Emma Rosi-Marshall’s trouble started on 9 October 2007, the day her paper was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  (PNAS). Rosi-Marshall, a stream ecologist at Loyola University Chicago in Illinois, had spent much of the previous two years studying 12 streams in northern Indiana, where rows of maize (corn), most of it genetically engineered to express insecticidal toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis  (Bt), stretch to the horizon in every direction.

Working with colleagues including her former adviser Jennifer Tank at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Rosi-Marshall had found that the streams also contain Bt maize, in the form of leaves, stalks, cobs and pollen. In laboratory studies, the researchers saw that caddis-fly larvae – herbivorous stream insects in the order trichoptera – fed only on Bt maize debris grew half as fast as those that ate debris from conventional maize. And caddis flies fed high concentrations of Bt maize pollen died at more than twice the rate of caddis flies fed non-Bt pollen. The transgenic maize “may have negative effects on the biota of streams in agricultural areas” the group wrote in its paper, stating in the abstract that “widespread planting of Bt crops has unexpected ecosystem-scale consequences”1.

The backlash started almost immediately. Within two weeks, researchers with vehement objections to the experimental design and conclusions had written to the authors, PNAS and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Rosi-Marshall’s funder. By the end of the month, complaints about the paper had rippled through the research community. By the time Rosi-Marshall attended a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) meeting on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and wildlife on 5 November 2007, “She looked hammered”, says Brian Federici, an insect pathologist at the University of California, Riverside, one of those who commented on her work. “I felt really sorry for her. I don’t think she realized what she was getting into.”

No one gets into research on genetically modified (GM) crops looking for a quiet life. Those who develop such crops face the wrath of anti-biotech activists who vandalize field trials and send hate mail. But those who, like Rosi-Marshall and her colleagues, suggest that biotech crops might have harmful environmental effects are learning to expect attacks of a different kind. These strikes are launched from within the scientific community and can sometimes be emotional and personal; heated rhetoric that dismisses papers and can even, as in Rosi-Marshall’s case, accuse scientists of misconduct. “The response we got – it went through your jugular,” says Rosi-Marshall.