The Dish: Sampling Today’s News – January 17, 2008

President Bush signed an exemption that may allow the Navy to continue the use of sonar in training exercises. Scientists believe sonar is harmful to marine mammals, especially whales. Earlier this month, a federal judge issued an injunction ordering the Navy to create a 12 mile no-sonar zone near the Southern California coast and keep a lookout for marine mammals both before and during training exercises. While the exemption does not overturn the injunction, it may influence the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco which will hear the Navy’s appeal.

On January 7th, the Supreme Court upheld Monsanto’s claims against a Mississippi farmer who reused genetically modified soybean seeds, a breech of contract that will end up costing him $350,000 in fines. He originally paid $24,000 for the seeds. This case highlights Monsanto’s efforts to protects it huge investment and hold over the genetically modified seed industry. In his Grist article, Tom Philpott argues that Monsanto has deftly used patent law to take control of the corn and soybean industry, and in the process has quashed an age-old farmer’s right to save seed.

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) became the latest victim of federal budget cuts to particle physics research. The shutdown of the collider will end the lab’s involvement in an international cooperative researching the difference between matter and antimatter. The Department of Energy chose between axing the Tevatron, a collider at the Fermilab in Illinois, or the SLAC collider.

On the heels of Shinya Yamanaka’s revolutionary technique for creating “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPS), the Japanese government quickly hiked the budget for iPS research from $2.5 million dollars in 2007 to $20 million for 2008. It also pledged $92 million over 10 years and promised money for the creation of a Yamanaka-headed center dedicated to iPS research. The sudden increase in research funding is unusual in Japan, which models its own science policy around that of the United States.

The Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a case between LG Electronics and Quanta yesterday. The Supreme Court decision could alter a patent holder’s right to control the use of their invention after it has been sold to somebody else. The case involves the terms of use surrounding computer components LG Electronics licensed to Intel, who then went on to sell them to Quanta for use in its notebook computers.

Tags: environment, patents, stem cells

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