- Millions of educated Chinese have left cities to become farmers, inspired to change agriculture or disenchanted with the pressures of urban life
- They practise organic farming and water conservation, hoping to set an example for fellow farmers, and revive traditional technique
Science might have gotten it wrong. Now what?
The debate started in late 2011, when Chen-Yu Zhang’s team f found bits of rice RNA floating in the bloodstreams of Chinese men and women.
Last week, freelance journalist Virginia Hughes wrote about a scientific paper that was published in the elite journal Nature in 1995. The findings of said paper were called into question by several other papers in different journals within a couple of years. As of today, nearly two decades since the original came out, nobody has replicated it. And yet, it’s still sitting there in the literature, still influencing others. It’s been cited nearly 1,000 times.
Continue reading… “Science might have gotten it wrong. Now what?”
Grains of rice genetically modified to produce human blood
Blood protein from genetically modified rice could ease demand for blood donations.
Genetically modified grains of rice produce a key component of human blood in an attempt to provide an alternative to donations. The protein, extracted from rice plants containing human genes, could be used in hospitals to treat burns victims and help patients who have suffered severe blood loss.