With a few delicious exceptions like fresh fish straight the ocean, most foods we eat today have been changed beyond recognition through millennia of unconscious artificial selection, followed by centuries of intensive breeding selecting for various traits that appeal to hungry hominids. More recently, we’ve begun to modify them genetically, which has caused some consternation among watchdog environmental groups, especially abroad:
As result, virtually no GM crops have been grown on Europe’s farms for the past 25 years. Yet hard evidence to support what is, in all but name, a ban on these vilified forms of plant life is thin on the ground. [...]
This point was endorsed last week when a 20-strong committee of experts from the US National Academies of Science announced the results of its trawl of three decades of scientific studies for “persuasive evidence of adverse health effects directly attributable to consumption of foods derived from genetically engineered crops”. It found none.
So far, most of the modifications in production involve resistance to pests, disease, or fortifying foodstuffs with useful constituents like vitamin A. But looking ahead, who knows? Perhaps one day we might be able to replace industrial animal operations with meat or other animal products “grown” like corn or potatoes.
As soon as they perceive weakness, they will amass an army and invade the land, too. Okay, that last statement is probably pure paranoia. But it is a bit unsettling that cephalopods—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish—are booming, and scientists don’t know why.
“Texas escaped an education train wreck tonight,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network ... “[Brunel] would have instantly become the most embarrassingly uninformed and divisive member on a board that already too often puts politics ahead of making sure our kids get a sound education.”
- It’s a little known fact that early Earth should have been an icy snowball for eons after forming, because the primeval sun was a tad too dim to keep the planet above freezing. One warm influence was the prodigious amounts of greenhouses gases at the time. Now, scientists have found another possible factor:
The volatility of the young sun may actually resolve this problem, according to a new paper published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. And this process could inform scientists in the hunt for life on other planets, too.
- There’s been a number of exhaustive studies over the years that have failed to find any link between cell phones and cancer, I’ve posted a more detailed diary here. But this week a new, more long-term study was released that may show a correlation:
“I was surprised because I had thought it was a waste of money to continue to do animal research in this area. There had been so many studies before that had pretty consistently not shown elevations in cancer. ...”