Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
Following up on my last post on the lack of evidence that rice shortages are caused by biofuels, I’d like to call your attention to Food Crisis Depicted as ‘Silent Tsunami’ by Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post. Beginning with some sobering statistics, such as “25,000 people a day are dying of conditions linked to…
Many people have been fast to blame food shortages around the world on government acceptance of biofuels. There do seem to be some connections, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. Rice, wheat, and corn/soy need completely different soils and climates. That’s why we see a lot of corn and soy grown in Iowa…
The article “Exposed: The Great GM Crops Myth” published by The Independent is surprising, and at first glance looks like it could be about significant research indicating that genetic engineering has unforeseen yield decreases. However, I’m not very good at first glances. Instead, I read deeply and find out more. This post is going to…
We’ve all seen movies and even cartoons featuring half or fully crazed scientists putting the world in danger all for some strangely nonsensical evil plan. What I want to know is: were did this archetype come from? It’s easy to blame America’s sad excuse for science education, but Frankenstein was originally written in 1818. What…
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has created a site that responds to the recently released movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”, called “Expelled Exposed”. I’m not sure what is on the site, as it is currently down (digg effect), but I am sure that they do a good job of exposing Expelled, judging by…
The 10 April Nature presents the results of a survey that aimed to determine how many scientists are using cognition enhancing drugs. Caffeine is of course the most widely used stimulant, but it seems that quite a few people are using other substances to improve concentration. For those who choose to use, methylphenidate was the…
Author Robert Paarlberg reported that the Gates Foundation would be contributing to the development of drought tolerant maize varieties for Africa. Details can be found in a press release from AATF (African Agricultural Technology Foundation), via ISAAA‘s March 28 Crop Biotech Update. I’ve posted the release below the cut for your convenience. One of the…
University of Calgary archaeologists found corn starch residues in ancient pottery shards. “Their discovery shows the spread of maize out of Mexico more than 9,000 years ago occurred much faster than previously believed and provides evidence that corn was likely a vital food crop for villages in tropical Ecuador at least 5,000 years ago (U…
Reason magazine has always had rational articles on technology, including genetic engineering. Their commenters are also surprisingly lucid, understanding that technology can be used to help people live better lives while also protecting the world around us. A recent article titled “Demon Seed: How fear of life-saving technology swept through Africa” discusses an new book,…
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report that “organic forage crops yielded as much or more dry matter as their conventional counterparts with quality sufficient to produce as much milk as the conventional systems; and organic grain crops: corn, soybean, and winter wheat produced 90% as well as their conventionally managed counterparts”. In their paper,…