My New York Times column yesterday used a new study from the National Human Genome Research Institute to illuminate one of the central issues of Intervention: that the reductionist scientific principles on which the biotech industry is founded — that is, the theory that one gene will reliably and predictably yield one function or trait […]

This morning, I was one of the two opening speakers at the Supernova 2007 conference in San Francisco. I shared the stage with Clay Shirky. We both talked about social media and social networks. I think we got blogged in lots of places, but here’s the first one I saw, on ZDNET, by Mitch Radcliffe.
My […]

I’m very happy to report that my book, Intervention, has won a Silver Medal in the Science category, in the 2007 Independent Publishers Book Awards competition.
IPPY winners in 65 categories were selected from a total of 2,690 national entries came from “all 50 U.S. states, eight Canadian provinces, and 17 countries overseas.”
In the Science category, […]

Via the blog at Genome Technology Online, I stumbled onto this terrific essay at The Scientist, called ‘A New Dynamic … Can a Penn State center predict and prevent the next pandemic?’
… During the breeding season, tiny leeches climb aboard the newts, sucking their blood, and possibly transmitting Icthyophonus, a fungus-like pathogen that hides in […]

My New York Times Re:framing column today is about the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, and the indefatigable Red Burns — the chair of the program who designed it from scratch specifically to protect and nurture its wildly creative, collaborative, innovative spirit.
Here are a couple of excerpts, but if you click to the […]

The Packard Foundation is doing a very cool thing that you are invited to participate in.
They’ve set up an online forum to solicit input on the new program they’re hoping to fund, for reducing nitrogen pollution.
They’ve developed a draft strategy for the program. But in order to combat the blind spots that can occur when […]

Today, my ‘Re:framing’ column in The New York Times was on the scientific evidence that has been used by industry and the U.S. Agriculture Department to support safety claims about biopharma crops. These are the next generation of plants that have been genetically engineered to grow drugs and industrial chemicals in open fields in the […]

Scott Rosenberg, a former colleague of mine from the former golden days of the San Francisco Examiner, interviewed me for the Book section of today’s Salon. (He also blogged the interview.)
In the piece, Scott asked me some questions — about how some journalists have overlooked the risk story, and about why I had to publish […]

I really liked this piece in Alternet this morning about the mythology of carbon offsets; thought I’d pass it along. Some of you on this list have been raising these issues with me privately for a while now, and I’m glad to see them start to pick up some steam in the public eye.
Also I’m […]

If you’re in the Washington DC area, you are invited to the event that the Wilson Center is hosting for Intervention on Tuesday, March 6. Apparently it will be webcast live, as well.
I will be interviewed — although more likely there will be questions flying in both directions — by Joel Garreau, author of […]