CABI Author Focus – Melissa A. Austin
Welcome to the latest CABI Author Focus. This month Melissa A. Austin tells us how her 20 years of teaching experience has informed the recently published textbook, Genetic Epidemiology: Methods and Applications. Genetic Epidemiology: 20 Years On “Does your new book have 10 or 11 chapters?” a colleague of mine at the University of Washington…
What happens to the waste left after the Glastonbury Festival?
(Photograph by Graeme Robertson for the Guardian.) Summer music festivals are popular as ever, with nearly 900 festivals taking place in the UK alone in 2012 (efestivals), compared with 465 in 2007 - an increase of almost 50% in five years. Whereas before people who stayed in the site for more than a day and therefore camped, would…
CABI joins EU Action against the spread of Ragweed on the continent
In the largest COST Action to date, 34 EU countries have banned together to find a solution to stop Ragweed's spread on the continent. This invasive weed from North America, now one of the most common air-borne allergens in the EU, causes half of all asthma attacks in its regions, and costs the EU economy…
MERS the next pandemic threat?
10 years ago it was SARS, now the new coronavirus worrying pandemic planners is theMERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus, that emerged in Saudi Arabia, last year. The number of cases is gathering momentum and we don’t yet know how it is transmitted or what animal is harbouring it. As Saudi Arabia is the host…
World Environment Day: Think . Eat . Save
World Environment Day, environment, environmental impact, food waste, food preservation
You have a Right to Mental Health
Image: King College London, project Emerald (emerging mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries) One of the key sessions I attended at the second day of “The world in denial: Global mental health matters”( March 26-27, 2013, Royal Society of Medicine, London) highlighted the existing legal tools available to achieve international recognition of the…
As Locog winds up, what is the London 2012 legacy?
Around ten months after they opened, the London 2012 Olympic Games are becoming a distant memory, but as another summer begins the efforts to ensure lasting legacies continue. An unexpected surplus in the final accounts of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) means a minor windfall for legacy projects, while yesterday…
Low-level iodine-deficiency produces lower IQ children in UK
IN my March 2013 blog “Eat less salt but make sure it contains iodine!”, I described the problems of addressing iodine–deficiency diseases in Pakistan and the worrying rise in iodine deficiency in the UK, linked to a shift in eating patterns away from dairy and oily fish, our traditional sources of iodine. Whereas, other developed…
Eating insects to save the planet: would it really help?
Image from Manataka™ American Indian Council – manataka.orgIt was well publicised in the media last week that we have reached the feared 400 ppm carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration level in the Earth’s atmosphere. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported in a press release last week that the 400 ppm threshold was recorded at several stations…
Going Direct2Farm
Carmen Thönnissen, Programme Manager from the Swiss Agency for Development and Coopertation, recently visited CABI’s Direct2Farm project with her colleagues in Meerut, India. Read Carmen's report on her visit and the impact of mobile technology on Agriculture. On 23 April 2013, we – from the Swiss Agency for Development and Coopertation (SDC) – had the pleasure to…