FORENSIC scientists in Connecticut are using DNA fingerprinting to create a database of DNA profiles of different marijuana plants (快猫短视频, 17 July, p 7). I showed the report to Caroline Flint, a Home Office under-secretary whose responsibilities include reducing harm from drug abuse, and I put it that DNA-finger printing might help trace the origin of illegal drugs.
Flint agreed, but said it would depend on the drug involved. It is now government policy to use the latest technology to attack illegal drugs trade at every stage in its supply chain. The UK鈥檚 Forensic Science Service is analysing heroin seized by the police to try and work out the drug鈥檚 origins and its route into and around the country.
She added that the government is bringing forward its proposals to downgrade cannabis from class B to class C on the basis that it should more accurately reflect the sort of harm the drug does. Tracking cannabis supplies by DNA analysis would eat up a lot of resources that could better be used tackling drugs that cause the greatest harm, such as heroin and cocaine, said the minister. I agree with her.
Advertisement
NOLAN FELL made the case earlier this year that we face a growing shortage of silicon (快猫短视频, 10 May, p 38). He suggested that although a rush on microprocessors may be good news for silicon chip-makers, it would spell disaster for any solar energy revolution. The latest generation of solar cells hitting the market are made from thin films of cadmium telluride and are reputed to perform extremely well on the rooftop. Soon, it is claimed, a million roofs across the US, Europe and Japan could be harvesting the power of the sun.
However, the solar cell industry received a major blow in November 2002. BP Solar, the world鈥檚 second largest producer of solar cells, decided to close its entire thin-film programme. The thin films work well in the lab, it said, but not on the rooftop. The company said it would concentrate instead on old-fashioned crystalline silicon 鈥� the material presently used in 85 per cent of solar cells. I asked Stephen Timms, the minister for energy, how a silicon shortage would affect the British solar cell industry.
Timms replied that the government had not assessed the implications of a silicon shortage, as the UK currently has no major silicon cell manufacturers. However, multinational cell-makers are monitoring the situation and may build dedicated silicon production plants or diversify into non-silicon technology if the shortage persists.
So be it, but I have it on good authority that there is likely to be a prolonged shortage 鈥� so the sooner industry acts the better.
