When it comes to health, which is more important, nature or nurture? You may well think your genes are a more important predictor of health and ill health. Not so fast. In fact, it transpires that our everyday environment outweighs our genetics, big time, when it comes to measuring our risk of disease. The genome is out - welcome the exposome.
It's 2080. Global emissions peaked decades ago, too late to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 °C above preindustrial levels. The shift in climate has changed the world. As temperatures climbed by 2 °C, effects were felt first in poor and vulnerable regions like sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. Extreme weather events - droughts, floods and hurricanes - became more common and severe. Vulnerable nations had a stark choice: adapt or face millions of deaths. At huge financial cost, society has adapted.
As the latest round of United Nations climate negotiations began in Durban, South Africa, expectations could scarcely have been lower. A globally binding deal is further away than ever. That makes considerable warming from climate change inevitable.
The United Nations released what are probably the most optimistic figures on AIDS since the disease was first identified. New infections have fallen drastically, mainly through the use of drugs that can stop people passing on the virus. (Editorial)
If the battle to eradicate polio were an action movie, this week would be the part where the good guys have racked up spectacular victories – but look like they may lose anyway. On the spectacular side, polio may be gone in India. Of the four countries where polio remained entrenched, the giant country was expected to be the last to fall. Yet its most recent case was in January this year, whereas by this time last year, it had had 40 cases.
Two degrees Celsius. That increase in global temperatures has become synonymous with "dangerous climate change". Lobbyists haggle over it, scientists build models around it and Greens wring their hands over it. So it is dispiriting to learn, with the next round of United Nations negotiations under way in Durban, South Africa, that many climatologists feel it is a target we are almost certain to miss. (Editorial)
Dealing with economic crises, environmental pressures and dwindling resources keeps the oil and gas industry constantly on its toes, says Kate McAlpine.
