PESTICIDES and genetically modified organisms are two things that environmentalists love to hate.
There are certainly good reasons to hate conventional pesticides. Looming large among those are the harm they do to the humans exposed to them and the death of beneficial insects, fish and birds. Now, however, researchers are developing a new kind of insecticide, one that will only wipe out a target species (see “Bugs beware: we’re gunning for your genes”).
The key is a method of gene silencing called RNA interference. There is every reason to think this approach will be safe. In many cases, the …
