Guess what's coming to dinner.

Examines and predicts some of the problems associated with the application of biotechnology to agriculture and asks what safeguards are in place. There are many tempting possibilities - to improve soil fertility by the importation of nutient-carrying bacteria; to transfer wild plant poison genes to domestic crops to deter insects; and to produce a potato designed for easy processing into potato crisps. But the last-mentioned experiment produced alkaloid poisoning - fortunately discovered by its inventor before it left the laboratory. Critics predict that biotechnology, led by commercial interests, could result in ecological chaos. With the profit motive requiring secrecy, there is as yet little prospect of a satisfactory dialogue between scienists and the public.