Learning (And Harvesting) from Extremophiles

kudyadi writes "BBC News has an article on the threat posed to extremophiles by anxious prospectors ready to exploit their unique nature. Potential discoveries include glycoprotein, which prevents Antarctic fish from freezing, and an extract from green algae for use in cosmetic skin treatment, and anti-tumour properties in a strain of yeast. This article explains the issue more lucidly, but in the end, one must consider the environmental ramifications of this biological exploitation before moving ahead full scale. So how is Tux in danger? Let me remind you of a thing called the food chain and then read this."

Comments

You can't have it both ways....

[RocketScientist]

One of the biggest arguments of the folks who promote biodiversity is that we may find organisms that produce pharmaceuticals that we can use to do important things. That way biodiversity seems more commercially appealing (I'm not saying it is or isn't true, I'm just restating the argument.)

So now we've got folks complaining because we're trying to exploit some of the organisms to produce pharmaceuticals. The priniciples of biodiversity are playing out as the advocates expected, and now a faction of those advocates are crying foul because somebody's actually exploiting the organisms for commercial gain.

If you're going to use the biodiversity for exploitation argument, you can't complain when someone actually starts exploiting.

why not open source science?

[ir0b0t]

This is the sort of story that illustrates the risk inherent in a proprietary approach to knowledge. The first duty of a proprietary interest is to secure a financial return on investment. There's a built-in incentive to discount other competing interests, like stifling innovative software or, as in this case, damaging the environment.