thanks to maggie koerth-baker over at geek site boing-boing for bringing this npr story to my attention. apparently, the geniuses at monsanto figured that, because it was sooo hard for them to create roundup resistance in crops, the weeds wouldn’t be able to do it either. heck, the weeds don’t have fancy post-graduate degrees and millions of dollars in funding and research labs… well, whoopsy.

So how did the company’s experts react when weeds began to prove them wrong? “The reaction was, ‘What is really going on here?’ ” says Cole. Monsanto began a “massive effort” to figure out how the weeds withstand glyphosate. Some weeds, Cole says, appear to keep glyphosate from entering the plant at all; others sequester the herbicide in a spot where it can’t do much damage. Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops use a different technique entirely.

hubris is a terrible thing.

[cross-posted to auntiebeak.com]