Vocal plant growth promoter Research conducted by Britain's Royal Horticultural Society has demonstrated the efficacy of the human voice as a plant growth promoter. After exposing ten tomato plants to recorded playbacks of the voices of various people for a month, it was determined that female voices were the most effective in stimulating growth. The voice of Sarah Darwin, the great-great grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, was found to be the most stimulating of all. However, experts are unsure whether her choice of text played a role. She read a passage from her great-great grandfather's book, On the Origin of Species. More†

Futuristic floral artists Are they 'open source' advocates, biopirates, or artists? "If more and more of the flowers we buy at florist are cloned and if food is less and less spottable as genetically manipulated, we are facing times when the intervention with the dna of different living organisms will be considered as pop culture", say the folks at Neural, about the Common Flowers project. Claiming to be artists, Shiho Fukuhara and Georg Tremmel of Common Flowers use tissue culture to bring cut flowers "back to life again, planting them into the environment, and then making them a Common." We're talking about the GM 'Moondust' blue carnation. More†

GMO art There are some who consider Eduardo Kac's GM rabbit, which glows green under ultraviolet light, to be a work of art. But that's not the only glowing GMO art out there. There are at least two other projects which use glowing GM organisms -- microbes, actually -- as a medium of artistic expression. More†

Novel with a novel GMO A newly-released novel combines the approaches of Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, and Jeffrey Smith. How did Smith join such august company? Well, it's fiction, for one thing. But there are other familiar elements: a giant multinational corporation engaged in the development and sales of GM seeds and complementary chemicals. There's pollen-mediated outcrossing, and a 'Doomsday Vault' of non-GM seeds buried in an ice-bound island far north of the Arctic Circle. And ancient manuscripts with clever riddles. And bombs and guns, and black helicopters. Ladies and gentlemen, the novel is The Doomsday Key, by James Rollins.  More†

'Terminator' corn wins organic prize All Things Organic has just announced the winners of its 2009 New Product Competition, and one of the winners is "SK Food International's Crimson Red Corn (Best Overall Organic Ingredient)-A hybrid corn with a gene that prevents GMO contamination, used as an ingredient in snack foods, tortillas, and flour." SK Food spokesman Aaron Skyberg says "The gametophyte gene within the corn does not allow other types, or species, of corn to pollinate it." This is clearly a Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT). More† Andrew Apel

Glofish on the loose in Ireland St. Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, and now, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency must do the same for GM fish that supposedly glow in the dark. Four of the fish were apprehended in a garden pond, and if the agency prosecutes, a fine of up to €3,000 and/or 12 months imprisonment could be imposed in the district court. If the case is heard in the Circuit Court, a fine of up to €15,000 is applicable and/or 10 years in prison. More†