Taking My Eye Off DNA

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted May 2, 2008 in DNA in General

Eye on DNA celebrates its first birthday this week! In celebration, I’ve decided reward myself by slowing down a bit.

As some of you already know, I am expecting my second child in a few weeks. Last night, I was reading The Last Lecture on my new Kindle (woohoo!), and this passage got my attention:

Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things? You may have causes, goals, interests. Are they even worth pursuing?

In some ways, blogging is becoming an albatross around my neck. The wonderful aspects of blogging–learning, networking, educating–still outweigh the annoyances. But in my present condition, I’m not sure if I’m spending my time on the right things. The clock is ticking and my attention span is shortening along with my temper. And on top of welcoming a new member to our family, my family and I are also relocating to Singapore from London this summer.

While I’ll still be keeping my eye on DNA *cough* over these next few months, the rest of me will be quite busy doing other things. Instead of posting every day, I intend to spend much more of my usual blogging time having fun with my five-year-old and husband before our lives turn upside down.

I’ll still be here but maybe not jumping around as much as usual. (How can I when I’m about to pop?!)

Thank you all for a great year. I’ll be back before too long so don’t forget about me!

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Books About DNA: Tomorrow’s Table

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted May 2, 2008 in Books About DNA, DNA Quotes and Excerpts, Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms

Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food by Pamela C. Ronald and R. W. Adamchak

From Dr. Ronald’s blog:

One of the major themes of our book “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food” is that the judicious incorporation of two important strands of agriculture—genetic engineering and organic farming—is key to helping feed the growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. We are not suggesting that organic farming and GE alone will provide all the changes needed in agriculture. Other farming systems and technological changes, as well as modified government policies, undoubtedly are also needed. Yet it is hard to avoid the sense that organic farming and genetic engineering each will play an increasingly important role, and that they somehow have been pitted unnecessarily against each other. Our ambition in this book, therefore, is not to be comprehensive, but to identify roles for both GE and organic farming in the future of food production.

Another theme of the book is that the broader goals of ecologically responsible farming, and the adherence to those ideals, are more important than the methods used to develop new plant varieties. To this end, we have generated a list of key criteria
to help guide policy decisions about the use of GE in food and farming.

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