Early criticism of COVID-19 rhetoric cautions against the use of war metaphors that can shift us toward authoritarian and nationalistic sentiment, evoking xenophobia and racism.
Most of the fake news that circulated on the web before this pandemic concerned health and became far more widespread than the real news. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has escalated with the global COVID-19 crisis.
At the time of publication of this issue, we are incredulously, insecurely, and helplessly witnessing a situation only comparable to that experienced in both twentieth-century World Wars. A global pandemic, which has once again placed the human species before a scenario that is as unprecedented and unknown as it is unpredictable.
We need to rethink many aspects of our daily lives, of our values, of our economic and cultural practices; in short, of our coexistence with the rest of nature and, especially, of our respect for non-human animals.
In addition to protective isolation, enhanced medical capacity, safer sociality and health oriented economic stimulus, we will need to turn our hearts, hands, and minds to reweaving and strengthening the complex and vital social web.
The threat of infectious diseases has been constant in the history of humankind. 75 % of new emerging human infectious diseases in the last thirty years have an animal origin, and 17 % are transmitted by a vector.
Using an external flash placed above the snake, accompanied by a high shutter speed, allowed me to freeze one of those chemosensory licks that the snake used to try to decipher its surroundings.
The historian of science Alexander Koyrè summarised the scientific work of the sixteenth century as a gradual understanding of the works of Archimedes.
Alice goes on a journey during which peculiar characters tell her what to eat or drink. Then, strange things happen. Doesn't all this seem like a drug-induced psychedelic journey?
Let us look at the coronavirus outbreak in China. Dissemination of accurate and well-interpreted information is key in the early stages of an emerging outbreak.
We are indeed in an emergency. Let there be no doubt about that. But if there is one thing that is even more paralysing than not accepting the situation we are in, it is saying that our house is on fire and then calmly keep watching television.
If we want science to play a truly relevant social role, we must take the opposite path and respond with science to the questions and problems of individuals and society. We must treat is as a tool, not as the protagonist.
By giving away our DNA and genetic data, we are giving away the DNA and genetic data of our entire biological family. We have to think if the objective we are pursuing is worthwhile.
Understanding what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is an old obsession of ours. The most frequent attribute we rely on to justify our supposed superiority is intelligence. Yet, how are we to compare the intelligence of species as different as humans, octopi or dolphins?
But it is one thing to be aware of the annual astronomical cycle and another to discover the mechanisms of life. We don't know for sure what, but something happened about 40,000 years ago in what is now Europe.
Retraction is a compulsory literary genre: it is only written by one who has no other choice, and it does not pursue fame. Except for a few media cases, retractions go unnoticed by the public. What makes for hot news?
Space exploration will require life support systems, in which plants can provide nutrients, oxygen, moisture, and psychological well-being and eliminate wastes.
The new biotechnological approaches to the design of resistant crops will allow us to cut agricultural losses and reduce chemical inputs.
Biotechnological tools such as gene editing or synthetic biology will contribute to increase agricultural production in a sustainable way.
Twenty-first-century agriculture faces major challenges that urgently need to be answered. In the last decade, new breeding technologies have been developed that can help meet these challenges.
The introduction of CRISPR/Cas gene-editing technology has provided a new approach to crop improvement and offers possibilities for obtaining varieties.
This monograph analyses the possibility of cultivating plants outside our planet Earth; presents advances in genome editing such as those that have allowed my laboratory to obtain seedless tomatoes; assesses strategies that should lead to more plentiful harvests using fewer resources; and explains biotechnological strategies to strengthen plants’ immune systems or to use them as biofactories in which we can harvest molecules of health or nutrition interest. Will that be enough? Will we make it in time?
A heated debate exists on the subject of Big Data. What can be expected and what not from them? Do data speak for themselves?