Newsletter 'June' 2019

• Would you eat 'Genetically-Modified' (GM) food? Our understanding of modern genetics is now such that gene selection and transfer techniques are quite accurate. In short, plant and animal breeding is now somewhat of a plug and play exercise. It must be emphasized that the end-products of genetic manipulation are not different from those of selective breeding, only much faster and simpler. At the same time, the continued growth of the human population and internationally shared goals for human nutrition are placing ever increasing pressure on food production. If we are to avoid food shortages and social unrest, we need to dramatically increase food supply; since, there is no more land available to bring newly into production, it is essential to increase yields. 

•  One recent example of increased yield from a GM improvement is that of flood-proof rice. Rice farmers in the Far East often face floods from untimely rains and the commonly-grown strains will die if submerged for three days. However, geneticists first identified a wild strain of rice that resists drowning and then transferred a critical gene to domestic rice. In so-doing, they achieved a rice strain that survives submersion for 13 days, enough time for many floods to subside without crop loss. The International Rice Research Institute estimates that this alteration will produce additional rice, enough to feed an additional 37 million people each year. Other possible modifications currently under study include attempts to increase the efficiency of plant photosynthesis and to improve on plant nutrition with less fertilizer application by promoting plants such as wheat and corn to develop relations with soil bacteria similar to the legumes. In the sphere of domestic animals, there have been advances through GM in the production of disease resistant strains (hogs resistant to porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome; chickens resistant to bird flu) among others. The same class of techniques that apply to food production are in common use to produce medications for treatment of common diseases. Human insulin is produced in modified E. coli bacteria that bear a transplanted human gene for insulin production. Many auto-immune diseases (eg, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, lupus) as well as a number of cancers (esp. lymphomas, some breast cancers and others) are commonly treated with specific antibodies produced in cells that are the result of human-mouse hybridization. In summary, the earlier opposition to GM technology was largely driven by opposition to the roll-out of Roundup-resistant crops where a single corporation that owned the intellectual property on both the new crop strains and the herbicide was in an undeclared conflict of interest. We have many things to consider in relation to GM technology in the realms of ethics, economics, health and trustworthy governmental regulation. "For July and August there will be no Science Club. 
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• The Science club will resume in September.  

 The Woodstock Men’s Probus Club First Historical Walk was held on Wednesday June 12, 2019 - to view and hear about some of our historical buildings. Probus members Murray Coulter, Bob Axon, Peter Harrison and Dave Hay were the guides for the tour which illuminated the mysteries and stories of our precious Woodstock heritage sites. The tour started at the Woodstock museum and ended at the old Harvey Woods sock factory with snacks. The tour fees were used to make donations to the Woodstock Museum and the “Not-for - Profit:” Indwell, owners of The Harvey Woods units! 

 Two guys are walking through the woods one day when they stumble across a big deep hole. The first guy peers into it and says, "Wow! That looks deep." The second guy says, "It sure does. Let's throw a few pebbles in there and see how deep it is. So they pick up a few pebbles and throw them in and wait. Nothing. There's no noise. The first guy says, "Jeeez. That is really deep. I know, let's throw one of these big rocks down there. Those should make a noise." So they pick up a couple football-sized rocks and toss them into the hole and wait... and wait... Again, nothing. They look at each other in amazement. Then the first guy gets a determined look on his face and says, "Hey, over here in the weeds, there's a railroad tie. Help me carry it over. When we toss that sucker in, it's gotta make some noise." So the two of them drag the heavy tie over to the hole and heave it in. Once again, not a sound comes from the hole. Suddenly, out of the nearby woods, a goat appears, running like the wind. It rushes toward the two men, then right past them, running as fast as it's legs will carry it. Suddenly it leaps in the air and into the hole. The two men are astonished with what they've just seen and look at each other in amazement. Then, out of the woods comes a farmer who spots the men and ambles over. He asks them, "Hey, you two guys seen my goat out here?" The first guy says, "You bet we did! Craziest thing I ever saw. It came running like crazy and just jumped into this hole and disappeared!" "Nah", says the farmer, "That couldn't have been my goat. My goat was chained to a railroad tie."