GM tear-free onion created by scientists

[concerned]

tinyurl.com/2nda3o

A tear-free onion that should be tastier and healthier has been created by using genetic tinkering to turn off the enzyme that makes us cry.

The onions, which can be chopped without painful, stingy, weeping eyes, have been tested in the laboratory by New Zealand Crop & Food Research scientist Dr Colin Eady, with his collaborators in Japan.

The team really knows its onions. Onion World quotes Prof Michael Havey at the University of Wisconsin and "world-renowned onion scientist," as predicting that tearless onions will become a mainstay in household kitchens around the world.

World renowned onion scientist---I just love that designation.Now I wish I went for my doctorate in Biology.

[frankcor]

I wonder if they could do that same trick with Oneida County property tax statements?

[Ralph]

Now there's a thought!!

But I doubt it.

[jduges]

Are we at a point in our evolution that this is considered an appropriate allocation of resources?

Perhaps pull the plug on the onion experiments and invest those man hours in not making cancerous cells mastaticize. Or on finding a cure for Diabetes. Fighting heart Disease and or MS. Really anything else worthwhile.

But hey, we can make onions that won't tear you up! Yahoo for us. I feel so much better now.

[Ralph]

Amazin' ain't it!

[Swimmy]

There's research going on in all those categories. But apparently the researchers developing a tear-less onion had their breakthrough sooner than the others. Perhaps now the stem cell research has had its major breakthrough, which hopefully clears up anyone's "moral" objections to it, we'll see some major breakthroughs across the boards in the biological fields.

[frankcor]

Every time they do something like this, they learn more about how to tinker with DNA and the enzymes that surround it in the cell. Besides leading to cures for diseases, this kind of research leads to making better foods grow in adverse conditions thereby feeding more people with a healthier diet. It's all good.

[concerned]

Yes it is all good. If Gregory Mendel along with all the earlier geneticist's were alive today with todays technology the sky would be the limit. I bet we would have some of the cures solved that plaque the world today. I only hope I am alive when the first cloned 'human' is born. It will be a moment that will change the philosophies of the world.

[jduges]

first off, you probably won't see "cures" for many of the diseases that plague this world because the money is in the treatment and not the cure.

If someone clones a human you can bet it will be done in complete secrecy and we won't know about it, not for sometime anyway.

Frank-did you seriously just write, grow more food to feed more people with healthier food?
C'mon....hell we have a massive surplus of food in this country and yet millions are going hungry. Jesus, of the close to 900 kids I work with, I'd bet that the free breakfast and lunch are the only two meals that over 50% of them are getting.

I'm not discrediting the breakthrough, and I understand the need to explore on all fronts, i just didn't see "tearfree onion at the top of my list of priorities" that's all. How bout working on a cell phone that works, instead of one that plays music and takes pictures.....can you do that for me, Mr. scientist? How bout designing an engine that can get me 40 mpg out of my X-terra. Perhaps creating a toliet that weighs and measures my stool so that I can back up my bragging with cold hard facts would be a worthwhile cause.

Better yet, why not develop IV bags made for home use that are filled with ice cold beer. That way, I can be jazzed up from the start of the big game.

I agree with Concerned about being alive when the first cloned human comes along. I hope it's a girl (and would think it would be) cause when that thing turns 18-20 years old I'm gonna try and "get friendly" with it. It isn't cheating if it's a cloned human.......kinda like a blow up doll that eats, sleeps and breathes......perfect. Here's a philospohical, question. Would clones have feelings? It would stand to reason that they would not because they technically wouldn't have souls. Hmmmmmm........i just gotta pray that she's cute.

[Swimmy]

How bout designing an engine that can get me 40 mpg out of my X-terra.

That will never happen as long as the oil industry keeps making record profits by having low-mileage vehicles on the road.

Interesting perspective on the cloned human issue. That's certainly an application I never thought of.

[kim]

Hmmm, Jduges has a point about wasting food. When I was in school, I got free lunches for a while there. It used to really annoy me when I saw classmates just throw the food away. But then, I throw food away, too, which isn't good. I don't do it often, but just this morning I found some leftovers that had been left over for way too long. I dumped them. Should not have forgotten that it was there...wasteful!

[frankcor]

jduges, what's next? Will they figure out a way to zap the nag gene when they create the cloned girl of your dreams? LOL

Yeah, I was serious about using gene research to grow better food. I wasn't thinking about American crops, I was thinking about being able to grow nutritious food in some of the dismal climates so many people live in. It'd be akin to zapping genes in grapes that will grow only along the Mediteranean coast to allow them to grow in upstate New York.

Of course, I'm still stuck on the idea first proposed by the late Sam Kinison who questioned the wisdom of sending food to starving peoples around the world. He suggested, instead, we send them trucks and MOVE THEM WHERE THE FOOD IS!!