On September 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released guidance on a regulatory framework for approving the entrance of genetically modified (GM) animals into the nation's food supply. The term "guidance" is agency-speak for the law will look something like this. Put another way, the FDA has offered advice, considerably weaker than legally enforceable regulation. With the announcement, a 60-day period for public comment was opened.
The only GM animal currently licensed for sale in the U.S. is the glow-in-the-dark zebra fish, a pet. With the exception of a few drunk frat boys, this fish is not expected to be consumed by humans, and its need for warm water precludes any possibility of it escaping into the wild. But the glowing zebra fish will soon have some GM company in stores near you.
The new guidance is primarily directed at animals genetically modified for food-production purposes, but it's based on the approval process used for animals that are genetically modified for pharmacological purposes, such as pigs designed to grow human livers, or goats that produce insulin in their milk. Under the guidance, all GM animals, be they of the farm or pharma variety, will be classified as drugs.
GENEVA - Scientists will have to wait until spring to use the world’s biggest particle collider for groundbreaking research because repairs to damage will run into the laboratory’s normal winter shutdown, the operators said Tuesday.
By Todd Heywood, RH Reality Check. Posted November 18, 2008.
Doctors in Berlin, Germany, are reporting that a 42-year-old American living in that city may have eliminated the virus from his body after a bone marrow transplant.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the man was suffering from leukemia and AIDS, and while he continues to receive treatment for the leukemia, the virus has not reappeared in his blood in 600 days.
And I'll end with this: since pirates have made it back into the news.......