living the lazy life

I may be a little bit lazy, but learning about sloths last month I found out that there are lots of higher levels of laziness that humans can only dream of, such as lowering your body temperature, or slowing down your metabolism and going to the loo only once a week. We're clearly not worthy to share a planet with a species (or five) so ardently committed to energy saving.

Seriously though, and laziness aside, there are lots of very interesting evolutionary and ecological connections around the sloth which made this a really exciting feature to write (once I'd overcome my own sloth). The resulting feature is out now:


How sloths got their sloth


Current Biology Volume 29, issue 13, pages R603-R606, July 8, 2019

FREE access to full text and PDF download




a sloth I bumped into at a railway station in the week when I was preparing the feature.

protected areas and their economic impact

As conservation is all about the economy these days, people are wondering whether nature reserves and similar protected areas are actually helping or harming the people living in the area. They might harm by stopping people from exploiting natural resources, but they may also help by offering opportunities in eco-tourism and benefits from ecosystem services.

If one wants to know which way the overall balance turns out, there appears to be very little hard data to go on, but now K. Andam et al. have published a "controlled study" in PNAS trying to eliminate error by comparing the economic development of sites with a nature reserve to that of sites similar in all aspects except that they are lacking such a protected area.

Carrying out this kind of analysis on various sites in Costa Rica and in Thailand, the authors come to a cautiously optimistic conclusion, namely that the "treated" samples (i.e. with a protected area) have done somewhat better than the control samples.

So now if your conservation project runs up against local nimbyism, you can always throw a copy of that article at the opposition.


source:
Kwaw S. Andam, Paul J. Ferraro, Katharine R. E. Sims, Andrew Healy, and Margaret B. Holland
Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand
PNAS published ahead of print May 24, 2010, doi:10.1073/pnas.0914177107

Abstract and free access to PDF file.

towards sustainable farming

Today there will be a couple of Earthwatch lectures at the Royal Geographic Society in London, covering research aimed at improving the sustainability of food production. Mark Chandler will talk about his work with coffee farmers in Costa Rica, while Ken Norris will focus on cocoa production in Ghana.

I have mentioned Mark's work in a news feature last November (blog entry and link), and Ken's in June 2008 (blog entry and link). Both very thought-provoking re. connections between the food we consume and the state the world is in.

Both projects are corporate partnerships (with Starbucks and Cadbury, respectively), and are also addressing issues of how economics can better cooperate with nature, rather than destroying it, as discussed in this recent story.

2010 Earthwatch Lectures

Farming and sustainable environments
Wednesday 17 March 2010
The Royal Geographical Society,
1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR

Chaired by Countryfile and Watchdog presenter
Julia Bradbury

Speakers: Professor Ken Norris, University of Reading;
Dr Mark Chandler, Earthwatch

5.30pm to 6.30pm Citizen Science Competition Advice Clinic
6pm - Cash bar, photo exhibition
7pm – Lecture
8.30pm – Cash bar

science in Latin America

Ten years ago, when I set out as a full-time freelancer, I was hoping to make science in Latin America a geographic focus of my work. I set up a web portal called "ciencia sin fronteras" (the domain name is now used by somebody else for a different project), and I did cover some science stories over the years, but it didn't really take off.

I'm now hoping to revitalise this side of my work a little bit (although on a modest scale) by introducing a new tag for this blog, indicating all science news that is related to Latin America, i.e. both research performed there environmental issues that affect Latin America, like rainforest conservation. The tag is LA_ciencia (though blog entries will also be tagged by country).

To start things off, I I'm compiling here a list of some of the relevant pieces I have published over the last 6 years, sorted by country (will add items to the list as and when I remember them!):


Bolivia

--2008--


1. Gross M:
   Chemistry World 11.08. (online only)
   Hot chillis evolved to kill fungi
   [free access]

Brazil

--2009--


1. Gross M:
   Current Biology 19, No 11 (09.06.), R427-28
   Embryonic development
   As the UK updates its pioneering Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, legal boundaries for research in the life sciences are redrawn in other countries as well.
   [restricted access]
   

Colombia

--2006--


1. Groß M:
   Biologie in unserer Zeit 36, Nr 4, 17
   Humanevolution: Kolumbien nach Kolumbus
   An English version of this piece appears in The birds,the bees and the platypuses, page 154: Colombia after Columbus
   

Costa Rica

--2009--


1. Gross M:
   Current Biology 19, No 21 (17.11.), R965
   Coffee growers feel the heat
   Coffee and tea farmers already appear to be suffering from the effects of climate change.
   [environment]
   
   [abstract and restricted access to PDF]

Cuba

--2004--


1. Groß M:
   Nachrichten aus der Chemie 52, Nr 7/8, 812-814
   Die zweite Revolution: Biotechnologie in Kuba
   
   [@][@]
   
   

2. Gross M:
   Current Biology 14, No 11, R401-R402
   Fighting isolation
   





3. Gross M:
   Darwin No 2, 22-26
   Biotecnologie -- l'altra rivolucione cubana
   





4. Gross M:
   Chemistry World 1, No 9, 19
   Cuba synthesises blockbuster vaccine





5. Groß M:
   Spektrum der Wissenschaft Nr 10, 23
   Kommentar: Der Fall Kuba. Der Inselstaat konnte sich mit Biotechnologie aus der Isolation befreien.





6. Groß M:
   Chemie in unserer Zeit 38, Nr 5, 306-307
   Biotechnologie in Kuba: Mangomittel gegen Altern und Aids





7. Gross M:
   Chemistry World 1, No 11, 38Biotechnology: the second Cuban revolution
   



--2005--



8. Groß M:
   Biologie in unserer Zeit 35, Nr 4, 227
   Arzneimittelforschung: Impfstoffe aus Kuba





9. Gross M:
   Chemistry & Industry No. 15 (01.08.), 16-17
   Fortress of success: Biotech companies in Cuba are making the best of what they have



--2006--



10. Gross M:
    Chemistry World 3 No. 1, 7
    Chemists queue up for Cuban collaboration





11. Groß M:
    
    Chemie
    in unserer Zeit 40, Nr 1, 68-71
    Kuba -- Improvisationstalent gefragt





12. Gross M:
    Current Biology 16, No 3 (7.2.), R66-R67
    Cuban efforts bolstered





13. Gross M:
    Oxford Today 18, No 3 (Trinity 2006),
    Chemistry in Cuba





14. Gross M:
    Chemistry World No 10, 23 (online: 4.9.)
    Antibodies in the greenhouse
    [@@]

enjoy your coffee

... while it's still available. I've learned from my research for the piece published in today's issue of Current Biology that coffee growers in central america would have to shift their plantations to higher altitudes at a rate of 3-4 metres per year -- which is physically impossible, as coffee grows slowly, and as they will be running out of suitable mountain surface area quite soon.

A stark reminder that climate change isn't something that's going to happen in 2050, it's happening now, and people are suffering the consequences already. For farmers in tropical countries, this means they may no longer be able to feed their families. For us, less catastrophically, it means we may not be able to drink as much tea and coffee as we used to. But maybe a few empty shelves in our supermarkets is what it takes to make people understand ?

anyhow, my article is here:

Coffee growers feel the heat
Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 21, R965-R966, 17 November 2009
summary and restricted access to pdf file