Author Archives: Chris MacDonald

If you want a quick overview of the main points for-and-against GM foods, you could do worse than to check out this recent debate hosted by the NY Times: Can Biotech Food Cure World Hunger? With food prices remaining high … Continue reading →

This is a reminder that our research survey on Personal Genomics, Privacy & Consent is still open, and we still need input from people with a wide range of points of view. This is an innovative, interactive survey that lets … Continue reading →

As I’ve blogged before, the usefulness of the whole-genome scans offered by personal genomics companies is very much subject to debate. It’s not clear just what one is supposed to be able to do with the test results, beyond being … Continue reading →

Of all the interested parties you expect to be boosting biotech…well, environmental charities haven’t exactly been high on that list. Here’s an exception. From Business Wire: WWF report: Industrial biotech can save the world up to 2.5 billion tons of … Continue reading →

Announcing a new Online Survey: Personal Genomics, Privacy & Consent Our research group (at University of British Columbia, Saint Mary’s University, & Ryerson University) has created an online, interactive survey to better understand values & attitudes related to Personal Genomics. … Continue reading →

This is the kind of story that could turn someone who is generally accepting of GM crops (like me) into a skeptic — if not a skeptic about the crops themselves, at very least a skeptic about the companies that … Continue reading →

By John Lorinc, for the NY Times: The Food, Energy and Environment ‘Trilemma’ At the 2009 Bio World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, held in Montreal last week, industry players and scientists found themselves pondering two seemingly contradictory concerns. One focused … Continue reading →

GM food crops raise 2 distinct set of ethical issues: 1) is the food safe to consume? and 2) do the crops themselves pose ecological hazards? This story is primarily about the latter. (For better or for worse, in Canada … Continue reading →

From The Guardian: Bug brings hope for fight against Japanese knotweed It arrived quietly nearly 200 years ago and now threatens numerous British plants, allotments, gardens, pavements, buildings, railways and water courses. Japanese knotweed – capable of growing 3 metres … Continue reading →

From the Calgary Herald: Canadian discovery raises questions about gene studies Scientists in Montreal have discovered that not all human cells are identical, a surprising observation that could turn genetic research upside down. For years, scientists have worked on the … Continue reading →