Entry #11 What Fun It Has Been!

Hello my fellow inquisitive minds! It’s hard to believe it has already been eight years since the start of this blo…wait what?! It’s only been eight weeks?! Well, yeah I guess that sounds about right. Nonetheless, I have enjoyed immensely the short time I have spent as the fabricator of this blog and hopefully all of you have enjoyed it as well. 

I have done my best to share a wide variety of topics to keep all of you engaged and to feed your curiosity. And while it was difficult at times for me to “write on demand,” after all, I had to make sure you all had content to keep you entertained; I have never felt blogging to be a chore. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to write about whatever you want. Though, at the same time, I knew I had to think of content and rhetoric because I (hopefully) had an audience to appease. And that’s what has made this project not only challenging, but also an awesome learning experience. I now feel more comfortable with writing and feel that I am able to express my personal writing tone and voice thanks to this project. I can’t think of any other medium that could help you to learn this invaluable lesson so well.

And so, I would like to thank the powers that be for making me start this blog. It really has taught me a lot, and I will never forget it. I would also like to thank all of you for reading my posts week after week and for your comments and suggestions. They really meant a lot and were very encouraging. No, this is not a goodbye, but simply see you later. For the Widely Curious and Dabbling will be on hiatus, but I hope to return soon. Until then—stay curious my friends!!!  

(EC) Should We be Allowed to Patent Life?

Polio, one of the most dreaded diseases of the 20th century has largely been eradicated due to the discovery of the polio vaccine by a man named Jonas Salk. Hundreds of thousands of children died from this terrible disease before Salk invented this vaccine, and people lived in fear of their child being infected. But Salk’s vaccine

changed all that. Such an amazing invention, surely Salk patented it right? Wrong. When Salk was asked who owned the patent for his vaccine, he answered, “Well the people I guess. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

Salk had a good point, after all, the life the vaccine was made of, just like the sun does not belong to any one person. It makes sense that we shouldn’t and perhaps couldn’t patent a living thing that does not really belong to us anyway right? Well that’s what I would have thought anyway, but oddly after watching Food Inc. a documentary about the production of our food, I know that we definitely should not be allowed to patent life, but for some reason some companies have been allowed to do so.

In the documentary Food Inc. we are shown just how closely linked

just about every company is that gives us the majority of our food. Everything from Beef to Soybeans is connected in some way and these companies control the way that farms and the markets are run. Though what really caught my attention in the film was the story of Monsanto. This company ruthlessly hassles farmers and forces farmers to always buy all of their seed from them. They spy on the farmers and if they catch them using seed that they have not bought from them, they will sue them for all that they own. How do they do this you ask?

Well they have patented the seed that’s how. Yes, Monsanto also the makers of Roundup made a genetically modified soybean that they then patented. They now force all farmers to buy these seeds from them. So just don’t buy those seeds right? Well the problem is that the seeds are alive. They blow around and bees cross pollinate Monsanto crops to the regular one. Now all of the genes are mixed up and Monsanto claims that the farmers are guilty of patent infringement.

Now due to this one patent, Monsanto has become almost a god of soybeans, punishing those who dare touch their creation without paying first of course. This is precisely why we should not be allowed to patent life, it allows for too much wiggle room, after all, life changes and slowly adapts. At what point is it still the original creation? This is no end to the loopholes.