"cloning" news and stories

Could it be true? Could bacon really be...healthy for your heart?

According to an article I just came across, American researchers have cloned pigs that can produce their own omega-3 fatty acids, which would make bacon and pork good for your heart. Omega-3 fatty acids are those compounds found in fish like tuna that reduce the incidence of heart disease.

For now, the research is still in a theoretical stage, as scientists are not sure whether meat from the cloned piglets whose flesh is laden with the omega-3 fatty acids have the same effect as the omega-3 fatty acids from fish. They are also not sure how consumers would react to genetic modification.

Source

The Norwegians are building a "doomsday vault" for seeds. Buried deep inside a mountain, deep in the Arctic Circle, scientists say that the seeds will be preserved indefinately at temperatures well below freezing. And, to prevent theft, as well as for safety's sake, "the mountains are patrolled by polar bears," though humans will most likely monitor the facility.

The seed depository is being created to preserve the various species of plants that currently exist on the planet, many of which will disappear with each passing year as selective breeding reduces diversity in favor of commercially popular crops. In theory, these seeds can be used to resurrect species of plants that may disappear in the future. Intriguing as this idea is, one must wonder if there would be a demand for such reconstructed species, or whether they would only be regrown for scientific curiosity. Would it be easier to simply alter existing strains of apples - through selective breeding or gene modification - than to rebuild it from a seed or two? And if it were necessary to rebuild agriculture from the approximately 2 million seeds in the vault as the result of something wiping out global plant life, it seems likely that most of humanity would be wiped out as well. Maybe the Norwegians would still be able to get there, though.