Genetic Engineering

"A century ago there was a consensus that evolution was a record of open warfare among competing species, that the fittest were the strongest aggressors, and so forth. Now it begins to look different. The great successes in evolution, the mutants who have made it, have done so by fitting in with and sustaining the rest of life. Up to now we might be counted among the brilliant successes, but flashy and perhaps unstable. We should go warily into the future, looking for ways to be more useful, listening more carefully for signals, watching our step and having an eye out for partners." -Lewis Thomas, M.D.




OCTOBER 2000:
Kellogg's, the maker of the popular breakfast cereals Special K and Frosted Flakes, shut down a production plant over concerns that it was using genetically modified corn not approved for humans.

SEPTEMBER 2000:
Mutant Rabbit Raises Controversy Over Genetic Manipulation - In regular light, Alba appears like any other furry white rabbit. But place her under a black light, and her eyes, whiskers and fur glow an otherworldly green.

"It is dangerous and irresponsible for scientists to experiment with genetic changes that will affect future generations of humans, even if the goal is to cure disease or create improved children, a panel of experts said."

Kraft Foods is recalling all its Taco Bell brand taco shells after tests confirmed they were made with genetically engineered corn not approved for human consumption.


AUGUST 2000:
Using crops genetically engineered to resist weedkillers might harm birds — not because the genetic changes are harmful but because killing weeds means less food for birds.

DNA from a pickled Tasmanian Tiger pup could allow scientists to clone the extinct marsupial, researchers say. It could be the first cloning of an extinct mammal species.

"Pollen from genetically engineered corn harms Monarch butterfly caterpillars, says a group of Iowa researchers. The corn carries a gene taken from soil bacteria, which repels corn borers, bollworms and other pests. "


JULY 2000:
Genetically Modified Trees: A Blessing or Danger for the World? Experimental trees are growing on scores of test plots around the world, part of a little-noted biotech revolution in forestry that experts predict will hit its commercial stride in the next five years. Trees can live hundreds of times longer than the biotech food crops already on the market. That makes it difficult to predict the long-term impact of genetically altered trees on the countless species that depend on them.

West coast of U.S. faces deadly giant cloned algae, an alien invader, a killer that strangles native sea plants, plays havoc with fish populations and causes ecological devastation in coastal communities. Caulerpa taxifolia originally gained notice as a fast-growing plant used to decorate saltwater aquariums. A hardier, cloned version of the species was developed for display at the Stuttgart Aquarium in Germany in the early 1980s. Around 1984, however, a sample apparently escaped. The original caulerpa may have seemed a fragile and decorative plant, but the European clone has proved a resourceful foe -- growing to nearly 10 feet (three metres) in length, thriving in deeper and colder water, and able to survive for up to 10 days out of water.


JUNE 2000:

June 18 - About 150 goats that have been bred with a spider gene are to be housed on 60 acres of a former Air Force base in Plattsburgh, New York. The goats have been bred with a spider gene so their milk provides a unique protein. The company then plans to extract the protein from the milk to produce fibers called BioSteel for bulletproof vests, aerospace and medical supplies.

MAY 2000:

May 10, 2000 — Antidepressants Found in European Water . Huge amounts of complex medications have been discovered in Europe's waterways, polluting rivers, finding their way into drinking water and posing a threat to marine life. Scientists have identified dozens of drugs — including antidepressants, hormones, seizure medication, chemicals used in the treatment of cancer, aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamins, and cholesterol-lowering compounds — that have been passed, intact, through the human digestive tract. These chemicals then entered into sewage treatment plants and eventually into rivers and the sea. Much of the environmental research on the effects of drugs in rivers has been carried out by scientists in Denmark and Germany. The German Institute for Water Research's Thomas Ternes, who led the testing to at one wastewater treatment facility, identified traces of 36 different drugs as well as five other compounds that had been metabolized before leaving the patient. A report in The Sunday Times last weekend said that many scientists are blaming the drug contamination for some of the mysterious widespread mass killing off of tiny aquatic organisms. Sperm levels and spawning patterns in marine life have been altered by the chemicals, notably by antidepressants. Suntan lotion components and the musks and chemicals used in perfume have also accumulated in fish. A world congress is scheduled to convene later this month in Brighton, England, to chart a timetable for an investigation into the effects of the drugs. The U.S. will host a conference in June to quantify the problem. (discovery.com)

The Clinton adminstration has unveiled a plan for more monitoring of gene-altered food in the U.S. The plan would require companies to notify the FDA at least four months before releasing modified crops.

APRIL 2000:

A French newspaper says it has proof of 425 sites in France where genetically modified (GM) crop experiments were carried out without the knowledge of local inhabitants or farmers.

Gene advances outstrip preparedness - World not ready for effects of cracking our DNA code.

Newsweek, April 10 - The cover story says that once Human Genome Project scientists map the genetic code, "babies will be designed before conception," and employers will genetically screen job applicants.

The New Yorker, April 10 - "An article laments the state of the debate on genetically modified food. "Frankenfood" such as Vitamin A-enhanced rice has the potential to help millions of the world's poor. But Greenpeace and other radical reactionaries are crippling the development of modified edibles by demonizing the companies that bioengineer crops. "


MARCH 2000:

Human cloning 'to be allowed' say reports. Scientists are to be allowed to clone human embryos to make spare body parts, according to reports. A newspaper has reported that a panel of experts, led by Dr Liam Donaldson, has decided the potential benefits outweigh ethical objections.

Rice , which provides more than half the daily food for one third of people across the globe, is a key target for genetic engineers seeking to develop new crops to feed the world's growing population. Just such a strain of genetically modified rice, which boosts yields by a massive 35 per cent, was unveiled this week in the Philippines at an international conference on rice biotechnology. As an added benefit, the GM rice, which has been tested in China, Korea and Chile, extracts as much as 30 per cent more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than controls, offering a way of curbing global warming.

The group that created Dolly the sheep, the world's first clone of an adult mammal, have produced the first cloned pigs.

Cows Cloned from Milk

Labelling bio-engineered food - Did you know that the tortilla chips and tofu you eat may have been made from genetically engineered plants? Would you like to know? Find out why some consumer groups think you should, although the government does not think you need to know.


DECEMBER 1999:

A class-action suit opens a new front in efforts by opponents of genetic engineering to curb the use of biotechnology in agriculture. Opponents of genetically engineered food are trying a new tactic in their battle to curb the spread of biotech crops—a lawsuit that accuses Monsanto Co. of conspiring to control the world's seed trade.

December 10, 1999 - New life form on the horizon! American scientists could be about to make one of the greatest breakthroughs in history - the creation of a new form of life. They say they have identified the key genes necessary for life to exist and plan to put them together to create a simple organism. They say a species of bacterium needs about 300 genes to continue growing and reproducing. Dr Craig Ventor, from Maryland, says he now has the ability to build a living organism - gene by gene. "It would be clearly creating a new species that doesn't exist," he said. "I think if we could get down to the point of truly understanding and having one of the formulas for life - and you have to understand that there's thousands if not millions of different formulas, there's not a single formula - but if we could understand one it would be a profound breakthrough."

Genetically Modified Food - Exploring the Controversy Over Crossing Natural Barriers " Scientists have discovered the four molecules that all genes — plant and animal — are made from and how to manipulate them and move them around. And they have crossed a natural barrier. The genetic modification mankind has done for millennia — breeding — is basically able to move genes around only within a species. "Now we take genes from fish," says Martin Weiss, a biologist at the New York Hall of Science, "from bacteria, from humans and put them into each other." Dangerous? Not necessarily. Millions of people eat such manipulated food with no apparent trouble. But testing has only begun and a few problems are turning up.


November 1999:

Time Magazine - November 29, 1999 - predicts that the anti-modified-food movement will grow. Though there is no proof that genetically altered food is harmful, protesters are gaining ground through political theater. When Greenpeace invaded a Kellogg's factory to demonstrate against altered grains, one activist dressed as a grotesquely modified Tony the Tiger.


>A pink bacterium that shrugs off the worst radiation and which has been taught to thrive on toxic waste is yielding genetic secrets that could lead not only to better waste clean-up but better treatments for cancer. D. radiourans has intrigued scientists - It can survive 1.5 million rads of gamma irradiation -- a dose 3,000 times the amount that would kill a human. It also pops back to life after being dried out and can live through high doses of ultraviolet radiation. Just last year, researchers genetically engineered it to eat up toxic chemicals such as toluene and mercury.


Scientists and drug companies have failed to notify the National Institutes of Health about 6 deaths that occurred in gene therapy experiments in the past 19 months. The deaths are the first in gene therapy to come to light that were purposely withheld from the NIH, one of two federal agencies charged with overseeing the safety of the controversial field of medical research, which seeks to cure diseases by giving patients new genes.


THE MASTER BLUEPRINT FOR HUMAN GENES WILL BE DECODED IN 2000, AT LEAST A YEAR EARLIER THAN EXPECTED. "Every genome we look at, every chromosome, we find something absolutely amazing," said Craig Venter, biologist. Genetics poses "difficult and complex" scientific issues, he said. Venter and others also called for caution. Citing the eugenics movement that lent momentum to the rise of Nazi Germany, Venter said," It is easy to look back on science and see the foolishness. It is vey difficult to look forward and see it." In particular, he said, he worries about genetic privacy in a future when a person's IQ or risks of cancer and heart disease could be drawn from a few drops of blood and stored on a smart card or a computer chip.

The latest medical technology will probably be turned against humanity in the form of lethal biological and genetic weapons, warn doctors. The profession is holding a conference to examine the threat to health - and work out ways of getting these new weapons outlawed. Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of health policy at the British Medical Association says that advances in genetics mean that the world is more dangerous than even at the height of the Cold War. She says that the world is potentially only a decade away from weapons that can discriminate between races.


Suddenly it seems possible that old-fashioned corn, cotton and soybeans may bring higher prices than their engineered competitors, at least in export markets. And suddenly the promoters of biotech foods are being reminded in the plainest terms that customers are still king. All the safety assurances in the world are worth nothing if the buyers aren't persuaded.


Farmers planted millions of acres of the high-tech crops this year. But foreign buyers are rejecting them in droves, despite aggressive U.S. marketing efforts and assurances of their safety.


Withered cells in the brains of old monkeys were restored to youthful health in a gene therapy experiment that researchers hope to test soon in Alzheimer' s disease patients.


In a stunning report, Princeton scientists say they've used genetic manipulation to create smarter mice. Is Huxley's "Brave New World" about to dawn? Neurosciences Guide Richard Schuerger looks at the implications.


Humans are set for a major redesign in the next millennium, according to Professor Stephen Hawking.
The famous physicist and author of A Brief History of Time believes the next one thousand years will see huge scientific advances.
He said genetically-modified (GM) humans were inevitable. The professor said he did not advocate the genetic redesign of human beings, but saw it as inevitable as scientists gained a more complete understanding of DNA.
"Many people will say that genetic engineering on humans should be banned, but I rather doubt if they will be able to prevent it," he said.
"Genetic engineering on plants and animals will be allowed for economic reasons and someone is bound to try it on humans." He said that it was unlikely to occur in the next 100 years, but GM humans would arrive sometime in the next millennium and they would bear little resemblance to the people of today. Professor Hawking added that the only way he could see such a situation being prevented was in the event of a "totalitarian world order".