We need genetic engineering to stave off climate change-induced global hunger
Read now →Despite what many say, organic farming will not save us from the worst impacts of climate change
2 peer comments
Massive Science Report № 3
We worked with scientists in the field to explain how we’re growing meats in labs—and when you can eat them. It's your introduction to the next agricultural revolution.
Massive Science Report № 1
We've gathered a team of geneticists, biologists, and environmental scientists to bring you the most up-to-date report on the science, history, and safety of genetically-modified organisms.
Evolution is elegant but not when it's in David Sloan Wilson's hands
Read now →His new book "This View of Life" tries to wedge too much into one biological point of view
Lab-grown meat could bring about the next agricultural revolution
Read now →Cultured meat would require less land, less water and potentially produce less greenhouse gases
The world's appetite for meat is growing. How will we satisfy it?
Read now →In the near future, "meat" could mean a lot more than it does now
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Your bubble tea could hold the key to helping millions of farmers
Read now →Cassava, an African staple food crop, could be poised to become a major source of industrial starch thanks to CRISPR
How 'Frankenstein' unfairly sways the GMO debate
Read now →The novel ushered in a concept that actively harms the Global South two centuries later
Mark Lynas on the complexity of disagreeing on GMOs
Read now →'I try to take people at face value in terms of what their objections are, and to not ascribe them with ill-intent'
The art of publicly changing your mind on GMOs
Read now →'Seeds of Science' makes a persuasive case for GM technology by a man who used to oppose it
Why I'm quitting GMO research
Read now →Constantly confronting people who think my research will harm them is profoundly distressing
3 peer comments
Plants are not conscious, whether you can 'sedate' them or not
Read now →A New York Times story is a case study in what can go wrong in translating science
2 peer comments
Simulating evolution helped scientists design a better virus
Read now →It sounds like an arcane superpower. It boils down to random mutation and selection
2 peer comments
Scientists are recruiting live bacteria to fight deadly infections
Read now →A study in rural India is raising hopes for a future without antibiotics
3 peer comments
The prolific life of Wang Zhenyi, autodidact, astronomer, and poet
Read now →Progressive in science and art, she disregarded sexist norms of Qing-dynasty China
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The Mother's Curse: how a French king’s legacy revealed a loophole in evolution
Read now →New research with roots in colonial Canada suggests new wrinkles in ideas of evolution
The science Nobel Prizes are sexist, racist, and misleading. Let's rethink them
Read now →We should be rewarding discoveries, not individuals
This biologist believes we should embrace human gene editing
Read now →It could free millions from preventable, predetermined suffering
Scientists just cut the tolerable intake of PFAs by 99.9%
Read now →PFAs are everywhere. In cosmetics, wrapping your greasy take-out burgers, and eventually, 98% of humans' bloodstreams. The recommended tolerable intake for PFAs was just cut by 99.9%.
James Watson and the Insidiousness of Scientific Racism
Read now →“How does it feel to be a black scientist who owes much to James Watson in general, and in my case, is linked to his specific pedigree?”
What we know, and still don't know, about the CRISPR-modified twins
Read now →Genomicist Devang Mehta cuts through the hype to lay out the facts
MIT scientists invent an ion-drive powered plane with no moving parts
Read now →This "first flight" flew the same distance as the Wright Brother's original plane
Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science
Read now →He spent decades deconstructing the ways that scientists claim their authority. Can his ideas help them regain that authority today?
All conferences should be virtual in a post-coronavirus world
Read now →For accessibility, financial, and environmental reasons, it just makes sense
11 peer comments
To fight agricultural pests, scientists try spray-on plant vaccines
Read now →RNA interference can be used to protect food crops and improve plants' health, no genetic engineering required
3 peer comments
Pocket-sized DNA sequencers could soon stop food-borne pathogen outbreaks as soon as they start
Read now →With new and improving technology, catching the annual romaine lettuce outbreak could get a lot easier
4 peer comments
Biodiversity loss is the very real end of the world and no one is acting like it
Read now →Radical, wholesale change is needed right this second and cannot be delayed
4 peer comments
Bioengineered yeast can produce the active ingredients of marijuana better than the plant
Read now →Now, new and rare THCs and CBDs may be on the horizon
8 peer comments
Reducing agricultural carbon emissions will be good for the planet and our stomachs
Read now →From soil microbes to factory farming, the Green New Deal could radically improve our food system
3 peer comments
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Humans are two developmental stages away from monkeys
Read now →Less than 50 of our 20,000 genes are unique to humans. What separates us from monkeys?
2 peer comments
We're studying collapsed civilizations so that ours can endure climate change
Read now →Paleoclimatologists are digging into the connections between the collapse of Maya Civilization and extreme droughts
3 peer comments
Billionaires are rushing into biotech. Inequality is following them into science
Read now →'Free-market philanthropy' raises yet more questions about the future of American public research
2 peer comments
Why is it so hard for scientists to talk about leaving academia?
Read now →We should value scientists who transfer their skills
3 peer comments
The Graduate Research Fellowship Program favors elite schools – again
Read now →The early-career grants, meant to boost diversity, end up perpetuating disparities
3 peer comments
How farmers on the Great Plains are changing the local climate
Read now →New crop practices trap more carbon in the soil, increasing rainfall and adding profits
1 peer comment
Don't fear germs – at least not too much
Read now →Microbes are neither purely 'good' nor 'bad'
3 peer comments
A rare disease offers clues to how genes affect social behavior
Read now →Williams syndrome is helping scientists understand the roots of sociality
1 peer comment
Should peer review stop being anonymous?
Read now →Prominent researchers can take the gamble, but junior scientists risk retribution
4 peer comments
A nuclear attack could be a lot like an asteroid strike
Read now →Nothing compares to the impact that killed the dinosaurs, but nuclear blasts are far more likely
1 peer comment
Low doses of contaminants, long ignored, can have vast consequences
Read now →Scientists found cocaine – and a lot of other chemicals – in Minnesota snow
1 peer comment
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The brain treats questions about beliefs like physical threats. Can we learn to disarm it?
Read now →Street epistemologists are trying to give people 'the gift of doubt'
2 peer comments
Scientific knowledge is drowning in a flood of research
Read now →A comic about the problems with the -omics, illustrated by Matteo Farinella
4 peer comments