The monarch butterfly controversy: scientific interpretations of a phenomenon

The future development and use of agricultural biotechnology has been challenged by two preliminary studies indicating potential risk to monarch butterfly populations by pollen from corn engineered to express proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis. Likewise, these studies have also challenged the way in which science should be performed, published in scientific journals and communicated to the public at large. Herein, we provide a history of the monarch controversy to date. We believe a retrospective view may be useful for providing insights into the proper roles and responsibilities of scientists, the media and public agencies and the consequences when they go awry.     

我国转基因技术风险交流分析

随着生物技术的迅猛发展,发展转基因产业的战略选择与公众对转基因安全疑虑的矛盾十分突出。通过转基因舆情分析,指出我国转基因风险交流存在的不足主要为风险交流工作缺乏顶层设计,信息公开程度较低,风险交流方式和内容单调,公益机构未能发挥应有作用。在此基础上,提出了加强转基因风险交流的政策建议:(1)明确转基因风险交流的目标;(2)建立转基因风险交流协调框架;(3)建立转基因信息公开平台和信息监测平台;(4)完善管理部门和公益机构的风险交流职能;(5)改革科技项目政策。     

Bioethics and biotechnology

Biotechnology is at the intersection of science and ethics. Technological developments are shaped by an ethical vision, which in turn is shaped by available technology. Much in biotechnology can be celebrated for how it benefits humanity. But technology can have a darker side. Biotechnology can produce unanticipated consequences that cause harm or dehumanise people. The ethical implications of proposed developments must be carefully examined. The ethical assessment of new technologies, including biotechnology, requires a different approach to ethics. Changes are necessary because new technology can have a more profound impact on the world; because of limitations with a rights-based approach to ethics; because of the importance and difficulty of predicting consequences; and because biotechnology now manipulates humans themselves. The ethical questions raised by biotechnology are of a very different nature. Given the potential to profoundly change the future course of humanity, such questions require careful consideration. Rather than focussing on rights and freedoms, wisdom is needed to articulate our responsibilities towards nature and others, including future generations. The power and potential of biotechnology demands caution to ensure ethical progress.     

Attitudes in China about Crops and Foods Developed by Biotechnology

Transgenic Bt cotton has been planted in China since 1997 and, in 2009, biosafety certificates for the commercial production of Bt rice and phytase corn were issued by the Chinese government. The public attitude in China toward agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) crops and foods has received considerable attention worldwide. We investigated the attitudes of consumers, Bt cotton farmers and scientists in China regarding GM crops and foods and the factors influencing their attitudes. Data were collected using interview surveys of consumer households, farmer households and scientists. A discrete choice approach was used to elicit the purchase intentions of the respondents. Two separate probit models were developed to examine the effect of various factors on the choices of the respondents. Bt cotton farmers had a very positive attitude because Bt cotton provided them with significant economic benefits. Chinese consumers from developed regions had a higher acceptance and willingness to pay for GM foods than consumers in other regions. The positive attitude toward GM foods by the scientific community will help to promote biotechnology in China in the future. Our survey emphasized that educational efforts made by government officials, the media and scientists can facilitate the acceptance of GM technology in China. Further educational efforts will be critical for influencing consumer attitudes and decisions of government agencies in the future. More effective educational efforts by government agencies and public media concerning the scientific facts and safety of GM foods would enhance the acceptance of GM crops in China.     

Science – or not? The status and dynamics of biotechnology

This review traces the emergence of biotechnology as a new scientific discipline since the 1980s, when it became a major economic force. Significant changes in theoretical perception, research strategies, aims, and experimental methods, mainly in genetic engineering techniques, occurred during this period. The article is based on an analysis of its scientific status over four decades: the 60s and 70s when work in the field proceeded in different disciplines with a low level of coherence and little integration, then a significant change during the 80s and 90s when common approaches and the merging of molecular biology and biochemical engineering created a new discipline. The analysis covers scientific highlights and outstanding technical progress, presenting two studies undertaken by scientific and governmental agencies in Germany and the USA, as well as results of interviews and a questionnaire dealing with the scientific status of biotechnology. Answers to the questionnaire were obtained from internationally known scientists and from young scientists with biotechnology degrees. The results collected trace the transition of biotechnology from heterogeneous specialties and approaches towards a scientific discipline of its own. A hypothesis is put forward suggesting a new common paradigm allowing for a coherent perception the of phenomena observed.     

Environmental protection: applying the precautionary principle and proactive regulation to biotechnology

Biotechnology is a broad field encompassing diverse disciplines from agriculture to zoology. Advances in research are occurring at a rapid pace, and applications that have broad implications socially, economically, ecologically and politically are emerging. Along with notable benefits, environmental consequences that affect core quality-of-life issues for present and future generations are materializing. The precautionary principle should be applied to biotechnology research, activities and products, and a strengthened, enforceable and proactive regulatory framework is needed. The environmental impacts of agriculture, aquaculture, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and even pharmaceuticals are raising public concerns and demonstrate the need for guidance from a variety of social, economic and scientific disciplines to insure the benefits of biotechnology are enjoyed without unacceptable and irreversible environmental costs.     

Biotechnology in agriculture: a worldwide upheaval

Without food, mankind has little use for medicine or industry. Agriculture, the oldest biotechnology, is therefore also the most fundamental to our well-being. The application of modern methods of biotechnology represents just the latest step in the march of technology in agriculture. But it coincides with a growing public awareness of the disadvantages that have accompanied previous progress — the environmental, economic and ethical problems that result from intensive farming in developed countries. There is a growing scientific awareness that biotechnology has applications in farming in the developing countries. In the next few pages, Allen Dines' snapshot of public feeling in the US and Joske Bunders' appraisal of appropriate agricultural biotechnology form a résumé of the changing climate in farming.     

Attitudes toward biotechnology in the European Union

Public attitudes toward biotechnology in the European Union have been characterized as negative using Eurobarometer data, but so far little attention has been paid to building a robust metric appropriate for emerging public opinion issues which combine high salience with very limited knowledge by the public. On the basis of the general literature about the formation and structure of attitudes and about public perceptions of science, this article presents a new metric and analysis: first, for estimating the level of awareness and knowledge of biotechnology in Europe; second, for assessing the stability and depth of these evaluative perceptions; and third, for exploring the roles of canonical socio-demographic variables, the knowledge variable and general attitudinal schemas for understanding the perceptions of both benefits and risks of biotech applications. The results show the importance of general value orientations or "worldviews" in shaping positive attitudes, and more of these general cognitive schemas should be measured in future research. The same multivariate model was unable to account for a significant percentage of the total variance in the perception of risks, suggesting that new measures are needed to tap this critical area in the acceptance of biotech in Europe.     

The democratic side of science-fiction

Suspicion towards technological advances has progressively grown during the xx(th) century. However, in the XXI(st) century, reading the NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science) report of the National Science Foundation, we can note that science has caught up with science fiction. These changes in public mentality on one side and in scientific capacities on the other argue for an evolution of the debate on sciences. The recent example of the national debate on nanotechnology in France has clearly shown that the public is no longer waiting for additional sources of scientific knowledge but rather waiting for the recognition of its authority to participate in the definition of the national R&D priority and associated scientific strategies. This is all the more legitimate that these strategies will have profound impact on the future of our societies and therefore cannot be decided only by scientists. Hence, it is crucial to identify innovative tools promoting debate on sciences and their technological spin-off. Here, we contend that science fiction has major assets that could face this challenge and facilitate the dialogue between sciences and society.     

Public perceptions of biotechnology

The very term ‘Biotechnology’ elicits a range of emotions, from wonder and awe to downright fear and hostility. This is especially true among non-scientists, particularly in respect of agricultural and food biotechnology. These emotions indicate just how poorly understood agricultural biotechnology is and the need for accurate, dispassionate information in the public sphere to allow a rational public debate on the actual, as opposed to the perceived, risks and benefits of agricultural biotechnology. This review considers first the current state of public knowledge on agricultural biotechnology, and then explores some of the popular misperceptions and logical inconsistencies in both Europe and North America. I then consider the problem of widespread scientific illiteracy, and the role of the popular media in instilling and perpetuating misperceptions. The impact of inappropriate efforts to provide ‘balance’ in a news story, and of belief systems and faith also impinges on public scientific illiteracy. Getting away from the abstract, we explore a more concrete example of the contrasting approach to agricultural biotechnology adoption between Europe and North America, in considering divergent approaches to enabling coexistence in farming practices. I then question who benefits from agricultural biotechnology. Is it only the big companies, or is it society at large – and the environment-also deriving some benefit? Finally, a crucial aspect in such a technologically complex issue, ordinary and intelligent non-scientifically trained consumers cannot be expected to learn the intricacies of the technology to enable a personal choice to support or reject biotechnology products. The only reasonable and pragmatic alternative is to place trust in someone to provide honest advice. But who, working in the public interest, is best suited to provide informed and accessible, but objective, advice to wary consumers?     

Gold open access: the best of both worlds

Gold open access provides free distribution of trustworthy scientific knowledge for everyone. As publication modus, it has to withstand the bad reputation of predatory journals and overcome the preconceptions of those who believe that open access is synonymous with poor quality articles and high costs. Gold open access has a bright future and will serve the scientific community, clinicians without academic affiliations and the general public.     

The Use of Statistics in Health Sciences: Situation Analysis and Perspective

Statistics plays a crucial role in research, planning and decision-making in the health sciences. Progress in technologies and continued research in computational statistics has enabled us to implement sophisticated mathematical models within software that are handled by non-statistician researchers. As a result, over the last decades, medical journals have published a host of papers that use some novel statistical method. The aim of this paper is to present a review on how the statistical methods are being applied in the construction of scientific knowledge in health sciences, as well as, to propose some improvement actions. From the early twentieth century, there has been a remarkable surge in scientific evidence alerting on the errors that many non-statistician researchers were making in applying statistical methods. Today, several studies continue showing that a large percentage of articles published in high-impact factor journals contain errors in data analysis or interpretation of results, with the ensuing repercussions on the validity and efficiency of the research conducted. Scientific community should reflect on the causes that have led to this situation, the consequences to the advancement of scientific knowledge and the solutions to this problem.     

“一带一路”沿线国家生物技术发展趋势研究

“一带一路”贯穿亚欧非大陆,联结活跃的东亚经济圈和发达的欧洲经济圈,以及中间经济发展潜力巨大的广大腹地国家与地区,“一带一路”战略将对中国未来国内外的政治、经济、文化、科技发展产生重大深远影响。本报告分析了“一带一路”沿线国家的科技发展基础条件,研究了“一带一路”沿线国家在生物技术领域取得的基础研究进展和专利技术研发进展的总体情况,综述了“一带一路”沿线国家生物技术产业发展现状和国际专利布局情况,并针对中国与“一带一路”沿线国家在生物技术领域进一步深化合作互利共赢提出了发展建议。     

A cross-sectional study of biotechnology awareness and teaching in European high schools

Undoubtedly, biotechnology has a tremendous impact on our daily lives. As a result of this and in parallel to the advancement of knowledge in this field of applied research, consumer awareness of the potential benefits and risks of this technology has steadily increased, leading to a thorough investigation of the public perception of biotechnology in the past years. Indeed, it has become clear that it is in the general interest of science and especially of applied research to inform the public of its advances. A promising next step is to strengthen biotechnology communication in scholastic institutions. In this paper, we investigate the perception of biotechnology in a specific target group, namely high-school students in the 16–20-year-old age range. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey on a total of 1410 students in six European countries to investigate students’ perception, concern, scientific knowledge, and awareness. Our data revealed some unexpected patterns of acceptance and concern about biotechnology. Knowledge analysis indicated that pupils lack specific knowledge about biotechnological applications and their interest in biotechnology appeared to be linked to knowledge. Analysis of specific questions about teaching practices at schools suggests that a better targeted choice in media as vehicles for information together with selected speakers could be instrumental in increasing students’ interest in science and more specifically in biotechnology.     

Bringing scientists to the people--the Co-Extra website

Disseminating and facilitating access to science-based information is a necessity to enable the public to make informed decisions about appropriate uses of biotechnology products. It is also one of the major objectives of Co-Extra, a European-funded project addressing co-existence of genetically modified organisms and non-genetically modified organisms in Europe and their traceability. To this end, a dynamic and interactive website has been developed as the core element of the Co-Extra external communication strategy. This website has been designed to make it attractive and accessible to a large audience in a very simple and practical manner, building on practical experiences gained in the development of other websites related to biotechnology and genetically modified organisms. The website delivers popularized information for the general public as well as scientific data meant primarily for the more expert readers. It also provides for various permanent tools allowing multidirectional interaction with its visitors. Content is displayed using a web-based platform, based on a sophisticated Content Management System. First results indicate a high level of interest from the general public and from experts, showing that the content of this website can contribute by communicating science-based information to improve awareness and understanding of biotechnology.     

Sexual functioning of testicular cancer survivors and their partners – A review of literature

BackgroundTesticular cancer (TC) is the most common cancer in the 25–40 age group, with peak morbidity at around 30 years of age. It is a period of highest productivity, when sexual sphere is an important aspect of life. The disease, invasive treatment and its consequences interfere with this sphere.AimThe aim of this paper was to review the most recent studies on the sexual functioning of patients treated for testicular cancer and their partners published in English language scientific journals in the period of 1989–2010.ResultsNumerous studies report that men cured from testicular cancer are at risk of sexual disorders. Agents of psychological nature play an important role in the occurrence and persistence of sexual dysfunctions. Being in permanent relationship is a protective factor, while single persons are marked with particular predisposition to such dysfunctions. Sexual and marital satisfaction of TC survivors and their partners are mutually correlated.ConclusionWith a growing number of TC survivors, a thorough investigation is required into their sexuality, both in an individual and dyadic dimension, so as to improve the quality of life of the affected young men, who take on their new social and professional roles in the period of highest reproductiveness.     

Biotechnology: Paper alert

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in biotechnology.     

Biotechnology. Paper Alert

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in biotechnology.