"Shrimp think algae are good food," says CEO Pyle [of the company Sapphire Energy]. "If you don't pay attention, you will ultimately have a shrimp farm."The returns on such an investment might not be too bad either!
"Accordingly, I shall not dwell upon the personal honor, for I have not done so even within myself. Instead, I want to devote my remarks to commendation of the Nobel Committee which had the perspicacity and wisdom to recognize the actual and potential contributions of agricultural production to prosperity and peace among the nations and peoples of the world.
Obviously, I am personally honored beyond all dreams by my election. But the obligations imposed by the honor are far greater than the honor itself, both as concerns me personally and also the army of hunger fighters in which I voluntarily enlisted a quarter of a century ago for a lifetime term. I am acutely conscious of the fact that I am but one member of that vast army and so I want to share not only the present honor but also the future obligations with all my companions in arms, for the Green Revolution has not yet been won.
It is true that the tide of the battle against hunger has changed for the better during the past three years. But tides have a way of flowing and then ebbing again. We may be at high tide now, but ebb tide could soon set in if we become complacent and relax our efforts. For we are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction.
Man has made amazing progress recently in his potential mastery of these two contending powers. Science, invention, and technology have given him materials and methods for increasing his food supplies substantially and sometimes spectacularly, as I hope to prove tomorrow in my first address as a newly decorated and dedicated Nobel Laureate. Man also has acquired the means to reduce the rate of human reproduction effectively and humanely. He is using his powers for increasing the rate and amount of food production. But he is not yet using adequately his potential for decreasing the rate of human reproduction. The result is that the rate of population increase exceeds the rate of increase in food production in some areas.
There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort. Fighting alone, they may win temporary skirmishes, but united they can win a decisive and lasting victory to provide food and other amenities of a progressive civilization for the benefit of all mankind.
Then, indeed, Alfred Nobel's efforts to promote Brotherhood between nations and their peoples will become a reality.
Let our wills say that it shall be so."
We report the design, synthesis and assembly of the 1.08- Mbp Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a Mycoplasma capricolum recipient cell to create new Mycoplasma mycoides cells that are controlled only by the synthetic chromosome. The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence, including “watermark” sequences and other designed gene deletions and polymorphisms, and mutations acquired during the building process. The new cells have expected phenotypic properties and are capable of continuous self-replication.
One year after synthesizing a synthetic genome, the Craig Venter Center finally published their results in Science. For this paper, Science has kindly allowed free access.
Of course this created alot of discussion amongst the scientific circle. Even President Obama penned a letter to the research team.
In the basic criteria of what life is like, most scientists agree that three basic components has to exist: a container, a way to harvest energy and an information carrier like RNA or another nucleic acid.
This is a step from similar protocellular work by Szostak from Havard Medical School. The Craig Venter Center team's bacteria can grow and divide.
Reading list suggested by Carl Zimmer.
"I don't like brussels sprouts. Who knew it was genetic? But I have the snippet of DNA that gives me the ability to taste a compound that makes many vegetables taste bitter. I differ from people who are blind to bitter taste -- who actually like brussels sprouts -- by a single spelling change in our four-letter genetic alphabet: somewhere on human chromosome 7, I have a G where they have a C."
But that's just information.... trivia about your genes. It gets more serious when people actually use that information to determine the genetics of their progeny. This couple actually had their daughter "genetically determined" so that she wouldn't inherit forms of genes that would make her highly susceptible to a certain form of colon cancer. This testing is termed preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D., which means you need to cull embryos to get the right one. An eight-cell embryo has gone through fertilization.
For this couple, 4 were culled leaving 10 good ones that didn't have those forms of genes that cause cancer, 2 more were culled when a Down's syndrome test was done. Think that is unethical? Well there are people who actually remove their large intestines or breasts as a prophylactic measure against such cancers once they find they harbour just the forms of genes that make them susceptible. They may have siblings who have died because of that disease. Watch the 3rd video called One Wrong Letter in the set of videos on Nova and you will know why it becomes so grey.
(thanks to Kevin Lam who pointed out the genome scan link).
