Word: hardier
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...have made significant progress in that regard since the 1990s by creating high-yielding varieties of rice that are well adapted to the dryer conditions of upland regions. Dubbed NERICA (New Rice for Africa), the plants were created through conventional breeding of a high-yield Asian variety with a hardier African one--something that had been tried many times before without success...
...Given enough time, Vietnam should be able to tighten control over its poultry trade. The trouble is, bird flu may not wait that long. The disease is already endemic in much of Asia, and a recent WHO report showed that the H5N1 virus has become progressively hardier and more lethal, with a human mortality rate of 75%. Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, says he's shocked by the virulence of avian flu in the patients he has helped treat: "I've never experienced...
Genetic engineering of plants can make food crops hardier, more resistant to molds and drought as well as to insect pests--without the use of herbicides and pesticides. Food can arrive on our tables looking and tasting better, costing less and being relatively free of unwanted chemicals. Future generations will look back at our fear of genetic engineering in the same way that we regard the superstitions that people once held about eclipses. TERRY BOYD Skokie...
...always imagined myself to be, well, a bit of a lightweight. Did I enjoy a nip of Jack Daniels, a snifter of sherry or a tall glass of Spaten from time to time? Sure. But did I binge drink? Surely not. Surely that was reserved for the hardier types, the Spee-men and Sigma Chi brothers, the strapping rowers and the bosomy Grille girls...
...There are more potential pitfalls. Among other things, the possibility exists that as transgenes in pollen drift, they will fertilize wild plants, and weeds will emerge that are hardier and even more difficult to control. No one knows how common the exchange of genes between domestic plants and their wild relatives really is, but Margaret Mellon, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' agriculture and biotechnology program, is not alone in thinking that it's high time we find out. Says she: "People should be responding to these concerns with experiments, not assurances...