East African fish in need of recovery
Reading Time: 2 minutesA STUDY of East African coral reefs has uncovered an unfolding calamity for the region: plummeting fish populations due to overfishing, which in turn could produce widespread food insecurity. In a newly published paper in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series titled “Coral reef fish communities, diversity, and their fisheries and biodiversity status in East […]
Be careful with bamboo tableware
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY AXEL BARRETT SINCE glasses, salad bowls and other plastic kitchenware are no longer popular, it is tempting to go for their “natural” versions, in particular based on bamboo. However, in recent months, more than a dozen recalls have concerned childcare articles (sets of plates and glasses), picnic tableware, “lunch boxes” and others. At the […]
Bumble bees prefer a low-fat diet
Reading Time: 2 minutesBEES are an important factor for our environment and our sustenance. Without insect pollination, many plant species – including various crops – cannot reproduce. “Bee mortality therefore affects food supply for human beings,” stated Professor Sara Leonhardt, who specializes in plant-insect interactions. All of the 20,000 over bee species need to be considered. Among these, […]
African fund yields $1m to combat locust pest in East Africa
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) has donated $1 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to combat the worsening Desert Locust upsurge in the Horn of Africa. The decision came at a meeting of the ASTF Steering Committee at FAO headquarters in Rome on Wednesday. “We have a window of […]
Disappearing snakes and the biodiversity crisis
Reading Time: 3 minutesA Michigan State University- and University of Maryland-led study should sound alarm bells regarding the “biodiversity crisis” or the loss of wildlife around the world. The loss of any species is devastating. However, the decline or extinction of one species can trigger an avalanche within an ecosystem, wiping out many species in the process. When […]
Climate change to hit local rice production
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMALAYSIAN Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) expects rice production in Malaysia to fall by 30-percent once global temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius. Climate Change Programme Deputy Director Mohammad Hariz Abdul Rahman told BFM News, the country is already experiencing weakened rice productivity, especially on agricultural lands in the east coast. CLIP: “For sure, […]
Normal resting heart rate appears to vary widely from person to person
Reading Time: 2 minutesA PERSON’S normal resting heart rate is fairly consistent over time, but may vary from others’ by up to 70 beats per minute, according to analysis of the largest dataset of daily resting heart rate ever collected. Giorgio Quer of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, and colleagues present these findings in […]
Bacteria engineered to protect bees from pests and pathogens
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS from The University of Texas at Austin report in the journal Science that they have developed a new strategy to protect honey bees from a deadly trend known as colony collapse: genetically engineered strains of bacteria. An increasing number of honey bee colonies in the U.S. have seen the dwindling of their adult bees. […]
A finger-tip snapshot on COVID-19 and other epidemics
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US tells EU to make science-based decisions
Reading Time: < 1 minuteUNITED STATES Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urges European policymakers to make science-based decisions if they want to help their farmers tackle concerns over sustainability. Perdue said that decisions on food should be based on science. Secretary Perdue spoke to a group of journalists in Brussels, Belgium, and said that EU policymakers are aware of […]