Why is it that just because a company identifies a gene and in this case two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers do they think they are entitled to a patent? This case could determine if you even own your own body because if this is allowed, in the future you may have to pay a licensing fee just to be alive! Of course that would never happen, would it? But if they control the cause of a disease then they would presumably control the cure. Could mean that a company could identify a gene related to an illness, patent that gene and then wait for someone else to find a cure and reap the financial rewards from someone else’s efforts?
Myriad Genetics, a Utah-based company, vowed Wednesday to “vigorously defend” itself against a legal challenge to its patents on two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, its attorney told CNN.
A lawyer in the case says patenting genes would be like patenting an eyeball removed from someone.
A lawyer in the case says patenting genes would be like patenting an eyeball removed from someone.
“Myriad strongly believes its patents are valid and enforceable and will be upheld by the courts,” said Richard Marsh, the company’s general counsel. Continue Reading »
I strongly believe in the invention of nature and that the only reason we survive on this planet is solely based on what we have learned from the earth and the incredible collection of life here. This is an excellent example of a discovery that should make headlines but barely gets noticed. The key here is that no one believed that anything could have survived without oxygen. Surprise, they do live and have done so for 1.5 million years! There is a lot to be learned from the earth and we really do have an obligation to make sure we do not overlook anything, even microbes in a glacier.
A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report April 17 in the journal Science.
The discovery of life in a place where cold, darkness, and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive comes from a team led by researchers at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Harvard’s Microbial Sciences Initiative.
Despite their profound isolation, the microbes are remarkably similar to species found in modern marine environments, suggesting that the organisms now under the glacier are the remnants of a larger population that once occupied an open fjord or sea.
“It’s a bit like finding a forest that nobody has seen for 1.5 million years,” says Ann Pearson, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “Intriguingly, the species living there are similar to contemporary organisms, and yet quite different — a result, no doubt, of having lived in such an inhospitable environment for so long.” Continue Reading »
Now if they could only make the box eatable too, maybe as a dessert? While I love good simple effective ideas like this, it will probably have limited acceptance as most people (like me) grab a slice and go at it without a plate. Of course I rarely have leftover pizza too. Good thinking at work here…
Great idea but I wonder what kind of by-product is left over from the process if any? But this is a good start in keeping in check the overwhelming amount of by-products created by modern civilization.
Old tires are hard to bury and dirty to burn, but a New Jersey company has a new solution: microwave them.
The Global Resource Corporation, of Mount Laurel, is expected to cut the ribbon on Monday on a factory outside Chicago that makes giant microwave chambers for converting tires into three kinds of fuel: oil that can serve as a feedstock at an oil refinery, or substitute directly for diesel fuel in some applications; gases that can be burned to make electricity; and a solid material that can be burned in coal plants. Continue Reading »
