Yahoo! News - China Seen Opening Door Soon to Biotech Rice: "By Jeremy Smith
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - China could open the door to biotech rice within two years, paving the way for the GMO crop to enter the food stream across Asia, the head of a trade group said Monday.
'Rice is likely to be approved in China in the near term, maybe in two years,' said Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA, a group with industry and public foundation support that promotes biotech as a way to halt global hunger."
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There was an article a few years back where the FBI was investigating biotech industrial espionage down in San Diego. I seem to recall that a SE Asian country had set up an institute to study biotech, but it was really a front for industrial espionage.
Hmmm, I smell a plot...
Monday, February 28, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
New FDA Clearance for Candela Family of Pulsed Dye Lasers
New FDA Clearance for Candela Family of Pulsed Dye Lasers: "WAYLAND, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2005--Candela Corporation (NASDAQ: CLZR - News) announced today that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its family of pulsed dye lasers for the treatment of benign epidermal pigmented lesions adding to the previously cleared treatments of facial veins, rosacea, leg veins, port wine stains, scars, wrinkles, psoriasis, stretch marks and warts."
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Weird. I wonder how that works? Burn the skin to stimulate healing?
The website wasn't too helpful...http://www.candelalaser.com/index.asp
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Weird. I wonder how that works? Burn the skin to stimulate healing?
The website wasn't too helpful...http://www.candelalaser.com/index.asp
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Brand New Brands, Inc.
MILL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, February 14, 2005 - Function is the future of food. That’s the basic proposition behind Brand New Brands, Inc., a new company formed to develop great-tasting food and beverage products that incorporate health-promoting ingredients.
Launched to Develop ‘Functional’ Foods & Beverages; Announces $15 Million in Funding.
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At first I thought they were talking about biotech/pharmalogical kinds of ingredients. That would be pretty cool, and have lots of plot potential. Population control (the Brave New World way or by putting contraceptives in), or perhaps something more sinister...
But reading the press release makes me think it isn't that interesting, though probably healthy and tasty.
Launched to Develop ‘Functional’ Foods & Beverages; Announces $15 Million in Funding.
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At first I thought they were talking about biotech/pharmalogical kinds of ingredients. That would be pretty cool, and have lots of plot potential. Population control (the Brave New World way or by putting contraceptives in), or perhaps something more sinister...
But reading the press release makes me think it isn't that interesting, though probably healthy and tasty.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Yahoo! News - Dolly Scientist Gets Human Cloning License
Yahoo! News - Dolly Scientist Gets Human Cloning License: "By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - The British government Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a license to clone human embryos for medical research into the cause of motor neuron disease.
Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, and motor neuron expert Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plan to clone embyros to study how nerve cells go awry to cause the disease. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies."
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As I understand it, they'll use the same technique (nuclear replacement) to create cells that are an exact genetic duplicate of cells from people with incurable diseases (muscle wasting in this case), grow an embryo from that, get stem cells from the cloned embryo, and study those cells to see how the disease progresses.
That would give them a model system for the disease, which will hopefully lead to a treatment. So the cloning and stem cells would not be used in the actual treatment (thought that is another potential use). More likely, they will find where the development pathway goes wrong and make a drug to prevent it from going off-track.
Plot-wise, you could have a society so in fear of, oh, I don't know, terrorism, that they start mucking with developmental pathways of everyone (well, the next generation at least) to make the world less aggressive. Where does that lead? A utopia? A Brave New World? Who knows?
Or maybe they are evil and try to stamp out things they percieve as diseases like homosexuality, voting for Democrats, and separation of church and state.
LONDON - The British government Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a license to clone human embryos for medical research into the cause of motor neuron disease.
Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, and motor neuron expert Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plan to clone embyros to study how nerve cells go awry to cause the disease. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies."
======================================
As I understand it, they'll use the same technique (nuclear replacement) to create cells that are an exact genetic duplicate of cells from people with incurable diseases (muscle wasting in this case), grow an embryo from that, get stem cells from the cloned embryo, and study those cells to see how the disease progresses.
That would give them a model system for the disease, which will hopefully lead to a treatment. So the cloning and stem cells would not be used in the actual treatment (thought that is another potential use). More likely, they will find where the development pathway goes wrong and make a drug to prevent it from going off-track.
Plot-wise, you could have a society so in fear of, oh, I don't know, terrorism, that they start mucking with developmental pathways of everyone (well, the next generation at least) to make the world less aggressive. Where does that lead? A utopia? A Brave New World? Who knows?
Or maybe they are evil and try to stamp out things they percieve as diseases like homosexuality, voting for Democrats, and separation of church and state.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Yahoo! News - California Wine Country Considers Biotech Ban
Yahoo! News - California Wine Country Considers Biotech Ban: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A measure to ban genetically modified crops in the heart of California's wine country has qualified for a local ballot, officials said on Friday."
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Too bad all crops have been genetically modified through breeding and many through irradiation. I guess it will be good for my favorite Walla Walla wines when California stops growing grapes. Mmmm I'ecole 41. Or maybe a Canoe Ridge.
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Too bad all crops have been genetically modified through breeding and many through irradiation. I guess it will be good for my favorite Walla Walla wines when California stops growing grapes. Mmmm I'ecole 41. Or maybe a Canoe Ridge.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Yahoo! News - Call for New 'Manhattan Project' to Fight Bioterror
Yahoo! News - Call for New 'Manhattan Project' to Fight Bioterror: "By Ben Hirschler
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The world needs an effort similar to that behind the creation of the atomic bomb to tackle the multi-faceted threat of biowarfare, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday.
'We need to do something that even dwarfs the Manhattan project,' Frist told the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos. The Manhattan project was the codename for the United States's World War II effort to devise an atomic weapon.
'The greatest existential threat we have in the world today is biological. Why? Because unlike any other threat it has the power of panic and paralysis to be global.'"
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Oh man, if we can't make an exciting story out of that...
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The world needs an effort similar to that behind the creation of the atomic bomb to tackle the multi-faceted threat of biowarfare, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday.
'We need to do something that even dwarfs the Manhattan project,' Frist told the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos. The Manhattan project was the codename for the United States's World War II effort to devise an atomic weapon.
'The greatest existential threat we have in the world today is biological. Why? Because unlike any other threat it has the power of panic and paralysis to be global.'"
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Oh man, if we can't make an exciting story out of that...
Thursday, January 27, 2005
AARON: A Product of Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies
AARON: A Product of Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies: "AARON is not your ordinary screensaver. Developed by Harold Cohen over a period of nearly thirty years, and productized by Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies, Inc., AARON is the first fine art screensaver to utilize artificial intelligence to continuously create original paintings on your PC."
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Art (and poetry) created by a computer? That brings up the question, does something become art by being created or by being interpreted?
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Art (and poetry) created by a computer? That brings up the question, does something become art by being created or by being interpreted?
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Heart Auscultation and Sound Processing
Heart Auscultation and Sound Processing: "Our Mission
To become the leading provider of non-invasive sound-based software diagnosis tools for the early detection of heart diseases. Our company's philosophy is that early detection requires instant availability of testing tools, intrinsic ability to detect weak signs of silent diseases, safety and simplicity of interpretations."
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Non-invasive medical testing is totally science fiction. Of course, like all new technology, it could also be used for evil. I'm thinking as a novelist of course, so having these ideas don't make me distubed. The voices in my head do that (just kidding...they're completely harmless).
Imagine a world (fictional) where Big Brother remotely monitors your heart rate to spot when you lie. Or maybe samething nicer-a gym with an AI trainer that monitors your heart rate and automatically adjusts your workout as you exercise?
To become the leading provider of non-invasive sound-based software diagnosis tools for the early detection of heart diseases. Our company's philosophy is that early detection requires instant availability of testing tools, intrinsic ability to detect weak signs of silent diseases, safety and simplicity of interpretations."
================================================
Non-invasive medical testing is totally science fiction. Of course, like all new technology, it could also be used for evil. I'm thinking as a novelist of course, so having these ideas don't make me distubed. The voices in my head do that (just kidding...they're completely harmless).
Imagine a world (fictional) where Big Brother remotely monitors your heart rate to spot when you lie. Or maybe samething nicer-a gym with an AI trainer that monitors your heart rate and automatically adjusts your workout as you exercise?
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
PhysOrg: Petrified Wood in Days
PhysOrg: Petrified Wood in Days: "California has Silicon Valley. Could a Silicon Forest in Washington be next? A team of materials scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is on it.
Yongsoon Shin and colleagues at the Department of Energy lab have converted wood to mineral, achieving in days what it takes nature millions of years to do in such places as the Gingko Petrified Forest, an hour up the Columbia River. There, trees likely felled in a cataclysmic eruption and, buried without oxygen beneath lava, leached out their woody compounds and sponged up the soil's minerals over the eons. "
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Pretty wild. I can see artists one day making wood carvings, then petrifying them. Or take your favorite bonsai and preserve it.
Yongsoon Shin and colleagues at the Department of Energy lab have converted wood to mineral, achieving in days what it takes nature millions of years to do in such places as the Gingko Petrified Forest, an hour up the Columbia River. There, trees likely felled in a cataclysmic eruption and, buried without oxygen beneath lava, leached out their woody compounds and sponged up the soil's minerals over the eons. "
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Pretty wild. I can see artists one day making wood carvings, then petrifying them. Or take your favorite bonsai and preserve it.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Yahoo! News - UN Storm Brews Over Hurricane-Global Warming Link
Yahoo! News - UN Storm Brews Over Hurricane-Global Warming Link: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. government hurricane scientist has resigned from the United Nations (news - web sites)' science panel on climate change because, he said, a lead author in the group had too strongly linked global warming to hurricanes.
The issue of whether climate change is leading to increased severity of hurricanes came to a head late last year at a conference at Harvard University where researchers, including the school's Dr. Paul Epstein, said recent storms, droughts and heat waves are probably being caused by global warming.
The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which evaluates the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action concluded in its most recent report that greenhouse gases from autos and industry contribute to global warming."
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And thus in our hypothetical thriller, political strife ensues after a bad hurricane season, where heavy hit nations blame greenhouse gas producing nations for the damage to thier country and people.
The issue of whether climate change is leading to increased severity of hurricanes came to a head late last year at a conference at Harvard University where researchers, including the school's Dr. Paul Epstein, said recent storms, droughts and heat waves are probably being caused by global warming.
The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which evaluates the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action concluded in its most recent report that greenhouse gases from autos and industry contribute to global warming."
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And thus in our hypothetical thriller, political strife ensues after a bad hurricane season, where heavy hit nations blame greenhouse gas producing nations for the damage to thier country and people.
Yahoo! News - Global Warming May Have Caused Extinction -Study
Yahoo! News - Global Warming May Have Caused Extinction -Study: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming (news - web sites) and not a giant asteroid may have nearly wiped out life on Earth some 250 million years ago, an international team of scientists said on Thursday.
The mass extinction, known as the 'Great Dying,' extinguished 90 percent of sea life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals.
There has been recent evidence that a big asteroid or meteor hit the Earth and triggered the catastrophe, but researchers say they now have evidence that something much more long-term -- global warming -- was the culprit.
Kliti Grice of Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, and colleagues studied sediment cores drilled off the coasts of Australia and China and found evidence the ocean was lacking oxygen and full of sulfur-loving bacteria at that time.
This finding would be consistent with an atmosphere low in oxygen and poisoned by hot, sulfurous, volcanic emissions, they wrote in a report published in the journal Science.
A second team led by Peter Ward at the University of Washington looked at fossil evidence in South Africa and found little evidence of a catastrophe and instead signs of a gradual die-off.
They examined 126 reptile and amphibian skulls from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, where there is an exposed piece of dried sediment from the end of the Permian Era and the beginning of the Triassic, 250 million years ago."
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There's a good plot, world slowly dying due to environmental degredation, but the general population won't do anything to stop it. Then a world devestating catastrophy looms and forces people into action. It has Jerry Bruckheimer written all over it.
The mass extinction, known as the 'Great Dying,' extinguished 90 percent of sea life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals.
There has been recent evidence that a big asteroid or meteor hit the Earth and triggered the catastrophe, but researchers say they now have evidence that something much more long-term -- global warming -- was the culprit.
Kliti Grice of Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, and colleagues studied sediment cores drilled off the coasts of Australia and China and found evidence the ocean was lacking oxygen and full of sulfur-loving bacteria at that time.
This finding would be consistent with an atmosphere low in oxygen and poisoned by hot, sulfurous, volcanic emissions, they wrote in a report published in the journal Science.
A second team led by Peter Ward at the University of Washington looked at fossil evidence in South Africa and found little evidence of a catastrophe and instead signs of a gradual die-off.
They examined 126 reptile and amphibian skulls from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, where there is an exposed piece of dried sediment from the end of the Permian Era and the beginning of the Triassic, 250 million years ago."
================================================
There's a good plot, world slowly dying due to environmental degredation, but the general population won't do anything to stop it. Then a world devestating catastrophy looms and forces people into action. It has Jerry Bruckheimer written all over it.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA)
Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA): "Reporters, freelancers, university science writers, students and others interested in science -- together, we make up the Northern California Science Writers Association with some 250 members. Our web site includes information about NCSWA (pronounced NICK SWA), our activities, our officers, and how to become a member. Welcome, please indulge your curiosity, and we appreciate your feedback."
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Hmmm, I may have to join these guys. I do some "science writing" after all. Maybe I'll be a little hush hush about the biotech thriller I'm writing until after they accept me as one of thier own.
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Hmmm, I may have to join these guys. I do some "science writing" after all. Maybe I'll be a little hush hush about the biotech thriller I'm writing until after they accept me as one of thier own.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
GeneOhm Technology Platform
GeneOhm has some interesting technology...
GeneOhm || Technology Platform: "GeneOhm Sciences has developed a proprietary platform for multiplexed molecular diagnostics. GeneOhm leverages the unique electrical properties of nucleic acids to identify genetic mutations that cause disease and to detect the RNA or DNA of pathogenic organisms. Using DNA-modified microelectrode arrays, our platform provides a robust, cost-effective solution for rapidly addressing multiple analytes in molecular diagnostic assays."
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It looks like they can detect mutations by measuring electrical properties instead of sequencing. Hmm, interesting...
GeneOhm || Technology Platform: "GeneOhm Sciences has developed a proprietary platform for multiplexed molecular diagnostics. GeneOhm leverages the unique electrical properties of nucleic acids to identify genetic mutations that cause disease and to detect the RNA or DNA of pathogenic organisms. Using DNA-modified microelectrode arrays, our platform provides a robust, cost-effective solution for rapidly addressing multiple analytes in molecular diagnostic assays."
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It looks like they can detect mutations by measuring electrical properties instead of sequencing. Hmm, interesting...
The Environmental Movement
I had a good discussion the other day that stemmed from a comment about hybrid and fuel cell car technology. My point was that, for good or ill, change will pretty much have to come from economic forces. In a world where so much is dictated by economics, capitalism is a strong evolutionary driver. Certainly it isn't always true, but let's face it, if recycled printer paper costs twice as much as regular paper, which are most people going to buy? And if a third world country can get more money and food by fishing with gill nets or hunting whales, are they going to opt for starvation?
Another driving factor is that people seem to generally be short sighted. Hey, they say, we can make lots of money by chopping down these trees and selling them! But they don't think about what happens when the trees are all gone. Or maybe they do and plan to farm cattle? Why worry about alternate fuel sources or increased gas milage when we can drill oil here at home?
Ok, enough ranting. I'm just trying to say thats how people will behave unless there is some outside influence (e.g. oil embargo forcing folks to get more efficient cars). I'm not trying to say whats good or evil. Well, ok, maybe a little. But the point is that to help preserve the environment, maybe our efforts are better spent by making the more environmentally safe alternative also the more economic choice. Education is important and helps a lot, at least here in the States (I'm sure some will argue one way or the other), but how much does that affect the rest of the world? Me not buying shark fin soup in California won't ever stop fisherman from other countries from shark finning. No matter how many friends I get to stop eating it.
But what does this all have to do with science and writing. Well, it makes a great setting for a techno-thriller.
Another driving factor is that people seem to generally be short sighted. Hey, they say, we can make lots of money by chopping down these trees and selling them! But they don't think about what happens when the trees are all gone. Or maybe they do and plan to farm cattle? Why worry about alternate fuel sources or increased gas milage when we can drill oil here at home?
Ok, enough ranting. I'm just trying to say thats how people will behave unless there is some outside influence (e.g. oil embargo forcing folks to get more efficient cars). I'm not trying to say whats good or evil. Well, ok, maybe a little. But the point is that to help preserve the environment, maybe our efforts are better spent by making the more environmentally safe alternative also the more economic choice. Education is important and helps a lot, at least here in the States (I'm sure some will argue one way or the other), but how much does that affect the rest of the world? Me not buying shark fin soup in California won't ever stop fisherman from other countries from shark finning. No matter how many friends I get to stop eating it.
But what does this all have to do with science and writing. Well, it makes a great setting for a techno-thriller.
- Maybe genetically modified foods provide a better source of income for farmers in Columbia, so they stop growing drug percursor plants. It could be a secret CIA funded plan.
- Or a high tech "organ farm" is used to grow shark fins and bear testicles or whatever other weird thing people like to eat or do whatever with for "non-traditional" medicine.
- Perhaps a natural (or terrorist driven) disaster forces us off of oil as a fuel source, and an alternative has to be found quickly before the world society degenerates to a pre-industrial era.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
New keyboard
I just fired up my FingerWorks Dvorak keyboard, which measures capacitance to recognize keystrokes. Very science fictiony, but making the switch to Dvorak is painful. I'm told it will all be worth it.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Welcome!
Hello. I'm always finding interesting little tidbits on science and writing, so I created this blog to store them all. Having everything is one place is a good way to spark plot ideas, so feel free to peruse, comment, and add your own.
Visit the main site at www.doctortodd.org and enjoy!
--Dr. Todd
Visit the main site at www.doctortodd.org and enjoy!
--Dr. Todd
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