August babies lack self-esteem
Image:'popofatticus This week we heard that being born in August in England leads to lack of self-esteem and a lifelong tendency to underachieve (Does when you are born matter?, from Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS)). This appears to be a follow-up study to one focussed on primary school children in 2007, and it certainly got…
NICE people lend a helping hand
“Nice” is not a word often used in scientific research and when it appears in the UK media, it’s now associated with NICE, National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence. More often than not this government organisation makes headlines with bad news: the press reports quickly when a drug is not approved for general use…
Countdown to seven billion: does the world have enough water to produce food for us all?
As the world counts down to the landmark of seven billion people on the planet (a scary number predicted to happen – perhaps a little too conveniently? – on the scary day of Halloween, 31 October) we are seeing an increasing number of stories and statistics on whether the Earth's resources can cope with a…
Universal influenza vaccine is now a possibility..
Across my desk today at CABI, came the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and tucked away at the back in a section called “Clinical Implications of Basic Research” was “Stalking influenza diversity with a universal antibody” by Charles R. Russell (St Jude Children’s Hospital, Memphis). Here I learnt that an antibody has been isolated…
Food for thought on UN World Food Week – Close to one billion people are chronically hungry
“In the searing heat of late spring, before anyone realized that what was happening here was just the beginning of something much bigger, a tiny girl stumbled through a field of rocks toward a group of international aid workers. She was barefoot and limping. Flies dotted her face, craving the moisture of her eyes, lips,…
Following the heat wave – moths migration to the UK
Photo courtesy of Butterfly Conservation A number of moth species from other countries in Europe and areas as far away as the Mediterranean region have migrated to the UK in the past week, most probably due to the heat wave we have experienced this Autumn, reported various news channels this morning (e.g. BBC News). Some moths…
How green is bioenergy?
It is well known that there is an international effort to replace fossil energy with biomass in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and curb global warming. It was widely assumed that biomass combustion would be inherently 'carbon neutral' because it only releases carbon taken from the atmosphere during plant growth. However, there…
If I ruled the world…
On the way home yesterday I was musing about the UN summit on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) happening next week. If I was in charge what would I do? As we are dealing with limited resources in many countries, prevention could achieve more than concentrating on cure. What I’d do about NCDs would be to ban…
24 hours of reality – is this the beginning of a global climate crisis movement?
A total of 24 presentations on the climate crisis were broadcast via the internet, starting in Mexico City at 7 pm on the 14th of September and proceeding westward around the globe, so that the presentation happened at 7 pm in each city, ending at 7 pm on 15th September 2011 in New York, on…
24 Hours of Reality
24 Presenters, 24 Time Zones, 13 Languages, 1 Message: the climate crisis is real and we know how to solve it. Read on to find out more about this event.