Today, the “Plants for the Future” European Technology Platform on plant genomics and biotechnology, launches a new era for plant biotechnology in Europe.

This long term vision for 2025 has been created by leading representatives from research (such as EPSO, the European Plant Science Organisation), the food and biotech industry (such as EuropaBio, CIAA, ESA), the farming community (such as COPA/COGECA) and consumer organisations (BEUC). The vision document has been presented to Euro

UK scientists are warning that world chocolate production could fall dramatically if diseases, which have devastated South American cultivation of cacao over the past 15 years (the raw material used for producing chocolate), were to spread to some of the world’s other cacao producing regions.

Writing in the Summer 2004 edition of Biologist, Dr Gareth Griffith of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth warns that increased trade and improved transport links between South America and other caca

The International Society for Reef Studies has launched an ambitious programme to communicate the results of scientific research in order to improve policies and practices impacting on coral reef conservation around the world. The ISRS was founded in 1980 by international marine scientists to promote the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge on coral reefs, both living and fossil.
To help build more effective management policies for the world’s endangered reef ecosystems, ISRS s

There’s nothing worse than a satellite that can’t make decisions.

Rather than organizing data, it simply spews out everything it collects, swamping scientists with huge amounts of information. It’s like getting a newspaper with no headlines or section pages in which all the stories are strung together end-to-end.

Researchers at the University of Arizona (UA), Arizona State University (ASU) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are working to solve this problem by develo

A new study shows that electron interactions may have nearly the same importance as chemical luminescence in exciting the atmospheric molecules that cause auroras. Campbell et al. suggest that nitric oxide molecules are promoted into potentially glowing, vibrational excited levels by a short-lived negative ion that is formed as a result of electron impact. Previous studies had reported that chemiluminescence, where nitrogen and oxygen molecules interact to form excited nitric oxide, was the main so

Elephants may be able to communicate over long distances but it’s hard to tell, because they’re not talking. Instead, they may be transmitting infrasonic signals through the ground with seismic waves. Gunther et al. studied the range of low-frequency vocal sounds made by African elephants and suggest that the signal’s two kilometer [one mile] range can propagate further than the animals’ airborne vocalizations.

Their study suggests that it is possible for elephants to communicate over long

Researchers have modified the European Incoherent Scatter Svalbard radar to potentially provide detailed information of even a single event in the polar ionosphere. Oksavik et al. demonstrate a new observation mode for the EISCAT instrument with the potential for monitoring small-scale flow variations in the Earth-space boundary. The authors used the technique to provide high-resolution data for the flow patterns surrounding a single poleward-moving auroral form (PMAF) event, a phenomenon ass

Including the atmospheric effects from volcanic eruptions in general circulation models may be the most important factor in improving the accuracy of long-term climate simulations. Vyushin et al. analyzed general circulation model estimates for the 20th century climate and found that volcanic eruptions, rather than the manmade effects from increasing greenhouse gas and aerosol levels, are the most significant factor in determining long-range correlations of surface air temperature. The author

An analysis of total solar irradiance data has allowed researchers to make the first detections of a solar flare from radiation-sensing satellites. Woods et al. report that total solar irradiance dropped by an unprecedented 0.34 percent during the strong solar storm in October-November 2003, because of large, dark sunspots observed by two NASA satellite missions. They also present data showing marked short-term solar radiation increases during one of the strongest X-class events seen during t

A web of faults links the San Andreas Fault over a discontinuous 80-kilometer [50 mile] region in southern California. Carena et al. analyzed a gap in the famous fault line that runs from the Mojave Desert to the Coachella Valley and suggest that a network of seismically active faults likely connects the two strands of the 1,200-kilometer [750-mile] San Andreas Fault.

The researchers examined the three-dimensional geometry of the fault system in the complex region, reaching nearly 20 kilom

Part of the magnetic dust observed in Greenland ice cores may come from extraterrestrial sources, although most of the surface magnetism of ice also comes from iron-rich particles deposited by airborne dust. Lanci et al. used magnetic testing techniques on ice cores from central Greenland to trace the iron oxide content and total dust concentration in polar sources.

They suggest that measuring the magnetic strength of dust deposited on the icy surface can provide researchers an improved me

Researchers propose that an observed rise in the ice-melting rate during the summer and an extension of the melting periods through October in the Alps may be caused by global warming. Vincent et al. analyzed more than 50 years of data showing the annual mass balance changes for two glaciers in the Alps and report anomalous ice melting that was likely caused by climate change. The authors note an ice reduction of nearly half a centimeter [two-tenths of an inch] per day over the widely space

A worst-case scenario of climate change from the possible future release of submerged methane hydrates predicts catastrophic warming in the atmosphere and rising sea level similar to conditions that preceded the last ice age. Renssen et al. simulated the climate response from a massive release of methane from gas hydrates in the oceans, using a three-dimensional model to estimate the changes to the atmosphere-sea ice-ocean system over 2,500 years. Although the researchers do not speculate on

A new study examines the factors that would enable researchers to create a Martian version of the Global Positioning System widely used on Earth. Mendillo et al. investigated the planet’s ionospheric characteristics with radio signal data taken from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and analyzed how local time, latitude, and solar cycle patterns would affect Mars’ electron content and contribute to errors in estimating exact locations on the planet’s surface. They note that,

Though the catastrophe that destroyed the dinosaurs’ world may have begun with blazing fire, it probably ended with icy darkness, according to a Purdue University research group.

By analyzing fossil records, a team of scientists including Purdue’s Matthew Huber has found evidence that the Earth underwent a sudden cooling 65 million years ago that may have taken millennia to abate completely. The fossil rock samples, taken from a well-known archaeological site in Tunisia, show that

Research indicates that wood chip bedding can be an economic alternative to straw bedding for beef cattle without increasing greenhouse gas emissions during the manure handling process.

Research from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) suggests that wood chip bedding for beef cattle can be an economic alternative to straw bedding, without increasing greenhouse gas emissions during the manure handling process.
Composting is gaining rapid acceptance by the beef cattle industry