Here at Biology Fortified, we’ve got a lot of projects going on. From databases of research, to infographics, blog posts, citizen science and more, we do what we do because we love science and we want more people to understand and appreciate it as well. We have only been able to accomplish what we have thanks to support from our readers and fans, as well as a couple small competitive grants. In the past year, we introduced a monthly membership program that enables us to have the resources to sustain this work and start bigger projects. Continue reading “Cooking video series to launch!”→
Until recently, I never put too much thought into where farmers get the seeds that they grow into the foods we eat. I assumed they saved seeds from their previous crop. I thought this would give the farmer more control over his or her operation and save money. I presumed that if a farmer chose to buy seeds, they would do so out of convenience. In reality, most farmers buy new seeds every year because of genetics! Now I know, and to help people understand the scientific rationale of purchasing new seeds every year, a group of young scientists, including myself, made a short video.
In the video, we describe what hybrid plants are, and their benefits to agriculture. We illustrate what would happen if a farmer kept and grew the seeds produced by the hybrid plants.
The video was made by UC Davis scientists Jenna Gallegos (graduate student), Don Gibson (graduate student), David Coil (project scientist), and Nir Oksenberg (postdoc). We are members of the Science Policy and Communication Group (SPCG). The SPCG is a project of the UC Davis World Food Center’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy (IFAL) and also receives support from the UC Global Food Initiative – Communication, Literacy, and Education for Agricultural Research (CLEAR) program.
Did you like the video? What would you like to see us do next?
Written by Guest Expert
Nir Oksenberg is a professional science communicator for the Delta Stewardship Council, a California state agency. He fosters productive communication among scientists, the public, water managers, and policymakers. He has a PhD in human genetics from the University of California, San Francisco and was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Davis studying the rice response to bacteria, flooding, and drought in Pamela Ronald’s lab.
The International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) and Biology Fortified have produced a special video tribute to the late Dr. Norman Borlaug, a legendary CIMMYT scientist who developed high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat that started the Green Revolution which is credited with saving over 1 billion people from starvation. The release of this tribute coincides with The Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, on what would have been the 100th birthday of Dr. Borlaug. His message of increasing food production and the importance of using science in this effort are still important today – perhaps more than ever as the world has over 7 billion people and still growing.
To follow this event, go to www.borlaug100.org, and follow the #borlaug100 hashtag in social media. For more information about CIMMYT, visit www.cimmyt.org. Continue reading “Play it Hard – A Tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug”→
Here’s a catchy tune – about coexistence! Back when genetically engineered canola was new in Canada, there was a conversation between two farmers – one who grew organic canola, and the other, GE. That conversation turned into this song:
As an added bonus, two of the performers are weed scientists, and the third is a former editor of Weed Technology. (H/T Andrew Kniss)
I think the next time I give a talk about the spillover effects of different farming systems, I will just show this video. What do you think?
Have you ever wondered what goes into breeding your favorite fruit varieties? Breeding apples, plums, oranges and pears is made understandable with this video that explains the basic biology, origins, and techniques involved in breeding fruit trees.
Years ago, environmental activist and author Mark Lynas campaigned against genetically engineered crops, sometimes ripping them up with his own hands. But in a speech given at the 2013 Oxford Farming Conference on January 3rd, he apologized for these actions, and explained how his opinion has changed over time and has been turned completely around. This speech, the transcript of which you can find on his site, has been heard around the world. It has sparked many discussions in the news media, and in social media as well. He explains that part of his journey from being an anti-GE activist to proponent of the technology is that along the way, he “discovered science.” Perhaps more than that, his environmentally-based values may have steered his beliefs to a different path once the science was made clear. If you haven’t seen it yet, it will be an hour well-spent.
A big hat tip to Pam Ronald for finding this. The Weigel Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, which studies the molecular biology of plants and animals, has put together what might be one of the best lab group videos I’ve seen. It’s time to dance it up Weigel Style!
In part 1 of this series, I discussed the history of genetic modification in insects as pest control. We’ve been creating insect GMOs for the purposes of controlling pests for awhile. If you bombard insects with radiation, it can kill rapidly reproducing cells. High doses of radiation can also damage the DNA in quickly reproducing gamete producing cells to the point where it can’t be read, creating severe mutations that stop important proteins from being made. In other words, sperm are produced, but they aren’t healthy. If female flies mate with one of these males, she won’t produce any offspring. If this happens enough on a large scale, the population plummets because females aren’t producing viable offspring.
Vector borne diseases (VBDs) are generally pretty bad. Yellow fever, the disease which stopped the Panama canal dead in it’s tracks, makes your liver fail and turns you yellow… hence the name. Malaria is caused by a parasite which ruptures blood cells in unison. African trypanosomiasis makes you go to sleep and then die. Dengue fever lays you up in bed for six months in some of the worst agony imaginable. Hell, even veterinary VBDs are horrifying… outbreaks of rift valley fever usually present with random farm animal abortions.
In 2008, malaria alone killed 708,000 to over a million people, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa, and an estimated 190 to 311 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, according to the CDC. Diseases like malaria, may actually work to keep poor regions poor. Control methods often do not reach the poorest people due to high cost… vector borne diseases tend to be diseases of poverty.
Check out this video made as a public service announcement in 1943 by Disney. Some of the control methods have changed, such as specific chemicals, but not that much.
So… what can be done to help save lives in regions with VBD problems? We can vaccinate, in those few cases where vaccines have been developed, and we can kill the vectors, but vector control efforts can be expensive. Education and awareness is great, too… let the locals know what the potential harm is and send them on search and destroy missions to remove insect breeding grounds.
But… and this is the cool part… we’ve got a new tool in our arsenal.
Genetically modified mosquitoes. Continue reading “Genetic modification of insects as pest control – Part 1”→
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