Year: 2013

Genes are no guarantee you’ll get the kids you want

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Some people are concerned about genetically modified food, with good reason, but I’m more concerned about genetically modified kids.

One of the aims of the science of genetics is to help us be more healthy and resistant to disease. But an Oxford University bioethicist takes it further: He argues that children should be bioengineered to behave in “ethical” ways.

Certain objectionable traits, he says, are genetic, and eliminating them as a child is conceived will lead to a better, more intelligent and less violent society.

As the science of genetics advances, we will be able to do more. But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. It’s one thing to strive for good health; it’s quite another to fiddle with genes to create (or prevent) a certain personality.

View the original article here: Guest column: Genes no guarantee you’ll get kids you want

Oldest man in world has “genetic edge”

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Jiroemon Kimura, who became the world’s oldest man on record last week, can thank a combination of luck early in life and, later, good genes, for surviving seven decades longer than most of his peers.

As Mr Kimura ages, his DNA is giving him an edge. Scientists say specific genes that protect against heart disease, cancer and other old-age ailments foster longevity. Knowing the biological mechanisms involved may provide clues to counter a rising tide of non-communicable diseases predicted to cost the global economy US$47 trillion (Dh172.49 trillion) over the next 20 years.

View the original article here: Oldest Man Turning 115 Can Thank Lottery Win-Like Genes

Tool developed to evaluate genome sequencing methods

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Advances in bio-technologies and computer software have helped make genome sequencing much more common than in the past. But still in question are both the accuracy of different sequencing methods and the best ways to evaluate these efforts. Now, computer scientists have devised a tool to better measure the validity of genome sequencing.

View the original article here: Tool to Evaluate Genome Sequencing Method Developed

Gene determines how much of a “reward” people get from booze

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One in six U.S. adults binge-drinks four times a month, consuming an average of eight drinks per session, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and binge drinking is practically a rite of passage on college campuses nationwide. But why do some people feel so compelled to throw back a few drinks while others have no interest at all?

Blame it on the genes.

According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have found a gene that plays a starring role in how alcohol stimulates the brain to release dopamine, triggering feelings of happiness and reward.

View the original article here: Scientists discver gene that may lead to boozing

GM food: British public ‘should be persuaded of the benefits’

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The British public should be persuaded of the benefits of genetically modified food, the environment secretary will tell the UK’s farming industry on Thursday, in a key signal of the government’s intent to expand agricultural biotechnology and make the case for GM food in Europe.

Owen Paterson, the Conservative secretary of state for the environment and who has chosen to highlight GM technology in his first major speech to farmers, will tell the Oxford Farming Conference: “We should not be afraid of making the case to the public about the potential benefits of GM beyond the food chain – for example, reducing the use of pesticides and inputs such as diesel. I believe that GM offers great opportunities but I also recognise that we owe a duty to the public to reassure them that it is a safe and beneficial innovation.”

He added: “As well as making the case at home, we also need to go through the rigorous processes that the EU has in place to ensure the safety of GM crops.”

View the original article here: GM food: British public ‘should be persuaded of the benefits’

Oregon farmers hope to ban GM crops

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Supporters of a local ban on genetically modified crops filed signatures with the Jackson County clerk on Wednesday in Medford to put a measure on the county ballot.

Supporters carried signs and drove a tractor outside the Jackson County Courthouse before filing 6,710 signatures with the county clerk. To get on the ballot, 4,662 will have to be certified. Barring a special election, the next ballot it could get on would be May, 2014.

The measure would ban anyone from raising genetically engineered plants in Jackson County, with exemptions for scientific research. It also calls for the county to conduct inspections and allows enforcement through citizen lawsuits.

Chief petitioner Brian Comnes, a retiree from Ashland, said they want to protect organic farmers whose crops could be contaminated by pollen from genetically engineered crops, such as sugar beets and alfalfa.

“If someone is growing GMO alfalfa next to your organic alfalfa, the whole burden is on you not to get cross-pollinated,” he said. “The guy who grows the GMO stuff doesn’t have to do a thing.”

View the original article here: Farmers hope to ban genetically modified crops

GM maize ban lifted in Russia

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A temporary ban on GM maize has been lifted in Russia.

The ban was put in place in September last year after a study linked Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup and the NK603 strain of maize genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide, to cancer in lab rats.

This week the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare reported the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences had performed safety assessment of GM maize NK603 tolerant to glyphosate, and the analysis of results of post-monitoring for the entire period of use of the product in the human diet.

The report said: “Chemical composition of corn genetically modified maize NK603 is equivalent to its conventional counterpart; CP4 EPSPS protein is neither toxic to humans nor is an allergen…”

View the original article here: GM maize ban lifted in Russia

India’s GM labeling law suffers from ‘lack of planning’

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On New Year’s day, India joined a select band of countries where food containing genetically modified (GM) content must be labelled as such. But it has done so without any preparation. 

The labelling of foods with GM ingredients has been a long-held demand of consumer groups, but the way it has been done in India has left them disappointed. 

The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, which came into effect on January 1, say “every package containing the genetically modified food shall bear at the top of its principal display panel the letters ‘GM’.” 

Consumer rights activist Bejon Misra said of the move: “It is a good step, but it is being done without any preparation at all. We don’t know how this rule will be implemented or how it will be applied to products with GM content that are being imported or how the violators be prosecuted.” 

View the original article here: GM food labeling comes into force amid fears over ‘lack of planning’

Label-It-Yourself activists should be prosecuted

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GM labeling activists are not waiting for government-mandated labeling.  Vigilantes are going through the aisles of supermarkets and applying their own warning labels, examples of which may be found at www.labelityourself.org.   And following the high-profile, public rejection of California’s Proposition 37,activists’ are threatening to increase their “guerilla-labeling” efforts.

The New York Times’ reportage seemed to view this vigilantism as ranking somewhere between a sophomoric prank and a harmless exercise in civil disobedience, although placing your own “warning” label on a food product for sale constitutes several serious crimes. Federal law prohibits “[t]he alteration, mutilation, destruction, obliteration, or removal of the whole or any part of the labeling of, or the doing of any other act with respect to, a food, drug, device, or cosmetic, if such act is done while such article is held for sale (whether or not the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce and results in such article being adulterated or misbranded” [Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, sec. 301(k); 21 United States Code 331(k)].

Federal and state law enforcement authorities should vigorously prosecute the vigilantes.  The government’s failure to do so undermines the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act; allows activists’ illegal activities to misinform consumers; makes safe and wholesome foods unsellable; and sends the message that if you cannot persuade policymakers through the democratic process, the government will look the other way as you commit crimes to achieve your political agenda.

View the original article here: Front Page Felonies: A Pass from Police Agencies Rewards Vigilantism, Victimizes Society

Vigilante “Label It Yourself” activists violate federal law

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labelityourself gmostickers

Prop 37 failed in California, but the Label It Yourself campaign encourages activists to place their own self-printed “warning” labels on genetically engineered foods on supermarket shelves. Such guerrilla labeling tactics violate several federal laws and misinform consumers. The government’s failure to prosecute these vigilantes sends the message that it will look the other way as people commit crimes to achieve their political agendas.

View the original article here: Front Page Felonies: A Pass from Police Agencies Rewards Vigilantism, Victimizes Society

Promising trends for 2013: Genome editing and sequencing

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More than once last year, researchers described leaps in medical science that were so breathtaking, and held so much potential for patients, that they immediately joined the list of fields to watch in the year ahead. In most cases, the work was, and is, at an early stage and its future success far from certain. Such is the nature of science. Most of today’s breakthroughs will be tomorrow’s failures. But some may go down in history for transforming how medicine is done.

View the original article here: Medicine: the appliance of science

Knowing you carry a cancer gene

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The oncologist called me alone to the exam room, and I told her the story I had revealed to more doctors than friends: I carry the BRCA1 mutation, which gives you a 98 percent chance of developing cancer.

When my family found out that I might have inherited the mutation from my mother, we took it as a given that I would get tested. Scientists, atheists and lawyers, we are compulsively rational. Yet when I learned I carried the mutation, I felt the cruel weight of a paradox: you can never know whether you want to know until you already do.

At Stanford, I study artificial intelligence, in which math is used to resolve these sorts of dilemmas. My teachers claim that gaining information never hurts. It can be proved mathematically that a robot with more information never makes worse decisions But we are not robots. Our eyes don’t filigree the world with coordinates and probabilities, and they can be blinded by tears.

View the original article here: Knowing You Carry a Cancer Gene

Backlash in Latin America against genetically modified food

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Are genetically modified crops “Franken-foods” or the answer to global hunger and climate change?

That is the dilemma dividing Latin America, where vast quantities of GM crops are grown. Ecuador’s constitution actually prohibits them and Peru recently voted for a 10-year moratorium.

Outside the US, no region has a greater expanse of agricultural land sown with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) than South America.

View the original article here: In Latin America, a growing backlash against genetically modified food

The GMO industry: Corporate hijacking of food and agriculture

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Science has become a political football. Anyone who questions the safety of GMOs is “clueless” and indulges in “scare mongering” and “falsehoods.”In fact, Shatharam says about such people that all they know “is to stop progress and US agriculture is doing fine and thanks to the absence of scientists like Seralini and Pushpa Bhargava. These two so called scientific jokers will not allowed set foot in the real world of science in North America. They have a hey day in countries like India because of ignoramuses.”

View the original article here: Genetic Engineering and the GMO Industry: Corporate Hijacking of Food and Agriculture

Banning GM foods: Is it ethical to deny a hungry child a meal because of theoretical risks?

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In declaring a sweeping ban on all genetically modified products, the government unwittingly invoked the Hyderabad Declaration made during the Public Health Foundation of India meeting on law and public health in 2008.

This declaration simply asserts that without exceptions, all significant advances in population health require and involve the use of the law. Nevertheless, ethical issues inevitably arise when dealing with food matters in the context of hunger and malnutrition. 

Is it ethical to deny a hungry child a meal because of theoretical risks?

View the original article here: Banning genetically modified foods won’t reduce cancer; what of tobacco?

Governments must defend GM crops against the naysayers

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People everywhere are increasingly vulnerable to the use of what Nobel Prize-winning chemist Irving Langmuir dubbed “pathological science” – the “science of things that aren’t so” – to justify government regulation or other policies.

For example, modern techniques of genetic engineering – also known as biotechnology, recombinant DNA technology, or genetic modification (GM) – provide the tools to make old plants do spectacular new things. Yet these tools are relentlessly misrepresented to the public.

View the original article here: Henry Miller: Governments must defend GM crops against the naysayers

Genetic effects on intelligence and society

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Steve Sailer s x

Fewer subjects are more controversial than the study of genetics and its relation to just about every facet of human aptitude. Steve Sailer is one of the few journalists who regularly writes about the relationship between intelligence and society.

View the original article here: Steve Sailer discusses genetics’ effect on intelligence and society

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