Ricki Lewis
There is no clear evidence (yet) that microplastics is driving soaring under-50 cancer rate increase, but they are a serious and growing health threat
Links between environmental exposures and increases in cancer rates take time to emerge. They range from community-wide disasters, like the ...
About “genetic losers” and “mad genes”: My encounter with one of the most brilliant and controversial scientists of the genome era
The recent death of James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the three-dimensional structure of the genetic material DNA, brought ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. needs an update on Biology 101. Let’s start
The only requirement for assuming the position of US Secretary for Health and Human Services is being picked by the ...
Natural selection, artificial selection, and now political selection: Vaccine rejectionism is altering the course of evolution, and not in a good way
“A sharp partisan divide remains over new Covid boosters,” reads the headline announcing a recent poll from Politico, as respiratory ...
‘A novel is a great way to learn genetics’: A scene-based look at The Sirens, Middlesex and The Covenant of Water
I love when fiction unfurls a compelling tale whose protagonist has an ultrarare genetic disease.My most recent favorite is The Sirens ...
Stinky plants: The evolutionary explanation
Not all flowers emit odors that are enticing to humans. Three types of flowering plants – Asarum simile, Eurya japonica, and Symplocarpus ...
Is Alzheimer’s disease transmissible?
Five people treated for pituitary dwarfism decades ago with human growth hormone (hGH) pooled from cadavers have shown cognitive decline ...
‘Humanized mice’: Chimeras fuel quest to treat chronic diseases, cancer and even COVID-19
Some medical conditions can't be ethically investigated in humans, so researchers are finding interesting ways to grow people parts in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Utter nonsense’—A biologist’s view of the administration’s declaration defining biological sex
It’s odd for me, as a long-time author of college biology textbooks, to witness governments rule on the nature of ...
Gametes? Embryo? Fetus? There are 17 timepoints when a human life might begin
I wish that I could stop reposting this essay – I do so whenever limitations on women’s reproductive rights become ...
’This kind of hype is toxic’: Dissecting exaggerated claims by Colossal Sciences that it resurrected a dire wolf and the bungled reporting that followed
The images of “de-extincted” fuzzy white dog-wolf pups festooning the media this week accompany reports that are so hyped that ...
Why ‘Do your own research’ and ‘Believe in Science’ encourage science illiteracy
During the pandemic, we turned to our leaders for updates on the rapidly worsening, unprecedented situation. As days turned to ...
How GMO tobacco can improve infant formula and dairy-free plant-based milk
In an eclectic application of transgenic technology, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Davis describe retooling cells ...
How anti-Semitism shaped the genes of Jewish people
Evidence of past outrages is not only in the history books. It's also written in our genomes ...
Fool me once: What is ‘genomic surveillance’ and how might it help predict the next global pandemic?
COVID took the world by stunned surprise – but, to quote an old Who song, we won’t be fooled again ...
Mosquito massacre: Can we safely tackle malaria with a CRISPR gene drive?
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing quickly decimated two caged populations of malaria-bearing mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae) in a recent study, introducing a new ...
‘The single most notorious killer of humans’: What are the true origins of the 14th century Black Plague?
It’s rare that compelling clues converge to illuminate a longstanding medical mystery: the origin of the Black Death, a bubonic ...
Men can’t do Zumba. Is it in their genes?
Zumba saved me during the pandemic. Prior to COVID, I took 3 or 4 of the ATP-burning classes a week ...
Meet the beetles: Mealworms could be a food of the future
I have a special fondness for the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor ...
“Extinction” echoes Jurassic Park, with a Pleistocene epoch backdrop
Multiple spoiler alert! In the classic film Jurassic Park (JP), disasters unfurl at a theme park populated with dinosaurs cloned from ...
Is tilapia a human-made freak that we should avoid — or an evolutionary rockstar?
Posts were appearing on my Facebook feed warning against the dangers of eating tilapia. So I decided to do a ...
Many of us would give an arm and a leg (and maybe a finger or two) to know what humans can learn from cockroaches
I've admired the cockroach’s ability to regrow lost legs since learning about them while working on my PhD in developmental ...
With the cell-based meat revolution lagging, snake meat offers an alternative to help lower our carbon footprint
Biotechnology has solved many problems, from recombinant DNA and monoclonal antibody-derived drugs, to gene therapy and stem cell transplants, to ...
Why is it so difficult to find a treatment for Huntington’s Disease?
The Huntington’s disease (HD) community has recently experienced setbacks, but a new research report may reignite hope, from an unexpected ...
Nature’s lost scents: Perfumes made to replicate extinct plants provide an olfactory glimpse into the past
“Meet Invisible Woods: a clean, refreshing scent revived from extinct flower DNA,” beneath an image of “origin flower” Wendlandia angustifolia ...
Probiotics are ‘enticing target’ for gene editing — but is CRISPR up for the challenge?
Every morning I pop a Pearl probiotic. I try hard not to drop it, for the tiny, slippery yellow sphere ...
Biological exceptionalism: How two Italian sisters lived to 100
In my endless email about COVID-19 popped up a new paper analyzing the health of two Italian sisters who lived ...
Filling the gaps of what we know about the first days and weeks of the developing human embryo
Several recent reports are filling in the gaps of what we know about the earliest days and weeks of human ...
