[…] Today, with the executive order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers, doctors and innovators, patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: We will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. (Applause.) We will also vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. (Applause.) And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.

[…] Research involving human embryonic stem cells and human non-embryonic stem cells has the potential to lead to better understanding and treatment of many disabling diseases and conditions. Advances over the past decade in this promising scientific field have been encouraging, leading to broad agreement in the scientific community that the research should be supported by Federal funds.

[…] The Working Party on Nanotechnology sponsored the water session at Nanotech Northern Europe as part of its project on using nanotechnology to address global challenges. According to the World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, diarrheal disease, which could be prevented by better management of drinking water and sanitation, caused more deaths in 2004 than did HIV/AIDS.

[…] “Nanoscience” describes the ability to see, measure, manipulate and manufacture things on a scale of one to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. At the nano scale, the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials differ in basic and valuable ways from bulk matter.

[…] Nanotechnology, science on the scale of atoms and molecules, could give developing nations new ways to diagnose and treat disease and make clean water more available, if governments, nongovernmental organizations, industry and others would work to apply the powerful technology to these challenges, scientists say.

[…] Research that began approximately 15 years ago on these and other traits in a variety of crops continues today in laboratories around the world. So far, the United States has approved more than 70 genetically modified crops. These crops, which can be grown commercially, include canola, papaya, potato, rice, squash, sugar beets, tomato and tobacco, which is used to help produce a vaccine that fights against a type of lymphoma, said Newell-McGloughlin.

[…] The rate of adoption of biotech crops worldwide is the highest of any crop technology, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) said in a report released January 18. There is "cautious optimism" that the growth rate between 2007 and 2015 might surpass that of biotech's first decade, as more biotech crops are expected to be developed for biofuel production, the ISAAA reports in Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2006.

[…] Officials from more than 120 countries are meeting through November 4 in Rome to review progress towards meeting the internationally agreed goal set in 1996 of reducing by half by 2015 the number of hungry people in the world.
Greater development of native African plants "would be a boon" especially to women in Africa because women comprise a "large share" of the region's farmers, NAS said in releasing its second of three reports evaluating African plant resources that could help secure the region's food supply.