Techdirt. Stories filed under "rice"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "rice" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "rice"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Medical Science To The Rescue Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/15333113134/dailydirt-medical-science-to-rescue.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/15333113134/dailydirt-medical-science-to-rescue.shtml patent monopolies, and naturally-occurring materials will remain free for anyone to use. Here are just a few fascinating advances in medical science.

A lab-grown kidney has been transplanted into a rat -- giving the rat a functioning organ. If this technique can be scaled up to work with humans, it could be a huge relief for organ donor shortages. [url]
Supplies of human serum albumin (HSA) normally come from blood donations, but it may be possible to grow HSA from rice seeds in yields high enough to be worthwhile. There's still some testing to be done to make sure the rice-derived HSA is as safe and effective as HSA from human blood, but this development could make HSA supplies abundant and help a lot patients who've lost fluids from trauma. [url]
Horseshoe crabs are routinely captured (temporarily) to extract their blood for a clotting agent called Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL). The LAL isolated from the crabs' blood can detect bacteria and other contaminants in various medical supplies at less than one part per trillion, and a quart of the stuff can sell for about $15,000. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110216/15333113134 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Growing Food Safely Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111112/01464716748/dailydirt-growing-food-safely.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111112/01464716748/dailydirt-growing-food-safely.shtml

A study of over 200 pregnant women indicates that there is a possible link between eating rice (grown in the US!) and consuming potentially harmful levels of arsenic. Apparently, the arsenic comes from years of pesticide use where rice is grown, and unfortunately, there aren't any legal limits for arsenic in most foods sold in the US. [url]

Farmers are looking to kill off stink bugs without pesticides using parasitic wasps. But first, researchers need to determine if releasing the wasps won't cause even more problems with farm crops and the environment. [url]

Strains of Escherichia coli on bean sprouts that caused food poisonings and deaths in Germany may have come from human sources. Japanese researchers suggest a remedy of soaking the veggies in strong vinegar to kill off these nasty bugs. [url]

To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111112/01464716748 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:13:22 PDT Intellectual Property Infringement: That's Why We Have This Rice To Eat Today Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110619/22572414738/intellectual-property-infringement-thats-why-we-have-this-rice-to-eat-today.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110619/22572414738/intellectual-property-infringement-thats-why-we-have-this-rice-to-eat-today.shtml genetic history of two popular subspecies of rice, in which new research shows that the two are actually quite closely related. What the study showed was that, through cross-breeding the two subspecies, each was able to take on the best characteristics of the other, while tossing off less desirable features (survival of the fittest at work). But, what makes it interesting is the quote at the end from one of the researchers:

The story of rice is really a story of how human civilization has progressed through borrowing, Dr. Wu said, adding:

"Intellectual property infringement has occurred since the beginning of civilization. That’s why we have this rice to eat today."

Now, obviously, before anyone goes nuts in the comments, this has nothing to do with intellectual property laws, which quite clearly did not exist when all of this was happening. And, certainly, Dr. Wu appears to have been just making a little joke, which made its way into the final line of a short human interest piece. However the point is actually one worth repeating, which is that the history of innovation is the history of borrowing from others, adding it to something else, building on what works, and discarding what doesn't work. The really troubling part is how we seek to limit such efforts today, in the name of "intellectual property."

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]]> it's-how-we-innovate http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110619/22572414738