Two UK politicians have called for an inquiry into the transfer of the 'Dolly cloning' patents to the US firm Geron Corporation in 1999. Conservative MP Bill Cash and Labour MP Nigel Griffiths say that British taxpayers could miss out on 'billions' of pounds as a result of the deal...
Prince Charles has provoked criticism from scientists, and praise from environmentalists, following his 'anti-science' comments in a Reith lecture broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last week. In it, he called for 'greater respect for the genius of Nature's designs.' This, he says, means not changing 'what Nature is, as we...
As the first draft of the entire human genetic code nears completion, speculation is increasing over the total number of genes in the human genome. Some delegates at the Cold Spring Harbour (CSH) genome meeting in the USA last week even started a sweep stake, taking bets at $1 a...
Two fertility experts were arrested in Tel Aviv last week following an investigation into the illegal sale of eggs extracted from patients undergoing fertility treatment. According to Aryeh Edelman, the police officer in charge of the investigation, Drs Zion Ben-Rafael and Ya'akov Ashkenazi would routinely remove extra eggs from women...
Japan's Council for Science and Technology is to call for the open release of human genome data, according to a news report in last week's Nature. The forthcoming announcement will say that 'all data and results' from human genome research should be made public, to ensure scientific progress. Earlier this...
The winner of this year's Aventis Prize for Science Books - formerly the Rhone-Poulenc Prize - is to be announced at the Science Museum, London on 23 May. The short list of six books includes 'Genome' by Matt Ridley: a guide to the Human Genome Project in 23 chapters (one for each...
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Comment
A princely embarrassment
by Juliet Tizzard
When I first read Prince Charles' comments about the dangers of scientific rationalism and the horrors of genetically modified crops, I expected him to have an immediate media and public following. After all, most people distrust GM food, worry about the power of modern science and think we're destroying the...