Download or read book The Citizen s Guide to Biotechnology written by Burkhard Mausberg and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book GMO Myths and Truths written by Claire Robinson and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often claimed that the case against genetically modified (GM) crops and foods is based on emotion, not science, and that to oppose GM crop and food technology is to be anti-science. It is also claimed that GM crops offer higher yields and better nutrition, that they are safe for health and the environment, that they reduce agrochemical use, and that they are needed to feed the world’s growing population. This book, co-authored by two genetic engineers and a writer/researcher, exposes these claims as false, using scientific and other documented evidence. GMO Myths and Truths summarizes the facts on the safety and efficacy of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods in terms that are accessible to the non-scientist but still relevant to scientists, policymakers and educators. The evidence presented points to many hazards, risks, and limitations of genetic engineering technology. These include harms found in animal feeding and ecological studies, which in turn indicate risks to health and the environment posed by GM crops and foods. The layout of the book enables those readers with limited time to read the chapter summaries, while providing more detail and full references for those who require them. At 164 pages of paperback size, this new condensed version is shorter and more accessible than the authors’ 330-page report by the same name, which has been downloaded over half a million times. The book shows that conventional breeding continues to outstrip GM in developing crops that deliver high yields, better nutrition, and tolerance to extreme weather conditions and poor soils. In agreement with over 400 international experts who co-authored a UN and World Bank-sponsored report on the future of farming, the authors conclude that modern agroecology, rather than GM, is the best path for feeding the world’s current and future populations in a safe and sustainable way.
Download or read book Citizen Science written by Nancy M. Trautmann and published by NSTA Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors of this book have a straightforward goal: to inspire you to engage your students through public collaboration in scientific research--also known as citizen science. The book is specifically designed to get you comfortable using citizen science to support independent inquiry through which your students can learn both content and process skills. Citizen Science offers you: Real-life case studies of classes that engaged in citizen science and learned authentic scientific processes and the habits of mind associated with scientific reasoning. Fifteen stimulating lessons you can use to build data collection and analysis into your teaching. Plenty of flexibility. You can use the lessons with or without access to field or lab facilities; whether or not your students can collect and submit data of their own; and inside your classroom or outside through fieldwork in schoolyards, parks, or other natural areas in urban or rural settings. You don't need an advanced degree in science to guide your students in productive participation in one of a growing variety of citizen science projects.As the editors note, Such involvement can scaffold teachers' entry into facilitating student investigation while connecting students with relevant, meaningful, and real experiences with science.
Download or read book A Citizen s Guide to Ecology written by Lawrence B. Slobodkin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earth is continuously changing and evolving yet it is unclear how environmental changes will affect us in years to come. What changes are inevitable? What changes, if any, are beneficial? And what can we do as citizens of this planet to protect it and our future generations? Larry Slobodkin, one of the leading pioneers of modern ecology, offers compelling answers to these questions in A Citizen's Guide to Ecology. He provides many insights into ecology and the processes that keep the world functioning. This important guide introduces observations that underlie arguments about all aspects of the natural environment--including both global and local issues. To clarify difficult concepts, Slobodkin uses lake, ocean, and terrestrial ecosystems to explain ecological energy flows and relationships on a global scale. The book presents a clear and current understanding of the ecological world, and how individual citizens can participate in practical decisions on ecological issues. It tackles such issues as global warming, ecology and health, organic farming, species extinction and adaptation, and endangered species. An excellent introduction and overview, A Citizen's Guide to Ecology helps us to understand what steps we as humans can take to keep our planet habitable for generations to come. "This beautifully written book brings together careful observation, personal reflection, and theoretical understanding to explain the major environmental problems that confront us. Dr. Slobodkin's superb and sweeping work invites us to contemplate a great many facts and a few large values to motivate a clear and compelling response to losses of biodiversity, the problem of invasive species, global warming, and other environmental concerns."--Mark Sagoff, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland
Download or read book Can Science Make Sense of Life written by Sheila Jasanoff and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science’s promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.
Download or read book A Citizen s Guide to Radon written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book GMO Myths and Truths written by Claire Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2018-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some would have us believe that the case against genetically modified (GM) crops and foods is based on emotion, not science, and that to oppose GM crop and food technology is to be anti-science. The same people claim that GM crops offer higher yields and better nutrition, that they are safe for health and the environment, that they reduce agrochemical use, and that they are needed to feed the world's growing population. This book, co-authored by two genetic engineers and a writer/researcher, exposes these claims as false, using scientific and other documented evidence. GMO Myths and Truths summarizes the facts on the safety and efficacy of GM crops and foods in terms that are accessible to the non-scientist but still relevant to scientists, policymakers and educators. The evidence presented points to many hazards, risks, and limitations of genetic engineering technology. These include harm found in animal feeding and ecological studies, which in turn indicate risks to health and the environment posed by GM crops and foods. This updated 4th edition includes a new chapter on genome-editing techniques, which are being promoted as crucial to the future of food and agriculture. It explains why these techniques are genetic modification procedures, why genome-edited foods and crops pose similar risks to health and the environment as old-style transgenic GM methods, and why consumers should insist that these products are strictly regulated and labelled. The new edition is also updated with new research pointing to the health dangers of the pesticides associated with GM crops. The layout of the book enables those readers with limited time to read the chapter summaries, while providing more detail and full references for those who require them. The book shows that conventional breeding continues to outstrip GM in developing crops that deliver high yields, better nutrition, and tolerance to extreme weather conditions and poor soils. In agreement with over 400 international experts who co-authored a UN and World Bank-sponsored report on the future of farming, the authors conclude that modern agroecology, rather than GM, is the best path for feeding the world's current and future populations in a safe and sustainable way.
Download or read book Biology for the Informed Citizen written by Donna M. Bozzone and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biology for the Informed Citizen helps student connect the concepts of biology to the consequences of biology. This text aims to teach the concepts of biology, evolution, and the process of science so students can apply this knowledge in their everyday lives as informed consumers and users ofscientific informationThis version of the text does not feature Physiology. For more information about Biology for the Informed Citizen with Physiology, please search for ISBN 9780195381993.
Download or read book Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective written by Paul B. Thompson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-05 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised edition updates Thompson’s trail-blazing study of ethical and philosophical issues raised by biotechnology. The 1997 book was the first by a philosopher to address food and agricultural biotechnology, discussing ethical issues associated with risk assessment, labelling, animal transformation, patents, and impact on traditional farming communities. The new edition addresses the debates of the intervening decade, including cloning, the Precautionary Principle, and the biotechnology debate between the United States and Europe.
Download or read book The Farm Bill written by Daniel Imhoff and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Daniel Imhoffs recently-published The Farm Bill: A Citizens Guide [is] a welcome and much-needed source for translating farm bill legalese ... [it is] a thorough and navigable history of the farm bill ... [that] hands readers the tools to take action." Foodprint "Dan Imhoff does an extraordinary job of explaining an impenetrable bill with such clarity that we can't ignore the facts: that our current Farm Bill profoundly damages our organic farms, our environment, and our health. Just as extraordinary are the practical solutions Imhoff proposes for fixing the bill--humane policies that would support regenerative agriculture and our local farmers instead of tearing them down." Alice Waters, Executive Chef, Founder, and Owner, Chez Panisse "Cuts to the core of dozens of issues Congress wrestles with every four years, and gives citizens sage advice for making their voices heard in a debate too often dominated by Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Money." Ken Cook, President and Cofounder, Environmental Working Group "A must-read for those who truly care about how they feed themselves and their families." Michel Nischan, Founder and CEO, Wholesome Wave "Readers will gain deep insight into the big barriers to Farm Bill reform, but also into the ripening opportunities for major change. Imhoff makes a strong case for why we should care and what it will take to transform policy." Ferd Hoefner, Strategic Senior Advisor, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition "Dan Imhoff is the go-to person if you want to know both details and the full sweep of the Farm Bill." Wes Jackson, President Emeritus, The Land Institute.
Download or read book Genentech written by Sally Smith Hughes and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-09-21 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 in the first few minutes of trading, at that point the largest gain in stock market history. Coming at a time of economic recession and declining technological competitiveness in the United States, the event provoked banner headlines and ignited a period of speculative frenzy over biotechnology as a revolutionary means for creating new and better kinds of pharmaceuticals, untold profit, and a possible solution to national economic malaise. Drawing from an unparalleled collection of interviews with early biotech players, Sally Smith Hughes offers the first book-length history of this pioneering company, depicting Genentech’s improbable creation, precarious youth, and ascent to immense prosperity. Hughes provides intimate portraits of the people significant to Genentech’s science and business, including cofounders Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson, and in doing so sheds new light on how personality affects the growth of science. By placing Genentech’s founders, followers, opponents, victims, and beneficiaries in context, Hughes also demonstrates how science interacts with commercial and legal interests and university research, and with government regulation, venture capital, and commercial profits. Integrating the scientific, the corporate, the contextual, and the personal, Genentech tells the story of biotechnology as it is not often told, as a risky and improbable entrepreneurial venture that had to overcome a number of powerful forces working against it.
Download or read book Liberation Biology written by Ronald Bailey and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the middle of the 21st century century we can expect that the rapid progress in biotechnology will utterly transform human life. Even the prospect of immortality beckons. Such scenarios excite many people and frighten or appall many others--already biotechnology opponents are organizing political movements aimed at restricting scientific research, banning the development and commercialization of various products and technologies, and limiting citizens' access to the fruits of the biotech revolution. Bailey, science writer for Reason magazine, argues that the coming biotechnology revolution, far from endangering human dignity, will enable more of us to live flourishing lives free of disease, disability, and the threat of early death. Bailey covers the full range of the coming biotechnology breakthroughs, from stem-cell research to third-world farming, from brain-enhancing neuropharmaceuticals to designer babies.--From publisher description.
Download or read book A Citizen s Guide to Sources for Marine and Coastal Information in Massachusetts written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Citizen s Guide to Grassroots Campaigns written by Jan Barry and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jan Barry provides a pragmatic, common-sense handbook to civic action. Using case studies from his home state of New Jersey, Barry has crafted what he calls a "guidebook for creative improvement on the American dream." He dissects civic actions such as environmental campaigns, mutual-help groups, neighborhood improvement projects, and a grassroots peace mission to Russia.
Download or read book Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-01-05 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific advances over the past several decades have accelerated the ability to engineer existing organisms and to potentially create novel ones not found in nature. Synthetic biology, which collectively refers to concepts, approaches, and tools that enable the modification or creation of biological organisms, is being pursued overwhelmingly for beneficial purposes ranging from reducing the burden of disease to improving agricultural yields to remediating pollution. Although the contributions synthetic biology can make in these and other areas hold great promise, it is also possible to imagine malicious uses that could threaten U.S. citizens and military personnel. Making informed decisions about how to address such concerns requires a realistic assessment of the capabilities that could be misused. Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology explores and envisions potential misuses of synthetic biology. This report develops a framework to guide an assessment of the security concerns related to advances in synthetic biology, assesses the levels of concern warranted for such advances, and identifies options that could help mitigate those concerns.
Download or read book Nature Wars written by Mark L. Winston and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling book about ethics and choices, Nature Wars shows us the difference between protecting ourselves from real pests and poisoning ourselves and the planet.
Download or read book Biopunk written by Marcus Wohlsen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bill Gates recently told Wired that if he were a teenager today, he would be hacking biology. "If you want to change the world in some big way," he says, "that's where you should start-biological molecules." The most disruptive force on the planet resides in DNA. Biotech companies and academic researchers are just beginning to unlock the potential of piecing together life from scratch. Champions of synthetic biology believe that turning genetic code into Lego-like blocks to build never-before-seen organisms could solve the thorniest challenges in medicine, energy, and environmental protection. But as the hackers who cracked open the potential of the personal computer and the Internet proved, the most revolutionary discoveries often emerge from out-of-the-way places, forged by brilliant outsiders with few resources besides boundless energy and great ideas. In Biopunk, Marcus Wohlsen chronicles a growing community of DIY scientists working outside the walls of corporations and universities who are committed to democratizing DNA the way the Internet did information. The "biohacking" movement, now in its early, heady days, aims to unleash an outbreak of genetically modified innovation by making the tools and techniques of biotechnology accessible to everyone. Borrowing their idealism from the worlds of open-source software, artisinal food, Internet startups, and the Peace Corps, biopunks are devoted advocates for open-sourcing the basic code of life. They believe in the power of individuals with access to DNA to solve the world's biggest problems. You'll meet a new breed of hackers who aren't afraid to get their hands wet, from entrepreneurs who aim to bring DNA-based medical tools to the poorest of the poor to a curious tinkerer who believes a tub of yogurt and a jellyfish gene could protect the world's food supply. These biohackers include: -A duo who started a cancer drug company in their kitchen -A team who built an open-source DNA copy machine -A woman who developed a genetic test in her apartment for a deadly disease that had stricken her family Along with the potential of citizen science to bring about disruptive change, Wohlsen explores the risks of DIY bioterrorism, the possibility of genetic engineering experiments gone awry, and whether the ability to design life from scratch on a laptop might come sooner than we think.
