nature
International guidance limiting human embryo research to 14 days has been relaxed, opening door to advanced human development and disease breakthroughs. Here are the scientific and ethical implications
Previously, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) recommended that scientists culture human embryos for no more than two ...
‘Game-changing failure’: Trials of two Huntington’s disease-fighting gene therapy drugs halted, in ‘crushing blow’ to sufferers
Researchers had hoped that [a new treatment in trials] —known as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs)—would be a game changer for [Huntington’s ...
How prevalent are microplastics in our environment? How harmful are they?
From limited surveys of microplastics in the air, water, salt and seafood, children and adults might ingest anywhere from dozens ...
Most people have mild reactions to COVID vaccines — but for some side effects are serious. Understanding why is challenging
In an ideal situation, an adverse event would be directly linked to a vaccine using a specific lab test. For ...
5 reasons why we might never reach COVID herd immunity
Long-term prospects for the pandemic probably include COVID-19 becoming an endemic disease, much like influenza. But in the near term, ...
After years of public and regulatory resistance in the US, first batch of mosquitoes genetically engineered to end Zika, dengue and other transmittable diseases are released
After a decade of fighting for regulatory approval and public acceptance, a biotechnology firm has released genetically engineered mosquitoes into ...
Viewpoint: Why technology alone cannot solve world hunger and food insecurity
Among technologies expected to aid the production of more and safer food in the future are cultured meat, precision agriculture, ...
Infographic: Gene therapy drugs that silence the effects of faulty genes could help tackle Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited condition that causes widespread deterioration in the brain and disrupts thinking, behaviour, emotion and ...
Human-monkey chimeras: Ethics questions mount as hybrid animal embryo lives for 19 days
Scientists have successfully grown monkey embryos containing human cells for the first time — the latest milestone in a rapidly ...
Engineered tomatoes kill whiteflies by ‘silencing’ gene that protects them from pesticides
A pernicious agricultural pest owes some of its success to a gene pilfered from its plant host millions of years ...
Thanks to gene editing, another biotech-driven farming revolution might be ‘just around the corner’
The basic principle of crop breeding is to first discover and then select for variants with desired traits. While selection ...
First lab-grown chicken nuggets just hit restaurants in Singapore, and more ‘slaughter-free’ meats could arrive in 2021
The company behind [an in vitro cultured] poultry product, Eat Just, has since sold more than 200 servings of the ...
Nature editorial: Post-Brexit, the UK should embrace gene editing in food and agriculture while taking safety concerns seriously
[B]ecause of Brexit, [the UK] has an opportunity to diverge from EU [agricultural] regulations. In a consultation that [ended] on ...
Infographic: Is COVID here to stay? Why the virus may never be eradicated
Nature asked more than 100 immunologists, infectious-disease researchers and virologists working on the coronavirus whether it could be eradicated. Almost ...
Global food system responsible for 34% of greenhouse gas emissions, study finds
We have developed a new global food emissions database (EDGAR-FOOD) estimating greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, CH4, N2O, fluorinated gases) emissions ...
Viewpoint: 20 years into the human genome revolution, how can we make genomics more accessible and transparent?
[20 years after the Human Genome Project,] many of the ethical, legal and social implications of genome research — including ...
Optimizing vaccine rollout: Should we be concerned about taking possibly less effective — but easier to distribute — COVID shots like AstraZeneca’s and J&J’s?
Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi knows that a vaccine that offers 70% protection against COVID-19 could be a valuable tool against the ...
CRISPR ‘mini-brains’ made from Neanderthal DNA offer insight into the evolution of human cognition
Humans are more closely related to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to any living primate, and some 40% of the Neanderthal ...
Could Ethiopia make or break the future of GM crops in Africa?
I have followed with interest the recent controversy around plantings of transgenic crops in Ethiopia. Until 2015, the country took ...
Psychedelics are revolutionizing psychiatry. Here’s what we can expect
Once dismissed as the dangerous dalliances of the counterculture, [psychedelic drugs] are gaining mainstream acceptance. Several states and cities in ...
GM, insect-resistant Bt rice unlikely to pose a health risk, study shows
Rice is considered one of the most important staple food crops. Genetically modified (GM) Bt rice [harboring the] cry1Ab gene ...
Crash effort to develop coronavirus vaccines has revolutionized disease treatment
The COVID-19 experience will almost certainly change the future of vaccine science, says Dan Barouch, director of the Center for ...
New COVID variants raise spectre of a global health catastrophe. Will they outpace vaccine development?
Scientists want to understand why SARS-CoV-2 variants identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa seem to be spreading so ...
How infectious are asymptomatic COVID carriers?
[E]vidence suggests that about one in five infected people will experience no symptoms, and they will transmit the virus to ...
Facial recognition is growing with COVID – and sparking a burgeoning resistance movement
Facial-recognition technology (FRT) has long been in use at airport borders and on smartphones, and as a tool to help ...
Infographic: When extremely premature babies grow up, they face chronic conditions that researchers are just beginning to understand
For the first time, researchers can start to understand the long-term consequences of being born so early. Results are pouring ...
Infographic: How AI facial-recognition research can be misused to target minorities
[A] study, published in 2018, had trained algorithms to distinguish faces of Uyghur people, a predominantly Muslim minority ethnic group ...
