Quick Reads

Nobel laureates serving Monsanto and Syngenta

07 July 2016

By Silvia Ribeiro*

It is not often that so many prominent scientists reveal their ignorance on a topic in such a short space. This was the case for the public letter that a hundred Nobel laureates published on June 30th defending genetically modified organisms (GMOs), particularly the so-called “Golden Rice,” and attacking Greenpeace for its critical stance on these crops. The letter is so full of high-sounding adjectives and epithets, false claims and poor arguments that it seems more like a propaganda tirade from transgenic companies than scientists presenting a position.

Detengamos la bomba genética

Comentarios del Grupo ETC al informe de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Estados Unidos sobre los conductores genéticos
08 June 2016

El primer estudio sobre la gobernanza de los conductores genéticos evita los temas explosivos: militarización, comercialización, seguridad alimentaria.
El Grupo ETC insta a que la discusión sobre las patentes y la gobernanza de los conductores genéticos quede en manos de Naciones Unidas

Stop The Gene Bomb! ETC Group Comment on NAS Report on Gene Drives

First study on gene drive governance avoids the explosive issues: Militarization, Commercialization, Food Security. ETC Group urges that gene drive patents and governance be handed to the United Nations.
08 June 2016

Coming in at over 200 pages, today’s National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, 'Gene Drives on the Horizon’ is weighty but disappointing. It fails to properly address three of the most pressing issues raised by the controversial new technology of CRISPR-CAS9 gene drives. Dubbed, the ‘mutagenic chain reaction’ by its inventors, RNA-guided gene drives are a high-leverage synthetic biology technology invented only last year.

Craig Venter pone un huevo de Pascua

Después de seis años, Sintia resucita
28 March 2016

Craig Venter, el arrogante billonario, conocido como el chico malo de las biociencias, anunció que su equipo logró producir Synthia 3.0, la forma de vida autorreplicante más simple que puede existir, creada totalmente por seres humanos, lo cual tiene serias implicaciones científicas y comerciales y cero consideraciones bioéticas.

Craig Venter Lays an Easter Egg

Six Years in the Making, “Synthia” is Resurrected
24 March 2016

Synthetic Biology, according to its proponents, is moving at five times the pace of Moore’s law – basically doubling its capabilities and halving its costs every four months. Except that brash billionaire Craig Venter, often dubbed Bioscience’s Bad Boy, is no Gordon Moore. Venter has just announced that his team has produced Synthia 3.0 – the simplest human-made and self-replicating lifeform ever. Synthia 1.0 was announced – after years of delays – in 2010 and its second coming in this new form has been awaited ever since. Synthia 2.0 slipped by without notice – apparently not much to talk about – but this new version is being hailed by at least some synthetic biology scientists as a breakthrough.

L'avenir de l'alimentation mondiale sous l'emprise des multinationales aux Nations unies

Plus de 100 organisations de la société civile tirent la sonnette d’alarme à l'ouverture de la réunion de la FAO sur les biotechnologies
15 February 2016

(Rome, lundi 15 février 2016) Juste au moment où les entreprises de biotechnologie qui fabriquent les semences transgéniques renforcent leur contrôle du commerce mondial, la FAO leur offre une tribune pour appuyer leur vision.

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