'Nature' Editorial Juxtaposes FOIA Email Release With Illegal Hacking (vice.com)

Jason Koebler and Sarah Emerson, reporting for Motherboard: Private emails between scientists working on a controversial genetic technology called "gene drive" were released last week. Obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, their publication has been criticized by some as an attempt to discredit the science community. Gene drives are a genetic engineering approach with huge implications. They're meant to seed genetic traits -- one that stops mosquitoes from carrying malaria, for instance, or hampers invasive rodents' ability to reproduce -- in a population, and with terrifyingly high odds of inheritance. If things go wrong, gene drives could destabilize ecosystems. (So far, they've only been applied to yeast, fruit flies, and mosquitoes in a lab setting.) More ideally, they could wipe out deadly plagues by targeting their vectors, or give threatened species a fighting chance. Like any young technology, there are a lot of unknowns, and stakeholders are hoping to provide clarity at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity next year; the same convention where a proposed gene drive moratorium was rejected in 2016. The emails and other documents reveal details about gene drive's biggest funders, including DARPA, the US military's research agency.

Comments

Re:Application of FOIA Seems Odd

[Gilgaron]

My understanding is that it is being used increasingly to harass researchers at public universities since it takes resources from them to respond. Pesky scientists researching the dangers of your new crabgrass spray? FOIA! Hardcore fundy looking to stick one to those evilutionists? FOIA! Of course the poor climatologists get a bunch, sometimes even from GOPs in congress.