Day: November 15, 2000

Alan Bock on Florida Mess

I think Alan Bock’s summary of what’s happening down in Florida is the best I’ve read yet,

What we are seeing in Florida rather closely resembles an organized crime war between two rival “families” who seek control over certain rackets. The soldiers have gone to the mattresses, moving away from their homes to be at the scene of the action, devoting full time to the war and all its tactical maneuvers and countermeasures. As the most successful syndicate the Government Gang hardly ever resorts to anything so crude as machine guns or garrotes when lawsuits before friendly judges, leaks to the press, threats to find new votes, dueling public officials, threats to use public agencies to embarrass or ruin oneÂ’s foes and media spin can defeat the enemy in a less messy and far less controversial fashion.

Is There an Upside to Pesticide Resistance?

Thanks to the excessive use of pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and 1960s, many mosquitoes around the world now have a good deal of resistance to such chemicals. The emergence of pesticide-resistant mosquitoes and the subsequent failure to control malaria is generally considered one of the major lost opportunities to eradicate a deadly diseases.

Researcher Janet Hemingway claims there might be an upside to such resistance. In a study published in New Scientist, Hemingway reported that a variety of mosquitoes she captured that were resistant to organophosphate insecticides were also less able to transmit a disease caused lymphatic filariasis than flies were. Hemingway speculated that perhaps the resistant mosquitoes might also be less likely to transmit malaria.

“We need to check our facts,” Hemingway told New Scientist. “The research shows we may be able to live with resistance because there may be benefits.”

I don’t think so. As Chris Curtis, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told New Scientist, Hemingway’s claims conflict with other studies. In fact given how widely DDT and other insecticides have been used and the large number of resistant mosquitoes, there is certainly no shortage of malaria cases. Even if there was some slight decline in any given mosquito’s ability to transmit malaria, that would seem to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of mosquitoes who survive once they become resistant.

Moreover, while the find is certainly intriguing for lymphatic filariasis — which infects 120 million people around the world and causes swelling in the limbs and genitals — there clearly is an environmental cost to pay for excessive spraying of DDT that is probably not worth it. The resistant mosquito strains emerged after unbelievably large quantities were sprayed largely for agricultural purposes rather than for malaria control.

Judicious application of organophosphate insecticides along with continued research on better treatments and possible cures or vaccinations for malaria makes a lot more sense.

Source:

Resistance is useful: Overuse of insecticides could be a blessing in disguise in fighting disease. Andy Coghlan, The New Scientist, October 25, 2000.

Potato Famine Fungus Is Back

Actually that’s a bit misleading — the fungus that caused the Irish potato famine in the 19th century never really left. Until recently it was controlled relatively well with pesticides, but that is beginning to change with the emergence of pesticide resistant strains of the fungus.

About 1 million people died in the Irish potato famine which, among other things, caused a huge migration of Irish nationals to the United States. The potato famine was the major cause of the failure of potato crops, but the cultural and economic institutions in Ireland and Great Britain contributed a great deal to the disaster as well. Exactly what share of the blame the fungus deserves and what share belongs to other causes remains hotly debated.

The disease is believed to have originated near Toluca, Mexico which lies just outside Mexico City. Although the area should be a prime area for growing potatoes, in fact it is all but impossible to grow the tuber in the area. The fungus attacks the leafy part of the plant, the tuber itself, and can also appear in potatoes in warehouses after harvest. Since potatoes are an extremely important crop around the world, fighting the fungus is extremely important.

U.S. researcher John Niederhauser has already made significant progress. He won the World Food Prize in 1990 for the work he had done creating blight-resistant potato varieties. From 1950 to 1980 Mexico’s potato production increased six fold and its consumption tripled thanks to Niederhauser’s fungus resistant varieties of potato.

Unfortunately the current resistant varieties still have some drawbacks. Some don’t make good french fries or take too much water or take too long to grow. Meanwhile the amount of pesticide that has to be sprayed on non-resistant varieties continues to increase. Where it might have taken one or two applications of the main fungicidal, metalaxyl, 20 years ago, today the fungicide has to be sprayed up to 12 times each season at a cost of about $200/acre. That price isn’t too much of an issue for farmers in the United States, especially large farms, but for farmers in Mexico and elsewhere in the developing world it is a lot of money.

Niederhauser and his colleagues believe it will be at least another decade before a blight resistant potato without the current drawbacks is widely adopted. Until then potato crops remain vulnerable to a fungal invader than can destroy a crop in just a few days.

Source:

Crop killing fungus spreads around the globe. The Associated Press, October 22, 2000.

Exodus of Pharmaceutical Companies from the UK Begins

When anti-abortion protests in the United States made it impossible to manufacture the controversial drug RU-486 in that country, an agreement was reached to produce it in China. Faced with ongoing animal rights and anti-genetic modification protests in the United Kingdom, pharmaceutical company Nycomed-Amersham recently did the same. This week it announced it would be moving all of its genetic research facilities to China.

Not only does China welcome genetic research, which it sees as important in improving crop yields among other things, but it will also be cheaper for Nycomed-Amersham to operate in China — the company estimates cost savings for employing 1,000 PhD-level researchers at $50 million a year.

Parts of the genetic research outfit will also be moved to Brazil and patents on any resulting therapies or drugs will be patented in China and Brazil.

In a story about the move, The Financial Times of London reported that last year Pfizer’s William Steer complained that “Europe seems to be entering a period of the dark ages, where witchcraft and sorcery are prevailing. There’s a definite anti-science attitude in Europe that is not as pronounced in the U.S.”

If Europe doesn’t come to its senses quickly it could find more drug companies moving research operations to the developing world and China, Brazil and other developing countries might relegate the continent to also-rans when it comes to cutting edge scientific discoveries.

Source:

Genetic research to move overseas. David Firm, The Financial Times of London, November 14, 2000.

The Feminist/Postmodernist Assault on Academic Freedom

Jared Sakren is a successful theater professor who in stints at Yale University, Julliard Theatre Center and Arizona State University taught actors such as Annette Benning, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis. But at Arizona State University Sakren was fired in part because his performance reviews said that he was creating a climate of sexism in the classroom — the dean of the college of fine arts at ASU told CBS News that Sakren was guilty of sexual harassment.

What did Sakren do to earn such enmity? He refused to teach Shakespeare from a “postmodern feminist/ethic canon.” Translation: Sakren wanted to teach Shakespeare’s plays as having timeless insights into human nature. ASU wanted him to teach Shakespeare as an artifact of patriarchal culture that is oppressive precisely because it asserts there is something like a universal human nature (that’s a right wing myth according to the postmodernists.)

As Thor Halvorssen of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education summed up the case to the Washington Times,

ASU hired an international superstar teacher, promised him academic freedom, and then expected him to follow the politically correct orthodoxy of radical feminism and watered-down academic standards.

The irony of the case is that universities usually cite academic freedom whenever conservatives criticize their curriculum or class offerings, but quickly discard the notion whenever they need to appease leftist academics. In the ASU case, the university actually argued in court that although Sakren’s contract included a promise of academic freedom, that the clause was meaningless and legally unenforceable.

Source:

Professor fired for teaching Shakespeare gets new trial. Andrea Billups, The Washington Times.