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Genetically-Modified Everything
BreadMan writes "The Economist has an interesting article about how the use of GM (genetically modified) plants extends well beyond the food industry. Altered trees that make better paper, insect-resistant cotton, potatoes that contain the right kinds of starches. An interesting read to see where the industry is going in light of problems with having GM foods on the dinner table. There's more industrial uses for agricultural products than you'd think of right away, so this may be a lucrative use for GM technology."
GM plants can be VERY beneficial if modified correctly. This crop can be used as a fuel source, replacing oil-based gasoline. Get the yield high enough my GM'ing, and it becomes a great replacement - less pollution, more energy independence on any country capable of producing crops, and an industry that may finally get agriculture off the government dime.
I don't thing GM things are any more or LESS dangerous than nuclear research. If we allow corporations to do as they please, they will find the easiest way to maximum profits.
This did not used to be so bad. But today the shortsightedness, or rather the self centeredness of the modern executive can be very dangerous to the publics health and the publics wallet.
Yup. Just like grapes.
-Peter
Aren't cats already permacute large feline cubs? Bred by Egyptians to keep granaries clear of rodents? (I was told this was the reasons why cats like to run through closing doors and jump into boxes). And dogs are permacute wolve cubs adapted to various roles (retrieving, searching, attacking, guarding etc...).
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
That's like saying, "Computers have been around for hundreds of years. Just ask Charles Babbage."
True, yet functionally meaningless.
That's not GM posing a threat, that's patent law and patent enforcement getting out of hand again. This is Slashdot, we should be able to differentiate between the technology and the poor policy decisions and laws surrounding it.
The problem with all this stuff is that it is proprietary, patented, closed source. It displaces open source species, and it allows for the mandatory levying of license fees
No, he is saying that genetically modified organisms have not passed the "global test" of natural selection. When only the strong survive, those that survive are strong. Simply taking an organism that has one or two good traits and making it the "preferred" organism of that type MAY be overlooking some serious flaws that are introduced or simply not taken seriously enough to change the strong traits. This results in serious fuckups if something bad should happen. The case of the disease immunity was only one item. What if you have a plant that proliferates with little sunlight and water? It could choke out other plants and kill an ecosystem.
There are bacteria that can generate small amounts of hydrogen gas. If genetic engineering can make these bacteria much better at this function, we will have very good renewable energy source.
Hydrogen is a very poor source of energy - it's energy density is very low. (it takes 1/3 of the available energy in the hydrogen just to compress it to a liquid!) It's explosive. It's very inefficient.
Better to consider alge that produces bio-diesel - much denser, more compact, no expensive compression, no equipment retrofitting... the list of benefits goes on and on....
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I'm not saying that people are acting in bad faith or that we should kill research. What I am concerned with is the "trust me, I'm a scientist" attitude that you are promoting. Even when applying the best knowledge at the time, people make mistakes. Some mistakes are easy to reverse and some are not. The scientists of the day construct models and work to those models. The scientists of tomorrow will debunk those theories and models and make new ones.
Studies showed Thalidamide (sp?) was OK. Doctors prescribed it because it was a very useful drug. Suddenly deformed people started being born.
Thirty years ago the flavour of the day treatment for a variety of many mental illnesses was shock therapy. It is now frowned upon. The people applying it were not witchdoctors or alternative healers, they were the scientists of the day.
The dumb-ass that brought possums and rabbits to NZ or snakes to that pacific island (some US base, I forget which)did it with the best of intentions. Now those animals cause havoc because there are no natural preditors.
All the scientists involved did this as their life's work. They understood the science of the day and acted accordingly. They still made the wrong actions though.
GM can perhaps be controlled in the lab, but remember that pollen is genetic material and some pollen can travel thousands of miles to contaminate other crops. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is impossible to control.
Likening GM to GPL is really stupid. Humans have control over GPL, but they don't have control over genetic material once it is released into the wild.
Engineering is the art of compromise.