Belgium's Council of State unblocks field trials The Council of State, Belgium's highest juridical court, has suspended a decision by federal ministers to block field trials of poplars engineered for the production of biofuels. This does not mean field trials will immediately go ahead. In the opinion of Flanders Institute for Biotechnology [Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie, VIB], which developed the poplars, the ministers will be forced to come up with a new decision, taking into account the Council of State's verdicts. More†

Sci/Tech

Cellular atlas of rice Researchers at Yale University have published a cellular atlas of genetic activity in rice, documenting with unprecedented detail how and when genes are turned off and on. The data, collected during a five-year project, chronicles the molecular differences and similarities among 40 cell types essential to the life cycle of one of the world's most important crops. More†

Sugarcorn for ethanol Sugarcorn is a hybrid, a cross between sugarcane and maize. It doesn't flower to produce grain, it produces sugar in its stalks, and can grow to be 15 feet high. During the 2009 growing season, Targeted Growth Inc. will grow it in test plots across the US, east to west from Indiana to Nebraska, and spanning north to south from Minnesota to Florida. Meanwhile, researchers are continuing to work on increasing sugar yield in the plant, increasing hardiness for growth in the Midwest, and modifying the plant to prevent it from being pollinated by nearby stands of traditional maize. More†

Potpourri

Selectively organic Organic growers threaten to renounce their organic status whenever there's even the slightest whiff of pollen from GM crops. What happens when it turns out that as many as thirty percent of organic growers in California have been using unapproved synthetic fertilizer for nearly a decade? Nothing. Or, perhaps, a cover-up. More†