News

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

This is the 15th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. You can read the first part here. The series...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

Several black chess pieces are positioned side by side, standing upright.
By Amy Webb, Wired | 05.11.2017

BIOLOGY HAS EMERGED as one of the most important technology platforms of the 21st century. With the arrival of the gene-editing...

A pale hand holds an unlit light bulb.
By Nature Editorial | 05.10.2017

Presenting science as a battle for truth against ignorance is an unhelpful exaggeration.

Antimatter annihilates matter. Anti-science, it is said...

Archived black and white photo from the Tuskegee study. A white doctor draws blood from a black study participant with two others observing.
By Associated Press | 05.10.2017

TUSKEGEE, Ala. — Decades later, it’s still hard to grasp what the federal government did to hundreds of black men...

Close up photo of a yellow winged moth against a white background.
By Eric Niiler, Wired | 05.10.2017

A HALF-INCH-LONG MOTH that devours kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts may not inspire the same fear as a Zika-carrying mosquito, but...

Circular dial containing birth control pills.
By Theresa Vargas, Washington Post | 05.09.2017

The message wasn’t subtle in one of the first advertisements for the birth control pill. Greek mythological figure Andromeda is...

Black and white photo, in bug's eye view, looking up at a person balancing on a tightrope.
By Friends of the Earth, Emerging Tech Project | 05.09.2017

The Australian Academy of Sciences has joined a growing number of groups calling for a national discussion on a range...

A laboratory scientist uses s a gloved hand to insert a pipette to remove DNA liquid in micro test tube.
By Paul Sisson, San Diego Tribune | 05.08.2017

One of every three genetic tests examined by a team of researchers at the San Diego Naval Medical Center shouldn’t...

A mother's hands grips a child's hand, who is wearing a bracelet.
By Annie Gowen, Washington Post | 05.08.2017

Members of a Hindu far-right organization called Arogya Bharati say they are working with expectant couples in the country to...