Board supports newly approved enriched rice
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, through their Executive Secretary Dr Adrian Dubock, has expressed support to regulators in the Philippines and lauded them for their approval of GR2E Golden Rice for direct use as food and feed, or for processing (FFP) on December 18, 2019. Dubock expressed their support through a statement released to ISAAA […]
Seventy countries adopt biotech crops
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSince the first year of commercial planting of biotech crops in 1996, more than 70 countries from all over the world have either planted or imported biotech crops. In 1996, the six founder biotech crop countries, the USA, China, Argentina, Canada, Australia, and Mexico, planted these crops in a total of 1.7 million hectares. In […]
Aussie farmer grows first-ever seedless lychees
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBy MEI REI QUA LYCHEE is a fruit that many Malaysians seem to enjoy! Something about slowly peeling off the skin to get the perfectly shaped fruit is very satisfying. Sinking our teeth in the juicy and sweet flesh is a dream! With Chinese New Year coming up, it wouldn’t be long until lychees start […]
PH President confers order of National Scientist to Biotech Champ
Reading Time: 2 minutesPresident Rodrigo Roa Duterte formally presented the rank and title of Order of National Scientist to Dr. Emil Q. Javier, former Minister of Science and Technology and an advocate of agricultural modernisation, during a ceremony held at Malacañang Palace on January 7, 2020. In August 2019, the president released Proclamation 781 which recognises Dr. Javier’s […]
Junk genes from fungi can yield new drugs
Reading Time: 2 minutesBIO-PROTECTION Research Centre scientists and collaborators have made a discovery that potentially opens the door to new medicines and biological pesticides. In work that began with a PhD thesis, and continued through postdoctoral work, they have shown that scientists have been missing potential new drugs and biopesticides, dismissing the genes that make them as non-functional […]
Amateur techie helps NASA find crashed Indian spacecraft
Reading Time: 2 minutesCH E N N A I : S h a n m u g a Subramanian, a 33-year-old engineer from Chennai, turned into an international celebrity overnight after the NASA on Tuesday acknowledged that he had given them the first clue leading to the discovery of the debris of Vikram lander on the moon. “Two […]
Nine of climate “tipping points” active today
Reading Time: 3 minutesMORE than half of the climate tipping points identified a decade ago are now “active”, a group of leading scientists have warned. This threatens the loss of the Amazon rainforest and the great ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, which are currently undergoing measurable and unprecedented changes much earlier than expected. This “cascade” of changes […]
Animals could help humans monitor oceans
Reading Time: 1 minute“WE want to highlight the massive potential of animal-borne sensors to teach us about the oceans,” said lead author Dr David March, of Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall. “This is already happening on a limited scale, but there’s scope for much more. “We looked at 183 species – including […]
Bee-free honey
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA team of 12 students from the Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at Israel’s the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a bee-free honey produced by the bacteriaum Bacillus subtilis, which “learns” to make honey following reprogramming in a lab. For the project they named BeeFree, the team won a gold medal […]
Biotech saves lives: The Philippines health ministry
Reading Time: 2 minutes“WITHOUT biotechnology, polio, measles, and other deadly diseases will be rampant. This reflects the importance of biotechnology in our daily lives and in the future to find solutions and alternatives to the current needs affecting the health of the (Philippine) population,” says Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Dr Enrique Domingo during the opening ceremonies of […]