Forests sell-off cancelled
Caroline Spelman formally cancels the forest sell-off consultation: "I am sorry. We got this one wrong." The consultation on the selling-off of English forests, which was going to go on until April 2011 has been officially cancelled a few moments ago. There was widespread opposition to the forestry sell-off, which would have seen private companies and some…
Hessian fly heading for the sack
Wheat crops suffer millions of dollars’ worth of damage each year due to the hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor. The most effective control method is genetic resistance, when wheat resistance genes cause death of the attacking larvae by activating a defense response against avirulent hessian flies. Unfortunately this has led to flies that can overcome resistant…
Fast but furious: High yielding plants linked to poor pest resistance
Breeding plants for fast growth and high yield may make them more susceptible to pests and diseases. New research from the University of Zurich using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has confirmed long suspected theory, showing that when plants put more resources into growth they often shut down some defence genes.
Forests sell-off plan is shelved, but for how long?
The government has put on hold plans to sell off some of the English forests, but the main scheme could still go ahead, said the news report by the BBC. Proposals to sell-off 258,000 hectares of forests run by the Forestry Commission have attracted cross-party criticism and a public outcry. Is people power really working?
International Year of Forest and the proposed England’s forests sell-off
The UN General Assembly declared 2011 the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of forests. The International Year of Forests was officially launched on 2 February 2011 at the UN headquarters in New York, USA, during the UN Forum on Forests. Events will be held globally throughout…
Jam – is it junk?
Have you ever wondered whether jam contains anything healthy? Fruits and vegetables are chock full of antioxidants and other wonderful cancer fighters, but is it all lost when you make jam? I wrote about this for Nutrition and Food Sciences Database recently because a paper in Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture has some…
Polar bear’s epic nine-day swim
(image from CABI Images) Whilst browsing through my Facebook friends’ status update, I came across a post of a recent news report in the BBC Earth News webpage reporting that a polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687 km, and then intermittently swam and walked on the sea ice surface an additional…
Talking up the humble apple
Photo: Robert Taylor After moving house recently I gained a tree full of Bramley apples, a variety used for cooking. This autumn I stored some, ate quite a lot and gave away more. Now as January wears on I still have loads that won't keep much longer. Our apple consumption has increased. My colleagues' and…
Off the bee-ten track
When I was at university and my professor’s papers were published in a journal, he would crack open a bottle of champagne, but I imagined that something a little softer was shared amongst the recently-published researchers of ‘Blackawton Bees’ in Biology Letters, because they are 8 to 10 years old!
Sudden Oak Death – the ‘foot and mouth’ of trees
Hundreds of thousands of trees are being felled in the UK to try and prevent spread of Sudden Oak Death. The disease, caused by the fungus Phytophthora ramorum, came to the UK in 2003 via imported plants from America where it mainly infects oaks. European species of oak have a high resistance to the disease…