Current Events 3

June 20- June 26

Tsunami Debris

• Tsunami triggered by a 9.0 undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan on 11 March 2011

• The tsunami swept an estimated 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean.

• Roughly 70 percent of that sank right away, which leaves maybe 1.5 million tons still floating around.

• No radiation contamination

Tsunami Debris• A large floating dock (~66’ x 19’ x 7’) that was

ripped from its pilings in Misawa, Japan by the tsunami arrived on the shores of Newport in central Oregon late on June 4 or very early on June 5.

Tsunami Debris

Trouble on the Horizon for GM Crops?• Pests are adapting to genetically modified

crops in unexpected ways• Resistance of cotton bollworm to insect-killing

cotton plants involves more diverse genetic changes than expected

Trouble on the Horizon for GM Crops?

• Cotton and corn have been genetically engineered to produce toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt.

• Over time, initially rare genetic mutations that confer resistance to Bt toxins are becoming more common as a growing number of pest populations adapt to Bt crops.

Trouble on the Horizon for GM Crops?

• Two unrelated, dominant mutations in the field populations

• Dominant resistance is more difficult to manage and cannot be readily slowed with refuges, which are especially useful when resistance is recessive

• Refuges consist of plants that do not have a Bt toxin gene and thus allow survival of insects that are susceptible to the toxin

Entomophagy• 2050 population 9 billion – demand for meat will grow too• 2010, a billion people suffered from chronic hunger

according to UN• From an ecological perspective, insects have much smaller

footprint than livestock• Insects are cold-blooded, making them 4-times more

efficient at turning food into meat than cattle• Fried grasshoppers have 3-times the protein of cattle• Because insects are so genetically distant from humans,

there is little likelihood of disease spreading – swine flu

CAFO

Entomophagy

• Many parts of the world eat bugs–Mali children eat grasshoppers– Australian Aborigines eat grubs– Tarantuals in Venezuala– Beetles in China– Ancient Romans ate beetle grubs– Anceint Greeks ate grasshoppers

Entomophagy

• FDA allows certain levels of bugs in food– In canned and fresh spinach, 50 aphis, thrips, or

mites per 100 grams– Peanut Butter can have 30 insect fragments per

100 grams– Chocolate can have 60 insect fragments per 10

grams

Dengue Fever• Like Malaria, Dengue is spread by a bite from an infected mosquito • Dengue Fever is an extremely serious disease

• Symptoms: mild and flu-like to high fever, rash, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain

• The joint pain can be so severe that Dengue has been given the name ‘breakbone fever’. • Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite are also common

• In the more severe form, known as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), blood vessels start to leak and the blood fails to clot, causing bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums

• Without prompt treatment, the blood vessels can collapse, causing a critical condition called Dengue Shock Syndrome

• About 25,000 people die from Dengue Fever every year

Dengue Fever• Since the 1970s, the number of countries experiencing Dengue

outbreaks has grown from 9 to more than 100• Today, up to 40% of the world’s population, or 2.5 billion

people, is thought to be at risk

Dengue Fever

• Aedes aegypti • Eggs can survive for months without water,

allowing them to be transported all over the world

• The life-cycle of a mosquito is about 3 weeks – from hatching, to adult, to reproduction

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

• Very small amounts of DNA injected into the end of a mosquito egg

• In a very few eggs, the new DNA will be taken up by the mosquito’s cells and will be cut and pasted into the mosquito’s own genome

• If this happens in the sperm cells of a male mosquito, or the egg-producing cells of a female, the new DNA can be passed on to their offspring

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

• The GM males are then released into the environment, where they mate with wild females

• As a result, the population as a whole is reduced • Uses the natural instincts of the released male

mosquitoes to seek out females, so it is much more effective than traditional means

• It is also species-specific: it affects only the target pest, and doesn’t harm other insects

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes• If the gene in the modified mosquitoes kills them, how does that

make them sterile? • When the GM mosquitoes are reared in the presence of

tetracycline, it stops the GM protein from working: in effect, it acts like an antidote

• So when we feed the modified mosquitoes with this supplement in the lab, they stay perfectly healthy

• But when the male mosquitoes mate with females in the wild, their children inherit the lethal gene

• Tetracycline is not present in the environment in sufficient quantities to allow survival, so without the ‘antidote’ in their diet, the children of the modified mosquitoes die

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

• Glow-in-the-Dark cats

• Pollution-fighting plants

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

• Venomous cabbage

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

• Goat Silk

• Super Salmon

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering

• Vaccinating Bananas

• Human hens

Example of Bizarre Genetic Engineering