Genetics tapped to increase chicken size as American tastes and waists expand

Chicken is the most commonly eaten animal in this country, surpassing beef or pork. And with dietary recommendations that Americans eat ...

Egg-freezing advocates invoke fear to win patients

Washington Post |
Mark Surrey, fertility specialist to the Kardashians, opens with the story of a 44-year-old lawyer who waited too long to ...
stock footage brown caterpillar insects macro k

Eaten alive: Crops can ‘feel’ insects eating them, providing clues to insect resistance

Darryl Fears | Washington Post |
A new study arrived at the fairly gruesome conclusion that plants can feel insects eat them alive. And a specific type of plant, ...

Nevada lawmaker calls cancer a ‘fungus’, says it can be cured by water and baking soda

Abby Ohlheiser | Washington Post |
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said recently that she will propose a "Right to Try" bill in her state. But it's ...

How the AIDS epidemic came to be

Elahe Izadi | Washington Post |
The common narrative holds that the spread of HIV and AIDS among humans can be traced back to one flight ...

Is organic grass-fed beef healthier than grain fed?

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
Almost always, when I talk to scientists and farmers about food supply issues — whether it’s farm size, organic methods, ...

Obama wants single food safety agency

Ron Nixon | Washington Post |
To understand America’s fragmented food safety inspection system, consider a slice of frozen pizza. The pepperoni is examined by the ...
Uganda cotton fields blooming large

Washington Post: Denying scientific consensus on GMOs victimizes developing countries

Fred Hiatt | Washington Post |
But the biggest gap between public opinion and scientific consensus in the United States is not in the realm of ...

Are genomically recoded organisms needed to keep GMOs on a leash?

Joel Achenbach | Washington Post |
Let’s talk about the latest news. Last week we reported on two papers in Nature describing breakthrough techniques in modifying ...

Is there a scientific basis to the paleo diet?

Christie Aschwanden | Washington Post |
The problem with modern diets is that they rely too heavily on modern, processed foods. If only we emulated the ...
CHESTNUT superJumbo

GMO American chestnut tree unique among GM innovations

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
It was nearly 400 years ago that the Pilgrims sat down with the Wampanoag to share the feast that is ...

Lactose tolerance evolved much later than previously believed

Rachel Feltman | Washington Post |
As early humans shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture, their genomes shifted, too. But according to new research, the ...
no gmo patent greenpeace protests in munich against the patent on broccoli

Do patents limit GMO research and farmers choice? Only a little

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
A 1980 Supreme Court decision that allowed patents to be granted to living things kicked off a controversy. The basic ...
woman old

Genetic factors make women more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease than men

Fredrick Kunkle | Washington Post |
Years ago, many scientists assumed that a woman’s heart worked pretty much the same as a man’s. But as more ...

Moving closer to GM cup of coffee

Rachel Feltman | Washington Post |
A consortium of scientists announced in Science that they've sequenced the coffee genome for the first time. By determining all of the ...

Both small and large farms are needed for ‘optimal’ sustainable farming system

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
Small farms are inefficient but are more likely to grow healthful foods and might be more environmentally friendly, while large ...
Money Large

Lobby money flows into Oregon as GMO labeling vote nears

Niraj Chokshi | Washington Post |
Oregon’s food fight is just getting started. A ballot measure that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods has ...
px Yoshiki Sasai circa

Japanese scientist who oversaw retracted stem cell paper found dead in laboratory

Terrence McCoy | Washington Post |
On July 2, a taciturn but brilliant Japanese stem-cell scientist named Yoshiki Sasai wrote a plaintive letter in which he expressed profound remorse ...

Birds come from ‘fastest-evolving’ dinosaurs

Rachel Feltman | Washington Post |
If almost all dinosaurs had feathers, as recent studies have indicated, what determined which ones would evolve into birds? According to new ...

Plant-based, animal-free cow’s milk soon to be reality with GM yeast

Tuan Nguyen | Washington Post |
Biohackers Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi are working on crafting a plant-based concoction that’s nearly identical in makeup to what’s ...

Will consumers accept GM yeast that could save our oceans?

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
Scientists at DuPont have genetically modified a yeast to produce a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid, essential to human health and ...

Most responsible, sustainable agricultural system is hybrid of organic, conventional and GMO

Tamar Haspel | Washington Post |
Amy Hepworth, an organic farmer in New York’s Hudson Valley, also believes in the importance of soil health and working ...
px Golden Rice

Washington Post joins liberal pubs endorsing GMO safety, role feeding hungry, rejecting labels

Washington Post |
Over the past year, the editorial boards of a number of major liberal US publications have endorsed the safety of ...

Genetics make some people more vulnerable to repetitive brain injury

Eric Niiler | Washington Post |
Scientists studying head injuries have found something surprising: Genes may make some people more susceptible to concussion and trauma than ...

Vermont’s GMO labeling law could face legal challenges on three grounds

Niraj Chokshi | Washington Post |
Expect two things to happen now that Vermont’s legislature has passed H.112. Any day now, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) is expected ...
tomato seedling pot in closeup

Marker-assisted DNA screening results in new super hybrid crops in record time

Adrian Higgins | Washington Post |
Alan Krivanek, a tomato breeder for Monsanto, dons a white protective suit, wipes his feet on a mat of disinfectant ...

Microbiome imbalances may impact seasonal allergies

Dominic Basulto | Washington Post |
When we think of allergies, we typically think of the itchy eyes and sneezing fits that are the hallmark of ...
hipsdontlie

How to dance to show off your genes–and catch a woman’s eye

Want to show off your excellent genetics on the dance floor? Well, biologists have figured out which dance moves are ...