Archive for the 'Biotechnology' Category
American Scientists Recreate Deadly Spanish Flu Virus
June 12th, 2014Via: Independent: The extinct influenza virus that caused the worst flu pandemic in history has been recreated from fragments of avian flu found in wild ducks in a controversial experiment to show how easy it would be for the deadly flu strain to reemerge today. Scientists said the study involved infecting laboratory ferrets with close […]
Oregon Counties Ban GM Crops
May 26th, 2014Via: IB Times: Voters in two Oregon counties approved ballot initiatives Tuesday banning the cultivation of genetically modified crops. The ballot measures add Jackson and Josephine, neighboring counties in southwestern Oregon, to the growing list of places around the world that have outlawed the highly controversial GMO crops from being grown within their borders. The […]
Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA
May 7th, 2014Via: U.S. News and World Report: Move over, Frankenstein! Your 21st-century counterpart has just been announced. In true sci-fi fashion, a team of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., has created a brand-new bacteria based on a genetic structure found nowhere on Earth. According to lead researcher Floyd Romesberg, the […]
Plant Breeders Release First ‘Open Source Seeds’
April 17th, 2014Via: NPR: A group of scientists and food activists is launching a Thursday to change the rules that govern seeds. They’re releasing 29 new varieties of crops under a new “open source pledge” that’s intended to safeguard the ability of farmers, gardeners and plant breeders to share those seeds freely. It’s inspired by the example […]
Sars Research Lab Loses 2,000 Tubes of Killer Virus Fragments
April 15th, 2014Via: International Business Times: A prestigious research institute in France said it had lost thousands of tubes of samples of the deadly Sars coronavirus. A routine inventory check at Paris’ Pasteur Institute revealed that 2,349 tubes containing fragments of the virus responsible for the deaths of 774 people in 2002 were missing, the centre named […]
H5N1 Bird Flu Needs Just 5 Mutations to Spread Easily in People
April 13th, 2014Via: Los Angeles Times: It’s a flu virus so deadly that scientists once halted research on the disease because governments feared it might be used by terrorists to stage a biological attack. Yet despite the fact that the H5N1 avian influenza has killed 60% of the 650 humans known to be infected since it was […]
Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It
March 18th, 2014Via: Wired: One of agricultural biotechnology’s great success stories may become a cautionary tale of how short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification. After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of […]
New H5N8 Avian Influenza Penetrated Biosecurity Defenses at Korea’s Premier Poultry Research Center
March 5th, 2014Via: Science: A new, deadly H5N8 strain of avian influenza penetrated the biosecurity defenses of a National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) campus near Seoul, prompting authorities to cull all of the facility’s 11,000 hens and 5000 ducks. The devastating loss could set back poultry experiments at the NIAS lab for 2 years. “It will […]
Scientists Find Ancient Plague DNA in Teeth
January 27th, 2014Via: AP: Scientists say two of the deadliest pandemics in history were caused by strains of the same plague and warn that new versions of the bacteria could spark future outbreaks. Researchers found tiny bits of DNA in the teeth of two German victims killed by the Justinian plague about 1,500 years ago. With those […]
Britain: Genetically-Modified Purple Tomatoes Heading for Shops
January 24th, 2014Via: BBC: The prospect of genetically modified purple tomatoes reaching the shelves has come a step closer. Their dark pigment is intended to give tomatoes the same potential health benefits as fruit such as blueberries. Developed in Britain, large-scale production is now under way in Canada with the first 1,200 litres of purple tomato juice […]
