GMOs and Junk Science [View all]
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gmos-junk-science-by-henry-i--miller-and-kavin-senapathy-2015-09
"In todays media landscape, where unfounded opinions, hype, and rumors are rife, the scientific method the means by which we determine, based on empirical and measurable evidence, what is true should serve as a touchstone of reality. Science enables us to gauge what we think we know and to identify what we do not. Most important, it discredits false claims made for personal or political reasons at least it should.
But scientists occasionally go rogue, forsaking the scientific method often for notoriety or economic gain to produce propaganda and to sow fear in a public that lacks expertise but is hungry for information. This abuse of scientific authority is especially widespread in the organic and natural food industries, which capitalize on peoples fear of synthetic or unnatural products.
A recent example is the Indian-American scientist V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, who, with Prabhakar Deonikar, published the much-ridiculed paper Do GMOs Accumulate Formaldehyde and Disrupt Molecular Systems Equilibria? Systems Biology May Provide Answers. (GMOs are genetically modified organisms, itself a misleading and often unfairly stigmatized non-category, circumscribing a universe of organisms modified with the most modern and precise techniques of genetic engineering.)
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But the problems with Ayyadurais paper are legion. Its title alone is enough to show that something is amiss. If you think that GMOs might accumulate formaldehyde a chemical that is probably carcinogenic at high levels but is present in most living cells and found widely in our environment the obvious response would be to measure its levels in the organisms. Ayyadurai, however, chose to make guesses based on modeling via systems biology.
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Another false hero of the anti-GMO crowd.