More than once I've thrown that title into a conversation--in real life or on twitter--and I'm usually met with stunned responses or disbelief. And if it's on twitter it usually gets some retweets, which reminds me that some people are…
Mary Mangan
Mary Mangan has a PhD in cell, molecular, and developmental biology from the University of Rochester. She co-founded OpenHelix, a company that provides awareness and training on open source genomics software tools. She has published numerous articles on biology, biotechnology, biometrics, and genomics.
Labeling. What is Kosher for a food community?
Philosophical food restrictions were not something I grew up with. Well, there was the "Fish on Friday" thing, but I was never really able to understand why fish wasn't a dead animal too. (I have a long history of aversion…
GMO Wheat and shouting “fire” in a crowded theater
A report from an activist group called Safe Food Foundation (SFF) came out last fall that caused a minor stir upon it's first release. They claimed that they had unearthed an issue with GMO wheat being studied by the Australian…
The fruits of climate change
The other day I found myself looking through the plant patents held by the Zaiger's Genetics team. The Zaigers, a family of plant breeders led by a UC Davis Plant Pathology graduate, have developed some very cool fruits. You may…
What if Bt saved human lives?
When I was in grad school, there was a lab in our department that studied intestinal parasitic roundworms. Although this wasn’t related to what I was doing in any way—everyone who has been to grad school will know that you…