From the news Archives: October

GM rice test field torched in Karnal
Indian Express, 30 October 2006.

In a serious setback for field tests of genetically modified (GM) rice, activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) have torched the sole field in Haryana where tests for the modified rice variety were being carried out.

Some 400 BKU activists torched the crop, saying it would contaminate soil and affect the existing variety of rice. After the incident, BKU threatened to burn all such fields in the country where trials are underway.

Read full article:

GM rice field torched

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Move to constitute an independent Biotech Authority.
Times of India, 28 Oct 2006.

In a move to bolster bio-technology research, growth and investment in India, the Department of Bio-technology (DBT) has sought constitution of an independent bio-technology (BT) regulatory authority.

The seminal focus of the authority would be to monitor and regulate all science-based processes. "The authority could look at the whole range of bio-tech products, medicines and their quality, environmental safety, health, genetic engineering, field trials of new products, the DNA question and the like. Underlying the monitoring is quality of the bio-tech process. Stringent standards will have to be followed."

DBT would like the proposed authority to function on the lines of the Election Commission — independent and armed with tangible powers to guide the bio-tech sector in accordance with the needs of the country.

Read full article:

See link

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Bird flu season back but govt sleeps
Times of India, 18 October, 2006.

With October, the bird flu season is back once again and India stands hopelessly unprepared for another outbreak. Five Bio Safety Level (BSL) III labs to test animal samples for H5N1 virus were announced.
Not one has come up till now. The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal, which tested thousands of suspected samples for the virus early this year, continues to be the only hope.

According to international norms, once a country declares an H5N1 outbreak, it has to send the virus samples to another country for validation. Sources said officials from Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, have repeatedly asked India to send the samples to Australia. But HSADL has refused to share the virus.

Scientists say though government's attention towards bird flu has dipped, the virus remains just as dangerous and just as able to cause a worldwide outbreak like the one seen since 1918, when 50 million people died.

Read the full article:

Bird flu

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IIT-Delhi develops new drug designing software
Times of India, October 2006

The Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi has developed a wide array of software tools for drug designing and developing individualised medicine.
The ChemGenome software can distinguish genes from non-genes in 331 bacterial genomes and 20 eukaryotic genomes with almost 90 per cent accuracy.
The protein structure prediction software can successfully bracket native-like structures in the lowest energy structures for 50 small alpha helical and mixed globular proteins, Jayaram said.

Read full article:

Drug Design

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New policy may make medicines cheaper
Indian Express, 3 October 2006.

A new pharma policy that will substantially bring down several generic drugs’ prices is likely to be soon in place. A 14-member committee set up by Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will submit a report in this regard to the Union Cabinet at the end of this month.

Paswan said the prices of several hundred brands of generic-generic and branded generic drugs, including Omeprazole and Ciprofloxacin, are set to crash by up to 92 per cent with the pharma industry agreeing to a government proposal on capping trade margins. It has been agreed that the retail margins for these drugs would be kept at 35 per cent while the wholesale margins would be 15 per cent, he said. “This will be effective from October 2.”

Read the full article:

Cheaper medicines

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'HIV not proven to cause AIDS'

German court rules HIV not proven to cause AIDS

After years of claims by the AIDS establishment that a link between HIV and immune suppression had been established a High Court found the claim without merit and a unfounded deception. This is the first legal trail of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis and a historic defeat for AID$ Inc.

It is impossible – as far as laboratory conditions are concerned – to develop a valid Virus-antibody-test, if the virus has not been isolated before. Every layman understands that an individual proof for an infection with a virus is impossible, if the existence of the virus has never been generally proven. This knowledge of the German health authorities, that the tests are not validated, can be proven via the authorities‘ documents themselves. The error concerning the test’s validity is spread and supported by the authorities – against better knowledge.

Read the full article at:

LINK

Also see the comments to this article.

For more in-depth reading see this very diabolical and informative page which categorically substantiates that the HIV=AIDS model, which is seen as a standard in health care, is actually a misnomer.

The AIDS myth!!

From the news archives

From The Financial Express, 17th October 2006.

Field trials of indigenously developed GM Gold Rice soon

India is not lagging behind in developing its versions of the genetically modified (GM) Golden Rice. Director-general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Mangla Rai said, “We would possibly go for largescale field trials of our Golden Rice within a year.”

...The development of GM rice, however, can have some adverse trade implications. The trade session of the ongoing IInd International Rice Congress here on Wednesday discussed how complex global trade would become with the commercialisation of GM rice. In this context, the southwest regional director of IRRI, Steve Linscombe, said, “Though in US, GM rice events like 06 and 62 have been approved and found safe, the concerned company has not yet commercialised it, keeping in view some public concerns about this food crops. Same transgenic protein occurs in the herbicide resistant GM maize and Canola.”

Read the full article at:

GM trials soon

From the Indian Express, 13 October 2006.

Seeds that fight climate change in Navdanya banks

Looking for alternatives to Genetically Modified seeds, noted environmentalist Vandana Shiva’s organic farming initiative Navdanya has brought out seeds that are resistant to extreme climatic changes. Under ‘Climate Change’, a project launched in August this year, three seed banks have been opened in Jaisalmer (drought resistant crops), Kerala (saline resistant crops), and Bihar (flood resistant crops) to help with, according to Shiva, “various dimensions of preparedness in the face of extreme climate changes like the floods in Barmer.’’

According to Vandana Shiva, “We can only deal with climate change by trusting the nature and Indian farmers and not international corporations.” She says BT cotton seeds being infected with insects is an apt example of how corporation seeds can also fail.

Read the full article at:

IE article link

From Indiatogether.org, 7 October 2006.

Has the Bt cotton bubble burst?

Cotton farmers around the country are following Andhra Pradesh's lead in skipping both pesticides and Bt seeds. And there are no pests. Why? There are 28 predators of the American bollworm, cotton's main enemy. If you stop spraying pesticides, these beneficial insects devour the bollworm.

...As the New York Times reports “frustration is building in India with American multinational companies peddling costly, genetically modified seeds. They have made deep inroads in rural India - a vast and alluring market - bringing new opportunities but also new risks as Indian farmers pile up debt.” Regardless of the extent of failure of Bt cotton, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) – the apex nodal agency that accords clearance for GM crops – has been merrily approving Bt cotton varieties. In the past four years, 59 Bt cotton varieties have been approved for commercial planting.

The question I am often asked is as to what is the alternative. My answer is very simple: Follow the two-pronged strategy. First, ban the use of chemical pesticides on cotton (which incidentally consumes 55 per cent of the total pesticides applied). This will result in a restoration of the ecological balance, minimise the insect attack, and result in a safer environment. Secondly, stop cultivating genetically modified cotton varieties. Not only will it reduce drastically the cost of production, it will also mean that the farmer is pulled out from the death trap.

Farmers in several parts of the country are following this approach. In more than 4,500 hectares in Andhra Pradesh, farmers are reaping a higher harvest without growing Bt varieties or using pesticides. And there are no pests. Why? If you stop spraying pesticides, beneficial insects take over. In case of cotton, there are 28 predators of the American bollworm in the same field. When the farmer stops using pesticides, these beneficial insects survive and devour the bollworm. With indiscriminate pesticides applications, these predators are the first one to be killed.

Read the full article at:

Bt cotton bubble burst?

Biodiesel : a new wave

The following is an extract from The Sunday Express, 1 October 2006.

Entrepreneurs are investing big bucks in biodiesel, even the President has endorsed the fuel of the future. But where is the policy that will help India ride the jatropha wave?

....The government has been slow to match the entrepreneurial enthusiasm on the green fuel extracted from jatropha curcus seeds. And with the long-overdue National Biodiesel Policy still to be formulated, there just aren’t enough jatropha seeds available in the country to get the private sector plants up and running.

This has led to a strange situation on the ground. On one hand, entrepreneurs are setting up transesterification plants, which will convert jatropha seeds into oil that can be blended with diesel or used neat to run cars, trains and gensets. But, in the absence of viable jatropha supplies and escalating crude oil prices, most entrepreneurs are now depending on other vegetable oil or waste oil to employ in their plants; some are even willing to import expensive palm oil from Malaysia. ....

....Several arguments were made for jatropha when the first committee on the development of biofuel, chaired by N D Tiwari, submitted its report in April 2003. One, it would reduce the massive crude oil import bill (Rs 19,000 crore every year), two, it would put India’s vast wastelands (55 million hectares) into use. And three, it would provide employment to millions of farmers.

But with plants running on imported vegetable oil instead of homegrown, low-maintenance jatropha, biodiesel is not turning out to be the wonder it was touted to be....

....For all the evident enthusiasm, however, there’s still a vital role that only the government can play. There are nearly 300 varieties of jatropha in India and research needs to be conducted to select the maximum-yield seeds.

There has been some research but not enough. TERI plans to demonstrate the economics of biofuels with its 8,000 hectares under jatropha in Andhra Pradesh which will attain ‘seed-to-oil’ capacity in the next four years. The University of Hohenheim has been developing diesel blends in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which have been tested on Mercedes Benz C-class cars....

For the full article see link:

Running on empty - IE

Playing the field: Entrepreneurs who have entered the biodiesel wave

D1 Oil plc.
Newcastle-based firm has 10,000 hectares of jatropha in India, and plans to hit 1 lakh hectares in Tamil Nadu alone

Reliance Industries Ltd
200 acres of land at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, besides projects elsewhere

Emami
Plans Rs 15 billion bio-diesel plant at Haldia. To use palm oil as raw material initially

Godrej Agrovet
Plans to invest Rs 5 billion in bio-fuel plant cultivation in Gujarat and Mizoram. Will also set up processing plants in Gujarat

British Petroleum: $9.4 bn in TERI jatropha project

Vinod Khosla: Venture capitalist has invested Rs 117 crore in Praj Industries’ biofuel project

Elsewhere...

Richard Branson: $350 million in ethanol to fly aircraft

US Government: $160million for pilot biofuel plant

Bill Gates: $84 million in Pacific Ethanol

Ig Nobel awards

The most anticipated awards in scientific circle should be, in my opinion, and which to some extent is true, are the Ig Nobel awards - " The research that makes people laugh and then think."

Here are this years winners:

ORNITHOLOGY: Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California Davis, and the late Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.

PEACE: Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes annoying noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not to their teachers.

MATHEMATICS: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.


MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage."

PHYSICS: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.

CHEMISTRY: Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."

BIOLOGY: Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.


For the list of other whacky winners from previous years see link:

Improbable winners

Nobel cause.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006 was awarded jointly to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for their discovery of "RNA interferance - gene silencing by double stranded RNA."









The full text of the research can be viewed at the following link:
(Nobel prize press release):

RNA interference

This year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- Roger D. Kornberg -- obtained the first actual pictures at the molecular level that reveal how the genetic information stored in genes is relayed so that it can be used by the body. He obtained those images in a group of organisms that includes humans.

read more :

Among the journals in which Kornberg has published is the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The ACS weekly newsmagazine, Chemical & Engineering News, ran an extensive article on chemistry's role in the genetics revolution in its March 10, 2003, issue. That story is available at:

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8110/print/8110dna.html.

other winners:
Nobel prize in Physics to John C. Mather and George F. Smoot
"for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation"

Nobel prize for Economics Edmund S. Phelps
"for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy"

Nobel Homepage:

Nobelprize.org

What's wrong with Biotech?

Abhishek Seth, an aspiring writer, disgruntled citizen and my alter ego writes for TBI. The content is not by any length a measure of his capability as a writer. The opinions in this post are solely his own.

And yes if this offends you….well, it was meant to!

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What's wrong with Bt?
The above question should not be treated as a mere rhetoric. Think, churn your grey cells, and dust those cobwebs. Remove those self-imposed blinders of fantasy, grandeur and take a look around.

2% of those who pass with a Bt graduate degree will actually be in a position to make a difference. The unfortunate who choose to stay will further someone else’s thoughts and designs on how the world must be. In pharma companies, research institutes or as solution providers they will act as facilitators of borrowed intellect.

Which brings me to the original purpose of the majority while joining Bt, it must have been “to make a difference” or better yet “heal humanity”. Discover a new molecule to rid mankind of very bloody conceivable disease, food for all, agricultural revolution via restructured crops and so on. How many of them actually do something about it?

WHO GIVES A SHIT, RIGHT!

We want to be marketing heads, in management earning money for MNCs. That’s the truth. Even if someone gets into corporate financed research, the direction of research is seldom defined by the person at work. You just rehash protocols, make generics most of the time. Even if you come up with some novel idea, by the time it reaches manufacturing, its cost is so high that it can’t be afforded by common people.

The structure of research today is such that it necessarily is detrimental to the primary benefactor, the people. Companies have one agenda, ‘the bottom line’. If it has or cannot be met by your work, it is a failure. The validity of an idea depends on how useful it is to the people, translated it means can we make money off your back. That’s all there is to it.

Show me a corporate financed project which does not benefit the company and I’ll show you a delusional moron who refuses to wake up from his dream.

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Proponents of gene manipulation argue that we must not be averse to new technologies as it has so much potential to improve the quality of life of the masses. GM food can annihilate wide-spread hunger not only in India but also throughout the world. Less fertilizers, more productivity, more income, everyone will be happy. But they are not, are they?

Here is a question for these geneticists;

Is there a way to fully determine the risk factors of introducing such a crop in the environment?

The answer is a predictable, of course not. As the technology is in the nascent stage, there is a lot we need to know before such an assessment can be made. It can be predicted to 60% accuracy at the best. We will work at it as it comes, that is how research works.

Wait a minute, if it isn’t fully safe why is it already in our environment? There is a possibility that these crops will mutate into God knows what shit, or even worse they will give rise to super bugs with newer diseases. All hell might break loose, but it’s a part of research isn’t it.

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My pet peeve

Many scientists or researchers have this notion or rather firmly believe that a few casualties as a collateral in a research is acceptable for the “greater good”. So many lives will be saved later on.

Hey dumbass, how about enlisting your daughter or your mother in the test. Maybe the next time you calculate the therapeutic index of a drug, put them up for lethal dose studies. Let’s see your commitment to the greater cause then. Frickin hypocrites!