GMOs

You’re Worrying About GMOs For the Wrong Reasons

Scientists have demonstrated that genetically modified organisms have no measurable negative impacts on human health. Indeed, they may hold the key to feeding a world impacted by climate change. But does this mean GMOs are completely without risk? Nope. Here are some good reasons to be concerned. Humans on planet earth face a serious dilemma.…

Genetic Manipulation: The First 50,000 Years

Genetically modified plants and animals are often feared as “Frankenfoods,” but is there really anything dangerously new about manipulation of DNA? People have been creating extreme genetic mutants with plants and animals for tens of thousands of years. Photo by Vladimir Wrangel via Shutterstock Today, using biotechnology, humans can directly manipulate the genetic code of…

Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming

Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at…

The GMO Mass Suicides Are a Myth

Of the many horror stories we hear about GMOs, few are as heart-rending as the one about how nearly 300,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves over failed cotton crops. What’s also horrible is that the story is a complete fabrication. Typical of the tales told by anti-GMO activists, the chief villain here is Monsanto— the…

What Will Bioengineered Plants Be Like In The Future?

As we head deeper into the GMO era, it’s fair to wonder just how far we can manipulate the biology of plants. Here are a few possibilities — from spore-spewing super-plants to delicious hamburgatoes. An exponential change perspective, well-known among futures enthusiasts, was applied to time itself by Freeman Dyson in 1997. He taxonomized the…

We need GMOs to feed a growing population

Now that many environmentalists are coming around to the idea that GMOs don’t have to be evil, we need a more nuanced view of how we want to use GMOs in agriculture. When is it a good idea to use GMOs, and when is it overkill? University of Guelph professor Evan Fraser suggests some ideas…

Are GMO bans akin to climate change denial? A piece in this week’s New York Times examines the challenges a Hawaiian politician is facing in finding credible information about genetically modified foods, amidst passionate anti-GMO pleas and charges from agricultural researchers that GMO bans are anti-science. [via Discovery Blogs]

New Yorkers Receive Junk Mail From The Future

Nowadays, junk mail is pretty run-of-the-mill. You get a credit card application here, a request for a donation there—pretty mundane stuff, really. But what happens in a few years when the world’s a little bit different? What’s the future of junk mail? The Extrapolation Factory, a New York-based studio run by Elliott P. Montgomery and…

The most important thing you’ll read today is an article about oranges

The discourse on genetically modified crops gained a cogent and sorely needed voice this weekend, with the publication of a captivating narrative-treatment of the subject in The New York Times by science writer Amy Harmon. The title of her feature: “A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA.” Top image by Christine via…

Controversial study linking genetically modified corn to cancer under attack by scientists

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology is indicating that rats fed on GM maize have a significantly heightened risk of developing tumors. In turn, the French government has asked a health watchdog to conduct an investigation, possibly leading to an EU-wide suspension of the Monsanto product. But the study…

Hi-tech neon ‘GloFish’ could threaten natural species

Back in 2003, biotech company Yorktown Technologies developed a genetically modified fluorescent fish that was neon-bright and glowed in the dark under black light. Since that time, the company has sold millions of these “GloFish,” which have made their way into various living room aquariums and sushi bars. But now it appears that they may…

Genetically modified apples won’t turn brown when you slice them

Good news for people who like to take a bite out of an apple, and then just leaving it sitting on the kitchen counter for the rest of the day: A small Canadian company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits is developing a genetically engineered apple that won’t turn brown after it has been sliced or bruised.…

Mutated pests are quickly adapting to biotech crops in unpredicted and disturbing ways

Genetically modified crops are often designed to repel hungry insects. By having toxins built into the plant itself, farmers can reduce their use of environmentally unfriendly insecticide sprays. But as any first-year evolutionary biology student can tell you, insects are like the Borg in Star Trek: they quickly adapt. And this is precisely what is…