The fate of society rests in part on how humans navigate their complicated relationship with insects – trying to save “good” insects and control “bad” ones. Some insects, like mosquitoes, bite people ...

Gene drives use genetic engineering to create a desired mutation in a few individuals that then spreads via mating throughout a population in fewer than 10 generations. In theory, such a mechanism ...

Weeds are a pesky irritant for most home gardeners, but in large agricultural settings, weeds can pose an especially deadly problem. For example, Amaranthus palmeri, known as Palmer's pigweed, has ...

Malaria remains a daily threat across Africa. In 2023 alone, the continent accounted for 95% of the world’s 597,000 malaria-related deaths. The most vulnerable are our children and pregnant women.

Gene drives are a promising technology for controlling the populations of disease-bearing mosquitos by using their own genes against them. But a number of roadblocks still stand in the way. The ...

Addressing public concerns about the suitability and safety of new innovations is crucial to the responsible use of genetic technologies for environmental problems, according to a new report on New ...

Each year, 263 million people get malaria. But from the parasite's perspective, infecting humans is harder than you might think, and requires completing an epic journey within the tiny body of a ...

They buzz, they bite, and they cause some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. Mosquitoes are perhaps the planet’s most universally reviled animals. If we could zap them off the face of the ...

“I’m very relieved,” Andrea Crisanti, a molecular parasitologist at Imperial College London who works with gene drives, told Nature. “It would have been a disaster for developing the technology.” By ...

When it comes to wiping out whole species or permanently altering them, however, it’s a very new ball game. The big new issues regarding Gene Drive are a whole new league. Imagine being able to wipe ...