Science
Drought, cropland expansion push Great Plains toward ‘Dust Bowl 2.0,’ climate scientists say
Earlier [in October], a storm front swept across the Great Plains of the United States, plowing up a wall of ...
German measles likely jumped from bats to humans, much like COVID, raising concerns about future virus outbreaks
An estimated 100,000 newborns are affected by the [rubella virus] annually, mostly in Africa, the western Pacific, and the eastern ...
Flood-proof crops? Plants engineered to grow taller may survive unstable environments
Stature matters to plants. Short crops can carry more grain without bending under their own weight—a key trait that helped ...
‘It’s not premature to plan’: Deciding who gets the coronavirus vaccine first
The new coronavirus’ disproportionate toll on the elderly could put them at the front of the line [for a vaccine] ...
Another pandemic? New swine flu identified in China could jump to humans
[A] new finding that pigs in China are more and more frequently becoming infected with a strain of influenza that ...
How widespread is the pandemic? Proposed global blood bank could provide missing answers
Michael Mina is out for blood—millions of samples, which a nascent effort dubbed the Global Immunological Observatory (GIO), would monitor ...
Polio vaccines are inexpensive, easily available, already approved—and they might work wonders against COVID-19
Recent reports indicate that COVID-19 may result in suppressed innate immune responses. Therefore, stimulation by live attenuated vaccines [such as ...
‘It’s been so chaotic’: US government ‘Operation Warp Speed’ may not be focusing on developing the most promising COVID-19 vaccines
When the news broke [June 3] that Operation Warp Speed had selected five experimental COVID-19 vaccines to fast-track through testing ...
Coronavirus antibodies from GMO cows set for summer clinical trials
The latest recruits in the fight against COVID-19 are munching hay in a South Dakota barn. A biotech company has ...
Cells that fight pathogens might also speed up human ‘inflammaging’
Our T cells let us down as we age, becoming weaker pathogen fighters. This decline helps explain why elderly people ...
USDA’s relaxed biotech crop rules could speed plant development, but are regulations still too strict?
A major change to U.S. regulation of biotech will exempt some gene-edited plants from government oversight. The new policy ...
‘Psychobiotics’: Can we control the way we think by altering gut bacteria?
The allure is simple: Drug development for neuropsychiatric disorders has lagged for decades, and many existing drugs don’t work for ...
Artificial photosynthesis: Synthetic chloroplasts as solar-powered drug factories
There’s a new way to eat carbon dioxide. Researchers have built an artificial version of a chloroplast, the photosynthetic structures ...
‘Operation warp speed’ hopes to turbocharge US quest for a coronavirus vaccine
Conventional wisdom is that a vaccine for COVID-19 is at least 1 year away, but the organizers of a U.S ...
Engineering plants to rapidly repair heat damage could preserve crop yields as climate changes
As plants convert sunlight into sugar, their cells are playing with fire. Photosynthesis generates chemical byproducts that can damage the ...
Bugpocalypse? New research challenges widely publicized claims of impending catastrophic insect declines
Drastic declines in insect biomass, abundance, and diversity reported in the literature have raised concerns among scientists and the public ...
Scouring coronavirus patient genes to answer a question: Why do some people get deathly sick, when others don’t?
COVID-19, caused by the new pandemic coronavirus, is strangely—and tragically—selective. Only some infected people get sick, and although most of ...
Gene-drive technology may combat notorious Fusarium fungus that decimates global wheat yields
The Fusarium fungus is the bane of every wheat farmer’s existence. Causing wheat scab—also known as head blight—it decimates harvests ...
Gene from grass-dwelling fungus may help safeguard global wheat production against deadly disease
Wheat scab hits farmers with a double punch. The fungal disease, also known as Fusarium head blight, shrivels grain and ...
Identical sex chromosomes could be key to a long life
When 109-year-old Jessie Gallan was asked about the secret to her long life, she replied “staying away from men.” Other ...
Better tracking of coronavirus infections could be possible through experimental antibody test from Singapore
In what appears to be a first, disease trackers in Singapore have used an experimental antibody test for COVID-19 to ...
Failed HIV vaccine study is ‘another frustrating defeat’ in the fight against AIDS
The failure-ridden search for a vaccine that can stop the AIDS virus has delivered yet another frustrating defeat. The HIV ...
Can we engineer soldiers to be immune to chemical attacks?
Despite international bans, some countries, such as Syria, use deadly nerve agents against enemy soldiers and civilians. Existing treatments for these ...
Virus used to deliver gene therapy treatments may increase liver cancer risk, study suggests
Just as gene therapy finally seems to be living up to its promise, a study has revived a lingering worry ...
Gene-editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna calls for greater accountability on anniversary of China scientist CRISPR gene editing human embryo
There are key moments in the history of every disruptive technology that can make or break its public perception and ...
Bangladesh GMO Golden Rice approval was expected in November, but regulatory hurdles remain
Soon. That has long been scientists' answer when asked about the approval of Golden Rice, a genetically modified (GM) crop ...
How old is your dog in human years? This calculator promises more accurate estimate, using epigenetics
Our Scotch collie, Buckaroo, is just shy of 14 years old. Following the long-debunked but still popular idea that one ...
‘Tuning’ plant flowering signals with CRISPR could yield heartier crops suited to harsh environments
Increasing human populations demand more productive agriculture, which in turn relies on crop plants adjusted for high-yield systems. [G]enetic tuning ...