Celebrating a Failure, That Really Was a Success
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -- Wayne Gretzky Back in 2012, the activist group Take the Flour Back was settled on destroying a science experiment. The trial was set on an English hillside near Rothamstead Research Institute, rows of wheat specially genetically engineered to produce a natural plant compound (E-beta-farnesene) that faithfully repelled aphids in lab experiments. Certainly plants protect themselves with natural compounds from insect pests, and engineering in a compound that repels pests but has no effect on humans would be a great innovation. Such approaches have been tremendous environmental successes in corn and cotton. After pleading on You Tube, scientists convinced the activists to not destroy the crop, and to let the trial progress to completion. Public pressure was palpable, and the to-be vandals saw the potential backlash of their actions. The trial would proceed, and would-be crop crushers went back to hackeysack and glassblowing.