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Our Editorial and News Affiliates
Science and Development Network
The Science and Development Network aims to provide reliable and authoritative information about science and technology for the developing world. Their goal is to help both individuals and organizations in developing countries make informed decisions about how science and technology can improve economic and social development.
Website: http://www.scidev.net/
Contact:
General queries: info@scidev.net
Editorial queries: editor@scidev.net
Technical queries: support@scidev.net
SciDev.Net
9-11 Richmond Buildings
London W1D 3HF
UK
T +44 (0) 20 7292 9910
Biofuel breakthrough
January 22, 2012 08:45 AM - Paula Leighton, Science and Development Network
Brown seaweed's potential as a vast source of biofuels has been highlighted with the announcement that scientists have found a way of converting all its major sugars into ethanol. A team reported in Science today (19 January) that it has engineered a microbe that will convert the sugars to ethanol, overturning one of the main obstacles to making the use of brown macroalgae, or seaweed, as a biofuel feedstock competitive. The prospective ethanol yield from brown seaweed is approximately two times higher than that from sugarcane and five times higher than maize, from the same area of cultivation. But its full potential cannot be reached because of the inability of industrial microbes to break down alginate, one of the three most abundant sugars in brown seaweed, commonly known as kelp, which is the most widely grown seaweed in the world.
Don't wait for wealth — better health needs basic tools
January 17, 2012 01:43 PM - Charles Kenny, Science and Development Network
Encouraging demand for new and increasingly cheap interventions available now can boost health in developing countries, says Charles Kenny. The conventional wisdom is that wealthier is healthier: staying alive longer takes expensive stuff, and so a country's quickest way to better health for its people is economic development. There's a lot to that argument. Good nutrition, shelter, hospitals — they all cost money. And that's surely a big part of why life expectancies in high-income countries are twenty years longer than those in low-income countries worldwide, according to World Bank data. Even within countries, household surveys suggest richer families live longer and stay healthier than poorer ones.
Trees near homes boost incomes, sequester carbon
January 16, 2012 02:33 PM - Bernard Appiah, Science and Development Network
A form of small-holder agroforestry in which trees are planted around the home, maximizing the land left available for cash crops, may prove the best balance between sequestering carbon and making money by farming other crops, a study has found. There has been a proliferation of projects that encourage small-scale farmers to adopt tree planting as part of efforts to sequester carbon from the atmosphere to help mitigate climate change. But there is a conflict of policy interests because trees can take up land used for growing cash crops, thereby reducing farmer's profits. In many cases there are no payments for planting trees and, even where there are, the money does not match the lost profits from crops.
Include trees in climate modelling, say scientists
January 13, 2012 05:56 PM - Dyna Rochmyaningsih, Science and Development Network
Current climate models and projections may be inaccurate because measurements are based on guidelines that do not include the effects of trees on the local climate, according to agroforestry experts. This in turn may be hindering effective adaptation by local farming communities, as the true effect of climate change on their crops is not accurately captured.
'No evidence' of links between Pacific earthquakes
January 5, 2012 12:43 PM - María Elena Hurtado, Science and Development Network
Scientists have rejected fears that a series of highly destructive large-scale earthquakes in the past few years, in countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, signal an increased global risk of these deadly events. Several vast earthquakes have taken place since 2004 — in Chile, Indonesia and Japan — leading some academics to express concern that they may be linked.
Traditional farming can save threatened species
December 22, 2011 01:43 PM - Jan Piotrowski, Science and Development Network
Traditional farming methods are crucial for protecting a number of threatened bird species in the developing world, including bustards, cranes, ibises and vultures, a study has found. Livestock grazing and features associated with arable farming — such as hedgerows — create environmental conditions that certain birds currently depend on for food, shelter and breeding, the authors report.
Geospatial initiative shows the way
December 16, 2011 07:52 AM - Daniela Hirschfeld, Science and Development Network
GeoSUR, a Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) open access and web-based initiative for geospatial data-sharing, has received a boost at the Eye on Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi (12-15 December). The conference "Networks of Networks" working group accepted GeoSUR — one of the first such regional networks in the developing world — as a "case model".
Ten-point plan to save the oceans
November 17, 2011 04:01 PM - Daniela Hirschfeld, Science and Development Network
The world has made lacklustre progress in meeting most of the commitments it made 20 years ago to safeguard the oceans, says a report. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, agreements were made on issues such as sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, capacity building, and biodiversity; later, the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 in South Africa set targets and timetables to achieve those goals.
Key malaria parasite discovery raises vaccine hopes
November 10, 2011 08:54 AM - Christine Ottery, Science and Development Network
[LONDON] Hopes for a vaccine that would be effective against many different types of the deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, have been raised by research published today. Researchers have discovered a single mechanism that the parasite relies on to invade human red blood cells.
Air pollution causing stronger cyclones, study finds
November 8, 2011 02:55 PM - Syful Islam, Science and Development Network
Air pollution from soot and aerosol emissions is making cyclones over the Middle East and South Asia more destructive, according to a study. Natural differences in wind speed and direction over different heights in the atmosphere, known as 'wind shear', normally keep cyclones in check — effectively tearing the storms apart before they reach a certain size.