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Current Topic: Biotechnology

Keeping Seeds Safe
Topic: Biotechnology 8:53 am EST, Mar  2, 2004

In a pioneering study released last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists asked two independent labs to examine samples of traditional corn, soybean and canola seeds. The labs found contamination in half the corn, half the soybean and more than 80 percent of the canola varieties.

This is a serious finding.

I'm logging this editorial because no one responded to the Washington Post story I posted on Sunday.

If you've read "Guns, Germs, and Steel", this study should make you very uncomfortable. If you haven't, consider it.

Keeping Seeds Safe


Demon Seeds
Topic: Biotechnology 5:42 pm EST, Feb 29, 2004

It is in the interest of American farmers to maintain some supplies "uncontaminated" by engineered genes.

That may soon cease to be possible.

A report published last week described tests carried out on supposedly unmodified corn, soy and canola seeds, all purchased commercially. Of 18 seed varieties tested, 16 seemed to contain some genetically engineered elements.

How this DNA got there is unclear.

You are what you eat.

Demon Seeds


Is Biotechnology Losing Its Nerve?
Topic: Biotechnology 11:13 am EST, Feb 29, 2004

Many biotechnology companies appear to be taking fewer chances lately -- to the point that the industry seems to have lost its nerve.

More and more start-ups now seem focused on scrounging around ...

"There's a fair question: Where's all the new stuff going on?"

As big pharmaceutical companies have become even larger, they have concentrated on drugs with blockbuster potential rather than devote time to drugs with smaller markets.

[Hmmm ... Where have I heard that story before?]

I bet Norah Jones is popular at biotech firms, both as inspiration and as consolation.

Is Biotechnology Losing Its Nerve?


Children in the crosshairs: enforcing patents on GM pets
Topic: Biotechnology 2:30 am EST, Jan 25, 2004

Mr. Blake of Yorktown said that while hobbyists could breed fish for their own collections, anyone who tried to sell the GloFish they bred would be infringing the company's patents. He would not say what action would be taken if unauthorized fish were sold by individuals, but he said the company would try to enforce its patents if a business was doing the selling.

The GloFish wants to be free!

Children in the crosshairs: enforcing patents on GM pets


From the Head of a Rooster to a Smiling Face Near You
Topic: Biotechnology 6:37 pm EST, Dec 23, 2003

Hyaluronan may be the next big thing after Botox.

It is extracted from the red combs of roosters and hens. In roosters, the comb, essentially a big flap of skin, swells with hyaluronan in response to testosterone.

Pfizer has selectively bred roosters to have superhuge combs. At one point, the combs grew too big.

"We stopped getting it bigger and bigger because all of the sudden the rooster couldn't keep his head up."

In 1975, Jobs and Woz had the Homebrew Computer Club.

In 2004, don't you think there should be Homebrew Biotech Clubs?

From the Head of a Rooster to a Smiling Face Near You


Boston's Biotech Moment
Topic: Biotechnology 7:44 pm EST, Dec 14, 2003

The future is moving out of dusty library stacks and into pristine laboratories on both sides of the Charles River, making this area the national leader in biotechnology. The boom is driven by a new breed of intellectual wearing a white lab coat and using science to breach the barrier between academia and commerce.

In all its manifestations, the biotechnology moment in Boston is a question of intellectual and cultural identity. Because biotechnology requires a familiarity with a variety of scientific disciplines -- physics, biology, mathematics, computer science -- it attracts people whose passions seem boundless and seem to run in several directions at once. The promise is what attracts the people, which is what attracts the money. Within a mile of MIT, you will find 13 of the 25 largest biotechnology companies in Massachusetts.

"Ideas have a gravitational force. You get on the T, and maybe someone's talking about DNA, or biomedicine, or the life of the mind. The Boston intellectual is a young person now who's conversant with biology and with computer science. This is the scientific challenge of the next decade, and the intellectual community for that is here."

Boston's Biotech Moment


BIODYNOTICS Workshop | DARPA
Topic: Biotechnology 11:25 pm EDT, Aug 14, 2002

Biologically Inspired Multifunctional Dynamic Robotics Workshop

The goals of this DARPA workshop are to explore the use of biologically inspired practices, principles, multifunctional materials, sensors, and signal processing to demonstrate energy efficient and autonomous locomotion and behavior in challenging unplanned environments (e.g. rubble of different sizes, flight in wind, turbulent water).

We are interested in exploring new modalities of locomotion such as climbing (trees, cliffs, cave walls), jumping, and leaping and the ability to manipulate the world with an appendage that allows grasping and digging.

The ability to exploit biological inspirations enabling autonomous recognition and navigation to targets of interest in cluttered backgrounds is also of interest.

BIODYNOTICS Workshop | DARPA


The Council for Responsible Genetics
Topic: Biotechnology 12:26 pm EDT, Jul 27, 2002

The Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) is a non-profit / non-governmental organization devoted to fostering public debate about the social, ethical, and environmental implications of the new genetic technologies.

Too often, the debates about the social and ethical implications of biotechnology have been left to the scientific "experts." As a link between scientists and lay people, the CRG is working to encourage public understanding and involvement in these debates.

The central principles that guide the vision of the CRG are:

+ The public must have access to clear and understandable information on technological innovations.
+ The public must be able to participate in public and private decision-making concerning technological developments and their implementation.
+ New technologies must meet social needs.
+ Problems rooted in poverty, racism and other forms of inequality cannot be remedied by technology alone.

The Council for Responsible Genetics


 
 
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