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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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Pesticides persist in ground water

Numerous studies over the past 40+ years have established that pesticides & herbicides, typically applied at the land surface, can move downward through the soils unsaturated zone to the water table at detectable concentrations. This downward movement of pesticide degradation products, formed in situ, can also contribute to the contamination of ground water. Once reached…
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New tool to fight viruses?

A new device caught my eye this week. Marketed by Aethlon Medical, it claims to treat HIV and other viral infections by removing viral particles from the blood. Aethlon claims the device could be used against HIV, hepatitis, and biological warfare agents such as Ebola and smallpox. Great news, but it sounds too good to…
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Beijing in Bloom

The organizers of the Beijing Olympics have much to contend with at the moment – including a massive bloom of blue-green algae that is currently engulfing the Qingdao coastline. The BBC, reporting from the region, say that more that 10,000 recruits from the People’s Liberation Army have been drafted in to clear the blooms. The…
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Nutrition at the extremes of life

The Rank Prize lecture yesterday afternoon was a very interesting romp through the world of public health nutrition with Professor Ricardo Uauy. A difficult name to pronounce for many of us non-Spanish speakers (he’s originally from Chile), but a clear message at least. Nutritionists need a common vision, a common mission to work towards. Together.
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