Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) lower the content of zinc and other nutrients in important food crops. Zinc defi ciency is currently responsible for large burdens of disease globally, and the populations who are at highest risk of zinc defi ciency also receive most of their dietary zinc from crops. By modelling dietary intake of bioavailable zinc for the populations of 188 countries under both an ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 scenario, we sought to estimate the eff ect of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on the global risk of zinc defi ciency.

Anthropogenic declines of animal pollinators and the associated effects on human nutrition are of growing concern. We quantified the nutritional and health outcomes associated with decreased intake of pollinator-dependent foods for populations around the world. The researchers assembled a database of supplies of 224 types of food in 156 countries.

ust three years ago, Nigeria was a threat to the global push to eradicate polio. Africa’s most populous nation recorded 122 cases in 2012, more than all other countries combined, and funders of the eradication campaign were growing exasperated with the nation’s faltering vaccination efforts and exportation of cases. Now Nigeria is on the brink of being free of the virus, thanks in large part to its embrace of innovative approaches to vaccination and public health.