A highlight of the last year’s conference for me was meeting Helen Mahar. I will be at the conference again this year. You can also register at www.aefweb.info
Archives for August 16, 2008
Arctic Sea Ice Refuses to Melt
“Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were predicting that the ‘North Pole may be ice-free for first time this summer’. Others predicted that the entire ‘polar ice cap would disappear this summer’,” writes Steven Goddard in yesterday’s UK Register.
The article continues, “The Arctic melt season is nearly done for this year. The sun is now very low above the horizon and will set for the winter at the North Pole in five weeks. And none of these dire predictions have come to pass. Yet there is, however, something odd going on with the ice data…
Read more by clicking here.
Alan Siddons on Radiative Equilibrium
Radiative equilibrium is one of the foundation stones of radiative forcing theory. But it is not a law of physics, only a rather archaic and untested supposition found in climatology textbooks alone.
“For the Earth to neither warm or cool, the incoming radiation must balance the outgoing.”
Not really.
It’s best to regard radiant energy simply as a finite power source — indeed, that power is expressed as watts per square meter. An object is said to “cool” by radiating, yet this would seem to imply that restricting its radiation will make it get hotter and hotter. That’s the very premise of greenhouse theory, of course, that by disturbing outgoing radiance any magnitude of temperature gain is possible. But this is easy to test.
Confine a lightbulb inside an infrared barrier (like a globular mirror) and electrically feed one watt to it. After a while, will it be generating the heat of a thousand watt bulb? No.
When its temperature is consistent with the input, further heating stops.
It’s like water seeking its own level. Lacking any means to radiate to its surroundings, the lightbulb merely gets as hot as a watt of power can make it, which is not much hotter than what it would be in the open. If not, we’d be able to generate incredible temperatures very cheaply. Just confine, wait, and release.
Conservation of energy: it’s not just a phrase. The theory of radiative equilibrium arose early in the 19th century, before the laws of thermodynamics were understood.
From The Analytical Theory of Heat:
The radiation of the sun in which the planet is incessantly plunged, penetrates the air, the earth, and the waters; its elements are divided, change direction in every way, and, penetrating the mass of the globe, would raise its temperature more and more, if the heat acquired were not exactly balanced by that which escapes in rays from all points of the surface and expands through the sky. — Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Alan Siddons
Holden, Massachusetts
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Food Safety
Dear Jennifer,
I have been spending a pleasant Saturday morning doing gardening at the GMO Pundit safety paper list. It’s now a bit neater at the start.
I’ve added a few more papers to bring it over 200.
Most importantly, I’ve added a button at the right sidebar near the top
“200 plus GM food safety papers”
So to tell people about the safety papers say:
“go to http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/”
or Google GMO Pundit
look at the sidebar on the right, and just click the 200 plus GM food safety papers button
Best regards
David Tribe Ph.D.
Melbourne
——————————–
Jennifer has just had a look at:
Citation list of papers that test GM food safety in animal tests or directly and systematically measure safety parameters such as allergenicity or potential toxin fingerprinting:
Aeschbacher, K., L. Meile, R. Messikommer and C. Wenk. (2002) Influence of genetically modified maize on performance and product quality of chickens. Proc. Soc. Nutr. Physiol. 11:196.
Aeschbacher K, Messikommer R, Meile L, Wenk C (2005) Bt176 corn in poultry nutrition: Physiological characteristics and fate of recombinant plant DNA in chickens. Poultry Science 84:385-394
Appenzeller LM, Munley SM, Hoban D, Sykes GP, Malley LA, Delaney B.(2008) Subchronic feeding study of herbicide-tolerant soybean DP-356Ø43-5 in Sprague-Dawley rats. Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Jun;46(6):2201-13.
Ash, J., C. Novak, and S.E. Scheideler. (2003) The fate of genetically modified protein from Roundup Ready soybeans in laying hens. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 12:242:245.
Alexander TW, Sharma R, Deng MY, Whetsell AJ, Jennings JC, Wang YX, Okine E, Damgaard D, McAllister TA (2004) Use of quantitative real-time and conventional PCR to assess the stability of the cp4 epsps transgene from Roundup Ready (R) canola in the intestinal, ruminal, and fecal contents of sheep. Journal of Biotechnology 112:255-266
Ash J, Novak C, Scheideler SE (2003) The fate of genetically modified protein from Roundup Ready Soybeans in laying hens. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 12:242-245
Atkinson, H.J., Johnston, K.A., Robbins, M.,( 2004). Prima facie evidence that a phytocystatin for transgenic plant resistance to nematodes is not a toxic risk in the human diet. J. Nutr. 134, 431–434.
Aulrich K, Bohme H, Daenicke R, Halle I, Flachowsky G (2001) Genetically modified feeds in animal nutrition 1st communication: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn in poultry, pig and ruminant nutrition. Archives of Animal Nutrition-Archiv fur Tierernahrung 54:183-195
Bakan B, Melcion D, Richard-Molard D and Cahagnier B (2002) Fungal growth and Fusarium mycotoxin content in isogenic traditional maize and genetically modified maize grown in France and Spain. J Agric Food Chem 50(4): 728–731.
Baker, J M, Hawkins, N D, Ward, J L, Lovegrove, A, Napier,J A, Shewry, P R and Beale, M H.(2006) A metabolomic study of substantial equivalence of field-grown genetically modified wheat. Plant Biotechnology Journal Volume 4 Issue 4 Page 381 – July 2006 doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2006.00197.x
Barriere Y, Verite R, Brunschwig P, Surault F, Emile JC (2001) Feeding value of corn silage estimated with sheep and dairy cows is not altered by genetic incorporation of Bt176 resistance to Ostrinia nubilalis. Journal of Dairy Science 84:1863-1871
Batista, R. Nelson Saibo, Tiago Lourenço, and Maria Margarida Oliveira (2008) Microarray analyses reveal that plant mutagenesis may induce more transcriptomic changes than transgene insertion PNAS | March 4, 2008 | vol. 105 | no. 9 | 3640-3645
Baudo, M M, Lyons, Powers, S R, Pastori,G M, Edwards, K J, Holdsworth, M J, and Shewry, P R. (2006) Transgenesis has less impact on the transcriptome of wheat grain than conventional breeding Plant Biotechnology Journal Volume 4 Issue 4 Page 369 – July 2006 doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2006.00193.x
Barriere, Y., R. Verite, P. Brunschwig, F. Surault, and J.C. Emile. (2001). The feeding value of silage maize estimated with sheep and dairy cows is not affected by genetic incorporation of the Bt 176 resistance to Ostrinia nubilalis. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1863-1871.
Benedict J, Fromme D, Cosper J, Correa C, Odvody G and Parker R (1998) Efficacy of Bt Corn Events MON810, Bt11 and E176 in Controlling Corn Earworm, Fall Armyworm, Sugarcane Borer and Aflatoxin. Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX .
Berberich, SA Ream, J.E., Jackson, T.L., Wood, R., Stipanovic, R., Harvey, P., Patzer, S., and Fuchs, R.L. (1996) The composition of insect-protected cottonseed is equivalent to that of conventional cottonseed. J. Agric. Food Chem. 44, 365–371.
Betz F S, Hammond B G , Fuchs R L (2000) Safety and advantages of Bacillus thuringiensis-protected plants to control insect pests. Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 32, Issue 2, 156-173
Bohme H, Aulrich K, Daenicke R, Flachowsky G (2001) Genetically modified feeds in animal nutrition 2nd communication: Glufosinate tolerant sugar beets (roots and silage) and maize grains for ruminants and pigs. Archives of Animal Nutrition-Archiv fur Tierernahrung 54:197-207
Bondzio, A., Stumpff, F., Schoen, J., Martens, H., Einspanier, R., (2008) Impact of Bacillus thuringiensis Toxin Cry1Ab on rumen epithelial cells (REC) – a new in vitro model for safety assessment of recombinant food compounds, Food and Chemical Toxicology (2008), doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2008.01.038
Brake DG, Thaler R, Evenson DP (2004) Evaluation of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn on mouse testicular development by dual parameter flow cytometry. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 52:2097-2102.
Brake, D.G., Evenson, D.P., 2004. A generational study of glyphosatetolerant soybeans on mouse fetal, postnatal, pubertal and adult testicular development. Food Chem. Toxicol. 42, 29–36.
Brake J, Faust MA, Stein J (2003) Evaluation of transgenic event Bt11 hybrid corn in broiler chickens. Poultry Science 82:551-559
Brake J, Faust M, Stein J (2005) Evaluation of transgenic hybrid corn (VIP3A) in broiler chickens. Poultry Science 84:503-512
Brake J, Vlachos D (1998) Evaluation of transgenic event 176 “Bt” corn in broiler chickens. Poultry Science 77:648-653.
Broll H, Zagon J, Butschke A, Leffke A, Spiegelberg A, Bohme H, Flachowsky G (2005) The fate of DNA of transgenic inulin synthesizing potatoes in pigs. Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences 14:337-340
Brown PB, Wilson KA, Jonker Y, Nickson TE. (2003) Glyphosate tolerant canola meal is equivalent to the parental line in diets fed to rainbow trout. J Agric Food Chem. 51:4268-72.
Bub A, Möseneder J, Wenzel G, Rechkemmer G, Briviba K. (2008) Zeaxanthin is bioavailable from genetically modified zeaxanthin-rich potatoes.Eur J Nutr. 2008 Mar;47(2):99-103. Epub 2008 Mar 4.
And we are only up to ‘B’. Who said there hadn’t been a lot of testing of genetically modified foods?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.