New testing methods can spare laboratory animals
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: We need to end animal sacrifice at the altar of science. The time has come for the scientific community to free animals from being subjected to cruel research carried out to find cures for human diseases or vanity purposes such as for cosmetics. Every year, millions of animals are sacrificed […]
Climate crisis is here – Lessons not learned
Surigao City in Mindanao, Philippines was one of the areas devastated by Typhoon Rai, locally known in the Philippines as “Odette”. (Photo: Philippine Coast Guard, Public domain). By Crispin Maslog MANILA: Exactly ten years ago in January 2012, as a retired science journalism professor, I wrote my first column for SciDev.Net. It was about the […]
As Asian cities sink affecting 600 million people, managed retreat must be tabled
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: Even as Asia’s megacities continue to submerge, officials of one small Philippine city are planning a major US$460 million reclamation project that will damage or sink their beautiful seaside city into the dark blue southern sea. Scientists and environmentalists have called on the local government of Dumaguete to scrap the reclamation project, […]
Asia’s dilemma – back to school now or not?
By: Crispin Maslog MANILA: Calls to resume classes in Asia increasing even as vaccination against COVID-19 lags, posing health risks. ‘Close open, close open,’ goes a lesson on the first day at kindergarten as the barely six-year-old child closes and opens his hand and learns his first lessons in anatomy and language. That basic lesson may […]
Golden Rice’s unfulfilled promise
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: Golden Rice, announced two decades ago as the answer to Vitamin A deficiency, is nowhere near production. In 2000, a Time magazine cover announced the sprouting of “Golden Rice”, promising to enhance nutrition for millions of poverty-stricken rice-eating Asians. The magazine showed the father of Golden Rice, Swiss plant researcher Ingo […]
Have vaccine passport, will travel
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: China, where the COVID-19 pandemic began a long year ago, has now become the first country in the world to issue a vaccine passport to promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel. China’s foreign ministry has said the international health certificate is currently available only to its citizens. It is […]
Entrée for lab-grown meat
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: Lost in the unending stream of news about the COVID-19 pandemic is the recent report that Singapore has just approved lab-grown meat for human consumption. The approval was granted by the Singapore Food Agency to US food company Eat Just for their cultured ‘chicken bites’. The company called this a watershed […]
To be or not to be (vaccinated) – That is the question!
By Crispin Maslog MANILA: The double good news is that vaccine hesitancy is going down as the Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out in the United States, Canada and Europe. A recent global survey shows that majority of the world’s population is now willing to take the vaccines. The survey involving 13,426 respondents in 19 […]
It all began in Wuhan: An inside story
By Crispin Maslog Chair of the Board, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) WUHAN: “Around 9:30 a.m. on 22 January 2020, my brother and I were walking on the street to the library in Wuhan,” Ling Zhu said. Ling is a young Chinese from Wuhan who just finished her master’s degree in English and […]
Time for scientists to speak up and be heard
By Crispin Maslog ‘Science communication, however, is not a one-way street. The public, on the other hand, should start taking science and scientists seriously.’ MANILA: Science and scientists are being viewed more positively by people across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the US, and other regions and countries as the COVID-19 pandemic peaks. Yet, ironically, despite the […]
Philippines, Senior Consultant for the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, Former Journalist for the Press Foundation of Asia 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
