Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
Pioneering new technology is set to accelerate the global quest for crop improvement in a development which echoes the Green Revolution of the post war period. The speed-breeding platform developed by teams at the John Innes Centre, University of Queensland and University of Sydney, uses a glasshouse or an artificial environment with enhanced lighting to […]
A PhD student at the University of Dundee and James Hutton Institute has been selected as Young Plant Scientist 2018 in the fundamental research category by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO). Shumei Wang, based at the Institute’s Cell and Molecular Sciences group, has discovered a new pathway involved in infection by Phytophthora infestans, the pathogen responsible for […]
UK herb growers will be able to protect their crops with a new weed control product in record time, following successful trials as part of AHDB’s £1.4m crop protection project. To achieve this approval so quickly, the team used intelligence from other EU countries, collaborating closely with other manufacturers and growers, to ensure trials on […]
The science behind the home-pregnancy test is now being trialled to detect the presence of diseases, which can devastate fields of vegetable crops, including the Christmas sprout. Trials are underway to help protect crops of Brassicas – sprouts, broccoli, cabbage – and onions, which generated more than £356 million for UK agriculture last year. Diseases […]
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a team of researchers from Italy and the US record their study of the effects on honey bees of agriculture that exposes the insects to both poor nutrition (low quality nectar) and pesticides (neonicotinoids). “Our results provide the first demonstration that […]
By Carly Stevens There are lots of reasons why we enter our chosen professions but for a lot of scientists working within the field of environmental science a big motivator is that we want to ‘make a difference’. We know that we aren’t going to single handily save the planet but we would like to […]
Research investment in the life sciences has focused too much on medicine and biomedicine at the expense of agriculture and biotechnology more generally, acknowledges Sir Paul Nurse, Chief Executive & Director of the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research centre in London. “One has only to take a short trip in this country to see […]
Large-scale commercial trade of wild orchids is a pressing, but little-recognised conservation problem, according to researchers. Orchids are one of the largest families of flower plants in the world, and – on paper – they are among the most well protected. From edible orchid cake in Tanzania and ornamental orchids in Thailand and Brazil, to […]
A warming, rapidly changing Arctic is the “new normal” and shows no signs of returning to the reliably frozen region of the past. This is according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic Report Card. Read more at BBC.co.uk
Residents and workers in a major Pakistan city are exposed to harmful levels of pesticides, new research reveals. Scientists from Pakistan’s F Quaid-i-Azam University and Lancaster University have evaluated the organophosphate pesticide concentration in dust from farms and also from pesticide manufacturing plants in the megacity of Lahore.
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