The work of a research team led by Professor Jaroslav Doležel at the Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR has contributed to an article in the journal Science. The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium published a draft sequence of the bread wheat genome in the journal. The genetic blueprint of the wheat genome was obtained using the chromosome-based strategy developed by Professor Doležel’s team. The chromosome-based draft provides new insight into the structure, organization, and evolution of the large, complex genome of the world’s most widely grown cereal crop. The genetic blueprint is an invaluable resource to plant science researchers and breeders. For the first time, they have at their disposal a set of tools enabling them to rapidly locate specific genes on individual wheat chromosomes throughout the genome. and Jaroslav Doležel.
Alternative futures oriented to contemporary global problems solutions and risk management are related to citizens´ability to learn how to become global (cosmopolitan) citizens. Important conditions for that should be analyzed within the processes and conditions shaped by globalization of media and communication. This learning has not been institutionalize so far (as in the education), and it is a result of rather indirect social interaciton. Individuals are embedded into complex network of the global information flows and, at the same time, they are members of their national and local communities. Cosmopolitan individual is a virtual member of a global community. Social analysis with ethical reflection should study with more attention global media as one of the key globalizing actors shaping the public space of communication with the power to farm and deform cosmopolitan participation. and Oleg Suša.
The article argues that the development of genetic technologies has to be critically evaluated from a socio-political economy perspective to establish if, on balance, the benefits of such technologies outweigh their costs and risks. The article illustrates how the current governance of these technoloiges can be seen as "undemocratic" because corporate interests dominate the direcitions in which the technologies are going. When aligned with the underlying socioeconomic power structures globally, these technologies create a situation where the development of science and technology fail to be about the common good. The article begins with a brief overview of neo-liberal globalization. It examines key global institutional arrangements including the World Bank, the Intermnational Monetary Fund, itnernational patenting laws and fee trade agreements. It is argued that in their convergence with the biosciences, these are antithetical to democracy, instead entrensching the interests of corporations, rich elites and rich countries. Finally, some suggestions for reforming the global political economy are presented. and Del Weston.