genomics

GATTACA and genetic discrimination in employment – much ado about nothing?

GATTACA, premiered in 1997 and shown recently at a sciSCREEN event at Cardiff University (http://www.cardiffsciscreen.co.uk/film/gattaca), depicts the world in not-too-distant future, in which genetic discrimination, segregation, and liberal eugenics are the unintended consequence of genetic screening technologies meant to assist human reproduction.

Plants Under Stress: Why Should We Worry?

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'The green revolution of the 1970s reduced chronic hunger from 40% to 20% of the world population while the population has doubled, but 840 million people are still chronically undernourished. Environmental stress accounts for up to an 80% loss in crop yields which translates into a massive loss of food worldwide. Since plants cannot move, they have developed a complex network of responses to stress that help them survive. Some of these strategies are not necessarily geared to crop productivity though, but rather are the product of evolutionary pressures for individual survival.