Over the past decade, scientists on Borneo have found insects, plants, fish, and even a bird that are new to science at the rate of about three per month. This hidden diversity is not just on Borneo.
Mold spoils some 10% of the world's annual harvests. And perhaps more significantly, many fungi produce mycotoxins, poisonous chemicals that can accumulate in human tissues. The most dangerous is aflatoxin, which is elevating rates of liver cancer and likely stunting childhood growth in Africa, Southeast Asia, and China.
The world's embattled coral reefs provide habitat for some 9 million species, including 4000 kinds of fish. Roughly 100 million people in developing countries depend on reefs for subsistence fishing and tourism, estimates the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The "rainforests of the sea," however, are threatened by human activity and natural disasters.
Big pharma has big incentives, including cost savings and more powerful studies, to launch trials in developing countries. But can companies avoid the ethical potholes?
Is Japan's research whaling, which claims about 1000 whales a year, scientific investigation or disguised commercial whaling? A new review process endorsed by the International Whaling Commission last week at its 60th annual meeting hopes to get closer to the answer.
A recent spike in wholesale and market prices for rice, wheat and maize has touched off food riots and prompted countries with surpluses to impose restrictions on grain exports. In response, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered up $200 million in emergency food aid. Behind the scenes, however, researchers charge that the U.S. government is moving to slash funding for international agricultural research.
Rinderpest, an animal disease that devastated cattle and other animals-and their human keepers-across Eurasia and Africa for millennia, may join smallpox as the only viral diseases to have been eradicated.
As concerns wane that the bird flu strain H5N1 will spark a global pandemic, scientists are warning that the virus, perhaps less of a threat, is here to stay.
