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…
What’s the big deal about Open Access?
Specifically, what’s in it for the people who get involved? How can publishers, government bodies, academic institutions, researchers, and even the general public reap the benefits? Copyright: ©Gideon Burton CC BY-SA 2.0 The aim of open access is to improve the communication of knowledge and encourage advancements in research by allowing information to be freely…
Attack of the 340 million propagule timebomb! Stories of Phytophthora
Latest CABI Author focus out now - Kurt Lamour tells how the deadly nature of Phytophthora has been devastating crops since the Potato famine!
Managing floods and droughts for a changing climate
Extreme weather is becoming increasingly more common in the UK in recent years; for example, recent figures from the UK Environmental Agency (EA) showed that 1 in every 5 days saw flooding in 2012, but 1 in 4 days were in drought. The EA reported that rivers like the Tyne, Ouse and Tone went from their…
April 25th World Malaria Day: affordable medicines & artemisinin-based control
April 25th is World Malaria Day & there’s mixed news concerning the GlaxoSmithKline RTS,S vaccine: 65% of children vaccinated were protected in the 1st year, but protection declined to zero over the next 3 years so booster shots will be essential. Vaccine efficacy also declined faster in children who were more exposed to malaria than in those who had below-average exposure. Effectiveness is at the heart of the problem of malaria control. Oxfam’s report “Salt, Sugar And Malaria Pills” highlighted their concerns on the effectiveness of Global Fund's Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria (focussed on increasing access to artemisinin-combination drugs).
Open up! Open ways of dealing with invasive species
I recently attended a conference on the theme of ‘rigour and openness in 21st century science’. The conference focussed on perhaps the biggest buzzword in current science: open access. Specifically, how can open access be embraced without risking the standards and rigour that are so important to scientific enquiry?
Reducing hunger and undernutrition – how are we doing?
Hunger and undernutrition are amongst the most persistent global development challenges. Part of Millennium Development Goal 1 is to ‘Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger’ (UN, 2012). With global numbers of undernourished people static at 870 million for the past 5 years and undernutrition contributing to the deaths…
Earth Day 2013 – The Face of Climate Change
Image courtesy of The Earth Day Network. Today is Earth Day, which this year is on the theme 'The Face of climate change'. The Earth Day Network is the organization that coordinates Earth Day around the world each year and their website www.earthday.org is encouraging people from around the world to share their stories on…