Gentamicin is an unusual antiobiotic with two properties that make it particularly useful in plant cell culture: it is autoclavable so is added to media before autoclaving/sterilization, and it is active against mycoplasmas as well as gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Over the last week, I too have been getting it. I discovered this […]
We bought a television two years ago. Sadly, despite the 723 channels available, my worst suspicions about quality have been confirmed: there is almost nothing I want to watch, especially now that I have seen everything there is from Attenborough, “How it’s made” and “Mythbusters”. If only programmes like Taylor Lockwood’s “In search of the holey veil” […]
Plant names often have an interesting history behind them: I came across Alchemilla while looking up a plant I photographed at the weekend. Thinking about the names often helps with remembering them, and also gives insight into the history of the species. Earlier in the year, we discussed the naming of a species after Professor […]
See on Scoop.it – AnnBotIn the face of sustained population growth, our big cities continue to sprawl into the greenfields, despite the now well recognised problems associated with higher infrastructure costs, lack of amenity, car dependency, poor job access, diminished agriculture and open space. A model for directing population and investment inwards – to inner […]
See on Scoop.it – AnnBotrelease of the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, the open-access information resource from CABI covering crop pests and diseases. Plantwise is a global programme to improve food security, alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods. Plantwise helps developing countries establish a network of plant clinics run by CABI trained ‘plant doctors’, where farmers can bring […]
See on Scoop.it – AnnBotfrom Richard A. Jorgensen, Guanajuato, MéxicoLet’s admit an unfortunate truth: agricultural research in most of the world is based on old models that no longer serve us well in the twenty-first century as arable land diminishes, populations increase, and climate is changing. A dramatically new vision is needed in order to […]
See on Scoop.it – AnnBot“It didn’t take long after the journal Nature put online the article on the banana genome sequence for bloggers to start commenting on the Venn diagram featuring a a bright yellow banana. David Ng at Popperfont qualified it as, “quite possibly the most complicated (and therefore awesome) Venn Diagram ever”. Jonathan […]
Modelling of processes lets one understand the functions of interacting components, helps to identify parts of processes, and can predict outcomes of changes in the system. Unfortunately, what was a major area of financial modelling is now largely discredited, much to the cost of the rest of us; other areas such as insurance are becoming so […]
I added a new skill to my CV last week. Most of the farmland of Ethiopia is ploughed with bullock ploughs (plows). One man and two bullocks can plough a quarter of a hectare, about 0.6 acre, per day. This area is known as a Timad and the area is used as a basis […]
Erosion is the most environmentally destructive process. Our videoblog shows planting and watering of Grevillea on hillsides in Ethiopia to control soil loss.
See on Scoop.it – AnnBot Flour milling in the west happens out of view! Here we can see three different grains being milled in two larger stone-mills, each with two pairs of electrically driven stones, and some grinding machines (probably cone pulverizers) are used for smaller quantities of less fine flour and also chillies. We […]
See on Scoop.it – AnnBot “The 2012 edition of the FAO Statistical Yearbook presents a visual synthesis of the major trends and factors shaping the global food and agricultural landscape and their interplay with broader environmental, social and economic dimensions. In doing so, it strives to serve as a unique reference point on the […]
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