Category: Syndicated

First they banned irradiation of foods, then GMOs, now they are starting on nanotechnology — all life-saving technologies.

Nanotechnology Now – Press Release: “Nanostructured water treatment products to be worth $2.2 billion in 2015” Warnings from nutritional hell, with apologies to El Bosco We live in a world where whole organisations make comfortable incomes by demonising technology. These self-styled “technology critics” early successes included active blocking of the use of irradiation to make…

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Worried about deliberate introduction of the German E. coli germ? Please read this.

(Updated 21-06-2011] Enough information is now emerging from the frantic work of the DNA sequencing teams and the crowdsourced intense detective work by bioinformatics experts (all mentioned in several previous posts at this site) to assemble a broad picture of how the German outbreak germ has evolved in recent years in terms of changes to its…

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More about how the EHEC germ may get transmitted in plant material such as seeds

It is widely known that pathogenic E. coli germs have ability to survive inside fresh vegetable produce such as spinach, lettuce and sprouts, where they are protected against disinfection. This ability may be a key factor explaining the transmission of the E. coli strain in the dreadful (and still ongoing) German outbreak. A new article has…

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Natural GMOs Part 90: Genes move between species in fungi

(Photomicrograph of Aspergillus nidulans, the species of mold that appears to have been the source of the 22-gene cluster that jumped to Podospora anserina, an unrelated species of mold. The Aspergillus genus contains a number of species that are beneficial and harmful to humans. (Creative Commons licensed Image via Özgür Bayram and Gerhard Braus) GMO…

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Manhattan project of Entomology

Entomologists Launch 5,000 Insect Genome Project (i5k) | Entomological Society of America (ESA) Entomologists Launch 5,000 Insect Genome Project (i5k) Lanham, MD; June 15, 2011 – It’s been called “the Manhattan Project of Entomology,” an undertaking that has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about insects. The i5k Initiative, also known as the…

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Genetic family trees show the German outbreak of E coli is a member of small family of germs called EAEC — that includes an African germ — and is distinct from EHECs

The latest news is that the German outbreak strain of Escherichia coli is a member of small family of germs called EAEC that includes an African member (Ec55989 ). This family is clearly distinct from classical EHEC (=STEC) bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7. The Pundit will now start calling them EAEC/STEC recombinant or hybrid…

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What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?

Written by Matt DiLeo I just went to the new “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” exhibit at the National Archives. It tells the history of the government’s role in U.S. food and agriculture – a story of market protectionism, social engineering and the regulated tension between the aspirations of business and the demands of the people…

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Corn as art

Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA by John Bollwitt. We often talk about the science of corn (aka maize) but there’s so much more to it. I’ll be leaving corn country soon to start a new job, and I know I’ll miss being in the center of so much maize. Consider the natural beauty of…

NEWS FLASH: The German EHEC Germ DNA code displays evidence that it has been genetically engineered!

For a more recent updated post on this topic go here. Kat Holt, the super-geek pathological-genome breaker at U. Melbourne (who works upstairs from the Pundit, in a room full of expensive computers and a lovely view of sheep) is at it again. She’s found gene rearrangements in the German EAEC outbreak germ. She reports her work…

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Sproutbreak — big media cover up — 50 deaths, nearly 900 maimed with HUS and 4000 sick: sprouts guilty

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”(George Santayana). (Here’s *a reminder* for those who have forgotten or do not know.) Main lessons to be taken from this short history: The type of food label needed here ?- from Bill Marler Bean and various other seed sprouts are the suspects. Humans can carry and…

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