Fresh produce, stewardship of our land and wildlife, conservation of critical biodiversity, and a key ingredient for manufacturing crayons: these are just a snapshot of the essential work that farmers do to make a high quality of life possible for those not only in their local communities but our nation at large.

If small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, then farmers are the backbone of America. According to the American Farm Bureau Foundation, more than 2 million farms dot America’s rural landscape and about 98% of U.S. farms are operated by families — individuals, family partnerships, or family…

ART

Michelangelo was considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance.

Born in March of 1475, he grew up in the city-state of Florence in Italy. A painter, architect, and sculptor, his journey with the arts began at the age of 13 as an apprentice to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. As an apprentice, he began to hone the painting skills that would culminate in his work in the Sistine Chapel. This is also where he met the Medicis; a Florentine banking family and patrons of the arts. In the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, young Michelangelo was able to learn about philosophy and politics, while simultaneously learning from sculptor Bertoldo di…

BUSINESS

As the first vaccines for COVID-19 receive FDA approval and become available, our collective perception and understanding of clinical trials is something we should evaluate. According to ClinicalTrials.gov, the National Library of Medicine’s database of clinical trials, there are almost 27,000 clinical trials that are recruiting, enrolling, and actively ongoing.

Sara Menso is the Associate Director of Innovation and Business Strategy at AstraZeneca. She is part of a team that manages the IT platform that holds clinical trial data. …

In December 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, the world population surpassed 7.8 billion people. And it’s projected to grow to 9.9 billion by 2050. Feeding close to eight billion people is no easy task and it's one that we are currently failing at. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, 690 million people consistently go without food and that is predicted to increase to over 840 million by 2030.

The environmental impact of animal product creation and consumption is also daunting. Food production and distribution are responsible for 26% of…

INNOVATION

Worms are helpful and necessary creatures that also happen to make the majority of the general population squeamish. I personally think their relationship with early birds and recreational fishing habits seems a little unfair. Hookworms are a different story. These intestinal parasites enjoy humanity as their host of choice. Often they live and reproduce undetected in the intestines after larvae are either ingested or allowed to penetrate human skin after a person walks barefoot on contaminated soil. The risk of contracting hookworm increases in warm and moist climates when proper sanitation is not available. …

ART

Human beings have been bringing innate curiosity and creativity to our interactions with nature since before our written history. This partnership with the world around us results in biotechnology; technology that is built from or harnesses the biological world around us. But scientists are only one element of this partnership. The other foundational members are artists.

It is a non-negotiable fact that the biotechnology being created today will affect all of our lives- whether we understand it or not

This means that while not everyone will be involved in the collaborative process of biotech creation, we should all be a part of the conversation around the ethical and moral ramifications of this technology. Making transparency a priority, at every step of discovery, will…

VIRUSES

SARS-CoV-2 has been wreaking havoc as a global pandemic since March 2020. Over the past seven months, scientists around the world have grappled with this virus that has infected 38.3 million people and claimed over 1 million lives. Unfortunately, in the midst of all the chaos, other types of infection and disease haven’t gone away. And while this virus has been particularly deadly, the destructive nature of other viruses is being harnessed to save lives.

Bacteriophages, commonly referred to as phages, are viruses that infect bacteria. Discovered by two scientists, Frederick Twort and Felix d’Herelle, these viruses are the most…

BUSINESS

Most people have been affected in some way by cancer. Scientists around the globe are diligently working to try and find new solutions to this disease. But what if the solution was actually found in innovating a known drug not currently effective enough for treatment regimes?

SciTech Development is a company built in response to the National Cancer Institute’s call to solve a problem with the already available oncology drug fenretinide considered ineffective in comparison to other drugs. …