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'Orphan drugs' are ascendant. What will that mean for people with rare diseases?

Niche drugs may be good for companies, but that doesn't mean they'll reach sufferers

Cell Biology

Trump's wall would harm unique and fragile wildlife on the California border

Plans must include environmental impact studies

Christa Trexler

Cardiology

UC San Diego

Billionaires are rushing into biotech. Inequality is following them into science

'Free-market philanthropy' raises yet more questions about the future of American public research

Biological Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2 peer comments

Why is it so hard for scientists to talk about leaving academia?

We should value scientists who transfer their skills

Prabarna Ganguly

Neuroscience

Northeastern University

3 peer comments

The Graduate Research Fellowship Program favors elite schools – again

The early-career grants, meant to boost diversity, end up perpetuating disparities

Physiology, Marine Biology, and Ecology

Harvard University

3 peer comments

A scientist responds to that 'Science' Instagram essay

Online outreach helps highlight women and people of color in the field

Gabriela Serrato Marks

Marine Geology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I crush stalagmites from protected caves. What can I do to give back?

Scientists should do more with the communities where they work, a cave researcher writes

Gabriela Serrato Marks

Marine Geology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Creationism helped push climate skepticism into classrooms

Science education has become a political issue, but civic engagement can still work wonders

Polar Science

University of Texas at Austin

Plants are not conscious, whether you can 'sedate' them or not

A New York Times story is a case study in what can go wrong in translating science

Genomics

University of Alberta

2 peer comments

BRCA genes are more complicated than most people think

Genes long considered risk factors are about much more than cancer: they help DNA repair

Molecular Microbiology

Ketogenetic dieting aids look too good to be true because they are

For the love of all that is starchy, there is no shortcut to weight loss

Chemical Biology

The Scripps Research Institute

How fieldwork on a remote, tiny island taught me to navigate family dinners

Doing science far away helped this ecologist talk to those close to home

Ecology

Wake Forest University

It's time to stop excluding people with disabilities from science

You can be a great scientist without being able to carry a 50-pound backpack out of a cave

Gabriela Serrato Marks

Marine Geology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The hidden costs of fieldwork are making science less diverse

Here are five practical ways to start fixing the problem

Ecology

Wake Forest University

Artificial intelligence isn't a 'black box.' It's a key to studying the brain

Algorithms can help us see how our unconscious processes work – if we understand their language

Neuroscience

Stanford University

The Republican tax plan would hurt students and young people. We can't let it pass

Making tuition waivers taxable would keep students out of the middle class the proposal claims to protect

Dan Samorodnitsky

Biochemistry

Carnegie Mellon University

The Mother's Curse: how a French king’s legacy revealed a loophole in evolution

New research with roots in colonial Canada suggests new wrinkles in ideas of evolution

Genomics

University of Alberta

Rand Paul's bill to stop 'silly' science would stifle research, innovation, and the economy

The senator has backed a bill that would let political appointees and "taxpayer advocates" cut research

Gregory Logan-Graf

Cell Biology

Carnegie Mellon University

CAR-T could revolutionize cancer treatment. It can also be fatal

Nearly 70 years after the invention of chemotherapy, new treatments still come with dangerous risks

Chemical Biology

The Scripps Research Institute

How machine learning is helping neuroscientists understand the brain

An expert argues that neuroscience is using the wrong metaphors

Neuroscience

Stanford University

Can we reverse the effects of drugs on developing brains?

These researchers are trying to find out

Lauren Mackenzie Reynolds

Neuroscience

McGill University

International collaboration is the best way to understand the complexities of the brain

Why neuroscientists are creating their own CERN to understand the mind together

Maya Emmons-Bell

Developmental Biology

UC Berkeley

My 'basic' fruit fly research could help save lives

Politicians like Sarah Palin love to mock it, but here's why we should all support 'basic' research

Gregory Logan-Graf

Cell Biology

Carnegie Mellon University

The psychedelic renaissance is here. Will it last this time?

To avoid the mistakes of the past, scientists and society need to open their minds

Neuroscience

Johns Hopkins University

Why studies that rely too much on drugs often fail to hold up

A pharmacologist argues that scientists shouldn't depend on pharmacological agents

Molecular Pharmacology

University of Pittsburgh

The science Nobel Prizes are sexist, racist, and misleading. Let's rethink them

We should be rewarding discoveries, not individuals

Genomics

University of Alberta

Does modern neuroscience really help us understand behavior?

Two experts argue that the field needs to move beyond its limited roots

Comparative Neuroscience

Champalimaud Foundation

Neuroscience

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

1 peer comment

The next revolution in food is being held up by regulation

The FDA's slow processes are keeping safe, environmentally friendly products off the shelves

Cell Biology

New Harvest

Dear Harvard, Berkeley, and MIT: don't patent CRISPR

Everyone should benefit from this once-in-a-lifetime discovery

Dan Samorodnitsky

Biochemistry

Carnegie Mellon University

Why GMO labeling laws won't help US consumers make better decisions

It's not if your food was modified that matters. It's how

Andrew Scarpelli

Molecular Biology

National Louis University

Scientists shouldn't be punished for being wrong

"How can we design experiments that work if we don’t tell each other what doesn’t?"

Chemical Cancer Biology

University of Toronto

This biologist believes we should embrace human gene editing

It could free millions from preventable, predetermined suffering

Genomics

University of Alberta

Feeding the world as the climate changes will depend on genetic engineering

CRISPR and other tech could help us produce more food, but only if we drop the GMO stigma

Molecular Biology

Princeton University

We need to change the way we think about alcoholism

A neuroscientist argues that genetics alone isn't enough to beat the illness or the stigma

Neuroscience

Indiana University School of Medicine

Why you shouldn't worry about the bacteria in your sponges

Remember that study about the 'dangerous' bacteria hiding in your kitchen sponge? Not so fast

Chemical Biology

The Scripps Research Institute

I empathize with anti-vaxxers. Here's how flawed autism science can lead to the wrong conclusions.

Autism research is difficult to understand, and that's our fault as scientists.

Neuroscience

Indiana University School of Medicine

How Shark Week hurts the very creatures it celebrates

Showing attacks makes people less likely to support protecting sharks, though they rarely bite people unless we harm their food system

Marine Science

University of Rhode Island