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| How are Humans Going to Become Extinct?by Sean Coughlan, BBC NewsApril 25th, 2013Experiments in areas such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and machine intelligence are hurtling forward into the territory of the unintended and unpredictable.
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| Earth Day in Biopoliticsby Jessica Cussins, Biopolitical TimesApril 22nd, 2013In honor of Earth Day, let’s hope for a move away from “greenwashed” PR stunts and techno-fixes toward conservation, sustainability, and social responsibility. |
| Biotech's 10 Biggest PR Disasters of 2012GMWatchDecember 31st, 20122012 was the year the lights came up on the biotech industry. Its claims, its tactics and its products all came under scrutiny and some of its biggest PR fairytales bit the dust. Here are some prime examples. |
| Bill McKibben on Real Time With Bill Maherby Osagie K. Obasogie, Biopolitical TimesOctober 18th, 2012Bill McKibben discusses the radical implications of climate change and the troubling proposal made by some to "alter [human] behavior and physiology" to deal with these changes. |
| Vote for the
Dinner PartyIs this the year that the food movement finally enters politics?by Michael Pollan, New York TimesOctober 10th, 2012California’s Proposition 37, which would require that genetically modified foods carry a label, has the potential to change the politics of food not just in California but nationally too. |
| Craig Venter’s Bugs Might Destroy the Worldby Daniel Sharp, Biopolitical TimesJune 22nd, 2012A recent article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine hypes Craig Venter and synthetic biology as green solutions to the world’s woes. The real story is what the article missed. |
| Artificial DNA Presents Real Dangersby Daniel Sharp, Biopolitical TimesMay 2nd, 2012The creation of “artificial DNA” has generated substantial media buzz. The untold story behind the hype is about the new risks synthetic biology presents. |
| New Buzz around Biological Hazardsby Emily Beitiks, Biopolical TimesNovember 1st, 2011Recent reports highlight emerging biological engineering risks that might not be all that different from threats of bioterrorism, though the context of development surely differs.
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| Lab Fight Raises U.S. Security Issuesby Jennifer Gollan, New York TimesOctober 22nd, 2011Biosafety expert Paul Rabinow resigned from the UC Berkeley-led Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, and asserted that the Center is not doing enough to prevent a biological disaster. |
| The Sins of Syn Bioby Jim Thomas, SlateFebruary 2nd, 2011How synthetic biology will bring us cheaper plastics by ruining the poorest nations on Earth.
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| Europeans Want Regulation for Biotechby Pete Shanks, Biopolitical TimesNovember 18th, 2010The latest Eurobarometer report on biotechnology shows that Europeans, in general, support medical uses of technology as long as they are carefully regulated. |
| Tragedy on the Pharmby Pete Shanks, Biopolitical TimesMay 24th, 2010Cows genetically modified to produce human follicle stimulating hormone died unexpectedly from vastly enlarged ovaries, unleashing a storm of controversy in New Zealand. |
| Caruso and Darnovsky on Synthetic Biologyby Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical TimesNovember 17th, 2008If you are doing some crash preparation to attend tonight's debate on synthetic biology with Drew Endy and Jim Thomas, here are two resources to bring you up to speed. |
| Synthetic BiologyVenter's Trillion-Dollar Dream Spotlights Dangers of "Self-Regulation"Genetic CrossroadsJune 29th, 2007Yesterday's announcement that biotech entrepreneur Craig Venter is one step closer to constructing a self-replicating artificial life form should be a wake-up call. Venter's move to construct a synthetic bacterial species paves the way for the deliberate or accidental creation of pathogens of unprecedented virulence. |
| Calls for a Moratorium on Food from Cloned AnimalsGenetic CrossroadsOctober 20th, 2006A coalition of health, environmental, animal safety, consumer and religious groups has filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration aimed at the agency's pending decision on allowing meat and milk from cloned animals into the U.S. food supply. |
| FoE Condemns Athletic "Gene Doping"Genetic CrossroadsMarch 31st, 2005Friends of the Earth President Dr. Brent Blackwelder testified before the US House Government Reform Committee hearings on steroid use in baseball to urge they consider action to ban athletic "gene doping." |
| Humans 2.0Will Your Grandchildren Be Genetically Modified?September 28th, 2004A conversation with Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, and Marcy Darnovsky about the social and political implications of the new human biotechnologies, later broadcast on KPFA Sunday Salon. |
| Posthuman Enough?by Richard B. Norgaard, BioScienceMarch 30th, 2004Will we say "enough" and set up the controls necessary to prevent the transformation of a portion of the human population into superpeople? |
| Too Clever Too Fast Too Happyby Bill McKibben, The GuardianMay 3rd, 2003But what if, instead of crudely cheating with hypodermics, we began literally to programme children before they were born to become great athletes?... And as we move into the new world of genetic engineering, we won't simply lose races, we'll lose racing : we'll lose the possibility of the test, the challenge, the celebration that athletics represents. |
| Bill McKibben in ConversationApril 30th, 2003The Center for Genetics and Society presented an evening with Bill McKibben, renowned author of the new book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, along with Anuradha Mittal, Marc Lappe, and Marcy Darnovsky. |
| Designer Genesby Bill McKibben, OrionApril 30th, 2003Once you accept the idea that our bodies are essentially plastic, and that it's okay to manipulate that plastic, there's no reason to think that consumers would balk because "genes" were involved instead of, say, "toxins." Especially since genetic engineering would not promote your own vanity, but instead be sold as a boon to your child. The vision of genetic engineers is to do to humans what we have already done to salmon and wheat, pine trees and tomatoes. |
| Germline Warfareby Ralph Brave, The NationApril 7th, 2003Bill McKibben's "Enough" is reviewed by Ralph Brave at The Nation. |
| Human Cloning and Genetic TechnologyThe Global Challenge to Social Justice, Human Rights and the EnvironmentFebruary 25th, 2003The Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Center for Genetics and Society, and the Worldwatch Institute presented a briefing and discussion in Washington. |
| The Genome as CommonsThrough all the trials and tribulations of human history what binds us in the end is our common humanityby Tom Athanasiou and Marcy Darnovsky, WorldWatchJuly 1st, 2002Perhaps we must put the human genome itself on this endangered commons list, and note that if this genetic commons too is lost to partition and privatization, if it too becomes the privilege of the affluent, then none of us on either side of the divide can be sure of retaining the "humanity" we like to think we've achieved. |
| Why Environmentalists Should Be Concernedby Bill McKibben, WorldWatchJune 30th, 2002Humans have dangerously destabilized the Earth's ecological system. If we now begin altering our evolved interdependence with nature, we will only accelerate the destabilization. |
| Environmental Leaders on Cloned and Genetically Modified HumansLetter to the US Senate from Environmental Leaders Concerning Cloning and Inheritable Genetic Modification February 6th, 2002Nine prominent environmental leaders delivered this public letter to the US Senate, calling for a ban on human reproductive cloning and inheritable gene modification. |
| Designer Peopleby Sally Deneen, E MagazineThe Human Genetic Blueprint Has Been Drafted, Offering Both Perils and Opportunities for the Environment. The Big Question: Are We Changing the Nature of Nature? |
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