Nations in Biological News

ASM and FIND to partner on strengthening infectious disease diagnosis in developing nations

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding today confirming their agreement to work in partnership for projects aimed at strengthening infectious disease diagnosis and service integration in resourc...

Global Biopact on biofuels can bring benefits to both rich and poor nations

A GLOBAL Biofuels Biopact between rich and poor countries can help alleviate poverty in the developing world while helping to solve the problems of global warming and energy security in the developed world, says a new paper in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by SCI and ...

Failure to meet United Nations sanitation target could affect millions of the world's poorest

Worldwide, billions of people lack access to a reliable source of safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. To address the problem, the United Nations established the Target 10 initiative, which aims to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and ...

Family planning a major environmental impact

...ch, on average, a person is responsible. And even though some developing nations have much higher populations and rates of population growth than the U.S., ...ing their carbon emissions and industrial development, and other developing nations may also continue to increase as they seek higher standards of living," Mur...

'Bycatch' whaling a growing threat to coastal whales

...n the distinct stocks. Whales are occasionally killed in entanglements with fishing nets and the deaths of large whales are reported by most member nations of the IWC. Japan and South Korea are the only countries that allow the commercial sale of products killed as "incidental bycatch." The sheer number o...

Policy transparency key to saving world's fisheries

... the status of the world's fisheries by the United nations Food and Agriculture Organization, fisheries suppl...ora. "Some of these initiatives include the United nations Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the Con...ce and enforcement capabilities and although these nations have less fishing capacity nationally, they dispro...

Leading scientists and scholars urge action on climate issues

...ry to avert a "global climatic catastrophe". In part, the letter reads, "In many political circles around the world, the view has taken hold that nations should endeavor both to limit the buildup of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas and a by-product of burning coal, oil and natural gas, to 45...

Research vessel Polarstern starts 24th Arctic season

...ar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, will begin its 24th Arctic expedition on Saturday, June 20th. 119 scientists from seven different nations will research the whole spectrum of current Arctic topics in three journey stages: climate history and current climate development, effects on the eco...

Climate change could drive vast human migrations

...h Science Information Network (CIESIN), the United nations University and CARE International, was released to....5 million acres) of farmland. Some Pacific island nations including the Maldives (pop. 300,000) are already ...tem greenhouse gases during this December's United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. But even ...

Canadian-based UN coral reef expert honored at world meeting in Australia

...alist with a distinguished award for his lifetime of achievement in marine research. Peter Sale, Assistant Director for Coastal Zones at the United nations University's International Network on Water, Environment and Health, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Windsor, received the Pieter Bleeker ...

NASA uses satellite to unearth innovation in crop forecasting

... for estimating soil moisture are often sparsely located in the developing nations that need them the most. Hard-to-reach terrain like mountains or desert, la...ood reserves are at their lowest level in 30 years, according to the United nations World Food Program, putting the world's 1 billion poorest people most at ri...

DNA-Prokids: Genetic identification against traffic in human beings

.... Traffic in human beings is one of the most frequent and profitable crimes at the beginning of the 21st century. According to data from the United nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), approximately two million people are victims of human trafficking across the world. UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Mo...

Stanford scientists find heat-tolerant coral reefs that may resist climate change

...enough to help get them through the end of the century, Oliver said, depending on the severity of global warming. A 2007 report by the United nations International Panel on Climate Change concluded that the average surface temperature of the Earth is likely to increase 3.6 to 8.1 F (2 to 4.5 C) by 2...

Carbon measuring system to help mitigate climate change

...is being led and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United nations Environment Programme (UNEP). As well as the Overseas Development Group, or...ists, landowners and local communities to be paid, for example by developed nations wanting to offset their own emissions, for the amount of pollution their ac...

Scientists urge global action to preserve water supplies for billions worldwide

...nged behavior, but that the most effective solutions would likely need to originate at the regional level. Workshop experts represented the United nations World Climate Research Program, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Indian Space Research Organization, the British Antarctic Survey, the California ...

Scientists urge world leaders to respond cooperatively to Pacific Ocean threats

...anizers of the consensus statement. "Remarkable similarity exists between the major problems experienced in poor and rich countries alike, in populous nations and on small islands," said Palumbi, a professor of biology and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. In additio...

Rules proposed to save the world's coral reefs

... Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, James Cook, Perpignan and the United nations Universities and The Nature Conservancy. These are the "...reduction of ... in the world and the first to span several countries. It involves the six nations of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and t...

Searching for pollution in the Caribbean

...la, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela. France and Spain provide additional technical and financial support. The United nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) are also active partners in the project. Concern over the growing in...

Crop models help increase yield per unit of water used

...the models are shown to be accurate predictors of WUE. An international team of experts led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations developed an agronomic model called AquaCrop to address the need for modeling of WUE under widely varying conditions around the world and with limited...

Synthetic chemical offers solution for crops facing drought

...id. "Clearly, chemical genetics can be used to bypass some of the limitations that slow down classical genetic analysis. Not too long ago, the United nations called for a 'blue revolution' - the water equivalent of the green revolution - of improved water management and sharing. We have proven that we can e...

What's protected, what's not?

...www.nbii.gov > is hosting the data for the Partnership and will provide annual updates to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, part of the United nations Environmental Programme. Coordinated by the USGS, the NBII is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on th...

Indigenous peoples at world summit to share climate change observations, coping techniques

... village already underway, some 400 Indigenous People and observers from 80 nations are convening in Alaska for a UN-affiliated conference April 20-24 to discu...beralization and globalization." Says Sam Johnston of Tokyo-based United nations University, a Summit co-sponsor: "The rich and detailed insights of Indigen...

Biofuels could hasten climate change

...eforestation is likely to represent a more effective climate-change mitigation strategy than converting forest for biofuel production, and it may help nations meet their international commitments to reduce biodiversity loss. Alternatively, planting biofuels on degraded grasslands instead of tropical rain...

International climate change researchers meet, review latest findings

...ays the chair and host, UM's Antonio Busalacchi . The Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme sponsored by the United nations and other international organizations is chaired by UM's Busalacchi. It's the first time in a decade that a U.S. scientist has headed the group. They...

Research plane Polar 5 on Arctic campaign

... Dethloff, physicist at the research unit Potsdam and scientific head of the project at the Alfred Wegener Institute. In total, 30 people from four nations - six research institutes and logistic institutions (like EAI Oshawa, Arctic Kingdom Toronto) from Germany, Canada, the USA and Italy - are involved i...

Intruder alert: Tel Aviv University's 'Smart Dew' will find you!

...ve created a generic system that has no scale limitations," says Prof. Shapira. This makes it especially useful for large farms or even the borders of nations where it's difficult, and sometimes impractical, to install fences or constantly patrol them. "Most people could never afford the manpower to guard...

Turtles no longer turned into souvenirs

...inator for marine turtle conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean. "The good news from the Dominican Republic is that it demonstrates to fellow nations that a real difference can be made to reduce illegal trade." ...

Uvalde Center water research could have national, international applications

...of drag socks on pivot-irrigation systems. "These will all have applications not only to this region, but to other regions in the U.S. and to other nations where there are similar soils, water sources and watering restrictions," she said. Dr. Jason West, another of the center's AgriLife Research scient...

Professor to measure environmental impact of war

... The United nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has invited Michel A. Bouchard, a professor from the Universit de Montral's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, to help evaluat...

New simulation shows consequences of a world without Earth's natural sunscreen

... Such is the world we would have inherited if 193 nations had not agreed to ban ozone-depleting substances, ...table," said Newman, who is co-chair of the United nations Environment Programme's Scientific Assessment Pane..., the World Meteorological Organization and United nations Environment Program had brought together scientist...

Seven recommendations from Aarhus to COP15

...ive impacts on biodiversity. Synergies could be promoted by formulating integrated policies cross-linking major UN conventions, notably UNFCCC (United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity). ...

'Climate change: Global risks, challenges and decisions'

...ssions on "dangerous climate change". Recent observations show that societies are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2oC will be very difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and will increase t...

Fighting global warming offers growth and development opportunities

...could lead to bottlenecks in the shipments of products and constrain Japanese economic growth" urges Miguel Esteban, Postdoctoral Fellow at the United nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. ...

Scientists gather to protect global food security from return of devastating wheat fungus

...rts. The meeting is part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, led by Cornell University, CIMMYT, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations (FAO), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). For a comp...

Eugene-Springfield face Upper Willamette climate threats

...Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific intergovernmental body established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and United nations Environment Programme. The models agree that annual average temperatures in the Upper Willamette will rise 6-8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2080, storm ev...

Lower increases in global temps could lead to greater impacts than previously thought, study finds

...ted by ice sheet models assessed in the AR4, and that several meters of additional sea level rise could occur on century time scales. The United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is in force and which the United States has ratified, calls for "stabilization of greenhouse gas concent...

Wildlife Conservation Society helps Cameroon create new national park

...IUCN Red List. Cameroon is one of seven African nations supported by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (C...d Aquariums (WAZA), in cooperation with the United nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization...

Biofuels boom could fuel rainforest destruction, Stanford researcher warns

... to meet the global demands for food, feed and fuel, so the best options will likely vary by circumstance." Analyzing changing lands The United nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) maintains a database of detailed satellite images taken over the last 20 years through the Global Forest Reso...

Brupbacher prize to Nubia Munoz and Sir Richard Peto

...colaou Test), the frequency of cervical cancer has already been sharply reduced. It is therefore urgent that inoculation is extended to less developed nations in which there is still a very high mortality level, particularly in Central and South America, Southern Africa and a few Asian countries. Sir Ri...

Biotech scientists team with curators to stem decay of world's art, cultural heritage

...(IDEA) and Director of Venezuela's Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, the host of the event. Says Jose-Luis Ramirez, Director of the United nations University's Programme for Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC), an event sponsor: "The normal concern about single artifact...