Biotech players discuss international agreements on agribiotech
Reading Time: 2 minutesSOME 36 biotech players from 15 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe gathered for a workshop on regulatory, scientific, and communication aspects of the implementation of international agreements relevant to agribiotechnology. The event was held from Nov 6-7, at Monash University Malaysia. The participants were biotechnology scientists, science communicators, and representatives from public and private […]
Hunt for lost species…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe very first Search for Lost Species expedition got underway recently with a quest to northern Myanmar to find the pink-headed duck, missing since 1949. Intrepid British explorer Richard Thorns, who has dedicated his life to looking for the species for the last 20 years, will lead a team into Kachin State, where he hopes […]
‘Food Evolution’ provokes pro-GMO debate
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY ARUNA GANESAN BANDAR SUNWAY: A recent forum held in conjunction with the documentary Food Evolution directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy pushed the global pro-GMO agenda a notch higher. Panellists from various countries including Malaysia, Belgium, Philippines, India, and Kenya [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] who watched the movie at Monash University Malaysia here – lent […]
GM tomato gives added value
Reading Time: 2 minutesHong Kong researchers produce tomatoes with extra vitamins, antioxidants THE School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (CNRS, Strasbourg, France), has identified a new strategy to simultaneously enhance health-promoting vitamin E by ~6-fold and double both provitamin A and […]
Biotech boosts farmers welfare, boosts poverty reduction
Reading Time: < 1 minuteN CHANDRASEKHARA RAO (pix) from the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi discussed the impact of biotechnology on farmers’ welfare and poverty reduction in his paper published in the Agricultural Economics Research Review. “The peer-reviewed research findings suggest higher yields, higher net income and lower chemical use with conservation tillage. The most recent meta-analysis estimated 22 percent […]
Borneo frog species leap in numbers…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn the past 20 years, new species of frogs have been identified in Borneo island. In the first field guide of Frogs of Borneo (1997) only 90 species were listed. However, the list has now doubled to 180 species. Naturalist Datuk Seri Teo Chee Kang who heads the Kota Kinabalu-based Natural History Publications which published […]
S’pore scientists in major breakthrough
Reading Time: 3 minutesProgress achieved in treating fibrotic diseases RESEARCHERS from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) have discovered that a critical protein, known as interleukin 11 (IL11) is responsible for fibrosis and causes organ damage. While it is surprising that the importance of IL11 has been overlooked and misunderstood for so long, […]
Research on preventing and treating Parkinson’s disease with liquorice
Reading Time: 2 minutesDGIST’s research team led by Dr Yun-Il Lee in Well Aging Research Center has identified a new mechanism of inhibition of dopaminergic neuronal apoptosis and suggested the possibility of preventing and treating Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a typical degenerative brain disease caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the middle cerebral blood. […]
Large US study reports no link between glyphosate and cancer
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA LARGE, prospective cohort study conducted among agricultural workers, farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina in the United States reports that there are no associations between glyphosate use and overall cancer risk or with total lymphohematopoietic cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma. The long-term study updated the previous evaluation of […]
Space farms will feed astronauts and earthlings
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY MICHAEL DIXON Professor and Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, University of Guelph CANADIAN researchers are leading an effort to grow crops in space, paving the way for humanity to live on other worlds and push the frontiers on Earth. Food is the main obstacle to long-term space exploration. It limits how […]