Trump administration political appointees have taken steps in recent weeks to exert unprecedented influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s flagship medical research publication, the Morbidity and Mortality…
Category: Genetics
Viewpoint: The ‘post genomic era’ reveals nothing less than a new biology. We just don’t know how to talk about it
You could be forgiven for thinking that the turn of the millennium was a golden age for the life sciences. After the halcyon days of the 1950s and ’60s when…
‘Women are biologically female’: Trump’s executive order will not be so easy to implement, and here’s why
One of President Trump’s first-day executive orders proclaimed that “women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” It sounds simple, but translating it into action across a vast federal…
Genetics, Not Maternal Sickness, Drives Autism Risk
Summary: A large study analyzing over 1.1 million pregnancies found no strong evidence that maternal health conditions during pregnancy cause autism. Instead, nearly all previously reported associations between maternal diagnoses…
CIA’s cautious (and dubious) embrace of COVID-19 lab leak theory is likely to spur more controversy, not end it
The calamitous global outbreak of COVID-19 has sparked intense scrutiny of its origins. One school of thought holds that the virus emerged naturally, an example of the risks associated with…
European farmers concerned about climate change push to ground EU’s ‘Green Deal’ because of it restricts crop gene editing
Leveraging the proposed European Green Deal (EGD) announced in December 2019, the EU aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Growing evidence of a more unstable climate is…
Breakthrough Institute report: ‘Why genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market’
Genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market. Fertilizer runoff and nitrous oxide emissions remain massive issues for agricultural climate and environmental impacts, and damage from disease, drought, and high…
How a brain-threatening parasite could soon be programed to deliver life-saving drugs
Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain disorders and a common brain parasite to become frenemies. A…
