World tourism leaders tackle climate change

Earlier this week, some 600 representatives from over 100 countries, representing all sectors of the tourism industry (public and private sector, NGOs and governments) met in the idyllic Swiss resort of Davos to debate the  global challenge of climate change as it affects and is affected by tourism, at the 2nd International Conference on Climate…
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Vote for the winner of the “Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting” icon contest

As mentioned in a previous article, there is growing debate in the blog sphere over the need for a means to identify the sources of science being reviewed or used as evidence by bloggers. Well, the authors of “Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting” or BP3 for short, devised an icon design competition for which CABI,…
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David Simpson

Dr David Simpson Editor, Content Development I’ve been working at CABI since 1992, after a diverse career in agricultural research (PhD in hill grasslands, followed by postdocs on mycorrhizas in tropical agriculture, and nutrient supply in organic farming). Coming to CABI enabled me to use my background in agricultural science to help interpret and disseminate…
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Highlighting the use of evidence

I spotted this blog article on Friday morning and sent it on to one of my colleagues, and soon it was sent around all the blog team here at CABI. This whole topic of the use of an icon/logo to highlight the use of peer-reviewed evidence has caused a great deal of discussion and a…
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Two pints of lager and a tin of sardines

Here’s one for the pub this weekend: omega-3 fortified Bacardi Breezers, or maybe a Tropical Reef with the rest of the aquarium thrown in? Make mine an old-fashioned snowball made with omega-3 fortified eggs
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What are my chances of catching an interesting parasite?

For most of the time that I have worked at CABI I have dealt, among other things, with articles on parasitology, and reading about some of the things that can be caught from undercooked meat or fish has made me tend to avoid it. However, on a recent holiday on the Trans-Siberian railway I stopped…
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Hug fat trees

The ancient tree hunt is on.  I heard a story on the radio this morning about a tree, the Fortingall Yew (Taxus baccata) in Perthsire, which is guestimated to be 5000 years old.  It was around when Stonehenge was built, had already been standing for 3000 years when the Romans invaded, and is thought to…
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Ticks: be aware, but don’t panic

Over Easter I took the opportunity for a few days’ break in the Scottish Highlands; although it’s a bit too early in the year for blood-sucking arthropods to be a problem, I was reminded of the publication a few months ago of a new edition of ‘Ticks: your pets, your family and you’, by Alison…
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Tourism threat to cradle of evolution

The pressures on one of the world’s most famous centres of biodiversity, the Galapagos Islands where Darwin studied his famous finches which contributed to the theory of evolution, have been highlighted by Ecuador’s President and Unesco, the UN’s scientific and cultural body. The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has warned that he is considering a…
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Penalty kicks: are they all in the mind?

For English soccer fans, it is an all too familiar story. The national side gets to a major tournament with high hopes, get through to the knockout stages, battle through a match plus extra time after something goes wrong (usually, it seems, a player sent off) – and then go crashing out with a dismal…
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