A lesson in ‘resilience’: realities and misconceptions
Resilience is trending. Touted as the answer to virtually every problem it is used, and too often misused, in all sorts of ways. “Bouncing back” from some disturbance is probably the most common. And that is NOT resilience. Bouncing back to just like before means that nothing was learned. Resilience is about changing in response…
Building a new world
Lawrence Alderson is the author of The Quest to Conserve Rare Breeds, to be published by CABI in August 2020. Dealing with the immediate and urgent challenges posed by Covid-19 understandably dominates the news channels. It demands priority. A threat of such global severity has not been encountered in living memory, unless you can remember…
Preparing for a pandemic
Now is not the ideal time to be giving Health Emergency Preparedness and Response its first reading. Co-edited by Chloe Sellwood, NHS England’s National Lead for Pandemic Influenza (for which read: any serious infectious disease), the idea for this book sprang up during the 2009-10 Swine Flu pandemic, and came to fruition following the 2014-15…
CABI’s 2019 books of the year
As the end of the year approaches, here at CABI we’re taking the time to reflect on some of our favourite books of 2019. Covering a wide range of subject areas, titles have made it on to this list for various reasons, from hotly anticipated new editions of popular titles, to innovative research in brand…
New podcast from SciDev.Net focuses on cholera in Cameroon and measles in Democratic Republic of Congo
As part of a series of podcasts funded by the Wellcome Trust and hosted by SciDev.Net Sylvie Akoussan looks at the cholera epidemic in northern Cameroon before shifting her attention to measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her report, in French, asks important questions about the quality of tap water in Africa and whether this…
The Anthropocene is official – but what does this mean for the future health of planet Earth?
The recent vote by the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, formally considers the Anthropocene a distinct time period in the geological record.
Fat cats – what can they tell us about human obesity, and vice versa?
It’s estimated that between a third and two thirds of pet cats are overweight, depending on the assessment method used. Cats suffer from obesity and diabetes mellitus in ways that are very similar to the obesity and type 2 diabetes found in humans. But can these similarities tell us anything useful about how to tackle…
How countries around the world are leveraging agriculture to improve nutrition
By Shenggen Fan, Sivan Yosef, and Rajul Pandya-Lorch This blog post is the third in a 3-part series accompanying the release of the book Agriculture for Improved Nutrition: Seizing the Momentum, co-edited by Shenggen Fan, Sivan Yosef, and Rajul Pandya-Lorch (co-published by CABI Publishing and IFPRI). The book was launched at a Feb. 28 event…
Phytosanitary Risk Management team share expertise at ESCON 2019
An entomologist from CABI’s Phytosanitary Risk Management (PRMP) team has participated in the International Conference on Environmental Toxicology and Health (ESCON 2019) held in Islamabad, Pakistan. Muzammil Farooq, representing the PRMP team, participated in the event – organized by the Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University (CUI), Vehari campus – by giving a presentation entitled…
Growing agriculture: nutrition community points the way to achieving SDG2 by 2030
By Shenggen Fan, Sivan Yosef, and Rajul Pandya-Lorch The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have launched a race to transform our world for the better little more than a decade from now. The goals are idealistic, setting a high bar for every aspect of quality of life, from health and education to gender equality and climate…