ALIEN INTERVIEW - THE NEW EARTH - Earth Changes and The ...

Since legal changes have occurred starting in 1980, there has been a general trend of
patenting inventions on living matter. More knowledge and data has become available in
recent years that have never before been available. However, for us to get to the point
where it is making a significant difference in peoples’ lives, a tidy sum of money needs to be
invested. Biotech and pharmaceutical companies in recent years have found out how
lucrative biological research can be. These firms foster many research opportunities
by funding made possible only through the private sector.
Patents have provided an impetus for research to be pursued in that the end goal of money
can be envisioned by companies with the funding cash. Especially during the genomic era,
more patents were issued. Companies and organizations like the University of California
were patenting whole genomes.
In 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued a broad patent claiming
primate (including human) embryonic stem cells, entitled "Primate Embryonic Stem
Cells" (Patent 5,843,780). On 13 March 2001, a second patent (6,200,806) was issued with
the same title but focused on human embryonic stem cells.
Recently, there has been a slowdown and backlash against patenting biological
material worldwide.
Some feel that the increase in patenting biological information leads to inefficiency in
research. Many scientists are coming up against patent thickets, which are masses of
information that they must obtain permission (and often pay large fees to utilize)
before they can ever work with the information.
Michael Heller and Rebecca Eisenberg (2005) explain that there is a recent trend of
patenting more and more steps along the research path. This creates a "tragedy of the
anticommons," whereby "each upstream patent allows its owner to set up another tollbooth
on the road to product development, adding to the cost and slowing the pace of downstream
. . . innovation". A report shows that notwithstanding escalating funding, in the past halfdecade
biomedical innovation has slowed markedly. The number of drugs approved by the
Food and Drug Administration has fallen below previous eras. The technologies approved, it
continues, are less influential than previous innovations approved. The current trend of
patenting what previously were thought of as basic science insights have raised the financial
bar for other scientists wanting to use such insight. The overall trend of more patents may be
slowing innovation.
However, others point out that patents are necessary for research. Without them, scientists
would keep secret all discoveries for fear of colleagues and others stealing their
ideas. There would also be little incentive for large-scale investments from the private
sector.
Reference: Wikipedia.org
206 "..."cyclical stimulus-response generators".
"Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible
and runs to completion. Fixed action patterns are invariant and are produced by a
neural network known as the innate releasing mechanism in response to an external
sensory stimulus known as a sign stimulus or releaser.
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