Defining ‘novel’: Health Canada modernizes its regulations for plant breeding

Katie Compton, Policy & Politics editor When it comes to the plants and plant-derived foods that we eat, what does novel mean? When is something so different from the existing items on grocery shelves that regulators need to assess its safety before it goes to market? In the world of plant breeding, the line between […]

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CRISPR-Cas9: how the quest for better cheese revolutionized biological research

Sunitha Chari, Biology & Life Sciences co-editor   To understand the story of CRISPR-Cas9, you need to appreciate the significance of accidental discoveries in science. Imagine a world where Alexander Fleming did not discover a fungus capable of killing the bacteria on his forgotten bacterial plate. Or, imagine a world where Wilhelm Röngten did not […]

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