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As questions mount over whether the COVID-19 pandemic could have started with a Chinese lab leak, members of Congress are shining a bright spotlight on controversial virus research often referred to as “gain of function.” 

Lawmakers are increasingly concerned that researchers who experiment with viruses in an effort to understand them and avert future pandemics could end up making them

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines called progressive Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., a "misogynist" after the lawmaker condemned the activist's testimony as "transphobic" and asked that it be stricken from the record during a House hearing. Gaines, a vocal supporter of women's sports, was among four witnesses who appeared Tuesday before the House Oversight subcommittee on Health Care and Financial

Republicans say a letter from a National Institutes of Health official is an admission that the agency funded so-called gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in China, with some falsely linking the work to the pandemic coronavirus. But the research, which the NIH maintains is not gain-of-function, could not have led to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

On Oct. 20, the

Elon Musk’s plan to make X a subscription-based platform is well underway. The social media platform formerly known as Twitter announced yesterday (Oct. 17) it’s testing a “Not A Bot” subscription in New Zealand and the Philippines in a new bid to reduce bots on X. The program will charge a $1 annual fee for new users to access some of the platform’s most basic functions, such as posting and