A new report from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology surveys the growing research into genetically-modified insects and examines the possible health and environmental risks.
[ Link to Full Study ]
A team of researchers, under the leadership of Craig J. Venter, plan to create a new form of life in a laboratory dish, a project that raises ethical and safety issues but also promises to illuminate the fundamental mechanics of living organisms.
Spurred by growing fear that drugs or chemicals made in gene-altered plants will taint the food supply, the North American biotechnology industry is voluntarily adopting a broad moratorium on planting certain types of crops in major food-producing regions.
An advocacy group said yesterday it had uncovered a year-old patent that it interprets as applying to cloned human beings, and the group called on Congress to clarify the law to specify that no patents can be issued on human life.
Spurred by fears of bioterrorism, state legislators across the country are pushing new laws that would permit large-scale quarantine, forcible seizure of hospitals and other businesses, mandatory vaccination or treatment, and destruction of contaminated property without the owners' consent.