The battle for the future of farming: What you need to know
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY MICHEL PIMBERT Professor and Director, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University & RATANA CHUENPAGDEE Senior Research Fellow, Coventry University IT is widely agreed that today’s global agriculture system is a social and environmental failure. Business as usual is no longer an option: biodiversity loss and nitrogen pollution are exceeding planetary limits, and catastrophic risks of climate change demand immediate action. Most concede that there is an urgent need […]
Small changes in oxygen levels implicate ocean life
Reading Time: 2 minutesOCEANOGRAPHERS at the University of Rhode Island have found that even slight levels of ocean oxygen loss, or deoxygenation, have big consequences for tiny marine organisms called zooplankton. Zooplankton are important components of the food web in the expanse of deep, open ocean called the midwater. Within this slice of ocean below the surface and above the seafloor are oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), large regions of very […]
Scientists invent new sustainable biopolymer technology
Reading Time: 2 minutesA NEW Tel Aviv University study describes a process to make bioplastic polymers that don’t require land or fresh water —resources that are scarce in much of the world. The polymer is derived from microorganisms that feed on seaweed. It is biodegradable, produces zero toxic waste and recycles into organic waste. The invention was the fruit of a multidisciplinary collaboration between Dr Alexander Golberg of TAU’s Porter […]
GM houseplant to keep home’s air clean
Reading Time: 2 minutesWE like to keep the air in our homes as clean as possible, and sometimes we use HEPA air filters to keep offending allergens and dust particles at bay. But some hazardous compounds are too small to be trapped in these filters. Small molecules like chloroform, which is present in small amounts in chlorinated water, or benzene, which is a component of gasoline, build up in […]
Melting ice sheets release tonnes of methane into the atmosphere, study
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE Greenland Ice Sheet emits tonnes of methane according to a new study, showing that subglacial biological activity impacts the atmosphere far more than previously thought. An international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol camped for three months next to the Greenland Ice Sheet, sampling the meltwater that runs off a large catchment (> 600 km2) of the Ice Sheet during the summer […]
Medical scanner unlocks the mysteries of a giant prehistoric marine reptile
Reading Time: 2 minutesA NEARLY metre-long skull of a giant fossil marine ichthyosaur found in a farmer’s field more than 60 years ago has been studied for the first time. Using cutting-edge computerised tomography (CT) scanning technology, the research reveals new information including details of the rarely preserved braincase. The almost 200 million year old fossil, which was found in 1955 at Fell Mill Farm in Warwickshire, had never […]
Why are some snakes deadlier than others?
Reading Time: 2 minutesAN international collaboration led by scientists from the National University of Ireland, Galway, The University of St Andrews, Trinity College Dublin and the Zoological Society of London has uncovered why the venom of some snakes makes them so much deadlier than others. Snakes are infamous for possessing potent venoms, a fact that makes them deadly predators and also strikes fear into humans and other animals alike. However, […]
Genome of the small hive beetle sequenced
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBEEKEEPERS and researchers will welcome the unveiling of the small hive beetle’s genome by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their colleagues. The small hive beetle (SHB) is a major parasite problem of honey bees for which there are few effective treatments. The SHB (Aethina tumida Murray) genome — a genome is the sum total of all an organism’s DNA; a gene codes for a […]