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New “Semisynthetic” Anti-malarial Drug is Unneeded and Sets Dangerous Precedent while Threatening Farmer Livelihoods.
SynBioWatch Press Release: For Immediate Release April 15, 2013 Contact: Lisa Archer, Gopal Dayaneni, or Tina Stevens, , (510) 982-1285, info@SynBioWatch.org Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Aventis and Amyris Biotech founder Jay Keasling have announced that they intend to replace the entire world supply of the World Health Organization’s preferred anti-malarial treatment derived from botanical artemisinin with a…
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Synthetic Anti-Malarial Compound is Bad News for Artemisia Farmers
by Jim Thomas Originally published by the Guardian UK Artemisinin breakthrough by synthetic biologists threatens to open new front in battle between microbes and people In the constant fight between microbes and people, attempts to rein in the malarial parasite have just taken an interesting turn. On Thursday April 11 the founder of Amyris…
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Should We Be Trying to Bring Extinct Species Back to Life?
By Pete Shanks There’s a buzz now around bringing species back from the dead. There’s even a spiffy new name for it: “de-extinction.” To some people, it sounds cute and cool and seems to be a sort of compensation for the human complicity in driving species out of existence in the first place. To others,…
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UK Guardian: Synthetic Biology Advocates Woo Conservationists with Bio-Engineering “Solutions” to Species Extinction
Reposted from the Guardian: Call for DNA biologists to join fight against deadly new threats to wildlife Research into creation of a new generation of synthetic organisms could be the way to save some of the natural world’s most endangered species, according to conservationists The Panamanian golden frog has been pushed close to extinction by…
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Richmond Neighborhood Council’s Recommends Mitigations to the LBNL Proposal
PDF version of this document: LBNL – RANC Recommended Mitigations The Lawrence Berkeley “National” Lab (LBNL) in partnership with the Department of Energy plan to build a high profile, billion-dollar laboratory on Richmond’s South Shoreline. While public pronouncements tell us the lab will focus on ‘green’ energy research, the reality of it is much more…
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Food Made from Scratch By Eric Hoffman
Reposted from GENEWATCH March 29, 2013″ “Agriculture as we know it needs to disappear. …We can design better and healthier proteins than we get from nature.” – J. Craig Venter1 A (very) short history of agriculture For ten thousand years humans have been manipulating plants for food production. This began at a very basic level,…
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WATCH: When Green Tech Isn’t Clean Tech, ETC Group’s technology watchdog Jim Thomas and Fibershed Founder Rebecca Burgess in Dialog with Gopal Dayeneni
Watch an archived broadcast of East Bay Conversations: When Green Tech Isn’t Clean Tech (3/21/2013) Synthetic biology includes creating novel life forms using DNA not found in nature, promising “green” fuel, cosmetics, cures, and more. Geoengineering promises techno fixes for climate change, including limiting sunlight and removing CO2 from the air. ETC Group’s technology watchdog…
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Synthetic Biology Comes Down to Earth
Note: This article presents an even-handed exposition of the synthetic biology industry’s effort to sell a lot of sizzle, while its steak isn’t quite cooked. One of the most striking points we find here is a clear picture of the frighteningly reductionist — even myopic — view of some of the field’s researchers. Assistant Professor…
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University of California Joins Monsanto in Fight Against Farmer
by Jeff Conant, for synbiowatch Last week, the Supreme Court heard testimonies in the Bowman vs. Monsanto case, wherein the agribusiness giant is fighting an appeal by farmer Vernon Bowman, who the company claims infringed its patent rights by replanting seeds he purchased beyond the bounds of the company’s licensing agreement. The farmer’s claim is…
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For Autodesk, a Step Into a Nanoscale World
The NY Times ran this article a few days ago, about the pending release of a desktop nano-biotech design program. The reporter mentions that “there are still many open questions that nanotechnology needs to surmount, ranging from viability to safety,” but lapses quickly into a swoon over the inventors’ hyping of the new technology, saying that…