One of my favorite characters in TV history was Star Trek's
"Spock". Yesterday, Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek,’ Died at 83.
Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a
worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien
first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie
juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air
section of Los Angeles. He was 83.
His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was
end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Mr. Nimoy announced last year that he had the disease, attributing it to
years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been
hospitalized earlier in the week.
His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting —
ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock
that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible
characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared
Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from
the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).
There's much more in the
article. Inquiring minds may wish to take a look.
Is He or Isn't He?
Nimoy is author of two contradictory autobiographies:
Vulcan Greeting
Nimoy Explains Origin of Vulcan Greeting
Link if video does not play: Leonard
Nimoy Explains Origin of Vulcan Greeting.
In Memory of Leonard Nimoy
Science Friday has an interesting article Memory of Leonard Nimoy.
In an enclosed video in the above link, Nimoy talks with Ira Flatow, physics
professor John Kramer, and science fiction writer Robert Sawyer about the
relationship between science and science fiction.
The video mentioned among other things, artificial hands and transplanting
fish genes into tomatoes to make them more resistible to frost.
Let's investigate hand transplants and "fish tomatoes" in more
detail.
Hand Transplants
Hand transplants are a success. The March 27 issue of BBC Future has the
story of Rose Eveleth who says "I had a double hand transplant".
Rose considers the operation a success although it required much intensive
therapy.
Genetically modified tomatoes were not a success to say the least. A couple
of stories will explain.
Does Your Tomato Have Sole?
UC Santa Barbara asks Does Your Tomato Have Sole? If So, Is It Still a Veggie?
“Fish tomatoes,” are transgenic tomatoes that have been genetically
engineered with a gene from winter flounder, which are also known as lemon
sole. Fish tomatoes have become an icon in the debate over Genetically
Modified Foods, especially in relation to the perceived ethical dilemma of
combining genes from different species.
Killer Tomatoes
The above article explains the intent. The following article will explain the
success or failure of the experiment.
Please consider Throwing Biotech Lies at Tomatoes
Remember the pictures of the fish tomatoes? For years they
were an unofficial emblem of the anti-GMO movement. They depicted how
anti-freeze genes from an Arctic fish were forced into tomato DNA, allowing
the plants to survive frost. Scientists really did create those
Frankentomatoes, but they were never put on the market. (Breyers low-fat ice
cream, however, does contain anti-freeze proteins from Arctic fish genes, but
that's another story.)
The tomato that did make it to market was called the Flavr Savr, engineered
for longer shelf life. Fortunately, it was removed from the shelves soon
after it was introduced.
Although there are no longer any genetically modified (GM) tomatoes being
sold today, the FDA's shady approval process of the Flavr Savr provides a
lesson in food safety—or rather, the lack of it—as far as gene-spliced foods
are concerned. We know what really went on during the FDA's voluntary review
process of the Flavr Savr in 1993, because a lawsuit forced the release of
44,000 agency memos.
Bleeding stomachs
Calgene, the tomatoes' creator-in-chief (now a part of Monsanto), voluntarily
conducted three 28-day rat feeding studies.
The rats that ate one of these Flavr Savr varieties probably wished they were
in a different test group. Out of 20 female rats, 7 developed stomach
lesions—bleeding stomachs. The rats eating the other Flavr Savr, or the
natural tomatoes, or no tomatoes at all, had no lesions.
If we humans had such effects in our stomachs, according to Dr. Arpad
Pusztai, a top GMO safety and animal feeding expert, it "could lead to
life-endangering hemorrhage, particularly in the elderly who use aspirin to
prevent thrombosis."
Oh yeah, some rats died
The team that had obtained the formerly secret FDA documents sent the full
Flavr Savr studies to Dr. Pusztai for review and comment. While reading them,
he happened across an endnote that apparently the FDA scientists either did
not see or chose to ignore. The text nonchalantly indicated that 7 of the 40
rats fed the Flavr Savr tomato died within two weeks.
But the endnote summarily dismissed the cause of death as husbandry error,
and no additional data or explanation was provided. The dead rats were simply
replaced with new ones.
When I discussed this finding with Dr. Pusztai over the phone, he was beside
himself. He told me emphatically that in proper studies, you never just
dismiss the cause of death with an unsupported footnote. He said that the
details of the post mortem analysis must be included in order to rule out
possible causes or to raise questions for additional research. Furthermore,
you simply never replace test animals once the research begins.
Questionable follow-up study
Calgene repeated the rat study. This time, one male rat from the non-GM group
of 20, and two females from the GM-fed group of 15, showed stomach lesions.
Calgene claimed success. They said that the necrosis (dead tissue) and
erosions (inflammation and bleeding) were "incidental" and not
tomato-related.
In reality, the new study was not actually a "repeat." They used
tomatoes from a different batch and used a freeze-dried concentrate rather
then the frozen concentrate used in the previous trial. Dr. Martineau
explained to me that by freeze-drying, it allowed them to put more of the
concentrated tomato into each rat.
In spite of the outstanding issues, the political appointees at the FDA
concluded that the lesions were not related to the GM tomatoes. To be on the
safe side, however, Calgene on its own chose not to commercialize the tomato
line that was associated with the high rate of stomach lesions and deaths.
The other line went onto supermarket shelves in 1994.
Faulty science rules the day
This was the very first GM food crop to be consumed in the US. It was
arguably the most radical change in our food in all of human history. It was
the product of an infant science that was prone to side-effects. Yet it was
placed on the market without required labels, warnings, or post-marketing
surveillance. One hopes that the FDA would have been exhaustive in their
approval process, holding back approvals until all doubts were extinguished. But
the agency was officially mandated with promoting biotechnology and bent over
backwards to push GMOs onto the market. As a result, their evaluation was
woefully inadequate.
Federal Death Agency
I was at a Casey conference last September and Doug Casey commented the FDA
(Food and Drug Administration) ought to be reclassified as the Federal Death
Agency.
Those articles help explain why.
I conclude "Live long and prosper" ... and don't eat "fish
tomatoes".
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
