Thursday, September 22, 2005
The First GMO Perennial Approved is...
a Round-Up Ready© variety. Big surprise. More info here.Sunday, September 11, 2005
Latest in Cloning...
A couple of recent articles discuss the likelihood of cloning processes.First Human “Clones” Created Without Use of Sperm
Genetic modification given the green light
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Chemical Eugenics
Some recent studies in Canada point to a possibility that exposure to chemical compounds known as phthalates is causing more girls to be born that boys near a plant in Ontario.What's In A "Y"?
Apparently, there is some contention about whether or not the "Y" chromosome (the one that is found to determine sex in humans - its presence is supposed to indicate a "male" genome) will survive our evolutionary process. The article quotes a geneticist in Australia : "The Y chromosome has already disappeared in some other animals and "there's no reason to expect it can't happen to humans," she said. If it happened in people, some other chromosome would probably take over the sex-determining role of the Y, she said." It's entirely wishful thinking (and determinist to boot), but let's hope that if it does disappear, some of the, um, less productive traits associated with masculinity go with it.Breast Cancer and Genetic Screening
A couple of recent articles in the press have discussed the use of genetic screening (looking for mutations in the so-called BRCA 1 and 2 genes) for women to determine the risk of breast cancer, as a US task force has recommended only testing those with a noted family history of cancer. In USA Today and the Globe & MailNew Report on the seed industry from the ETC Group
According to the ETC Group, "the top 10 multinational seed firms control half of the world's commercial seed sales. With a total worldwide market of approximately US$21,000 million per annum, the commercial seed industry is relatively small compared to the global pesticide market ($35,400 million), and it's puny compared to pharmaceutical sales ($466,000 million). But corporate control and ownership of seeds - the first link in the food chain - has far-reaching implications for global food security. A single firm, Monsanto, now controls 41% of the global market share in commercial maize seed, and one-fourth of the world market in soybean seeds. The same company's seeds and biotech traits accounted for 88% of the total area planted in genetically modified seeds worldwide in 2004." Get the full report here.No surprise here, but the big 3 companies are Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta. And Monsanto and Dupot are also big players in the global pesticide market.
Monday, September 05, 2005
subRosa and the social implications of virtual aesthetics
In "Considerations of the Corporeal," Juliet Davis (Intellegent Agent, vol 5, no 1) discusses the work of subRosa and the tensions between an aesthetics based on a phenomonological orientation and one based on a social conception of the body. Careful not to separate bodily knowledge from the social realm, Davis looks at artists' works that reveal the limitation of the senses in VR realms, as well as the problematics of an aesthetics based on deception. She makes explicit reference to subRosa's U-Gen-A-Chix performance that was part of YOUgenics2.0 at SW Missouri State University.Archives
June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007
