Why salt?
Those of you who were paying attention yesterday will already be aware that I have been doing a bit of salt mining. This is fairly easy to get away with when, like me, you’re new to the database and thus ‘have to get to grips with it’. So I have been plugging in various ‘preferred’…
Creating the Perfect Catfish
The search is on for the perfect catfish and scientists at the USDA have come up with the answer – fingerprinting fish! The channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) is the most commonly cultured fish in the US accounting for more than half of the nation’s total aquaculture output; catfish production and associated industries are now worth…
Be (a)ware…
This week in the UK is National Salt Awareness Week 2007! Not that you’d notice it. Compared to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) high-profile campaigns of recent years that have included billboards and TV advertising, the Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), who organised this initiative, seem to be playing it fairly low key.…
Maryland at Risk of Losing Millions of Trees
The Maryland Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources are cutting down hundreds of ash trees (genus Fraxinus) in parks and forests this week in Prince George’s County, as a strategy to stop an outbreak of the invasive beetle, emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis, Fairmaire). Since being discovered in the US, in 2003, possibly arriving in…
Successful seed storage
For all you keen gardeners looking for novel ways to preserve your seed harvest this year, there’s no need to worry about not having special cryopreservation equipment or a ready supply of liquid nitrogen. You can draw on the wisdom of indigenous cultures for some methods to extend storage life. Take a look at the…
Troubled times ahead for tuna
The World Wide Fund for Nature has warned that tuna stocks are disappearing at an alarming rate. The depletion is thought to be due to a combination of poor management of existing stocks and high levels of illegal, unreported fishing. According to WWF, Atlantic bluefin tuna used for high value sushi and sashimi are "massively…
Trees for flights?
It’s been difficult to avoid the current debate about carbon offsetting in the news recently and one topic that comes up again and again is planting trees. In a world where people are flying shorter distances more frequently can we really make up for this by planting a few trees here and there? A number…
Reducing soil erosion in the real world
It is well understood that soil erosion has serious impacts on water quality because of the pollutants carried in runoff from the fields into water courses. Sustainable practices to limit soil erosion are available, “but it is the economical and socio-political factors that lead to erosion which need to be tackled if sustainable practices to…
Dangerous rust puts strain on food security
Back in the 1950s, North America saw 40% of the continent’s spring wheat crop lost to stem rust fungus infections. In the late 80s, yellow rust went on a rampage across North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia causing crop losses worth over 1 billion US Dollars. In 2007 and beyond, the world could…
‘Obese people like chewing’
While Professor Steve Bloom’s statement on BBC Radio 1’s ‘news’ this morning did at least see me giggling into the office this morning (it’s Monday, so well done, Prof. Bloom!), it did strike me that his statement was a little like suggesting nicotine should be available in inhalable form…because smokers like inhaling (aren’t they called…