NSF seeks natural links
UK passes recycling bill
Fat Americans get fatter faster
Low-carb foods may be calorie killers
GM shadow longer than expected
Monsanto in GM corn for Africa gift
Henkel sticks with RFID

Research

NSF seeks natural links

The US National Science Foundation is to spend almost $32m to support 30 projects to understand the relationships among living things from molecular structures to genes to ecosystems, and how they interact with their environments.

NSF director Rita Colwell said "These investigations will provide a more complete understanding of natural processes and cycles of human behaviours and decisions in the natural world, and of ways to use new technology effectively to observe the environment and sustain the diversity of life on Earth.

"By placing biocomplexity studies in an environmental context, this effort emphasises research on developing the people, tools and ideas necessary to understand these ribbons of interconnections, which are often difficult to tease apart.

"Breakthroughs in particle physics and genetics, advances in computational science, information technology and microsensors, are creating global momentum for new ideas and tools. The sum of these dynamic influences has given us the means to begin charting a comprehensive view of life, matter and the environment at all scales of time and place."

Waste

UK passes recycling bill

Local town councils will have to do more recycling and burn less household waste following the passage of a private members’ bill through the British parliament.

The UK is one of Europe’s worst performers on recycling. This may change now that the law forces councils to provide every home with a doorstep recycling collection for at least two recyclable materials by 2010.

Obesity

Fat Americans get fatter faster

Like a black hole whose gravitational force accelerates as it gets bigger, so the number of overweight Americans who develop severe obesity is speeding up.

That’s the conclusion of new US research that found that the severe obesity rate has quadrupled since 1986, twice as fast as the merely obese, from one in 200 to one in 50.

Overweight people have a body mass index (mass/height squared) (BMI) of more than 25. Obese people have BMIs of more than 30 and the severely obese more than 40.

The US Surgeon General reckons obesity will cost US healthcare system $300bn. But the researchers say the new findings indicate that the cost will be even greater. "They are pretty much sure to get diabetes, arthritis and many other complications," said one. "But not only will they get it, they'll get it much, much earlier."

Research on teenagers showed that from 1996 to 2001 more than two million became obese and 1.5 million stayed obese as they became adults. Only 271,000 returned to normal weight ranges.

Nutrition

Low-carb foods may be calorie killers

A Harvard study has found that the body treats calories differently. It appears the calories from low-carbohydrate foods are easier to burn than those from foods high in carbs. In the 12-week study, low-carbohydrate dieters who ate an extra 300 calories a day lost just as much weight as those who ate fewer calories but more carbs. The results, presented to the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, contradict the old believe that you can’t lose weight without cutting your caloric intake.

The Harvard School of Public Health found that people eating an extra 300 calories a day on a very low-carb regimen lost as much as those on a low-fat diet. They should have added about three kilos.

Confounding factors could be that those who should have gained did more exercise or cheated less.

GM

GM shadow longer than expected

New research by the UK Government shows that pollen from genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape travels six times further than previously documented, and if not controlled might contaminate non-GM crops for generations. Other findings indicate that some GM crops could exterminate birds such as the skylark within 20 years in the UK.

The results of four different projects show

• Bees can pollinate non-GM oilseed rape with GM pollen over a distance of 26km

• If wild GM oilseed rape is not "rigorously controlled" then contamination "would not fall below 1% for 16 years"

• GM sugar beet could lead to "a rapid decline, and extinction of the skylark within 20 years"

Monsanto in GM corn for Africa gift

US agrichemicals firm Monsanto is support the HarvestPlus project to cut malnutrition in the developing world by improving the micronutrient content of the world's major crops.

Earlier this week, HarvestPlus won a $25m grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Monsanto has donated data to aid in the development of maize with higher levels of provitamin A, or beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. A lack of vitamin A causes blindness.

Other crops in the HarvestPlus programme are wheat, rice, sweet potato, cassava and common beans, including conventional breeding and plant biotechnology. Researchers are also looking to boost their iron and zinc content.

“The development and introduction of the enhanced maize will be preceded by safety testing, efficacy studies, education, and analysis of delivery systems,” Monsanto said in a press statement.

The US Agency for International Development is paying for the maize project. Other participants include Iowa State University, University of Illinois, Wageningen University (The Netherlands), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Mexico), and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (Nigeria).

Monsanto has also provided access to a working draft of the rice genome and is helping to develop virus-resistant sweet potatoes and cassava in Africa and papayas in South East Asia. 

Logistics

Henkel sticks with RFID

Driven by Wal-Mart’s commitment to use radio frequency identity tags by 2005, Henkel Consumer Adhesives, maker of Duck tape and Loctite glues, has hired Manhattan Associates to deliver its RFID compliance initiative.

Henkel’s vice president operations Gene Obrock said "It is becoming increasingly clear how important RFID will be to our customers and to us."

Manhattan Associates is a member of the MIT’s Auto-ID Center, which developed the RFID technology.