Free rice

A “working draft” of the genetic blueprint of rice has been completed, making
it the first crop plant to be sequenced. Leroy Hood and his colleagues at the
University of Washington in Seattle finished the job in three years on behalf of
Monsanto. The company has made the draft openly available to researchers who
register, but it expects first refusal on licenses for patented inventions. Tony
Combes of Monsanto says this is the company’s first major gesture since its
chairman, Bob Shapiro, apologised for “arrogance”
(New Scientist, 16 October 1999, p 7).