10,000 scientists gone: Trump’s cuts create an unprecedented brain drain

10,000 scientists gone: Trump’s cuts create an unprecedented brain drain

Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank ...
Trump demands access to Africa’s rare minerals as price to fund efforts to battle AIDs

Trump demands access to Africa’s rare minerals as price to fund efforts to battle AIDs

Jon Cohen | Science |
Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR [U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] has helped provide anti-HIV medicine to more than 20 ...
U.S. defunding International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), UN-affiliated group that issued cancer warnings for glyphosate, steak, and getting a haircut

U.S. defunding International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), UN-affiliated group that issued cancer warnings for glyphosate, steak, and getting a haircut

Jocelyn Kaiser | Science |
The United States’s withdrawal this year from the World Health Organization (WHO) is having knock-on effects on an influential global ...
Trust in science is cratering in America. Is there a way to restore it?

Trust in science is cratering in America. Is there a way to restore it?

Shobita Parthasarathy | Science |
Although public trust in science is a recent preoccupation for some, it has been a problem for decades in the United States. Republicans began ...
ARCUS breakthrough: An advanced gene editing tool appears to have cured an infant of an early onset metabolic disorder

ARCUS breakthrough: An advanced gene editing tool appears to have cured an infant of an early onset metabolic disorder

Jocelyn Kaiser | Science |
A little-known gene editor, tested with help from a disgraced gene therapist seeking redemption, may have cured a 1-year-old boy ...
Paper chase crisis: Academic journals are besieged by AI-generated editorials and commentaries designed to pump up CVs, undermining their quality

Paper chase crisis: Academic journals are besieged by AI-generated editorials and commentaries designed to pump up CVs, undermining their quality

Frederik Joelving | Science |
On [22 October 2024], an unusual editorial appeared in the journal Neurosurgical Review. “We have made the difficult decision to ...
'Fearmongering': Science magazine questions pediatrics academy's recommendations to avoid foods with genetically modified ingredients

‘Fearmongering’: Science magazine questions pediatrics academy’s recommendations to avoid foods with genetically modified ingredients

Meredith Wadman | Science |
Guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are a go-to source for practicing pediatricians and for some parents. But ...
Italy’s first gene-edited crop trial, fungus-resistant rice, destroyed by vandals

Italy’s first gene-edited crop trial, fungus-resistant rice, destroyed by vandals

Gennaro Tomma | Science |
Italy’s first field trial of a gene-edited crop is in tatters, after vandals completely destroyed a test plot of experimental ...
‘Infantile amnesia’: People can’t recall memories before the age of 3. Could there be an evolutionary purpose?

‘Infantile amnesia’: People can’t form conscious memories before the age of 3. Could there be an evolutionary purpose?

Sara Reardon | Science |
Toddlers remember events in context, and new research suggests such memory lapses play an important role in brain development ...
Swimming ‘microbots’ smaller than a grain of sand are delivering drugs and destroying pathogens in the bloodstream?

Could swimming ‘microbots’ smaller than a grain of sand one day deliver drugs and destroy pathogens in the bloodstream? We’re one step closer

Adrian Cho | Science |
Tiny robots that swim through our blood to deliver drugs or hunt down pathogens that can think for themselves ...
Tomatoes that are delicious, not too fleshy and yet harvestable? With gene editing, they may be on the way

Tomatoes that are delicious, not too fleshy and yet harvestable? With gene editing, they may be on the way

Erik Stokstad | Science |
A supermarket tomato can be a delicate thing, easily squashed. Tomatoes grown for canning are a lot tougher. Even when ...
Long COVID-like symptoms may be a side effect of COVD vaccines, USFDA and university researchers tentatively say

Long COVID-like symptoms may be side effect of COVID vaccines, FDA and university researchers tentatively say

A debilitating suite of symptoms that resembles Long Covid, has been more elusive, its link to vaccination unclear ...
'Bureaucratic layers of red tape': EPA’s new safety testing requirement contradicts USDA ruling that CRISPR crops are identical to those in nature

‘Bureaucratic layers of red tape’: EPA’s new safety testing requirement contradicts USDA ruling that CRISPR crops are identical to those in nature

Erik Stokstad | Science |
When the CRISPR gene editor landed in U.S. plant science labs a decade ago, allowing researchers to tweak a crop’s ...
Microplastic cc png plastic pollution pollute chem

Plastics make agriculture possible — but are microplastics harming soil?

Liuyue He, Qian Jia, Zenchi Xu, Zhongbin Li | Science |
Frequent extreme weather and growing food demand have exacerbated reliance on plastics to increase grain yield. Plastics used in agriculture ...
Human generation times across the past 250,000 years

‘Unevenly distributed’: How generation ages have changed for men and women over 250,000 years and differ among population groups

The generation times of our recent ancestors can tell us about both the biology and social organization of prehistoric humans, ...
How global disagreements over DNA data might undermine preserving genetic diversity of animals and plants

How global disagreements over DNA data might undermine preserving genetic diversity of animals and plants

Erik Stokstad | Science |
National leaders are scheduled to meet in China later this year to finalize a new strategic plan for the Convention ...
As CRISPR baby geneticist He Jiankui exits prison, the future of embryo gene editing becomes more ethically and scientifically confounding

As CRISPR baby geneticist He Jiankui exits prison, the future of embryo gene editing becomes more ethically and scientifically confounding

Jon Cohen | Science |
Biophysicist He Jiankui, having served a 3-year sentence for creating the world’s first genetically engineered babies, may be released from ...
Viewpoint: Human activity and modern agriculture are threatening pollinators

Viewpoint: Human activity and modern agriculture are threatening pollinators

The arrival of the Anthropocene has brought with it considerable challenges for wild bees. In particular, the spread of industrial ...
Living Carbon has engineered a poplar tree that soaks up carbon and fights climate change. What are the barriers to rolling this out?

Living Carbon has engineered a poplar tree that soaks up carbon and fights climate change. What are the barriers to rolling this out?

Gabriel Popkin | Science |
A California biotech company seeking to create fast-growing trees that can rapidly soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide has announced its ...
Why have humans evolved to like sour foods?

Why have humans evolved to like sour foods?

Tess Joosse | Science |
Scientists don’t know much about how our acidic taste evolved. Enter Rob Dunn. The North Carolina State University ecologist and ...
Gene edited wheat in development in China limits damaging fungus without pesticides

Gene edited wheat in development in China limits damaging fungus without pesticides

Erik Stokstad | Science |
Powdery mildew certainly sounds unappealing, but for wheat farmers the fungus can mean a serious hit to the pocketbook. It infects ...
Transgenic GloFish escaped into the wild in Brazil

Transgenic GloFish escaped into the wild in Brazil

Sofia Moutinho | Science |
Fish genetically engineered to glow blue, green, or red under blacklight have been a big hit among aquarium lovers for ...
‘Neuromorphic computing is going to be a rock star’: How brain-inspired chips could may soon guide robots and drive cars

‘Neuromorphic computing is going to be a rock star’: How brain-inspired chips could may soon guide robots and drive cars

Robert Service | Science |
The algorithms that underlie everything from Alexa’s voice recognition to credit card fraud detection typically owe their skills to deep ...
Can advertisers invade your dreams?

Can advertisers invade your dreams?

Sofia Moutinho | Science |
[B]rands from Xbox to Coors to Burger King are teaming up with some scientists to attempt [to] “engineer” advertisements into ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why I dropped out of a COVID vaccine trial midway through

Viewpoint: Here’s why I dropped out of a COVID vaccine trial midway through

Martin Enserink | Science |
I’ve been wrestling with a dilemma the past few weeks: Do I stay in the COVID-19 vaccine trial I’ve been ...
In Brexit unwind, England will break this month from restrictive EU gene-edited crop rules, clearing pathway for CRISPR produce and livestock

In Brexit unwind, England will break this month from restrictive EU gene-edited crop rules, clearing pathway for CRISPR produce and livestock

Erik Stokstad | Science |
When Boris Johnson became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2019, he pledged to “liberate the U.K.’s extraordinary bioscience ...
20 year anniversary of the mapping of the human genome: What does the future hold?

20 year anniversary of the mapping of the human genome: What does the future hold?

The coalescence of bioinformatics and computational biology around algorithms has... given rise to new institutional forms and new markets for ...