Category: Updates

In the Washington Post’s coverage of the new declaration from Friends of the Earth, ETC Group, and ICTA, [previous post] the Executive Vice President of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, calls the declaration “kind of silly.” But, wouldn’t it be even, kind of, sillier, if jet-fuel-producing-algae were to escape into San Francisco Bay? Or if, say, college students […]

by Elizabeth Pennisi on 13 March 2012, 2:57 PM | Cross-posted from Science Insider Synthetic biology needs more oversight, and the government needs to put in place regulations specific for this field. That is the bottom line for 111 environmental, watchdog, and other organizations that released a report today with specific recommendations for managing new biological techniques for building and remaking organisms for […]

By Jeff Conant, for Climate Connections Today a broad coalition of 111 organizations from around the world released The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology, the first global civil society declaration to outline principles that must be adopted to protect public health and the environment from the risks posed by synthetic biology, and to address the field’s […]

Yes, it sounds severe. But an article published yesterday in The Atlantic, suggests that synthetic biology, along with nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence, may be the greatest risk factors in the possibility of human extinction. Nick Bostrom, the subject of the article, is no Luddite (though we’d like him just fine if he were); he is a professor […]

  by richardbrenneman, from Eats Shoots ‘n Leaves Amyris, the UC-Berkeley-spawned, Bill Gates-backed genetic engineering company that failed at its efforts to produce a cheaper antimalarial drug, then failed to produce cost-effective agrofuels, the news just doesn’t get better. Today the stock hit yet another all-time low, $5.80, down from a high of $385 just over a year […]

Cross-posted from Richmond Confidential By: Ian Stewart | November 9, 2009 – 1:23 am Southern Richmond’s toxic sites View Toxic Richmond in a larger map An old man with a pair of binoculars leans against a wooden fence, intent on some unseen object inside the weedy Stege Marsh. When the tide’s up, the egrets and […]

Cross-posted from Eats Shoots n Leaves Amyris drops out of the agrofuel business by Richard Brenneman Yep, Amyris [previously], the UC Berkeley-spawned company born of Bill Gates bucks to create an antimalarial drug then reincarnated as a corporation dedicated to creating fuels from plants, is dropping out of the fuel game — in precisely the […]

Bay Area reporter Richard Brenneman, on his blog Eats Shoots n Leaves, draws the link between yesterday’s European Commission proposal to step-up the transformation toward a “bio-economy” and the development of the new Lawrence Berkeley National Lab campus proposed for Richmond, California.  Next month, on March 29, GJEP will be co-convening an event to raise public […]

In an article in the San Francisco Business Times published yesterday, Lindsay Riddell writes, “officials are working to make a planned 2 million-square-foot second campus in Richmond an open environment where startups and corporations can better access the lab’s discoveries and resources.” “Berkeley lab director Paul Alivisatos said one of the goals for the second campus is to enable […]

By M. L. Tina Stevens, PhD, Director, Alliance for Humane Biotechnology and Eric Hoffman Biotechnology Policy Campaigner Friends of the Earth Friday February 03, 2012 – 10:52:00 AM Recent news coverage highlights possible benefits the expanded Lawrence Berkeley National Lab could bring the city of Richmond (“Richmond chosen as site for Berkeley lab’s second campus,” […]