Slate
Articles written for the GLP list the source as Genetic Literacy Project. All other articles were written for the sources noted with excerpts provided by the GLP.
Should we strive to engineer better humans?
While proposals like cognitive or moral enhancements to help create a less doomsday-prone population are quite speculative (and on occasion, ...
Artificial intelligence could manage our health. But can we trust it?
In May, [startup Beta Bionics] received Food and Drug Administration approval to start clinical trials on what it calls a “bionic pancreas ...
Roundup for breakfast? Checking the math on claims that glyphosate infects breakfast foods
No one wants .... to give their children a breakfast that is contaminated with weed killer. That’s why a new ...
Does glyphosate cause cancer? Jury says says ‘yes’ but years of research show the herbicide is safe
Can anyone make sense of the debate over glyphosate, the active molecule in the most widely used herbicide [Roundup] in ...
Don’t expect ‘instantaneous eureka moment’ in search for alien life
From War of the Worlds and Arrival to SETI and Stephen Hawking, both pop culture and scientists feed the expectation that the discovery of extraterrestrial life will ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why the controversial field of epigenetics is ‘so alluring’
I think of stories I’ve been told about my grandmother in 1945 Japan. … It feels plausible, and poetic, to ...
Viewpoint: It’s time to stop ‘connecting race to intelligence’
The race-and-IQ debate is back. The latest round started a few weeks ago when Harvard geneticist David Reich wrote a ...
Viewpoint: Population declines are a greater crisis than extinctions
Forget extinctions. Population decline is a much greater crisis. ... We watch for extinctions like those with the thought that, ...
Viewpoint: Exercise can be as effective as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression. So why do US doctors push pills?
Here’s the most important thing I learned while writing a book on running and mental health: In clinical studies, regular ...
DNA dating pseudoscience: Why you can’t find true love based on genetic compatibility
Described by Wired as “a sort of 23andMe meets Tinder meets monogamists,” Pheramor’s secret to success is your DNA. That’s right—for ...
Why Huskies have blue eyes—and why it might matter for understanding human diseases
[A] new study may help salvage the [direct-to-consumer genomics] field by turning to a previously untapped pool of subjects: dogs ...
What do zombie movies tell us about our changing attitudes towards science?
There is no better barometer of the values and fears of our society than the monsters our culture creates... What ...
Cancer researcher: Media hysteria over glyphosate herbicide undermines science
Editor's note: Guy André Pelouze is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon who did cancer research during his training and lung cancer treatment ...
Searching for alien life: Maybe we should start with extraterrestrial viruses
One possibility for what might be out there that’s, relatively speaking, one of the most plausible theories has so far ...
Viewpoint: Organic food fight over hydroponics about money—and that’s how farming should be
Sustainable farming can’t actually be sustainable if farmers can’t make money doing it. So there’s a certain irony in the organic ...
Are we on the brink of another smallpox outbreak?
[Editor's note: Gregory Koblentz is a professor and director of the Biodefense Graduate Program at the Schar School of Policy and ...
University of Florida’s Kevin Folta’s unique libel suit against New York Times faces long odds
A pro-GMO professor, University of Florida plant scientist, Kevin Folta who claims he has been defamed by the New York Times’ ...
Conservation biology, ideology and the dangers of censorship
If conservation science is in service to an agenda, then it seems inevitable that research would at times be viewed ...
Opinion: Food Evolution movie gets science right—but that won’t likely convince ‘GMO-averse people’
[Editor's note: Keith Kloor is a freelance writer and adjunct journalism lecturer at New York University.] Unfortunately, there’s no good ...
Feeding the world: Will GMO seeds rescue yields as global climates dry and heat up?
Take the argument that more heat- and drought-resistant seeds are what’s needed to cope with climate change. The good people ...
Synthetic biology cheat sheet: Key players, big debates and lingo you should know
Key Players J. Craig Venter: After playing an important role in early efforts to sequence the human genome, Venter now ...
Open source science or intellectual property: Should we allow patenting of synbio organisms?
[S]ynthetic biology...incorporates disparate disciplines like engineering, computer science, biotechnology, and molecular biology...[i]nstead of using engineering’s discrete modules of code, transistors, ...
Queer theory and biology: Should ‘relatedness’ be defined only by blood and genes?
Biological taxonomy, the study and sorting of how different organisms are related to one another, has for centuries incorporated novelty ...
Uncertain US laws and regulations surround DIY synthetic biology
At the moment, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the regulation of the DIY biology movement. DIY biologists, a ...
Is the US military in danger of using synthetic biology to ‘weaponize the environment’?
In recent years... the military—mostly under the umbrella of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—has created a new suite of ...
Is there hope for diabetes cure through synthetic biology?
Type 1 diabetes is a discouraging disease. Despite the availability of synthetic insulin and increasingly sophisticated monitoring technology, it’s still ...
Are you ‘anti-science’ if you resist biotechnology on political or economic grounds?
[Editor's note: Tess Doezema is a doctoral student at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona ...
Revamping ‘woefully out of date’ biotech regulations easier said than done
Depending on whom you talk to, the CRISPR’d mushroom isn’t strictly defined as synthetic biology. Still, genetic technology exists on ...
