Top 6 One
What our embattled world looks like through the ‘eyes’ of SARS-CoV-2
I’m tired of writing about COVID from a geneticist’s point of view, so I thought I’d let a virus speak ...
By 2030, nearly half of Americans will be classified as obese: From gene manipulation to lifestyle changes, here are rays of hope
Now that COVID-19 is winding down, perhaps it’s time to go back to trying to do something about our country’s ...
Maybe both sides are right: If SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from a Wuhan lab, it doesn’t mean the virus was necessarily engineered
The “lab leak” hypothesis about the origin of Covid-19 has been getting a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so ...
Viewpoint: It’s time to end the innovation-blocking, organic lobby-promoted, biotechnology-regulating Cartagena Protocol
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) is an international agreement developed by governments and environmental organizations opposed to the commercialization ...
Viewpoint: Organic lobbyists show ‘sheer hypocrisy’ opposing UK emergency authorization of neonicotinoid sugar beet seed treatments — while supporting environmental waiver for ‘acutely toxic’ copper sulfate
The Government was right to make provision for a temporary and limited derogation for the use of the neonicotinoid seed ...
Incurable Huntington’s disease? microRNA offers hope in the wake of failed clinical trials
A recent DNA Science post considered the ebb and flow of treatment possibilities for Alzheimer’s disease. This week, it’s Huntington’s disease. Like ...
Regenerative agriculture: The movement dedicated to unseating intensive, ‘industrial farming’ by claiming it has comprehensive sustainability advantages
For the last century, each generation has produced an alternative approach to farming that is aimed at a central challenge ...
Viewpoint: ‘Dump Dimorphism’ — Challenging orthodoxy, neuroscientists claim 30 years of studies show ‘no meaningful male-female brain differences’
Everyone knows the difference between male and female brains. One is chatty and a little nervous, but never forgets and takes ...
The Green Revolution was built on manipulating genes to breed higher-yielding, disease resistant crops. Here’s an ode to one of its pioneers, Sanjaya Rajaram
Few people are aware of the heroes behind the surge in yields of wheat and other crops that began in ...
Sierra Club endorsement of disease-resistant chestnut tree divides the anti-GMO movement
Across the eastern seaboard, the majestic American Chestnut tree once dominated forests. A main source of timber for cabins, shipbuilding, and ...
Rural, Republican America deeply skeptical about the reality of COVID and the importance of vaccines. Here’s why
At 70, Linda Findley has long been active in her small town of Fort Scott, Kansas, which sits more than ...
Viewpoint: ‘War against the West’: Russia powers global vaccine rejectionist movement even as it inoculates its own citizens
Anyone active on social media is aware that there is a great deal of passionate but ill-founded opposition to vaccination, ...
The mRNA vaccines battling COVID-19 are revolutionizing virus fighting strategies. Here’s how
British economist Thomas Babington Macaulay challenged a thread of pessimism writing in 1830: “On what principle is it that, when ...
Viewpoint: Here’s what ‘whole grain’ really means—and it’s not the health claim you’ve been told it is
Consumers have been so saturated with vague marketing claims that nearly 50 percent can't correctly identify what is claimed to ...
About bats and COVID: Why the Wuhan ‘lab leak’ theory shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand, and other reflections one year into the crisis
Winston Churchill famously observed that in wartime the truth must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies. Many of my ...
Glyphosate on trial: In an ‘unequal contest’ between science and emotion, can evidence overcome pesticide-cancer fears?
Recently, I was asked to speak about the weedkiller glyphosate on Radio Colombia. As is often the case with media ...
Cloned ferret Elizabeth Ann and the future of conservation: The promises and perils of biotechnology
From Borneo to Britain, it’s the scientific breakthrough that captured the world’s attention. No, not the Perseverance rover landing on ...
Viewpoint: Free speech vs science—Should colleges invite anti-GMO speakers they ‘know’ spread misinformation?
In the face of climate change, the expectation for evidence is doubled because of the dramatic implications ...
Human evolutionary timeline: Key moments in the emergence of our species
The long evolutionary journey that created modern humans began with a single step—or more accurately—with the ability to walk on ...
The glyphosate debacle: How a misleading study about the alleged risks of the weedkiller Roundup and gullible reporters helped fuel a cancer scare
As biotech giant Bayer prepares to spend $10 billion settling thousands of lawsuits alleging its weedkiller Roundup (and its active ...
Inherited blindness has a new cure, thanks to CRISPR
In recent months, even as our attention has been focused on the coronavirus outbreak, there have been a slew of ...
GE animals: While the federal government delays approvals, antibiotic use, animal suffering and food prices increase
They say good things come to those who wait. Well I have been waiting my entire career to eat milk, ...
Viewpoint: Why organic farming won’t help preserve the world’s biodiversity
A recent paper finds that if just 15 percent of farmland reverted to nature, it would wipe out nearly a third ...
Viewpoint: COVID won’t subside in the US until 70% of us are immune. That means: ‘Get a vaccine’
The United States is one of the most seriously COVID-19-impacted countries, faring the worst among the ten most-affected countries worldwide, as ...
Viewpoint: Nobel Prize for CRISPR refutes anti-GMO activist rhetoric about crop gene editing
The year is coming to an end, and 2020 has popped a balloon filled with myths, untruths and lies deliberately ...
Viewpoint: Despite its ‘social justice pretense’ agroecology promotes poverty in developing countries
The world is made up of sunshine and butterflies, roses and rainbows. If we can stop Father Profit from raping ...
Monsanto wrongly sued farmers for patent infringement? Federal courts put down David v Goliath myth for good
Does greedy Monsanto sue small-time farmers for patent infringement because their fields are accidentally contaminated with the company's GM seeds? ...
