I talk about science on the Mindcast, and I write a bit about it here on my blog. In the last few months, I’ve been shedding my blogging timidity (strange, considering that I’ve written a weekly newspaper column), but I’ve most often been moved to write a blog post when something ticks me off, or makes me laugh. So that means a lot of stuff written about ID/Creationism. They don’t deserve that much attention from me, especially since there are many science bloggers who are really on the ball with this brand of pseudoscience.
It’s time for me to dig into what I’m really interested in. Plant genetics. There will be plenty of time for educating, debunking, and lots of news to discuss. Not all of it makes it into the Mindcast because I don’t want it to be a plant genetics-centric show, even though it is a common topic.
The time is also ripe. Back in 2004, more people were searching for information on genetic engineering than for intelligent design:
In 2005, there was a huge spike as Kitzmiller v. Dover raised public interest.
After the December 2005 crescendo, intelligent design fell down to an equivalent level:
Now, you can see, that people are not much more likely to search for ID than for genetic engineering. With so many eager to express themselves about the former, now’s a good time to start talking about the latter. And the latter is too important to be ignored.
There will be plenty of time to discuss philosophy, ethics, science education, the media, pseudoscience, and anti-science in this area. It might have a more intimate connection to our everyday lives because we will be talking about our food, the very stuff that we must eat several times a say. We’ll be talking about our environment, and the minerals, poisons, and salts being dumped into our soil. We’ll be talking about the arbitrary ways in which we define our foods, and how to better consider them in
And there will be time to address a myth - that genetic engineering in agriculture is just some sort of scheme hatched to control the world’s food supply. How, then, do you explain this?
Scientists at Texas A&M University have engineered a variety of cotton that now has edible, tasty seeds. They removed a poisonous compound called gossypol - which is necessary for plant defenses, to make the 23% protein seeds edible for humans. Actually, they removed it only from the seeds, and not from the rest of the plant where it is needed to defend the plant.
They used RNAi, a method of silencing genes, to selectively silence the gossypol-producing gene in the seeds, leaving the rest of the plant unaffected. RNAi is a blossoming technique that holds a lot of promise with very few worries - because it operates by turning genes off - you don’t even incorporate new proteins to get the trait that you want. And that means next to zero risk of altering the allergenicity of the food.
The result of this experiment is that now the people who grow cotton as a cash crop around the world can now eat some of what they produce - and a protein-rich meal at that. ten or so years from now, 500 million people could have their protein needs met. From this development alone.
Also, next week, I will be at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, at an event with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’m going to be one of several panelists who will ask questions about his book and what he thinks about various agricultural issues. I’ve already seen the questions everyone else has submitted and along with my own, this is going to be good.
For Davisites and other nearby peoples, it will be at 4:00 PM in Jackson Hall of the Mondavi Center. UCTV will be filming it, and I’ll be sure to post information about when and where it will be broadcasted as soon as I know.
For more information, go here.
I’m almost finished sewing my outfit. I’m not telling what I’m wearing, though, but here’s a hint. Oh, this is going to be good.
