Studying rice may not sound like the world's most exciting job. But think again: One plant biologist, Dr. Monty Jones, has made the study of rice his life's work – and as a result of his amazing innovations in the field, he's dramatically improved the lives of millions of farmers and the general population throughout West Africa.
Studying rice may not sound like the world's most exciting job. But think again: One plant biologist, Dr. Monty Jones, has made the study of rice his life's work – and as a result of his amazing innovations in the field, he's dramatically improved the lives of millions of farmers and the general population throughout West Africa.
Dr. Jones, 56, a native of Sierra Leone, spent years traveling with his team from farm to farm, all over Africa and Asia. They painstakingly classified each and every variety of rice plant they discovered. (Not a small task: The rare O. glaberrima species alone has over 1,500 varieties.) Finally, Dr. Jones and his team set to work developing a hardy hybrid that could deal with droughts, weeds, and poor soil – all of which are common plant-killers in Africa.
The resulting crop is NERICA (New Rices for Africa), a fast-growing, high-yield grain that can easily survive even the driest African seasons. The new rice will provide nutrition to millions of people in famine-striken Africa, and will save $200 million in importation costs. True, a grain of rice isn't very big – but when it comes to making a difference in Africa, a little bit of rice can go a very long way.
And Dr. Jones isn't the only researcher whose
work is doing wonders for the planet. Sure, spending 12 hours a day
bent over a microscope may not sound too exciting – but only if you
don't know what's going on inside the lens. Today's scientists are busy
uncovering the answers to all sorts of questions, from lab-made meat to
alien life forms. Here are a few more modern-day researchers whose work
could save the world – or at least make it a little more exciting.
The Weather Changers
Even Superman couldn't stop a hurricane in its tracks. But now, if another Katrina comes along, we may be able to send it back out to sea before it can hurt us, thanks to the work of climate research teams based in the U.S. and Israel.
!ADVERTISEMENT!
The researchers claim that by dropping a
planeload of soot into the frozen cloud at the top of the hurricane,
they could slow the hurricane down and change its path, preventing
damage to major cities. Their plans aren't fully formed quite yet, but
once they iron out the details, these researchers could have the
capacity to send hurricanes back where they came from – so maybe you
can hold onto your beach house in Florida, after all.
Keeping an Eye Out for Aliens
Most scientists tend to shy away from talk of extraterrestrials – but not astronomer Margaret Turnbull, who's spent her entire career at NASA studying the galaxy for signs of life on other planets. Last year, she announced a list of 11 "habstars" – habitable stars with environments very similar to Earth's – narrowed down from a list of more than 17,000.
Thanks to her research, astronomers at the Seti
Institute will have a great head start when they begin scanning the
skies for alien life forms with the Allen Telescope Array, a powerful
device that can pick up on radio signals from other planets. And if
they happen to come across a real-life version of E.T., the
candy-loving creature from outer space, we'll have Turnbull to thank
for the introduction.
Cooking Up a Cow-Free Steak
If you've tried to go vegetarian, but were thwarted by your love of bacon, you may soon find yourself sending a thank-you card to a team of researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Their brilliant creation? Lab-produced, animal-free meat.
Okay, we know the
idea sounds a bit bizarre, but the researchers claim that meat grown
from stem cells could be every bit as healthy as authentic meat – and
it could save the lives of millions of animals, help the environment,
and cut transportation and processing costs. We doubt the artificial
meat will replace the real stuff anytime soon, but by making the
switch, we could help conserve our planet's valuable resources and save
plenty of animals all at once. If you can get over the weirdness
factor, it starts to sound pretty tempting.
The (Almost) End of AIDS
Ever since it made the jump from monkeys to humans, the HIV virus has been a death sentence for millions. But that's no longer true, thanks to the amazing work of EuroSIDA, a group of European researchers based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The researchers have created a new form of treatment called "combination therapy" that can effectively halt the HIV virus in its tracks and stop it from developing into full-blown AIDS. The new treatment blocks the virus from spreading into the immune system, which allows the sick patient to regain strength and health.
This
new medical breakthrough isn't quite a cure for AIDS – patients with
the HIV virus must receive the combination therapy for their entire
lives to avoid developing AIDS, so we still can't get too blasé about
the very serious risk of HIV infection. Even so, it's the next best
thing – and thanks to the EuroSIDA team, millions of lives all over the
world could be saved by this remarkable technique.
Original story by Kathryn Hawkins
