By day, Roger Highfield is a mild-mannered science journalist, author and broadcaster. But under that crisp white lab coat beats the heart of his alter ego, Boffin...

GM Food

GM food. Given how nature fiddles around with our genes all the time, I am not bothered by the idea of GM food. However, as is true with any technology, there are good uses and bad ones. Would I eat GM soya, for example? Yes. Was I surprised that so many people rejected it? No. In the case of GM soya, consumers were being asked to tolerate a tiny but unquantifiable risk posed by the first generation of a technology that seemed to offer only a marginal benefit - and that was aimed at farmers. Now contrast that with the example of the mobile phone. There is also a small but unquantifiable risk - this time of cancer - but in this case the benefits for consumers are so overwhelming that they are relatively uncontroversial.

mugshot

mad boffin

what makes my blood boil...

GM Food

GM food. Given how nature fiddles around with our genes all the time, I am not bothered by the idea of GM food. However, as is true with any technology, there are good uses and bad ones. Would I eat GM soya, for example? Yes. Was I surprised that so many people rejected it? No. In the case of GM soya, consumers were being asked to tolerate a tiny but unquantifiable risk posed by the first generation of a ...

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Thanks to

Simon Singh
Jad Marrouche
Raj Persaud
David Johnson
Brian Millar