Biotechnology | Reason Archives (original) (raw)
DIY Genome Editing at Only $2 a Pop
Avoiding regulation, DIYBio becomes cheaper and more available.
Ronald Bailey | 9.27.2024 10:40 AM
How Post-Arrest DNA Swabs Threaten Innocent People's Privacy
Most states collect DNA from felony arrestees pretrial. They should need a warrant to do so.
Jack Nicastro | 8.28.2024 5:00 PM
Greenpeace Crusade Will Blind and Kill Children
One hundred Nobel laureates agree: The campaign against biotech-enhanced golden rice is a "crime against humanity."
Ronald Bailey | 4.25.2024 12:30 PM
Bryan Johnson: Can This Rich Transhumanist Beat Death?
Bryan Johnson, venture capitalist and founder of Blueprint, discusses his $2 million a year effort to reverse aging on Just Asking Questions.
Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe | 2.29.2024 12:31 PM
Do New Documents Prove a COVID Lab Leak?
Health reporter Emily Kopp and biologist Alex Washburne discuss new documents that detail plans to manipulate bat-borne coronaviruses in Wuhan on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.
Zach Weissmueller | 2.1.2024 12:36 PM
Review: Unstable Is a Futurist Comedy
A biotech lab led by a lightly fictionalized alternate version of Rob Lowe works to save the world.
Stephanie Slade | 8.18.2023 6:00 AM
CRISPR Tech Could Bring Cheaper Beef to Your July 4 Cookout
As beef prices increase, biotech could provide a cheaper and tasty alternative.
William Rampe | 7.4.2023 8:00 AM
The Enhanced Olympics: Drugs Welcome!
At last, a chance to watch elite athletes openly taking advantage of modern science.
Ronald Bailey | 6.29.2023 1:50 PM
CRISPR Mustard Greens Test America's Appetite for Designer Veggies
The North Carolina–based biotech startup Pairwise will begin selling genetically modified and better-tasting mustard greens.
William Rampe | 5.26.2023 10:52 AM
The Biomedical Testing Revolution Promises a Theranos That Actually Works
Most cancer diagnoses and deaths are due to cancers for which there are no recommended screening tests.
Ronald Bailey | 5.25.2023 6:00 AM
Vivek Ramaswamy Thinks 'Wokeness Is a Cultural Cancer'
Why the businessman launched a long shot campaign for the presidency.
John Stossel | 5.17.2023 12:30 AM
Happy Earth Day! Reason Recycles 5 Decades of Environmental Coverage
A selection of Reason's most incisive articles on population, pollution, resource depletion, biodiversity, energy, climate change, and the ideological environmentalists' penchant for peddling doom.
Ronald Bailey | 4.21.2023 1:30 PM
Chuck Schumer's Hasty Plan To Regulate Artificial Intelligence Is a Really Bad Idea
Federal A.I. regulation now will hinder progress, consumer choice, and market competition.
Ronald Bailey | 4.14.2023 11:45 AM
Who Owns Your Brain Data?
Nita A. Farahany's The Battle for Your Brain shows how neurotech can help, or hurt, human liberty.
Ronald Bailey | 3.18.2023 7:00 AM
The Lab Leak Deception
Public officials concealed their conflicts of interest and role in funding research that may have caused the pandemic, says health reporter Emily Kopp.
Zach Weissmueller and Regan Taylor | 11.3.2022 11:00 AM
A New Green Revolution Is in the Offing
Thanks to some amazing recent crop biotech breakthroughs
Ronald Bailey | 8.10.2022 5:00 PM
Researchers Create Artificial Eggs, Chimeric Sperm, and Synthetic Embryos
All of these advances are in mice for now, but maybe these breakthroughs can one day be adapted as human therapies.
Ronald Bailey | 8.5.2022 4:05 PM
The Slaughter-Free Future of Cultured Meats
Real factories are beginning to replace factory farms.
Ronald Bailey | 5.26.2022 3:30 PM
Chinese Researchers Develop Gene-Edited Wheat That Resists Fungal Disease
Expect anti-biotech activists to oppose this important development.
Ronald Bailey | 2.11.2022 4:30 PM
Evil Greenpeace Objects to Philippines' Approval of Genetically Improved Golden Rice
Nobel laureates properly call activist group's campaign against crop biotechnology a "crime against humanity."
Ronald Bailey | 8.11.2021 5:10 PM
Adding Human Gene Boosts Crop Yields by 50 Percent
The technique "could potentially help address problems of poverty and food insecurity at a global scale."
Ronald Bailey | 7.29.2021 11:35 AM
Manufactured Meats Coming to a Grocery Store Near You Next Year?
The process uses 99 percent less land and 96 percent less freshwater than traditional meat production.
Ronald Bailey | 6.28.2021 5:00 PM
The Doubling of Life Expectancy Is the Greatest Achievement in 100 Years
Science writer Steven Johnson, author of the new book Extra Life, on vaccines, medical breakthroughs, and life after Covid.
Nick Gillespie | 6.10.2021 10:45 AM
After 26 Years of FDA Delays, U.S. Consumers Can Finally Buy Genetically Enhanced AquaBounty Salmon
And it's already sold out.
Ronald Bailey | 5.14.2021 1:20 PM
Why COVID-19 May Be the Last Pandemic
Medical breakthroughs mean we will never again suffer through diseases like the novel coronavirus—if politicians will get out of the way.
Nick Gillespie | 5.6.2021 10:00 AM
Prevent Human Epidemics by Infecting Wild Animals With Self-Disseminating Vaccines
The upsides and the possible downsides of transmissible vaccines .
Ronald Bailey | 5.4.2021 4:45 PM
No, Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Will Not Turn the Florida Keys Into Jurassic Park
The goal is to drastically reduce the population of disease-carrying bloodsuckers.
Ronald Bailey | 4.29.2021 3:00 PM
Beyond COVID
More uses for new mRNA technology
Ronald Bailey | 4.4.2021 6:00 AM
We Are As Gods: Stewart Brand & The Fight to Bring Back Woolly Mammoths
From "stay hungry, stay foolish" to "try everything, take nothing off the table."
Nick Gillespie | 3.31.2021 3:15 PM
Stewart Brand: We Are (Still) As Gods
The former Merry Prankster and Whole Earth Catalog founder talks about psychedelics, computers, bringing back woolly mammoths, and his new documentary.
Nick Gillespie | 3.17.2021 4:51 PM
Sierra Club Inches Toward Accepting Genetically Modified Chestnut Trees
Let's restore this giant to America's forests.
Ronald Bailey | 3.11.2021 5:05 PM
Cultivated Meat Projected To Be Cheaper Than Conventional Beef by 2030
And produced with a much lower environmental footprint
Ronald Bailey | 3.11.2021 3:10 PM
Will Biden 'Listen to the Science' on GMOs?
The USDA under the Trump administration streamlined some outdated and scientifically unwarranted regulations of modern biotech crops.
Ronald Bailey | 2.11.2021 6:00 AM
You Will Soon Be Able To Taste a Lab-Grown Ribeye Steak
Cell-based meat cultivation is on its way.
Ronald Bailey | 2.10.2021 1:00 PM
Vaccines Don't Save Lives. Vaccinations Save Lives.
Especially if the COVID-19 inoculations are deployed speedily and accepted widely.
Ronald Bailey | 12.1.2020 4:20 PM
Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Is 90% Effective
And there looks to be more good vaccine news coming.
Ronald Bailey | 11.9.2020 12:05 PM
The USDA Should Let People Plant Blight-Resistant American Chestnut Trees
Anti-biotech activists cite the precautionary principle to maintain chestnut tree-free forests.
Ronald Bailey | 10.13.2020 11:40 AM
New Biotech Photosynthesis Hacks Would Boost Crop Yields by 50 Percent or More
Growing more food on less acreage means more land for nature.
Ronald Bailey | 8.13.2020 4:10 PM
Bayer Surrenders to Trial-Lawyer Extortion Over Bogus Glyphosate Weedkiller Cancer Claims
The chemical company has agreed to create a $10 billion settlement fund
Ronald Bailey | 6.24.2020 4:20 PM
Are We Seeing Irrational Exuberance Over COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine News?
Stocks rise steeply on good news about mRNA vaccines.
Ronald Bailey | 5.18.2020 6:45 PM
Massive Coronavirus Testing Is the Way to Help Save the Economy
No time to waste; do it sooner rather than later.
Ronald Bailey | 3.24.2020 12:30 PM
Biohackers Are on a Secret Hunt for the Coronavirus Vaccine
DIY biologists propose creating a public domain SARS-CoV-2 vaccine with $25,000 in funding.
Zach Weissmueller | 3.13.2020 2:53 PM
How Worried Should You Be About the Wuhan Coronavirus?
We will soon learn if humanity's increasing biotechnical prowess can prevent a modern pandemic.
Ronald Bailey | 1.27.2020 4:55 PM
No More Pandemics?
The Genomic Age responds to an outbreak in China
Ronald Bailey | 1.17.2020 4:35 PM
Is Farm-Free Food the Future?
The end of agriculture draws nigh.
Ronald Bailey | 1.16.2020 4:00 PM
Why Is the Media So Negative?
"Everything that's bad is politics; everything that's good is the market."
John Stossel | 9.18.2019 12:15 AM
E.U. Regulators Can't Detect the Gene-Edited Crops They Banned
The difference between two identical genes—one edited and the other a natural mutation—is entirely metaphysical.
Ronald Bailey | 7.23.2019 3:40 PM
Meatless Meat Is Better Than Ever
Zach Weissmueller | 7.4.2019 6:00 AM