Category Archives: Biotechnology
PLOS Biology in the media – May
Posted by Biology, Biotechnology, Blog, ecology, environment, featured, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, open access, plant biology, plos biology, Research
inMaking the World Go Round: Building a Circular Bioeconomy with Synthetic Biology
GMO wild organisms: As if GMO crops weren’t controversial enough…
The big biotech controversy of last year was over the ethics of using CRISPR to edit human embryos – something which a team of Chinese scientists did last April. The possibility of designer babies led to a major scientific summit meeting, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences, during which the attendees concluded that “It would be irresponsible to proceed with any clinical use of germline editing” until safety concerns are allayed and society comes closer to an ethical consensus.
While the world was fretting about edited embryos, scientists introduced an even more ethically fraught biotechnology: gene drives, a tool to genetically modify organisms in the wild. Gene drives have the potential to do a lot of good, by controlling disease vectors like malaria-bearing mosquitos. But if you thought GMO crops were controversial, just wait to see how people react to GMO wild organisms.
I cover the new CRISPR-based gene drive technologies in my latest Pacific Standard column. Here’s the tl;dr version: Gene drives can do a lot of good, but because they are simple to make, and because their consequences aren’t confined by political borders, we’re going to have a hell of a time ensuring they’re used responsibly.
Filed under: Curiosities of Nature Tagged: biotechnology, Science in Society
Posted by Biotechnology, Curiosities of Nature, Science in Society
inStarch, Oil, Water and Arsenic: New Plant Translational Research
by Christina Kary PLOS launched a Collection last year, “The Promise of Plant Translational Research”. Here’s an update on how it’s going, and where we hope to go from here. In my former life as ‘Plantina’ (I can … Continue reading
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Posted by Biology, Biotechnology, plant biology, plos biology, Publishing, Research
inToward True Public Engagement in Science
As California struggles with a measles epidemic brought on by vaccine-refusing parents and surveys reveal that 80 percent of Americans support mandatory labeling on foods that contain DNA, it might appear that efforts to bridge the gap between scientific facts … Continue reading
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Posted by Biology, Biotechnology, plos biology
inPosted by Anthropocene, Biotechnology, Energy & Sustainability, environment
inThis week in PLOS Biology
In PLOS Biology this week, you can read about interdisciplinary community building, how yeast cells deal with stress, 3D printing and conservation of the Antarctic.
During their lifetime, cells accumulate damage such as aggregated proteins, which is …
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Posted by Biology, Biotechnology, cell biology, Climate, environment, plos biology, Research
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