According to the news outlet France24, the Indian government had recently accused Monsanto, a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation based in the U.S., of “biopiracy”. Officials claimed that Monsanto was stealing plants indigenous to India and re-engineering them to create modified versions. The products are then patented and sold under the Monsanto brand.

One of the plants that were specifically chosen to undergo bio-engineering treatment is a type of eggplant called brinjal, which is native to Indian soil and has about 2,500 different varieties. According to the report by France24, millions of Indian farmers grow this type of crop and that a modified version in competition with the original will threaten the livelihood of locals that depend on it. Monsanto has repeatedly tried to market its own version of brinjal under the name Bt brinjal. This, along with other questionable practices by Monsanto, motivated farmers and activists in the country to put pressure on the government to file a lawsuit against the company. The government agreed to do so. The case is pending at the moment.

Monsanto is not new to controversy. Monsanto’s bad track record in business ethics can be traced back to the 1960s when it paid contractors to dump toxic waste in the U.K., according to a Guardian report. A government agency stated that they found lingering effects of these toxic wastes even decades after they were discarded. In another report,  a Monsanto subsidiary had been accused of using child labor in the cotton fields of Andhra Pradesh, India. In 2005, Monsanto was fined $1.5 million for bribing officials in Indonesia. These are just a few examples from a pile of documented legal complaints against the company.

I contacted the office of a PR representative for Monsanto, but the secretary on the phone said that my request for an interview had been declined.

Whenever I’m on a date, and the woman asks me to tell her something about myself, my answer is always this: I’m a science-fiction geek. The night either goes downhill from there, or we end up in her apartment debating about the correct pronunciation of Klingon words and how Solaris is, or isn’t, the best science-fiction film in the history of cinema.

Where does my unconditional love for sci-fi stem from? Maybe it began in third grade when I witnessed unidentifiable flying orbs dancing high up in the sky during recess. Perhaps it stems from going to a science magnet school that indoctrinated a lifelong love for anything related to science. Those are all valid answers, but I like to blame television.

I used to watch those old Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits episodes in the cavernous living room of our old Brooklyn duplex. The TV screen would flicker like an eccentric mosquito zapper, filling in all the dark crevices of the room with photons, then the eerie music would creep in. At that point, I was already hooked like a trout with an IQ of zero.

Television can take you places where you’ve never been before, and could never go. For an escapist, the bright screen is this doorway to another dimension, and sci-fi shows provided the setting and scenarios for my fantasies. I love all kinds of twisted, mind-bending plots that left its residue on your brain long after you finished watching it. But the storylines that had always sparked my increasingly grotesque imagination were the ones in which people were kidnapped by a diabolical, soulless criminal organization, and their body parts subsequently cut out, then meticulously organized like offal in a Moroccan outdoor market.

As a kid, my aunt used to warn me not to stay out too late. They told me, with a straight face, that there were bad men who kidnap kids like me, take them to a farm out in some secluded area, slice them open, then sell the fresh organs to wealthy people who don’t have the time to wait on the donor’s list.

For a short while I actually believed it and a rush of dread shot to my head whenever I found myself alone in the middle of the street as the sunlight dwindled and the street lamps casted its dull orange net over me. Can you blame me? The adults told me these stories as if they were a fact of life—the way the world worked. It wasn’t until later on that I realized this was just a campaign by adults to get me inside by dinner time and finally do my homework.

But is there any truth to such urban legends?

In December 2009, CNN published an article about the Israeli government admitting to harvesting organs in the 90s. Body parts, such as corneas and other organs, were taken from cadavers without permission from the families. This was supposedly done legally by the state, but even Dr. Yehuda Hiss, who was head of the state-run forensic institute that conducted the operations, himself acknowledged that such practices tiptoed on blurry legal boundaries.

At end of the Kosovo War, reports of kidnapping and organ theft circulated in the Balkans. Initially, a lot of these reports were denied by the accused—in this case, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and were considered propaganda, or simply rumors. Over a decade later, former members of the KLA who supposedly witnessed these acts finally gave detailed testimonies to U.N. investigators.

If you think this whole business is absurd, ask yourself this question: What’s my most valuable property? You might say your house, your car, your cell phone, laptop, or even your prized Darth Vader paper mache mask. Well, how about your heart, your brain, your eyes, your skin?

Poets and philosophers say that we are the sum of our memories. That’s great and all, but if you think about it, we’re really just the sum total of meat, bones, guts and a splash of blood. We see ourselves as a single entity, but we’re made up of various components, each one with its own important function. It’s only when these components work in synchronicity that we feel whole. Our body is our most valuable asset. It’s yours and yours to keep, or at least until someone takes your left kidney.

Organs aren’t the only parts of the body that are highly prized. The use of embryonic stem cells may be mired in controversy, but there have been cases that have shown its potential as a source of profit in the underground market.

From April 2009 through February 2010, Fredda Branyon of Scottsdale, Arizona, manufactured stem cell drugs unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration, then sold and delivered 183 vials of the stem cells to a buyer in Brownsville, Texas. The FBI found her manufacturing lab and was convicted for not possessing the license, nor the experience, to create the stem cell drugs. Her case is only one example, but I’m certain there are operations in other countries whose government doesn’t have such strict regulations when it comes to bio-engineering procedures.

How far will someone go to have a new organ, a new life? The person in Texas who bought those stem cell drugs may or may have not known that the drugs were effective, but why take the risk? In any case, this is something that should be monitored more, like human trafficking and the illegal arms trade. In this global economy’s current state, coupled with the increasing advancement of medical technology, the Red Market is something that could quickly evolve if not kept in check.

If you’re one of those dreaming to have a pair diamond earring or perhaps a a diamond studded necklace well wish more as these things would only be a very small part of the recently discovered diamond planet. You’re reading it right, it’s not a diamond house nor a diamond city but a diamond planet. Imagine that it is five times as big as earth and it is made of diamonds.

Time will come that mankind would be able to step on it. At least for now, it’s existence has been proven. A group of astronomers led by Matthew Bailes of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne discovered a binary pulsar named PSR J1719-1438 at about 4,000 light years away from the constellation Serpens. It is a binary pulsar which means it has companion orbiting in its axis. There were already at least 22 pulsars discovered but it is the first one having companion that has a mass. The actually bigger than the mass of the gaseous Jupiter. It is primarily composed of Carbon in which we can also say Diamond.

It orbits at a distance of 600,000 km, making years on it just two hours long. This recent discovery is just giving our astronomers another reason to explore the outer space even more.

In the never-ending quest to find and create more energy to supply the ever increasing demands for sustainable and renewable power, more and more companies are tapping into the unlimited resources of the sun.

There is just no possible way to drain its clean, free and readily available supply of light and heat regardless of how many solar panels collect it.

And so, adding to the growing solar projects being pursued is an Australian company with plans to build its solar tower in Arizona. And it is massive.

At 2,600 feet, it will prove to be the biggest solar energy collector to date once built. To stand just below the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, this structure will make it as the second tallest building the world and twice as tall as the Empire Stage building.

According to company officials of EnviroMission, the project owner, not only will it harness solar power but it will do so with no manpower and very little maintenance for 80 years. It is also projected to generate 200 megawatts of power; enough to provide for 150,000 homes.

There is no shortage of materials that can reliably be shaped and molded to replace hard components like bone when doing reconstructive surgery. But suitable replacement for soft tissues, particularly for facial use, is lacking. Those that are available leave much to be desired and are particularly problematic when used for correcting bigger deformities.

But researchers at John Hopkins University developed an injectable biomaterial that is transplantable. This new material can help in rebuilding the usually hard to fix parts. It is half-synthetic and half-biological and is straight-forward to administer, requiring no surgery. It can be shaped after being injected then set in place using green light.

The material is a blend of hyaluronic acid – a biological component already used for tissue replacement – and polyethylene glycol, the synthetic component. It can be plied after injection allowing doctors to shape it to proper form before setting it using green LED light of a specific wavelength.

A new remote-controlled robot designed to clear landmines can withstand as much as 17 lbs. of explosives without sustaining any damage.

Made of hardened steel, the Digger DTR D3 has a rotating tungsten hammer up front that digs about a foot into the ground and pulverizes things upon contact; including landmines, but not before detonating them.

The D3 is operated from a safe distance. It features a “V” shaped hull to protect it from damage while reinforced grates cover the air-intakes which might otherwise be vulnerable to shrapnel. It can effectively clear land of all mines while also removing any and all forms of obstructions.

It is not immune to breaking down, however. But the manufacturer has taken great lengths to make the Digger easily repairable. The engine and other internal parts are relatively easy to access. It also provides plans to enable the user to build spare parts themselves. This is quite essential in far locations; which is where you would expect landmines to be in the first place.

Researchers have achieved making different electronic components transparent. However, batteries were not one of them. So far, the bulk of research dedicated to battery technology is to make them store more energy and to keep it stored longer.

But Yi Cui, a materials science professor at Stanford University, led researchers in creating a fully transparent battery. “If you can’t make the battery transparent, you can’t make the gadget transparent,” says Cui. This development is another step closer in creating fully-transparent devices. It could lead to design of portable gadgets.

Although some parts of the battery are relatively easy to create using transparent materials, the electrodes particularly are not. They had to create a mesh with a pattern that’s smaller than the naked eye. To hold the mesh together, a clear polymer called PDMS was used.

Currently, this method of fabrication can create a battery that can hold half a charge of a non-transparent battery of the same size.

Cui is working to improve on this with further research.

What is two times harder, six times lighter, ten times stronger than steel and totally recyclable? Graphene, that’s what. These advantages produce a next-generation material that can greatly improve aviation, automotive and other heavy industries by decreasing fuel requirements, and therefore, pollution.

The University of Technology in Sydney, Australia revealed a new type of graphene nano paper. To make it, t he process involves milling and purifying raw graphite in a chemical bath. This step reshapes its molecular structure that makes it able to be pressed.

The resulting sheet has “excellent thermal, electrical and mechanical properties – including excellent hardness and flexibility,” the researcher said.

For years, car and plane makers have taken advantaged of modern aluminum processing technology to make their vehicles lighter. Incorporating graphene materials into these products would only result in much lighter machines.

There is much supply of this raw material in Australia and the researchers appreciate the increase in demand of graphite from the industry.

A new system under development holds a lot of promise in the area of monitoring our heart. The Human++ system is a wireless body area network (BAN) that creates a link between our body and Android smartphones. The current version is a dongle with a necklace. The lace is actually a low-powered ECG sensor that reads and interprets electrocardiogram readings and then communicates it to the dongle. The dongle, on the other hand is connected your Android phone via its microSD slot. This enables the system to monitor and track your body, even in real-time. It can even inform your doctor if you having a heart attack through Wi-Fi or 3G.

It is currently limited to Android. Smartphones that have no microSD slot can not interface with the system. Although using a Bluetooth connection is a possibility, systems such as these are required to operate with low power requirements. Bluetooth requires far more power than RF.

IMEC, the Dutch research firm that develops the device received positive reactions when it introduced it to the Wireless Health Conference in San Diego.

Two years ago, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology in Germany had the idea of a skin factory. They wanted to be able to produce low-cost skin that can be used for clinical testing.

That idea is now a reality.

In a sterile and climate-controlled factory, computers control the robots, blades and lasers that produce the skin. In it, pink solutions that are constantly monitored for infection are squeezed through small pipes and come out as human skin. These are then cut into discs the size of a penny. The factory produces 5,000 of these discs per month. The objective is to mass-produce human tissue that can be used for treating injuries and other medical conditions.

According to director Heike Walles, it is even possible to efficiently produce bigger tissues such as bladders and even human organs but only through facilities like this. Indeed, she and several others have successfully produced engineered tissues suitable for transplantation on humans. However, that process is still very expensive and requires too much work. She believes a simpler and cheaper method can only be achieved using a fully-automated manufacturing factory.

Based on European Union regulations, several stages of successful animal testing are required before clinical testing on humans can be allowed. Currently, It is still a long way from human transplantation.