? Why turning crops into energy might not be a worthwhile climate change solution
Biofuels are liquid fuels made from biomass (plant or animal organic materials) and used primarily in transportation, which is almost ...
Herd immunity is the key to controlling COVID. How many people need to get the vaccine?
It has been clear for a while that, at least in the U.S., the only way out of the coronavirus ...
Podcast: Why no flu season? Cloning endangered species; Free speech vs science on college campuses
The world has experienced a shockingly mild 2020-2021 flu season, defying the expectations of many infectious disease researchers. How is ...
Glyphosate on trial: In an ‘unequal contest’ between science and emotion, can evidence overcome pesticide-cancer fears?
Recently, I was asked to speak about the weedkiller glyphosate on Radio Colombia. As is often the case with media ...
