Agriculture. "Unless you and yours are starving, you need to SHUT THE F*CK UP!" Time to call out the anti-GMO conspiracy theory. Mark Lynas speech hosted by the International Programs – College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (50th Anniversary Celebration) , and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University 29 April 2013, 2.15pm ET I think the controversy over GMOs represents one of the greatest science communications failures of the past half-century.
Millions, possibly billions, of people have come to believe what is essentially a conspiracy theory, generating fear and misunderstanding about a whole class of technologies on an unprecedentedly global scale. This matters enormously because these technologies – in particular the various uses of molecular biology to enhance plant breeding potential – are clearly some of our most important tools for addressing food security and future environmental change.
This is what has happened with the GMOs food scare in Europe, Africa and many other parts of the world. On a personal note, let me explain why I am standing here saying this. I haven’t finished! Genetic Literacy Project. Biology That Makes Us Tick: Free Stanford Course. Genetics and the tree of life. We traditionally think about the tree of life in terms of Kingdoms: plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc. Genetics has really revolutionized the way we think about the tree of life and, because our classifications should reflect ancestry (that is, who is more closely related to whom), it has actually called into question a lot of our traditional classifications. Most biologists split up life into three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya (the last of which includes animals, plants, fungi, etc.). The three domains of life.
From Carl Zimmer's blog The Loom. Science writer Carl Zimmer has an interesting post on his blog about how the newest genetic data may even call this classification into question by adding a fourth domain. From his post: There’s a lot of debate about whether eukaryotes actually split off from within the archaea, or just branched off from a common ancestor. New research is looking at tons of genes from these sorts of organisms. References Wu, D., et al. (2011). Google's Kurzweil Says Immortality Is Real.