can we depend on scientists?

Twenty-one top scientists called for more research into genetically modified (GM) food Friday and demanded the reinstatement of a researcher who claimed that rats fed on GM potatoes suffered a weakened immune system. Scientists from Britain, Europe, the United States and Canada signed a memorandum supporting the findings of Arpad Pusztai, who was forced to retire last year after he said his experiments also showed GM food can damage rats' vital organs.

"Dr Pusztai's results, at the very least, raise the suspicion that genetically modified food may damage the immune system," Dr Ronald Finn, a past president of the British Society of Allergy and Environmental Medicine, told a news conference. "He has been unfairly treated." Pusztai, a world authority on plant proteins, was forced to leave the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, two days after revealing preliminary findings in a television documentary. The institute said his claims could not be substantiated. But a review of his experiments and research by Stanley Ewen, a pathologist at Aberdeen University Medical School, supported his conclusion that there was reason for concern.