Richard Stone

Washington, D.C.

International News Editor and Writer at Science Magazine

Science writer, international news editor @sciencemagazine. Will go to the ends of the earth for a story. Passionate about squash (the sport).

Articles

China is quietly preparing to build a gigantic telescope

1 week ago | science.org | Richard Stone |Dennis Normile

High on the Tibetan Plateau, China appears to be laying the groundwork for what will be the largest optical telescope in the Northern Hemisphere—and perhaps briefly, in the world. But to the puzzlement of some astronomers, China has been keeping a tight lid on plans for its 14.5-meter Large Optical Telescope (LOT), with only glancing references in a handful of abstracts and Chinese media reports. “As far as I can tell, it’s real.
In China, trade war with U.S. taking a toll on research labs

1 month ago | science.org | Richard Stone

Days after celebrating the publication in Science of a paper he co-authored on gene expression in mice, cell biologist Tang Fuchou of Peking University was whiplashed by the deepening trade war between China and the United States. Last week, citing new tariffs imposed by China on U.S. goods, Addgene, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit repository of circular DNA strands called plasmids, canceled a contract to supply them to Tang’s lab.
Sunday Science: 50-Year-Old Bioweapons Treaty Is Dangerously Flawed, Researchers Say

1 month ago | portside.org | Richard Stone

Sunday Science: 50-Year-Old Bioweapons Treaty Is Dangerously Flawed, Researchers Say Published April 13, 2025 Some of the world’s deadliest toxins are found in marine creatures such as the puffer fish and the blue-ringed octopus. For many, there is no antidote. So when U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials in 2019 confronted their Chinese counterparts with concerns about experiments with marine neurotoxins being conducted in China’s military labs, they were hoping for reassurance.
Researchers from China and five other ‘countries of concern’ barred from NIH databases

1 month ago | science.org | Richard Stone

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has barred scientists in China and five other “countries of concern” from accessing 21 biomedical databases, which hold information on genetic variation, cancer cases, neurodegenerative diseases, and more. The 2 April move by President Donald Trump’s administration, which ramps up a longer running effort to prevent foreign access to data deemed sensitive, also halts projects involving the databases that include collaborators in the named countries.
50-year-old bioweapons treaty is dangerously flawed, researchers say

2 months ago | science.org | Richard Stone

Some of the world’s deadliest toxins are found in marine creatures such as the puffer fish and the blue-ringed octopus. For many, there is no antidote. So when U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials in 2019 confronted their Chinese counterparts with concerns about experiments with marine neurotoxins being conducted in China’s military labs, they were hoping for reassurance.
Wartime Destruction of Ukraine Dam Has Set Off a ‘Time Bomb’

2 months ago | portside.org | Richard Stone

Wartime Destruction of Ukraine Dam Has Set Off a ‘Time Bomb’ Published March 16, 2025 In the Soviet Union, the Zaporozhets automobile was legend. Mass produced in the 1960s in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, early models were known for steel frames as flimsy as cardboard and a gas tank under the front hood that could turn a fender bender into a carbecue. But the plebeian car did have a classy touch: nickel-plated bumpers, which had consequences that reverberate today.
Wartime destruction of Ukraine dam has set off a ‘time bomb’

2 months ago | science.org | Richard Stone

In the Soviet Union, the Zaporozhets automobile was legend. Mass produced in the 1960s in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, early models were known for steel frames as flimsy as cardboard and a gas tank under the front hood that could turn a fender bender into a carbecue. But the plebeian car did have a classy touch: nickel-plated bumpers, which had consequences that reverberate today.
A Cuban brain researcher went viral on Chinese TV. Here’s why

Feb 26, 2025 | science.org | Richard Stone

When Cuban neuroinformaticist Pedro Antonio Valdés Sosa wrote in October 2023 to Xi Jinping, China’s leader, hailing the two Communist nations’ budding collaboration in brain science, he did not expect a reply. But Valdés Sosa’s paean to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a $1.3 trillion global infrastructure effort and China’s flagship means for projecting soft power that he praised as an “insightful and innovative idea,” struck the right chord in Beijing.
Biology and Management of Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Mutated NPM1

Feb 5, 2025 | onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Evan Chen |Shai Shimony |Marlise R. Luskin |Richard Stone

Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. References 1, , , et al., “NPM1 Alternative Transcripts Are Upregulated in Acute Myeloid and Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Their Expression Level Affects Patient Outcome,” Journal of Translational Medicine 16, no. 1 (2018): 232. 2, , , and , “Acute Myeloid Leukemia Carrying Cytoplasmic/Mutated Nucleophosmin (NPMc+ AML): Biologic and Clinical Features,” Blood 109, no. 3 (2007): 874–885.
U.S. foreign aid freeze derails efforts to stem proliferation risks

Feb 3, 2025 | science.org | Richard Stone

Helping research labs in the Caucasus secure dangerous pathogens. Training biologists in Southeast Asia on how to disrupt an attack with a bioweapon. Rebuilding a radiation monitoring system for the defunct Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. These efforts are among hundreds of programs aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and improving research security that have ground to a halt because of President Donald Trump’s administration’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid.