clipped by: kmcolo clipper's remarks: This brings up an interesting point - what is the role of the nation state as the world "internationalizes"? What good are EPA regulations when we breath polluted air from China? What good are European regulations on CO2 when the U.S. wont regulate? How does the U.S. compete in stem cell research when it has restrictions on funding? The nation state is no longer the venue for prevention of things like cloning, bacterial engineering, genetic selection, GM foods, etc. We may restrict cloning in the States, but then cloning moves to Mexico or China. Clip Source: www.nature.com Your News story 'Sterile mosquitoes near take-off' ( Nature 453 , 435; 2008 ) discusses the likely release of genetically engineered mosquitoes to help contain dengue fever. It demonstrates just how close we are to a radically new set of strategies for managing a whole range of diseases and wildlife using genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But after assessing the risks and benefits, nations may reach different conclusions about their use. And that's quite a problem, considering that genetically modified bugs won't recognize national borders. Nations have a right to decide the technological risks to which they expose themselves. The factors in decision-making here will not be only the simple ones of uncontested science — this is politics, and appropriately so. The potential for conflict over self-dispersing GMOs demands the ...