Can scientists save one of the world's favourite bananas?

Losing weight is a struggle for many people and research has shown that one diet does not fit all, some people lose weight on a diet while others gain. For obese individuals, the way to lose weight may be highly personalized and involve a specific diet type, counting calories, or one of many different medications.

Vermont's passage of a law requiring food that is genetically modified to be labeled spurred action at the national level to create one standard, rather than a patchwork of state laws, that offers food companies several ways to label foods with GMOs. The national bill did eventually pass, but as this piece illustrates, no one seems very happy about it. Environmentalists feel it leaves large loopholes and while the food industry likes one standard, it does not like the stigma the GMO label confers.

A genetically engineered fake meat that smells, tastes and has the same texture as a regular beef burger? Sounds impossible, but it's not for the Impossible Burger. Made from ingredients such as wheat and potato protein and coconut, it's the tactic of extracting heme (the ingredient found in the hemoglobin of cows) from leghemoglobin (a the plant alternative) that really helps the Impossible Burger succeed. This success is also a success for the environment by using less land, a quarter of the water and emitting an eighth of the greenhouse gases than is reported for livestock rearing.

Could clean meat be the solution for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, feeding an ever-growing human population and saving water? A growing number of food innovators think so, as do investors such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Although too expensive to hit the market immediately, production is in the works to create clean meat from animal cells that may be better for human health and the health of the environment.

"Farm to table" is a well-known saying in the food industry, but "lab to table" is also rapidly joining the rank of commonplace terminology. To both reduce the amount of animals killed and lessen the impact on the environment to raise livestock, researchers have found a way to manufacture cell-based meat that is created in a lab, yet still has the texture of meat.

Project Baby Bear is a grant-funded pilot program that uses genome sequencing to to diagnose sick infants. The doctors hope to save lives and save the system money on unnecessary treatments. Since very few sick infants show symptoms that correlate to their genetic diagnosis, these tests are instrumental in positive health outcomes.

As rising temperatures threaten marine life, the Pacific Hybreed laboratory is working to develop resilient shellfish. Their experimental breeding process attempts to uncover new genes to help a variety of shellfish withstand changing temperatures and disease, and it just might help save the fishing industry.

As a way to combat climate change, scientists are experimenting with genetically modified trees as a way to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to store in its leaves, roots, and trunk. The startup Living Carbon has genetically modified poplar and pine seeds in the ground and expect them to be ready by the end of the year. Some scientists are worried about how these trees can impact forest ecosystems, but they grow faster than normal trees, allowing them to study and assess the risks quicker.

Genetic genealogy's use in criminal cases has gone mainstream. As the cases of three murder victims in Indiana illustrate, the science of DNA evidence combined with genealogical research and detective work is rapidly ramping up, from a hobby to a curiosity and now to a major commercial and criminal-justice opportunity. Hundreds of missing persons have been identified from decades-old remains, or murder suspects identified from old biological evidence in cold cases. By creating a family tree of the victim or suspect, investigators can zero in on an identity more quickly and inexpensively than ever.

Farmers in Puerto Rico are breeding cows with a genetic mutation that makes it easier for them to maintain a healthy body temperature despite rising temperatures, which improves their milk production and fertility.