Science News Roundup: The pendant is 20,000 years old. Ancient DNA shows who wore it; China approves safety of first gene-edited crop and more

The soybean, developed by privately owned Shandong Shunfeng Biotechnology Co., Ltd, has two modified genes, significantly raising the level of healthy fat oleic acid in the plant. Lawmaker and head of NSF warn of delays to funding U.S. tech research Silicon Valley's U.S. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna and the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) warned on Friday against delays to funding for U.S. research in the face of surging technology investment by rivals such as China.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

China approves safety of first gene-edited crop

China has approved the safety of a gene-edited soybean, its first approval of the technology in a crop, as the country increasingly looks to science to boost food production. The soybean, developed by privately owned Shandong Shunfeng Biotechnology Co., Ltd, has two modified genes, significantly raising the level of healthy fat oleic acid in the plant.

Lawmaker and head of NSF warn of delays to funding U.S. tech research

Silicon Valley's U.S. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna and the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) warned on Friday against delays to funding for U.S. research in the face of surging technology investment by rivals such as China. While the CHIPS and Science Act authorized the NSF's budget of $81 billion over five years, which could double the annual budget by 2027, the foundation's director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, told Reuters he was concerned the funding could get delayed.

The pendant is 20,000 years old. Ancient DNA shows who wore it

Inside a Siberian cave that has been an archeological treasure trove, an elk's canine tooth - pierced to become a pendant - was unearthed by scientists with care to avoid contaminating this intriguing artifact made roughly 20,000 years ago. The pristine collection of the pendant from Denisova Cave paid dividends. Scientists on Wednesday said a new method for extracting ancient DNA identified the object's long-ago owner - a Stone Age woman closely related to a population of hunter-gatherers known to have lived in a part of Siberia east of the cave site in the foothills of the Altai Mountains in Russia.