EU ruling on genome-editing unfavourable
Reading Time: 3 minutesIT was an extremely busy month for us at Mabic and The Petri Dish. I attended the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Agribiotechnology (APEC HLPDAB) in Brisbane and then the Southeast Asia-US Agricultural Cooperators Conference in Kota Kinabalu. Look out for the article on the latter event in the September issue of The Petri […]
Mardi’s research yields sweeter rambutans
Reading Time: 2 minutesSINTOK: Malaysians will soon be tasting two new rambutan varieties – Mutiara Merah and Mutiara Wangi which were the result of research by the Malaysian Agricultural Research Development Institute (Mardi). The two new clones were launched here recently by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub. Developed by plant breeder Dr Johari Sarip, the […]
Bangladesh benefits from Bt brinjal
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSINCE the approval of Bt eggplant for “limited cultivation” in Bangladesh in 2013, ~17% of the total brinjal farmers in the country are already benefiting from the technology. Scientists concisely report the history, present status, and future direction of the Bt eggplant project in Bangladesh in a perspective article in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. […]
Pathogens attack plants like hackers, so my lab thinks about crop protection like cybersecurity
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY JOHN HERLIHY PLANTS feed us. Without them we’re goners. Through thousands of years of genetic modification by selective breeding, humans have developed the crops that keep us alive. We have large kernels of grains, plump fruits and nutritious, toxin-free vegetables. These forms would never be found in nature, but were bred by people to […]
Study challenges evolution of how humans acquired language
Reading Time: 2 minutesA GENE implicated in affecting speech and language, FOXP2, is held up as a “textbook” example of positive selection on a human-specific trait. But in a paper in the journal Cell on Aug 2, researchers challenge this finding. Their analysis of genetic data from a diverse sample of modern people and Neanderthals saw no evidence […]
Who was the founder of Nobel Prize?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWHAT do Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Marie Curie and Barack Obama have in common? As you might have guessed it, they were recipients of the coveted Nobel Prize award. A Nobel prize is an award given to those who have done their best to benefit mankind. It is awarded annually in six different areas: Physics, […]
Rice with few stomata requires less water
Reading Time: 2 minutesRICE plants engineered to have fewer stomata — tiny openings used for gas exchange — are more tolerant to drought and resilient to future climate change, a new study has revealed. Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered that engineering a high-yielding rice cultivar to have reduced stomatal density, helps the crop to conserve […]
Fat-blocking effect of nanofibers
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTINY balls of nano-sized cellulose fibres added to food reduced fat absorption by up to half in laboratory and animal experiments, report scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Harvard University, United States. This discovery could aid in the global battle against obesity, as experiments done in a simulated gastrointestinal tract showed that […]
Blocking sunlight won’t reduce crop damage
Reading Time: < 1 minuteINJECTING particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet and counter the warming effects of climate change would do nothing to offset the crop damage from rising global temperatures, according to a new analysis by University of California, Berkeley, researchers. By analysing the past effects of Earth-cooling volcanic eruptions, and the response of crops to […]
Nanoparticles in a pill
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCHERS at University of Utah Health developed a proof-of-concept technology using nanoparticles that could offer a new approach for oral medications. The results will be published online in the August 8 issue of the journal ACS Nano. “In the pharmaceutical world, this has been regarded as the holy grail,” said You Han Bae, Ph.D., professor […]