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Scientists Grow Decaffeinated Coffee Plants
An anonymous reader writes "According to a CBC News story, researchers have genetically modified coffee seedlings to produce up to 70 per cent less caffeine." The Japanese researchers quoted in the article say "..demand for decaffeinated coffee is growing worldwide. Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people", and so "..used a tool called RNA interference to genetically engineer the one-year-old plants." Seems like these boffins may be competing against the University Of Hawaii researchers we mentioned last year to take away your buzz.
I mean really, if it can't help me stay up all night coding whats the point?
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
How about they get working on super-caffeinated coffee? And we can call it Coffee 2. Then the regular caffeinated version of coffee can be renamed to Coffee 2. But the super-caffeinated version will be Coffee 2 Hi-Caffeine and the regular-caffeinated version will be Coffee 2 Full-Caffeine.
I don't know about you, but the only reason I ever even come close to touching coffee is for the caffeine. There are better beverages without caffeine
i rerereally cococould uuuuse thththis stufffff.
about as popular as dry water.
Or alcohol-free beer.
"Smoking helps you lose weight - one lung at a time" -- A. E. Neumann
Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people
:/
I don't think this is a good idea to get "sensitive people" used to the taste of stuff which is not good for them.
This is like Coke Light : though it has no sugar inside it still tastes exageratedly sweet and this would be a better idea to get the "users" curious about differently tasted products.
I am afraid, at the end of the story, everything will taste the same and recipe will consist of posologies.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
opiate free poppy plantations?
Today's Dilbert seems apropos.
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
Isn't the caffeine in the coffee the point of coffee?
Omnis amans amens
*Jaw drops open*
;-)
This is blasphemy!! This, this, this... This is an outrage! Oh, the humanity!
It's time to stop this nonsense once and for all! Coders, Admins, hackers, and yes, even Microsoft employees, virus writers and marketdroids, repeat after me:
No to GMO! We want Real Coffee!
I mean, Decaf' Coffee? If God wanted us to drink this, he would not have invented Starbucks!
Oh, wait... I am a tea drinker...
Err... Well, never mind me. Carry on...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Until reading this I was fairly neutral about the GM issue.
On one hand I thought greenpeace were a load of insane hippies who are in need of a damn good kicking, but I was also suspicious of the motives of the biotech companies. I was, however, prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Now I know. Greenpeace are right! Those bastards mean to destroy us all, and I have proof!!!
So we must protect the fools who, in spite of the symptoms, insist on drinking coffee. Not only do we have to do that, but we'll just have to do it by letting loose modifed genomes with no idea of how this will change the ecosystem?
GM food has not been proved safe in long term cultivation and it will not help to relieve hunger in 3rd world countries. Hunger is a political problem, not an agricultural problem. The production capacity of the Earth would feed the current and future population very well if the distribution of food were done fairly.
BOO! TERRO
Someone needs to look at what the whole drive for effectless "drugs" tells us about society. THC free hemp yes, because hemp is a useful plant (makes good cloth,easier to grow than cotton). But surely the sole purpose of coffee beans is to produce...coffee? If you don't like the side effects, there are any number of alternatives. Decaffeinated coffee is like devaluing the brand name.
Or perhaps I've missed the business implications. Perhaps I should just patent my new process for making alcohol free vodka, and get rich.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I like chocolate ice cream! Can I get modded up now?
A two sentence post expressing a personal preference shouldn't satisfy anyone's definition of insight.
that they think that people are addicted to the taste...
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
hey i realise there's a dilbert for every occasion. but this is um, not quite spooky, but close
I'd wait for SP1 before drinking an untested release.
For the love of Vinton Cerf, NoooOOOOooooo (Said in a... I just found out Vader was my daddy voice)
In this day and age, with all natural shampoo with chemicals I can't pronounce, there was always this refuge.
My sanctuary now defiled.
Damn them! Damn them to sleep.
You would have thought that now scientists have decided they were wrong about cholesterol and that eating margarine rather than butter and cutting out eggs was actually "a really bad idea"(TM the food industry) they'd learn to leave alone.
We spent millions of years to evolving to eat the shit that grows around us - not some factory grown crap that no-one actually has any idea about what it's effects on everything else (us, other plants, the biosphere) might be. Some scientist with too much funding and driven by greedy food corporations (Hi Monsanto!) simply is not going to improve on what we evolved to consume.
Sometimes I despair at the thought that a company will produce "Batchelor Chow" (and then realise they have - it's called Pot Noodle in the UK). And that it won't be Matrix style uber-computers feeding us recycled human but uber-corporations run by humans.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
to buy my thc-free marjiuana before.
But now I'm not so sure.
I'm kind of surprised that people are so shocked that someone might actually make, or drink, decaffinated coffee. Its not like this is a perversion of nature or something, the point is that there is a huge market out there for the stuff. Millions of people drink decaf every day.
We may not understand it, but the point is that genetically modifying the plant to produce less caffeine is both safer, and tastes better, than whatever god-awful shit they do to it now.
I guess I just think this is a cool, and potentially profitable use for the level of genetic engineering that we are able to do nowadays. If this kind of stuff works, and makes money, then we get to see the really neat stuff down the road!
Decaffeinated diet coke (aka water).
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
I'm sure this story will be full of "what's the point?!" comments. Just a single data point / anecdotal bit of evidence. I always had trouble getting to sleep (and, consequently, getting up in the morning) although I stuck to only two or three cups of instant, and nothing after midday/1pm. Just for the hell of it, I had a cup of tea for my morning kickstart a couple of weeks ago, and stayed off coffee the rest of the day. Result: solid refreshing sleep;
4) happiness! (better than profit! any day...)
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
I'm all for decaf. At least for my co-workers.
Strangely enough though there is a good market for non-thc material. THe trouble is when the farmers try to convince the stoners they aren't missing out on anything.
Would you like something to drink ?
Kramer : Decaf Capuccino
"Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people"
isn't that what it's for?
Placebo-coffee anyone?
- I choked on the red pill and now I'm stuck in limbo
...consumption of coffee is expected to increase by over 200 percent.
Decaf is like masturbation. When it is all you have it is ok. But, man you would die for the real thing!
Don't laugh. Just like me you are reading slashdot. You know what I am talking about;)
How about pot without the THC? Then everyone who smokes the stuff can think they are cool. But in reality, they are a bunch of posers.
Life is not for the lazy.
nt.
For reference, here's a summary of some current decaffeination processes. An excerpt:
"Coffee is decaffeinated using a variety of processes. All of which are relatively harmless to your health, but harmful to the beverage quality."
I really donâ(TM)t like stuff that's genetically altered. :(
Why do people keep consuming stuff
if they know they cant handle it.
They rather make it into their own taste
then leaving it alone.
I only eat drink natural/bio products that
are not genetically altered in any way.
Most of the time you pay a bit more, but then
I know it's not rubbish.
I F@#$@#-ing need my particularly damn fine cup a coffee (soaking in caffeine)
Check my site: http://pixel.pagina.nl
Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people
Yeah, great stuff!
a pack of nicotine free cigarettes with every purchase.
That would be a major improvement... hehe
Surely the kind of person who thinks caffeine will kill them, is hardly likely to touch a genetically modified plant? Never mind that maize, wheat, barley et al are all genetically modified grass, and cabbages, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and swedes are all genetically modified turnips. OK, in those cases the GM was done the slow way, but evolution is still technically genetic modification.
:) but a worthwhile one}.
.....
If ever anyone needed concrete evidence that the world is going stark, raving bonkers, this is surely it. First it was Lucozade Light {for the benefit of foreigners, Lucozade is a high-calorie drink with glucose for an instant energy boost. Table sugar is sucrose, which the body has to hydrolyse into glucose and fructose.} The whole point of Lucozade is to provide quickly-assimilated calories. If you need fewer calories then just drink less; if you still need fluid then dilute it with water.
Not so long ago we ate loads of fried food, fat and sugar, we smoked woodbines, we drank beer and whisky all the time and we didn't die! We weren't all pasty-faced, nesh asthmatics either. Nowadays it is "trendy" to be a health freak, so people latch onto any convenient buzz-words without thinking properly what they mean. Then they drive their cars from the bedroom to the bathroom to the gym, where they pay good money to sit on a fake bike and pedal nowhere. I bet some young mother somewhere is probably bringing up a baby exclusively on soya milk because she thinks breast milk is bad for you.
Last year, in a Tesco supermarket, I found Organic Milk -- available in skimmed and semi-skimmed varieties, but not full cream. So, you go organic to get nothing artificial added, then they go and take something natural away. {it's not that long ago I remember drinking unpasteurised milk - a test of faith in the immune system
What next, decaffeinated Red Bull? For crying out loud, if you don't like the thought of caffeine, then don't drink coffee! Or drink tea, which contains something that stops your body absorbing caffeine.
Somebody needs to patent a home coffee decaffeinator - and maybe a home milk skimmer/semi-skimmer - to sell to the trendy brigade. Or, failing that, a way of distributing a clue
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
We already have several methods for removing caffeine from coffee much more efficiently than this, so what is the point. I would have much more respect for work on GMOs if the scientists concentrated more on areas which would benefit mankind rather than business interests.
I checked again- the internet has changed!!!
Now it says that tea in its raw form, pound for pound, contains more caffeine than coffee, but because you use less of it to make a cup of tea, and the tea leaves aren't consumed, you end up with a cup of tea having 1/3 to 1/2 of the caffeine in it compared to a cup of coffee.
graspee
this article. The /. crowd is the last democraphic who would ever care about decaffinated coffee.
1)make decaf coffee beans
2)brew
3)fail to PROFIT !!!!
In teh event of an actual emergency this space might provide useful information.
You can find the time to reduce the caffeine but you can't figure out how to get half the crap out of cigarettes or junk out of fatty foods.
Gimme something of use to me. Caffeine is the only reason I'm starbucks' bitch.
Scientists grow decaffeinated coffee plants /t] /t] /t] in Japan used a tool called RNA interference to genetically engineer the one-year-old plants. [oh so they're child molesters as well then?? figures /t] /t]. The technique silenced an enzyme for the second step.[demand free speech for coffee enzymes! /t] /t]â" problems that could potentially be overcome by the genetic engineering of coffee plants," the researchers wrote in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. /t]
Last Updated Wed, 18 Jun 2003 18:17:17
NARA, JAPAN - Researchers have genetically modified coffee seedlings to produce up to 70 per cent less caffeine. [scientists baaaaaaaaaaaad. caffeine goooooooooood
The team says demand for decaffeinated coffee is growing worldwide. Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people. [so what? hey, if you can't stand the heat... i dunno, drink tea or something
Shinjiro Ogita and colleagues at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology [a fatwa on their heads!
Coffee plant cells make caffeine in a three-step process [bless their little souls
"At present, coffee is decaffeinated industrially, but the process is expensive and the flavour of the product is poor [really, you mean coffee with no coffee in it tastes bad? who'd a thunk?
The taste verdict won't be in until the plants mature in three to four years. The commercial definition of decaffeinated coffee in the U.S. is 97 per cent less caffeine, but geneticists haven't yet attained that level.
The Japanese team used the robusta variety of coffee plant. Other researchers are trying genetic engineering techniques on the more commercial but slower growing arabica plant. [bet it was pretty tough to achieve this. bet they had to work a lot of nights.
#!/usr/bin/english
Well, most of the Good Things are unheard of in Finland, anyways. And that has nothing to do with coffee :)
Real coders need REAL Caffeine (TM). Considering the bloatware that comes from MS, packaged with lesser useful stuff, I guess the developers over there should be the biggest customers for this!
Seriously, if I wanted less caffeine, I'd drink less coffee! What's all this nonsense about? What next? Bio-engineered hunans to think less, and consume more? Eeekk!
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Decaf is nowadays produced by removing caffeine from coffee beans using liquid or supercritical CO2, instead of organic solvents used in the old days. The current process is friendly to the environment (CO2 can easily be recycled), and safe to the consumer as well.
Personally, I do not object genetic modification of the plants, but I think many people (especially Europeans) do. Decaf is also considered a 'healthy' product, and it might be a bad marketing match to introduce modern biotech there. Furthermore, I doubt it will taste any better, since caffeine itself has a bitter flavor to it that might be important in the taste of 'real' coffee.
One question remains: Where does the caffeine they currently remove go? And: Will caffeine become more expensive when there are no 'leftovers' from removing it from coffee?
Don't get me wrong... I was all for genetic research and modification. I was naive enough to think the scientists would only do ethical stuff, like growing chicken that lay cubic eggs for efficient storage and transportation, and solve the world hunger by engineering better socks.
:-P
But no! They just had to go for us professional nerds and geeks! They just had to attack the foundation of our daily life... this can't continue... research must stop!
--
1. Ban popular addictive substance
2. ???
3. Profit!!
Coffee is both popular and cheap, so something had to be done about it. Banning the traditional kind and replacing it with a kinder, gentler version is the first step. Bombing coffee-growing regions while turning a blind eye to coffee-lords who grow new hi-grade plants is the next step. Finally, a 25% cut of what is definitely going to be big business...
Ites' first rule of thumb says "follow the money", and for caffeine-free coffee this seems the only plausible plot. Certainly no-one is actually going to buy the castrated version.
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well lets see the article is about a scientist in Japan at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. How exactly is this about America again when the research and design are being done in Japan?
-Qua
I thought that when they removed the caffeine from natural (i.e. caffeinated) coffee to make decaf, they sold the caffeine to the soft-drink companies so that they could put it in their colas...Aren't they eliminating a source of profit here? Or do they lose money on the caffeine extraction process?
You might be surprised to hear this, but coffee has became probably THE national drink of Japan. It's really an jaw-dropping thing because people usually have a concept where they are sipping green tea all the time.
The thing is, though, that they actually seem to genuinely like the stupid beverage (and almost everybody drinks it black - and by almost i mean 99.9% of the people), because they don't really have any perceptable needs for the caffine.
Being that most everybody is extremely health-conscious here*, it is not surprising that they are making "natural" decaf coffee - or I should say, decaf coffee that has not gone through the decaf cycle (which to many, ruins the taste).
* there is a dichotomy here - because while many guys goes on diets and somesuch, they are almost always horrible workaholics and a large percentage smokes and drinks like it's going out of style. So, it's almost like hipocritical health consciousness - but hypocritical or not, the demand is still there for the low-caffine beverage.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
this doesn't help me at all.. :-)
can't those hawaiian guys make a coffee bean with _more_ caffeine? That would reall help mankind
SCOffee contains 70% lesser caffeine, much like SCOde which is 70% junk!
.01% stuff.
Drinking SCOffee makes people SCOff at you.
Next research item:
SCOrn : Normal Corn with 99.99% chaff and
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Cool! Are there any side effects?
Six sick
The way most coffee is decafinated these days is with a process called the "Swiss water method".
This involves soaking unroasted coffee beans in water. The water absorbs the coffee flavor and the caffine.
These beans are then trown out, the water is filtered of caffine, and only caffine. To do this the water is pased through a carbon filter.
The result is decaf coffee flavoured water. This water is used to soak a new batch of beans. Scince the water is super saturated with coffee flavour, it cannot abosorb any more flavour, but it can still absorb caffine. So the caffine is removed from the beans whilst keeping the flavour. The water is used for about 3 batches then the whole process starts again with new water.
The extra steps involved in decafinating coffee is what makes it a bit more expensive. So next time you have a decaf coffee, just think of all the steps involved to make it that way. Ohh by the way, coffee needs do be 97% free of caffine to be called decaf.
If you want to know how i know all this, i help roast coffee for Gloria Jeans
=If life was easy, i would be out of a job=
with this naturally-decafed coffee, corporates won't need too many workers anymore, where do they go?
maybe working for companies that might be producing turbo-charged coffee, ie caffeinating decaffeinated coffee?
GE GONE MAD!
But of stinking heathens I tell you.
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank
How about they come up with a Kona plant that grows to maturity in your back yard in less than one month?
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
LOL IM A PROGRAMMER LOL I DRINK COFFEE LOL CAFFEINE LOL DONT COME TO CLOSE LOL I HAVE THE SHAKES AND MIGHT SNAP ROFL I HAVENT HAD MY MORNING CUP OF COFFEE LOL
Unfortunatly, I've met more imaginative heroin addicts.
I fucking hate this caffeine gimmick, it's not that hard to stay up late when coding, or make it to work in the morning without bending over for caffeine.
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
Seriously, ditching caffeine last year has had many benefits: more energy, better concentration, easier time sleeping, and more restful sleep. Plus no frantic lunges for the mug when those caffeine deprivation headaches set in.
These days I'll brew up strong decaf (to make up for the flavor loss from decaffeination), herbal tea (roibos, yum), and decaf black tea. I save those wonderful espressos, cappuccinos, etc. for those times when I'm terribly exhausted, at which point the caffeine has a big big effect since the addiction's gone. Or I'll drink a mate for a similar kick.
A man walked into a restaurant and seated himself. Soon, the waitress came over to take his order, "...and to drink?" she asked. The man said he would like coffee.
The waitress promptly returned with a cup of coffee, but spilled it on the man's lap when she stopped at the table. "Oh my god, I am so sorry!"
"That's OK," the man said sopping up the puddle on his pants with his a napkin. "But tell me, is this regular or decaf?"
"Regular," she replied.
"Oh great, now this thing is going to be up all night!"
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
I guess this means I need more Caffeine Pills to put in my coffee now, how am I ever going to get work done without my Caffeinated Coffee?
I guess i'll have to give heroin a try, I hear it works better anyways.
Error 407 - No creative sig found
...to put on my decafinated coffee table!
Mr. Smoove
I believe that whoever drinks too much decaffeine, is going to die some day.
The whole purpose of drinking coffee is to get the marginal high from the caffine, it keeps you going when the going gets rough.
In a related story scientists are working on THC free Cannibis...and oxygen-free air.
I'm a coder, and I drink too much coffee. If I can get a decaf coffee that tastes good, maybe I can ween myself off the real thing.
I reckon in 20 years, caffeine will be up there with nicotine.
If you bred from these genes, the offspring plants would be caffeine producing.
J.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
On a scientific note, it is a nice demonstration of the growing potential for the use of RNA interference for knocking down the expression of specific genes. I'm not sure how much this has been done in plants, but it's really been taking off in mammalian cells in the last year or two.
Or a "seedless watermelon"!
Or any of those monstrous "seedless grapes"!
Or, God forbid, monstrosities such as "broccoflower"!
Honestly, you people who use the term "frankenfood" have absolutley no clue what you are talking about. Get a remedial education about what you actually do eat, then come back!
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
As troll-like as it seems it's not particularly offtopic. Monsanto is one of the world's biggest producers of genetically modified plants, and often has a nasty way of sneaking them into places through backdoors.
You'd better try something else : I used to drink too much coffee too, then I tried Green Tea (healthy if not abused), but also light milk (calcium = good), pineapple juice (as bitter as coffee, but harmless)...
Now my point is you'd better drink something else, instead of what's endangering your health.
Also, by tasting different things, you'll discover new ways to become more open-minded, so this advice is also worth receiving in other concept.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Scientists have also found a way to remove Dihydrogen Monoxide from water in a process called "deaquificiation".
rant over *twitch* *twitch* Must go find more coffee, cup empty. Must find...
Wally has so much caffine in his system that he can "coast" for a few minutes.
However, look at it like this: the Pointy Haired Boss is also down, so there may be good to come out of this....
www.eFax.com are spammers
In stead of "Scientists Grow Decaffeinated Coffee Plants" I want ot see headlines like...:-
Scientists Grow caffeinated Coffee Plants with 50% more Caffine
or
Scientist grow a Jolt Cola Plant
or
Scientist grom a Caffine/Pizza combo plant
Why _less_ caffine??
Jaj
From what I can see, this was posted at 5:00 AM. There had to be some coffee-enhanced skills going on to be posting that early. =)
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Anyway, last year I read in a book about the pros and cons of caffeine, and when listed next to each other it felt like it did not matter. As I understood it, it can actually be good for some people, but probably really bad for some, it all depends.
But I guess that there beeing a choice between normal coffe and decaf can only be good thing.
Fast food, smoking, coffee, etc. Soon, I suppose, there will be warning labels on coffee, and we'll be forced to drink this decaffinated stuff.
If you absolutely need to hyphenate that word, the correct way is 'cow-orkers'.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
- Whiskey with no alcohol
- Pot with no THC
- Computers that run at 25 Mhz
- Cars that max at 30 km/h
- Sex without orgasms
- Parachute jumping from 5 ft
- Motorbikes with roofs and no wheels
- Rubber knives
- Porn involving ugly people
- Half-sized beds
- IM limited to 1 message per day
- Headless hammers
- Private blogs
- Silent music
- Opera with skinny people
- Bars with no beer
- Ladders with 1 rung
- 3.5v mains power
- Cold fire
- Black glass
Uhm. What... is... the... point...? Beer without the alcohol is just horse urine, and coffee without caffeine is just dark bitter hot horse urine.
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What? How many decades has decafinated instant coffee been around? Checks kitchen, yup, there it is.
Bah, humbug! Decaffeinated coffee is for pussies and americans!
Seriously, what's the point? I guess next big thing will be non-alcoholic alcohol.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
My god...this is just evil.
Imagine...these plants start cross breeding with our legitimate plants, next thing you know things get out of hand and THEN!!! No Caffeinated Plants ANYWHERE!! AAAAAaaaaggghhhh!!!!
>>Scientists Grow Decaffeinated Coffee Plants
;o)
cut the plants down, burn them, and kill those responsible for this madness - this kind of thing simply shouldn't be allowed to happen in a sane world!!
Gene silencing of this nature in plants is generally referred to as PTGS or Post-Transcriptional Gene Silencing. More recently, as the phenomenon has been observed in organisms from yeast -> humans, it has been renamed RNAi for RNA interference.
Arabica coffee has half thae caffeine of robusta coffee to start with, so if you drink gormet coffee, and not the stale, pre-ground shiat in a can, you already are much better off. Most people who get tense or get the shakes from drinking coffee are drinking the cheap stuff. You know what else? Arabica coffee is the original coffee plant. Robusta is a hybrid, designed to deliver higher yields, grown in a wider variety of climates, and be resistant to disease. Too bad it tastes like shiat, and is overloaded with caffeine. Want to learn more? Here are some links. http://www.sweetmarias.com/ http://www.coffeebeancorral.com/
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
"He's already unconscious - decaf could kill him! Still, it's worth a try..." - Bernard Bernoulli, attempting to revive Dr. Fred Edison
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Ask this question of the next coffe drinker you see: "Can you get by a day at work without using mind-altering chemicals? If not, howcome I can't relax in the afternoon with mine?"
I once saw something on tv where they had to doctors/researchers debating this. One was arguing that caffeine was bad for all of it's addictive and negative health effects. The other was saying that it was good because it helps people stay alert and get more done. Anyway that's not the point of my post. The funny thing about it was that the pro-caffeine guy seemed all happy and excited while the anti-caffeine guy seemed much more down and monotone, almost like he was drugged with sedatives compared to the other guy. :)
Personally, I hate coffee (and mountain dew)... some geek I am huh?
I hope their new bean has a unique and interesting taste; if so, I'll definitely be buying it--caffeine or not. But these guys shouldn't be focusing on caffeine, they should be trying to produce a coffee bean that can be grown easily in many regions, yet tastes as good as Jamaica Blue Mountain. They should be making coffees that taste more like chocolate, or like orange or like a thousand other things.
"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
- 'K' in Men in Black.
Are there any side effects?
Annoying all-caps titles.
Why?
just to invent a nontoxic brown magic marker for your teeth.
Manually implemented sigs are of unlimited length...
I drink water instead of coffee....
We moved so fast to see if we could, nobody asked if we should!
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
I suppose if Europe complains about the all-decaf beans, resulting from cross-pollination, the Americans will point out that the thirld world is now a happy coffee consumer, so we should shut up?
Gr Dread
i'm gonna get placebo'd i just know it.
scott king
Okay if it works one way...
Can it work in another to create super coffee plants?
The slogan can be:
"Who needs speed just slam back a cup of WAMMMO brand coffee"
The Only Person Willing to be Me is ME!
You may be surprised that some people can most often regulate their sleep patterns naturally but that they actually like the flavor of coffee. I regard anything to preserve the flavor a step in the right direction.
I remember hearing somewhere that plants produce caffeine as a natural pesticide. Without caffeine, does this mean that more artificial pesticide will have to be used on the coffee plants? Any idea what environmental effect this might have?
The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence was false.
I drink coffee more for the flavor than the effect (I rarely drink soda). I started cutting back on my coffee intake recently because it was jacking up my blood pressure (I'm only 30yo and moderately active, I shouldn't have high BP). I cut back to two cups a day and my BP is back to normal. Still, I'd like to sip on a warm cup of coffee all day long, but I can't stand most decaf'd coffee, so I simply do without. Something that is naturally decaff'd and still tastes good would be a godsend.
Chris
They actually WANT coffee without caffeine?
And these "scientists" call themselves geeks. How can any self-respecting geek further the satanic cause of the Anti-Coffee?
I do everything I can to NOT go near the Anti-Coffee.
To quote the Bart; "Bart no like!"
Give me Coffee, or give me Jolt Cola. But keep your bland, non-caffeinated fluid to yourself.
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
What we need is EXTRA-caffeinated coffee.
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Breeding is not equal to genetical engineering. There is no way to do transgenetic breeding, iow. to introduce genes from one species into another species by breeding
It is well known that genes move across species through entirely natural processes. Trans-species viruses pick up and deposit genes, as many cells can take up DNA directly. Really, read about horizontal gene transfer -- it's one of the most interesting things in molecular evolution. And when the HGT happens in gamates, it can spread just like any other gene. Greenpeace (and maybe your pastor) may not like to hear this, but it is just the way nature works.
That being said, it is easy to exaggerate the amount of HGT. Paralogy (the loss of a gene in one lineage and conservation in another) can cause similar results to HGT.
They are evil sinners, and will suffer horrible tortures in the afterlife!!! They are but Tools of Satan to remove caffeine from the Coffee Shrub!!! Makes me sooooo angry!!! If I hadn't traded in my Hunting Rifle for a Hunting Camara, there lives would be in danger!!!
HenryJamesFeltus.com
Decaf - what a joke... I mean *WHY*?... Anyway, I digress... What I want to know is how do I GM the plant to produce 2-10x as much caffeine as a regular plant?
Bolt Coffee - you'll be throwing PVC's or we'll double your money back!
genetics!. Just image , oh the humanity, if this got into the wild and, gasp, BECAME THE DOMINAT COFFEE !!! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
...is like a good looking nun, what's the point?
They can appease my anger by whipping up a super high octane version, too.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
They're insane!
Great taste or less filling?
Cafe Mocha NoCaffino w/ a double shot of LittleOrNoTasto.....$7.50
I used to drink about 4 cans of soda and a pot of coffee every day. Cup of coffee and two cigarettes were my breakfast. Caffiene was my lifeblood, but when I decided to quit smoking, I decided that I would be no chemical's bitch. Further, in a fit of masochism, I decided I would get the asshole out of my system all at once, so on the same day, caffiene & nicotine left my life and withdrawal entered it.
I was expecting that getting rid of cigarettes would make me feel better, and it did. My heart stopped pounding, my sense of smell returned, my lung capacity increased, all the things I was led to believe.
What I was not expecting was that quitting caffiene made me feel even better.
I slept better, I woke up with more energy and felt more lively throughout my day. I quit having headaches on the weekends when I decide to sleep late. I found that a 15-minute cat-nap at around five o'clock would let me stay up until two in the morning without any serious repercussions.
In short, in the eighteen months since I gave it up, I have never once considered going back. Giving up caffiene is maybe the best health decision I have ever made.
But, I still love the taste of coffee. I spent years acquiring the taste, and I didn't give up that taste just because I gave up caffiene. Decaf fits my needs. It's got less caffiene than a chocolate bar, and still tastes like coffee. I can get my unleaded and drink it, too.
Now, if they could make caffiene-free coke not suck, I'd be in business.
Living without caffiene is a bit like having TiVO. You have to stop yourself from evangelizing to the people around you constantly, lest you alienate everyone by not shutting up about how great it is.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
You're wrong. This occurs commonly in plants:
"Another type of polyploid species, much more common than autopolyploids, is called an allopolyploid, referring to the contribution of two different species to a polyploid hybrid. The potential origin of an allopolyploid begins when two different species interbreed and combine their chromosomes. Interspecific hybrids are usually sterile because the haploid set of chromosomes from one species cannot pair during meiosis with the haploid set from another species. Though infertile, a hybrid may actually be more vigorous than its parents and propagate itself asexually (which many plants can do). At least two mechanisms, illustrated in Figure 22.10b, can transform the sterile hybrids into fertile polyploids."
- Campbell, Neil. Biology, 4th ed.
Viruses can also transfer genes between species naturally.
Boffins? I always thought it was Bothins, as in "...many Bothins died to bring us this information...".
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
According to previous posts, you will be destroying your enemies with a hardon, and a lot of twitching.
Vote for new mod!!! Score:-2,Imbecile
This is one of the reasions that I don't support modifying of things...
Would these plants upset the global caffeine market?
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
Oh my god, here it comes. Another slashdot humor cliche!
I'm experimenting with my diet to improve my health; I find that caffeine stabilizes my moods and helps me sleep. But that's my whacked-out biochemistry; I certainly don't expect others to have the same reaction.
Everything we consume can be viewed as a drug; individual metabolisms and lifestyles determine what is "good" or "bad" for our bodies. We need freedom of individual choice, not dictates from ideologues.
All about me
..the pot industry, make it stronger. you don't seen any thc-light genetic strains winning awards do you ? that's like nicotine free cigarettes, where are the sales for that ? have you ever bought alcohol free beer from the super market ?
- tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
Coffee beans have something in them that actually increases your hunger levels. Caffeine overrides that mechanism, its ability to blunt hunger cravings is greater than the other's ability to make us hungry.
So by having a decaffinated coffee, you are bypassing all of the positive sides of caffeine (increased metabolism, increase FFA into the bloodstream so you can burn more fat with the now increased metabolism, blunted hunger, keeps you awake, etc), and instead you get something that just makes you more hungry.
I love my coffee, although since moving, I haven't had a cup - used to have at least 3 a day.
I'm glad for it, it lowers my tolerance of it, meaning that I will have increased response next time I do have some coffee.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
is some good, good stuff...
Rumor has it John Ashcroft is trying to get it declared as a controlled substance.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Surely the kind of person who thinks caffeine will kill them, is hardly likely to touch a genetically modified plant?
You seem to imply that people who are concerned about their caffeine intake are foolish and reactionary.
CAFFEINE IS BAD FOR YOU. ALL OF YOU. PERIOD.
Ask your doctor if you don't believe me.
Not so long ago we ate loads of fried food, fat and sugar, we smoked woodbines, we drank beer and whisky all the time and we didn't die!
And then Eve tasted the apple (damn health food) and we were cast out of the Garden...
If these coffee plants contain 70% less caffeine, I wonder how succeptible to pests they will be since caffeine acts as an insecticide to prevent insects from tearing the coffee plant to shreds.
This just in- scientists are hard at work researching ways of infusing more caffine into Mountain Dew.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
To balance the force, the same researchers should grow a super caffeinated coffe plant.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
An Etalon-Copy of Russian Frequency and Time etalon in Irkutsk, Siberia has a tradition of growing coffee in labs as a decorative plant. I have a tree at home, too. It's simply not possible to grow more than 1 cup per tree per year. And the trees prefer shadow and hate arc lamps, too. If you want more caffeine it's much simpler to distil it from tea and add to your legal decaffeinated coffee.
The scientists should better invent the substance that has all positive sides of caffeine and has no negative ones - and is not addictive. I am a caffeine addict.
Detroit has produced a 100% environmentally friendly automobile, it contains 100% less engine.
I don't ususally comment, but NOOOOOOOOOO. The caffeine is the life.
some turkish traders went to the tip of the arabian peninsula, to yemen, and they said to the yemenese: "whaddya got?"
;-)
and the yemenese said, "well we got this stuff called qhat and this stuff called coffee."
"well we only got room for one plant on teh boat."
"here, have some coffee."
years later, the turks finally got tired of being wired staying up all night laying seige to vienna, so they just left, and left all these bags of coffee beans laying around.
and the austro-hungarians said, what is this stuff?
it was not long before the viennese were joyous and wired, and history had been made.
my question is this: what if the turks had taken the qhat instead of the coffee so many centuries back?
qhat is this leaf you chew for like hours, and it slowly builds a stupefying narcotic effect: basically, the opposite of coffee. it's popular in egypt and northeastern africa.
what would a world be like if all these slashdot coders were brought up to chew qhat instead of drink coffee? would we still be working in DOS and 8088s?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... does it imply that if decaffinated coffee beans can be grown, that all coffee will be decaffinated?
... oh, who am I kidding. Slashdot editors don't know how not to evangelize. Never mind.
Seems like these boffins [...] to take away your buzz.
I have serious doubts that once these trees are commercially viable, that all coffee will suddenly be transformed into half-caf or de-caf just because some decaffinated coffee bean trees exist. That's just stupid, inflammatory, and irrelevant. Mark editorials as such, don't editorialize in the space reserved for useful
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
Bio-engineered hunans to think less, and consume more?
Patent the idea and sell it to your government before I sell it to Mr. Putin. Politicians need it to create a fully controlled electorate. The only problem will be the interbreeding of such people with usual ones creating patent problems. Imagine: You have a think-less GM bride, and Monsanto lawyers accuse you of violationg their patent by having children with her.
For my taste, they'd better add th humans an organ that produces caffeine.
Add SCO jokes to taste. Consume hot.
This has to be part of a larger plot. Can anyone tie in Microsoft, the CIA and the Mason's?
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Damn it you're going the wrong way!!! We want more caffeine.
IANALBIPOOGL (I am not a Lawyer, but I play one on GrokLaw.)
Combining the Internet and Cafeine-challenged coffee is a really bad idea. I figure we are all going to end up falling asleep and being taken over by the Canadians.
That post was only three sentences! That's too short to be insightful! Can I get modded up now?
Oh wait, I'm a genetic engineer!
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Always remember to filter decaf through a brewery.
It removes the nasty taste and adds the nicer beer flavor and the alcohol.
Some of us like the taste of coffee, but don't like the effects.
Believe me, I love a good caffeine buzz -- and for the longest time, I didn't think it was affecting me, because I could easily go to sleep at night, and I could sleep for 12 hours at a stretch, too!
Problem was, I was always tired. No amount of sleep was enough. My doctor suggested quitting caffeine -- and it worked! Like a charm. Sure, I had a pounding headache for the first week, but after that, I felt great, and I could wake up refreshed after a normal amount of sleep. I actually had *more* energy than I did while on caffeine.
I grew up drinking coffee. My dad taught me how to brew it when I was four. Cheap decaf sucks -- my understanding is that they use chlorine in the process, but whatever the reason, cheap decaf makes my stomach churn. It also tastes awful. Expensive decaf is better, but still just a little less tasty than the real deal.
If they can make a plant that will give me yummy coffee and little caffeine, I'm all for it!
-monique
Caffine is being used now as an industrial bug killer, so it seems that caffine in plants tastes bad to the animals that eat them and also makes them sick (like in a caffine overdose. Take that versus the frankenfood theory already posted here, and I will just have to say "no thanks" to coffee in general...
...his hand gets lonely.
...interesting if true.
tone
tone
MJ w w/o THC
In Soviet Russia, caffeine was removed from coffee for medicinal purposes. Not a troll, but a fact.
Visitors were observed as saying, "Oh jet lag, need coffee! I don't understand, it tastes like coffee, but I can't seem to get a buzz, and why can't I take a shit".
[From Spalding Grey's Monster In a Box video]
This is science run AMOK. It must be stopped.
...is very different from what we eat now. Bread, for example, is very new and it is impossible (given the time required for successful evolution in the right direction) for our bodies to assimilate it properly. This includes pretty much anything with processed grains. There are a number of diets based on this fact. Our bodies are not equipped to handle, say, noodles or pastries at the rate we ingest them... and this is linked, by some studies, to the increased rate of obesity congruent with the use of these foods in our increasinglyl surreal diets. ...but I eat them happily.
Are they gonna open franchises in the Bay Area by any chance???
Failing that, if I paypal you some money, will you pack one in dry ice and send it to me?
cya,
john
Imagine all the people...
"The natural transfer of genetic material from some phytopathogenic bacteria to plants has been established. For example, the symptoms of crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens are due to the transfer and stable integration into the plant genome of phytohormone biosynthetic genes contained on a bacterial plasmid. The reverse process has yet to be demonstrated in a natural environment, however, numerous studies have attempted to establish its possibility."
- this site
This PDF gives a few examples, too. Not to mention Bacteria and Yeast.
Bachelor Chow is featured on at least two billboards in the opening sequence of Futurama.
Where is Bush when you need him?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I mean, it's like rice without the soy soup, or chewing gum without the gum... it's just... stupidstupidstupid...
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(in case this database is disliking wchar, bakka! bakka!)
Exactly what's the idea?
What's next? Lightless lightbulbs? Liquid concrete? Rubber needles? Inflammable propane? Solid gas?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I am normally pro-ge but what the hell use is this, this is immoral. coffee tastes like crap caffeines the whole point. Thats it I'm amish, for this is an affront to the lord.
-troy
It not they way it's meant to be!!!!!
Does anyone else think the "cow-orker" hyphenation is stupid?
OH NO! What if I'm one of them, and therefore cannot be part of the dogbert elite "ruling" class?!
I've worked at Starbucks for years, and I know. Believe me. *raises pinky to mouth*
MOST decaf is produced using benzene, yep, benzene. Soak the beans in benzene, let the cafffeine dissolve out, and wash 'em. Why do you think brewed decaf coffee has that nasty acidic smell?
SWP decaf has the debatable plus of having no flavor.
What does Gloria Jean's know about coffee, since you flavor your beans? Flavoring should be added POST-brew, otherwise the flavor components oxidize over time yielding the ungodly brown substance you guys serve.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Actually, there is such a thing as Dry Water. It comes in a carton. It's actually a gel with a 96% water content. You cut the bottom out, stick it about 4 inches into the dirt next to a plant, and it keeps the plant hydrated. Bacterial action breaks down the gel and releases the water slowly. One carton is good for about 60 days. And in the uber-hot California central valley, continuous hydration of outdoor plants is key.
As for alcohol-free beer -- what the heck is that all about? And low cal beer? Dude, if I'm throwing down some cold ones with the guys, I *seriously* could not care less about the my caloric intake.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
This is a strawman argument, anyway. The natural transfer of a genetic information across kingdoms/species/etc. is analogous to the artificial insertion of a gene into a plant, not breeding them together to produce some lame mad science experiment.
Here's a better article:
Of the 51 examined gene fusions that are represented in at least two of the three primary kingdoms (Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota), 31 were most probably disseminated by cross-kingdom horizontal gene transfer, whereas 14 appeared to have evolved independently in different kingdoms and two were probably inherited from the common ancestor of modern life forms.
And here is another:
The plant symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum has two glutamine synthetase genes, one similar to those found in other bacteria, the other 50% identical to the enzymes from higher plants. When protein sequences encoded by archaeal genomes are used to search protein sequence databases for similar sequences, some sequences have their best match with sequences from eubacteria. The opposite is also true (ref1, ref2, ref3). There are even a few cases where one sequence segment of a protein with an origin in one kingdom is attached to a segment with an origin in another kingdom (ref).
Do they have coffee plants that are genetically engineered to have more caffine in them? DECAF IS THE ANTI-CHRIST!
Decaffeinated coffee is like devaluing the brand name.
;-)
Hmmm. Someone should tell Coca Cola that "Caffeine-Free Sugar-Free Coke" is like devaluing their brand name. Or tell all the large brewing companies that non-alcoholic beer is devaluing their brand names. These are clueless companies that could use your advice on building a brand, I'm sure.
No, I'd say it helps the brand. This way, I can be a "Labatts" guy and drink their John Labatt Classic high-test stuff, while my girlfriend can be a "Labatts" girl and drink their Labatt 0.5 dealcoholized stuff. As for it tasting worse, I love beer, and I prefer the taste of 5-7% alcohol in my beer. But -all- beer (or coffee or soda) is an acquired taste, so the stuff with less of a kick is simply a taste some people learn to like while getting the benefit of less caffeine/alcohol/sugar.
Yay for choice! And yay for the brands that offer the choice!
all i gotta say ....... someone scream "RAPE"