Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
Michael Heller, law prof at Columbia, has a nice opinion piece in this month’s Forbes concerning biotech patents. His article, Where are the Cures? is about medical biotech, but the ideas apply to agricultural biotech as well. The problem isn’t patents on finished products, but patents on the building blocks needed to make those products…
One valid argument against GMOs is that big corporations control the tech and can charge the farmers sky high prices for the seed. For a long time, I’ve been saying that I don’t like the system, but if countries want to protect their farmers then they should pass some legislation. Well, it’s happened! The Maharashtra…
Once a transgene is designed and created, getting it into plant cells is surprisingly simple. There are two main ways to transform plants: the gene gun and Agrobacterium tumifaciens. The gene gun literally shoots tiny gold particles coated in DNA into cells. Agrobacterium is a natural soil bacteria that incorporates some of its genes into…
I was very young when I first read Copernick’s Rebellion by Leo Frankowski. It captured my imagination, and is directly responsible for my thoughts on genetic engineering and my desire to become a genetic engineer. The author was ahead of his time, taking the (then fictional) idea of manipulating genomes to fantastic conclusions. The characters…