Consumer products containing ingredients made using an advanced form of engineering known as synthetic biology are beginning to show up more often on grocery and department store shelves. A liquid laundry detergent made by Ecover, a Belgian company that makes “green” household products including the Method line, contains an oil produced by algae whose genetic code was altered using synthetic biology. The algae’s DNA sequence was changed in a lab… [More]

  The privacy commissioner has described as outrageous a move by an investment company to identify bloodstains in a toilet by taking DNA samples from all female employees. Senior personal data officer Natalie Poon Kit- lam said the hunt began after management found menstrual-blood stains believed to be left by one of its employees. Without naming the company due to privacy concerns, Poon said in order to locate the woman, all female employees were asked to take blood tests, with on… [More]

Public Forum: Talking About Race Sat, May 31 at 7:00 PM Public Theater NYC Leading artists and academics take the stage for a conversation about race in 2014 in response to two seminal conversations from history. Directed by Anna Deavere Smith in her classic “documentary theater” style, four actors will perform excerpts of Mike Wallace’s 1959 interview with Lorraine Hansberry, as well as from Margaret Mead’s legendary 1971 conversation with James Baldwin. Featuri… [More]

  World Science Festival presents: Designer Genes: Fashion Our Biological Future   May 30, 2014 from 08:00 pm to 09:30 pm Hunter College Kaye Playhouse New York City   Moderator: Emily Senay Participants: George Church, Nita A. Farahany, Jamie A. Grifo, Sheldon Krimsky, Paula Amato   Perhaps the most complicated code in the universe is the one sitting inside our cells, written in DNA. More than three billion letters make up the human genome, giving geneticists… [More]

  I’d come to Mexico to investigate the ongoing controversy over the proposed introduction of genetically modified (GM) maize into the birthplace of this important global food crop. The issue was hot, because last October a Mexican judge had issued an injunction halting all experimental and commercial planting of GM maize, a process that was well underway in six northern states. The ruling cited the need for precaution to ensure that Mexico’s rich diversity of maize varieties were pro… [More]

    From the Council for Responsible Genetics   The GMO Deception What You Need to Know about the Food, Corporations, and Government Agencies Putting Our Families and Our Environment at Risk Edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Jeremy Gruber Foreword by Ralph Nader “If you do not understand why there is so much opposition to GMOs, nationally and internationally, this book is the place to start.” —Marion Nestle, professor of … [More]

  Six years ago today on May 21, 2008, then President Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) into law.  Senator Ted Kennedy hailed GINA as the “first civil rights bill of the new century.”   GINA represents the first time that Congress has passed legislation before the discrimination it is meant to address has become seemingly permanently ingrained in the country’s social fabric, and in that respect I think we should all be proud. GINA p… [More]

  Danielle Messer is already a mother of two, but she wants another baby pretty badly. “Pretty badly might be an understatement,” Messer told America Tonight from her home in Kentucky. “I wanted a bigger family. I wanted a girl, really bad.” But the 36-year-old says she’s scared of having another child because she and her two sons have a genetic disorder that affects their mitochondria – the tiny structures in cells that absorb nutrients and provide … [More]

  On paper, Dr. Robert C. Green should be worried. An analysis of his DNA flagged a rare mutation in a gene linked to a condition that causes facial deformities at birth. But Green only has to look in the mirror to know that he does not have the disorder, Treacher Collins syndrome. “Most likely this is not a meaningful mutation,” the Brigham and Women’s Hospital geneticist said, pulling up alarming photos on his computer screen of people with the condition. &ldq…; [More]

  First they came for my DNA…   Last week more than 100,000 Icelanders found big envelopes in their mailboxes, sent by the Icelandic biotech company deCODE. The envelope (pictured) contained materials to collect DNA.  Iceland’s official search and rescue team is being paid to go door to door and collect the samples.  Apparently they are being paid $20 for each sample they leave with, and (according to colleagues in Iceland) are using very agressive t… [More]