After 12 years of refusing to let any new genetically modified food crops take root in the European Union, the EU has finally given the go-ahead to an engineered potato. However, the GM potatoes won’t end up in French pomme frites or German potato dumplings, as they’ve been approved only for industrial or animal feed purposes. Regulators say the high-starch spuds will likely be used by paper and textile companies.
The Amflora potato was created by the German chemical company BASF and will be cultivated this year on a commercial scale of 250 hectares in the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Germany. Before Amflora, only one other GMO had been approved for cultivation in the EU — Monsanto’s MON810 maize, in 1998 — in spite of repeated findings from the European Food Safety Authority that such products did not pose health risks [Financial Times]. And even though that GM maize variety was officially approved by the EU, a number of European countries have banned its cultivation.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 10
The week’s most sensational news came from a PNAS study which heralded the repair of damaged rabbit penises by rebuilding crucial erectile tissue. The researchers proved that they could engineer new corpora cavernosas, the column of tissue that engorges with blood during male arousal, and the male rabbits demonstrated that their new parts worked just fine by mating and fathering offspring. While the technique isn’t ready for humans yet, researchers have high hopes that they’ll soon be able to help men who need penile reconstructive surgery. Spammers presumably have high hopes that they’ll soon be able to fill your inbox with messages touting the rabbit penis cure.
Human Reproduction, November 10
Since we have two stories that related to male sexual health, we’ll get them both out of the way. Then we’ll move on, we swear. This second study raised yet more troubling questions about the plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) that is found in everything from baby bottles to canned food linings. The researchers tracked the sexual health of more than 600 Chinese factory workers exposed to high levels of BPA, and found the men were four times more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction and seven times as likely to have difficulty with ejaculation than factory workers who weren’t exposed to the chemical. Previous animal research has linked BPA to a host of other health problems, including fertility problems, cancer, and diabetes; this U.S. government-funded study seems to strengthen the case for taking the chemical off the market.
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The Obama administration plans to designate more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as protected, critical habitat for the endangered polar bear, the Interior Department announced yesterday. The proposed area covers a vast swath of sea ice off Alaska’s northwest coast, as well as barrier islands and a coastal region where the bears make their dens. The area, the largest single designation of protected habitat for any species, encompasses the entire range of the two polar bear populations that exist on American land and territorial waters. Government scientists estimate that there are roughly 3,500 bears in the two groups, known the Chukchi Sea and the Southern Beaufort Sea populations [The New York Times]. The bears are threatened by the gradual disappearance of their sea ice habitat due to global warming.
The move could lead to new restrictions on offshore drilling for oil and gas in Alaska’s waters. Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery…. Designation as critical habitat would not, in itself, bar oil or gas development, but would make consideration of the effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government-approved activity [AP]. The proposed federal rule will now be subject to public comment, and the final rule is expected to be announced next year.
Related Content:
80beats: Should Humans Relocate Animals Threatened by Global Warming?
80beats: Obama Brings Experts Back to Endangered Species Policy
80beats: Obama Moves to Undo Bush-Era Environmental Policies
80beats: 2 Trillion Tons of Polar Ice Lost in 5 Years, and Melting Is Accelerating
DISCOVER: Polar Bears (Finally) Make the Endangered Species List
Image: flickr / longhorndave
Earlier this month, we asked you to support science education by donating through the web site Donors Choose, which allows you to donate directly to a classroom of your choice. Now we’re asking again.
We all know how crucial scientific literacy is to our society. But in cash-strapped schools across the country, science programs are too often considered a luxury. With Donors Choose, you can help provide the funds for a project that will give kids a hands-on experience of science.
A link to the 80beats Donors Choose page will remain in the sidebar until the end of October. You can give as little as $5, and contributions are tax deductable. Your gift will have a clear impact, as emphasized by the thank you letter that every donor receives from the grateful teacher.
NASA successfully crashed two objects into the moon early this morning, in an attempt to kick up the dust so it could be checked for traces of water ice. At 7:31 a.m. EST, an empty rocket hull plummeted towards the surface at 1.5 miles per second and plowed into a crater near the moon’s south pole, where it was expected to create a mini-crater half the size of an Olympic swimming pool. It was trailed by the LCROSS probe, which was supposed to take pictures of the first impact, fly through the dust plume, and then crash into the moon itself. According to early reports, the whole procedure went fine–except for one of the flashier details.
The live feed of images that LCROSS was supposed to beam back to Earth–and that earthlings were waiting for with baited breath–didn’t arrive on schedule. Screens got fuzz and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was all about. NASA officials said their instruments were working, but the planned live photos were missing…. People who got up before dawn to look for the crash at Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory threw confused looks at each other instead. Telescope demonstrator Jim Mahon called the celestial show “anticlimactic” [AP].
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We all know how crucial scientific literacy is to our society. But in cash-strapped schools across the country, science programs are too often considered a luxury.
We’re asking you to support science education by donating through the web site Donors Choose, which allows you to donate directly to a classroom of your choice. Do you want to help a Louisiana classroom purchase an aquarium so the students can study a riverine ecosystem? Will you help a New York City science teacher buy Bunsen burners and thermometers for her class, so the students can put down their worksheets and have a hands-on science experience for the first time?
We’ll be asking for your help through the month of October, and a link to the 80beats Donors Choose page will remain in the sidebar all month. You can give as little as $5, and contributions are tax deductable. Your gift will have a clear impact, as emphasized by the thank you letter that every donor receives from the grateful teacher.
