Changing climate, changing behaviour

We could say that climate is the average state of the weather; unlike weather it is fairly stable. It is by no means a modern thing - changes in global climate are natural and expected and have continued throughout the entire history of the Earth.

Climate change refers to the cyclical variations over time of the Earth’s atmosphere as well as its land surface, oceans and polar caps. Changes are measured over time scales ranging from seasons to millions of years. Indicators such as ice cores and tree rings reveal that the earth’s climate has in fact gone through dramatic hot and cold periods every 1,500 years or so. Changes have primarily been the result of events linked to the Earth’s geology, atmosphere, solar intensity and slight variations in its orbit.

BT Corn: future or fear?

It doesn’t take much to see that the public discussion over the genetic modification of food within Europe has gone considerably astray. Scientists often lament the lack of scientific input (and may reflect on why there is so little), while civil society groups lament the lack of public voice and the restrictions on the current debate. The issue has become so sensitive that the slightest hint of agreement or disagreement with a particular form of biotechnology brings forth a barrage of media and political criticism (and support) quite out of proportion to any specific research or proposed introduction of new technology. Instead of sensitive debate about complex risks (not only bio-risks, but also socio-economic risks), we have two camps at war. I have little doubt - from the short period of time that I have been researching into the African biotechnology debate - this warring scenario is already spreading fast across the African continent. In this blog I will argue that one way out of this now polarised situation is to a step back, reflect upon our conceptualisation of the gene itself, and then re-launch the debate without recourse to deterministic views of genetics.

Ivan Toms, a victim of meningitis

Eric Lander is a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Director of its world renowned Broad Institute. He was one of the key scientists involved in the human genome project. He fought very hard to make human genome DNA information available to science and health professionals. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of our time.

A confident and affable person, Lander, sitting in his office in a magnificent building, tells me that biologists have mastered the science of mapping every gene in the human body. We think that we have about 26,000 genes, but we are not sure. The science community has mapped about 20 per cent of the genes. Every day, more and more are being discovered.

The science community now maps genes faster and cheaper. For Lander what is important is to map genes in order to have better health, to create tools for what is known as ‘genome medicine’, which is to use the understanding of the association between genes and disease to develop better biomedical interventions.