First PEFC certified construction project
It may look like a large, odd-shaped mud hut but this is actually the Beacon building at the Zaragoza 08 Expo, the water and sustainable development expo running until 14 September in Spain. In July this became the first construction project in the world to be certified to the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of…
Recent Television Reviews
Well it has been a veritable delight of televisual output from the BBC in recent weeks with “Lost Land of the Jaguar” and “Britain from Above”. If you have missed any of these and are lucky enough to have access to the iPlayer I would recommend a catch-up, otherwise clips have been placed on YouTube…
Protecting our chocolate supplies – controlling cocoa pests and diseases in West Africa
I love chocolate – I really do – but we take it for granted that it will always appear on the shelves of our local shops. Most of us are oblivious to the many pests and disease that are attacking cocoa plants around the world and the work of farmers and researchers to fight against…
Disease outbreaks on the map
Earlier this month I came across an article in the BMJ about HealthMap, a website that automatically monitors and disseminates information on disease outbreaks; some of the people involved describe it in more detail in an article1 in PLoS Medicine. The traditional disease surveillance network suffers from gaps in coverage and sometimes from restricted flow…
The Chinese Mitten Crabs US invasion reaches eastern coastline
The Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis), originally a native of East Asia, quickly invaded the European coastline as well as the western coast of the US. Now it looks as if their pincher movement to invade the US is complete. Within the last week The Marine Invasions Research Lab, Maryland, has reported that the Chinese…
The Plot Thickens
Allotments are hip and trendy at the moment, but for how long? Well, a little longer than it would take to eat £15 worth of food from your local grocery store I hope. I am reliably informed that this is one year’s rent for an allotment in a particular area of South Oxfordshire. So, if…
EU soil maps atlas
As readers will know I have a fondness for the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) and their publications (see previous post). Well they have produced another corker with the Soil Atlas of Europe. The 128 page Atlas can be downloaded either as a complete or in parts pdf or as individual high resolution pdf or…
Waste no more!
As I was screening publications for the CAB Abstracts database this morning, I came across an environmentally encouraging bit of news – Anglian Water is producing enough biogas from its new advanced digestion system to deliver 980kW of energy at the engine without any further fuel requirements. The article (1) in the July 2008 issue…
You say tomato, I say cardioprotective antiplatelet factor
Studies directly on platelets show that tomato juice and kiwi fruit juice are both potent at preventing platelet aggregation.
Obesity & Diet -a new twist
It’s not what you eat but what your mother eats that could set your bodyweight, suggest scientists at Baylor College of Medicine. Robert Waterland and colleagues studying mice with a genetic tendency to overeat found that successive generations of the mice became fatter. This increasing obesity was prevented by a diet rich in folate and…