An Egyptian worker gathers the crop at a maize field, the country’s first harvest of genetically modified maize in 2008.
Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images
Kenya’s GMO policy about-turn was underpinned by improved safeguards on top of a commitment to review each new application on a case-by-case basis.
As a material, bacteria’s ability to rapidly multiply and adapt to different conditions is an asset.
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The walls of your house could someday be built with living bacteria. Synthetic biologists are engineering microbes into living materials that are cheap and sustainable.
A cotton field in Lubbock, Texas.
AP Photo/LM Otero
Plant breeding, informed by genetic analysis, could be critical to the future of one of the world’s oldest crops.
While resurrecting dinosaurs may not be on the docket just yet, gene drives have the power to alter entire species.
Hiroshi Watanabe/DigitalVision via Getty Images
As genetic engineering and DNA manipulation tools like CRISPR continue to advance, the distinction between what science ‘could’ and ‘should’ do becomes murkier.
Xenotransplantation has made significant strides over the past few decades.
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Recent successes putting genetically modified pig organs into people have brought xenotransplantation back into the spotlight.
Most U.S.-grown soybeans are genetically modified, so products containing them may be required to carry the new ‘bioengineered’ label.
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An expert on organic agriculture argues that the US is missing an economic and environmental opportunity by not working to scale up organic production.
A tailings pond at an oilsands facility near Fort McMurray, Alta., in July 2012. The estimated cost of reclaiming oilsands mines is almost $31 billion.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Solutions to some of the globe’s most daunting environmental challenges may be closer than you think. Scientists are harnessing nature to clean up toxic chemicals and mining waste.
Researchers have grown mammal embryos later into development than ever before in an artificial womb.
Vitalii Kyryk/WikimediaCommons
Researchers have grown the first human-monkey hybrid embryos as well as mouse embryos in artificial wombs late into development. These biomedical breakthroughs raise different ethical quandaries.
Mikaela Nordborg/Australian Institute of Marine Science
Dimitri Perrin, Queensland University of Technology; Jacob Bradford, Queensland University of Technology; Line K Bay, Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Phillip Cleves, Carnegie Institution for Science
New research involving CRISPR technology has furthered our understanding of corals’ gene functions. Specifically, it has revealed a mechanism underpinning how corals withstand heat stress.
The conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was created in a laboratory has been widely reported, yet there is no evidence to support it. Why such theories thrive can easily be explained, however.
Genetically modified mice express a green fluorescent protein which causes them to glow in the dark.
Moen et al. (2012)/Wikipedia
Is gene editing compatible with organic farming? A scholar explains the differences between old genetic engineering and CRISPR methods, and why the latter is similar to tradition plant breeding.
Clinical trials using immune cells engineered through synthetic biology have been shown to push some patients into remission from blood cancer.
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Right now, you’re living in a kind of industrial revolution – where biotechnology, information technology, manufacturing and automation all come together to form synthetic biology.
A medium-size passenger jet burns roughly 750 gallons of fuel per hour.
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Deepak Kumar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Stephen P. Long, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Vijay Singh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Scientists have engineered sugarcane to increase its oil content and are developing renewable jet aircraft fuel from the oil. The engineered sugarcane could become a valuable energy crop.
Plants make proteins based on whatever genetic material you give them.
Carl Davies, CSIRO
Inserting a random DNA mishmash into a plant or bacterium directs it to make a novel protein. Sifting through the resulting molecules, researchers may find ones have medical or agricultural uses.
With all these ‘test-tube babies’ grown up, how have our reactions to the technology evolved?
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Americans have moved on from worrying about ‘test-tube babies’ – but there are still ethical challenges to resolve as reproductive technologies continue to advance.
Controversial gene editing should not proceed without citizen input and societal consensus.
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A team in the U.S. is said to have safely and effectively altered human embryos. The news is a reminder that citizens must be consulted on developments potentially affecting the future of the species.