Archive for the 'Biotechnology' Category
‘Self-Boosting Vaccines’
November 25th, 2012Oh sure. Via: Ars Technica: The negative sides, however, are very substantial. Cytomegalovirus doesn’t normally cause symptoms in healthy people, but it tends to be active in very young babies and among those with immune defects, where it can cause serious complications. Herpes viruses cause unpleasant symptoms as well. Plus, with public acceptance of vaccines […]
‘Synthetic Biology Is Closer Than You Think’
November 5th, 2012Via: Bloomberg: George Church—he of the beard, tall man’s lope and overwhelming credentials—has hit the circuit to promote a new book: Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. … Church figures it’s only a matter of time and proven safety before people start picking out traits for their offspring and cloning entire children. […]
September Earnings
October 25th, 2012Earnings for September totaled $1594.28, which is a great result! Thanks to everyone who sent contributions and conducted business via Cryptogon’s affiliate links. Speaking of affiliate links, I have a new affiliate relationship that might be of interest to the couple of hundred of you reading in New Zealand: Living Foods Lifestyle. We had been […]
Scientists Warn That GM Wheat Could Cause Extremely Dangerous Gene Silencing Effects in Humans
September 21st, 2012Via: Safe Food Foundation: Expert scientists warn that genetically modified wheat may cause Glycogen Storage Disease IV, resulting in an enlarged liver, cirrhosis of the liver, and failure to thrive. Children born with this disease usually die at about the age of 5. Australia is on track to be the first country in the world […]
France: Monsanto’s GMO Corn Causes Cancer, Organ Damage in Rats
September 20th, 2012Update: Study Linking GM Maize to Rat Tumors Retracted, Author Unrepentant Via: Nature: Bowing to scientists’ near-universal scorn, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology today fulfilled its threat to retract a controversial paper that claimed that a genetically modified (GM) maize causes serious disease in rats after the authors refused to withdraw it. The paper, […]
Open Thread: The One About Organic Food vs. Conventionally Produced Food
September 8th, 2012I saw the headline come up in a few places in my feed reader, but I didn’t bother to click through. I’m sure you know the one I’m talking about. Readers are submitting it now. Feel free to discuss, agree or disagree with it, but this one is like debates about Republicans and Democrats to […]
Water Shortages Could Force World Into Vegetarianism
August 27th, 2012Soy dogs and free vaccinations for all! Note the following if you click through to the link. Here’s a screenshot: The earliest, strategic decisions that Becky and I made about where we were going to live were driven by factors related to freshwater availability. If we didn’t have sufficient water for gardens and livestock, we […]
California: The Companies Trying to Stop Mandatory Labeling of Products Containing GM Ingredients
August 16th, 2012For a complete list, see the link. Via: California Secretary of State: MONSANTO COMPANY $4,208,000.00 E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS & CO. $4,025,200.00 PEPSICO, INC. $1,716,300.00 BASF PLANT SCIENCE $1,642,300.00 BAYER CROPSCIENCE $1,618,400.00 DOW AGROSCIENCES LLC $1,184,800.00 NESTLE USA, INC. $1,169,400.00 COCA-COLA NORTH AMERICA $1,164,400.00 CONAGRA FOODS $1,076,700.00
Controlling Monkey Brains and Behavior with Light
July 26th, 2012Via: PhysOrg: Researchers reporting online on July 26 in Current Biology have for the first time shown that they can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically activate particular brain cells. The findings represent a key advance for optogenetics, a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain […]
USDA Prepares To Greenlight Gnarliest GMO Soy Yet
July 18th, 2012Via: Mother Jones: In early July, on the sleepy Friday after Independence Day, the USDA quietly signaled its intention to greenlight a new genetically engineered soybean seed from Dow AgroSciences. The product is designed to produce soy plants that withstand 2,4-D, a highly toxic herbicide (and, famously, the less toxic component in the notorious Vietnam […]
