President Obama Signs New ESEA - Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) 2015

Check out the article by EdWeek!

"Human gene-editing research, even on embryos, is needed and should go ahead"

Scientists from around the world convened a global summit earlier this week about the ethics and use of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. What is CRISPR you say? Well, check out this Youtube video if you'd like to learn more about the method.

At the summit, scientists essentially gave the "green light" to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system, but said that "moral, ethical and safety concerns would make it 'irresponsible' to proceed with clinical studies in germline cells — eggs, sperm, embryos and other cells that transmit DNA to future generations..." The summit also decided that "researchers who edit embryos or other germ cells in labs would not be doing germline editing if the resulting embryos are not implanted in the uterus for reproductive purposes...". This means that a new and effecient technique for gene editing is on the way to help scientists understand and fight genetic disease. I can't wait to see what new doors this opens for science! Read the article from ScienceNews to get the full story.

33% of Quality Arable Land Lost in the Last 40 Years

In an article by Oliver Milman, The Guardian tells us that scientists have estimated that 33% of quality arable land has been degraded and that steps need to be taken amid a global growing need for food production. This is only exacerbated by ecological struggles that continue to hit our radar. Humanity hasn't been the best steward of this planet for some time now and we're beginning to see how vast this field is that we're preparing to reap. It may be cliché, but this is the only planet we currently have. It's time to get to work!








Graphic:
http://archive.larouchepac.com/node/17776

Saving lives or euginics?

          "Alternating the promise of cures for intractable diseases with anxiety about designer babies and eugenics, hundreds of scientists and ethicists from around the world began debating the boundaries of a revolutionary technology to edit the human genetic code." Read the rest of the article here.