IN BRIEF: Frankenstein rice; suicide; IVF death
GM foods: Japanese scientists have developed a strain of rice with a human gene which is resistant to pesticides and could be used to clean up polluted soil. The liver gene is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body. Anti-GM food campaigners are denouncing the development as a kind of cannibalism and as another “Frankenstein food”. An American biotechnologist who supports the research also warned that if the gene were to spread to wild relatives of rice, it might create a super-weed which is resistant to a wide range of herbicides.
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