歪歪漫画

My obsession with dinosaurs and paleontology as a child was taken to epic proportions when the sci-fi action drama 鈥淛urassic Park鈥� was released when I was 8 years old.

I can remember friends of mine in school seeing the film, but I had to wait for the TV version to hit one of the four channels on our TV at home before I could enjoy it, even if it was a bit edited down.

One of the timeless quotes in the movie is delivered by Jeff Goldblum when he predicted how the dinosaurs would multiply and cause havoc.

鈥淟ife, uh 鈥� finds a way,鈥� said Goldblum, playing Ian Malcolm, a mathematician.

Indeed life did find a way, and the franchise is still finding ways for dinosaurs to wreak havoc, with six other films following that original, all building on the idea of what happens when you bring back these extinct creatures. This is an example of how science can cause irreparable damage when the outcome does not go quite as planned.

I thought I would highlight some instances where science seems to be taking strides towards a better future that does not involve giant carnivores escaping a confined area. One such instance is how scientists are testing ways to replace pollinators with drones in places like greenhouses, where pollinators, along with all other bugs are kept out of the equation.

It鈥檚 a real-world problem when we humans attempt to do things with the natural world kept out. As I continue my greenhouse build , I am not trying to keep pollinators out, but I am setting up precautions to keep chickens out of our vegetable production. A vine-ripened tomato is a delicious treat for our chickens, I found out last year. They鈥檒l still have free range of other areas of the property where they can forage on bugs and plants to their hearts' content.

Other areas of agriculture are doing what they can to bring pollinators back to their operations.

The USDA鈥檚 , a non-honey-producing bee that has important contributions to pollination, especially in almond orchards.

The research on these mason bees states that 鈥渨e could develop managed populations from different geographic locations, and time the characteristics of those populations with peak floral blooms for different types of crops.鈥� So they work with bee genetics to produce a bee that can meet the important timing of crop pollination across the country.

Also last week, news came that researchers at the quickly and efficiently for diabetics. This is fantastic news coming from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. It鈥檚 one of the ways that humans are finding a way to deal with a health problem facing one in 10 people.

The process involves scientists in Brazil, who 鈥渋nserted a segment of human DNA coding for proinsulin 鈥� the protein precursor of the active form of insulin 鈥� into cell nuclei of 10 cow embryos. These were implanted in the uteruses of normal cows in Brazil, and one transgenic calf was born. Thanks to updated genetic engineering technology, the human DNA was targeted for expression 鈥� the process whereby gene sequences are read and translated into protein products 鈥� in mammary tissue only.鈥�

Yeah, I don鈥檛 understand all of that. But smarter people than me do.

I can鈥檛 say I agree in general with Dr. Malcolm that life 鈥渇inds a way.鈥� The natural world was created with incredible resources and wonders, and people, who were created to be intelligent, uh 鈥� find a way to utilize those tools. I appreciate those who are choosing to use their intelligence for good.