Where have all the bees gone?
Recent reports of disappearing bees may initially come as a relief to some of us, but this is actually very serious news considering bees pollinate a large proportion of our plants, including some food crops, and are keystone species in the ecosystem. Today the Bumblebee Conservation Trust invited the UK public to send in sightings…
Wine has many uses
The antioxidant protective effect of fruits and vegetables, notably tomatoes and green leafy vegetables, is well known. But did you know that a wine extract can protect your skin against the damaging effects of UV radiation? Sunburn, immune suppression and skin cancers develop from overexposure of skin to solar UV radiation, which results in the…
1000 diseases mapped!
This month sees the publication of map number 1000 of Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases the authoritative source for accurate data on the worldwide distribution of plant diseases of economic or quarantine importance, published by CABI in association with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). First published in 1942, Distribution Maps of Plant…
Celebrating Linnaeus
2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus, father of binomial nomenclature. Nature has marked the occasion by publishing a special issue crammed full of Linnaean-inspired thought. Although trained in medicine and a keen zoologist, Linnaeus is perhaps best known as an excellent botanist – his field trips were said to be so…
My love is like a blue, blue rose
I wonder if Robert Burns would have felt as inspired about blue roses as he was about the romantic red. Personally speaking, I prefer my geraniums red and delphiniums blue although I find the desire for horticultural oddities quite fascinating. For many centuries a true blue flower has been the Holy Grail of plant breeders…
A Role for Rice in Causing and Tackling Climate Change?
Rice provides the staple food for around 2 billion people, and demand is forecast to grow at 1% a year, with no increase in land available. Some recent studies have indicated that rice production is contributing to climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). An analysis by Reiner Wassmann, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl and Achim Dobermann…
Grassland invaders had inside help
One of the key factors in an alien species becoming invasive in an area is that it survives better in the new habitat than the native species, right? Well it’s not always quite that simple. Researchers from Oregon State University have documented a case where stronger native grasses were out-competed and replaced by inferior challengers.…
Fancy a bottle of Swedish white?
At the moment, the idea of wines from Scandinavia, or other northern climes, may seem fanciful. But by the end of this century, climatologists suggest that Sweden could be producing Riesling or Chianti, Germany will be better known for luscious red wines than the current whites, and California’s famous Napa Valley could be as hot…
USDA Support For GM Rice With Human Genes
The US Department of Agriculture is allowing Ventria Bioscience to go ahead with field-scale cultivation of rice containing human genes that can be used to help fight diarrhoea. The company has introduced human genes into rice that encode lactoferrin and lysozyme, two proteins found naturally in breast milk. Ventria recently reported a Journal of Pediatric…
How Safe Is Making Drugs in GM Plants?
Transgenic plants offer a route to making some pharmaceuticals cheaply and effectively, but concerns have been raised that they could pose risks too. Jeff Wolt and his colleagues at Iowa State University argue that the consequences of intended and unintended use both must be considered and managed to understand the risks of such plant-made pharmaceutical…