This could well be the most interesting and informative 20 minutes of your day.
from www.ted.com
In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.
Korea is making glow in the dark cats! Should we be excited, scared or both? Is genetic manipulation going too far?
Modifying E. coli to smell like mint or bananas seems harmless, even useful. The economist claims that increasing field yields through genetic manipulation is the key to ending the food crisis.
Yet, where is the line? IS there a line? Will we be soon making birds that can sing for real or monkeys that talk or fish that can live out of the water? Will we design human beings or even new life forms?
Why am I surprised, aren't we already doing that? After all, cats that glow or e. coli that smells like banana have never before existed in nature...
Some claim the line is drawn on a physical term (like, when you make a pig with a human arm sticking out). I think that's just a temporary line. Once we get used to the idea, the line will be pushed further and further.
In my opinion, the real line will be drawn by nature coming back and chasing us for playing with something we have no idea about. The potential side effects of playing with the code of nature will be line.
http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20071212009
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/13/514602.aspx
