Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an industry trade group created by Ronnie Cummins, a disciple of anti-science activist Jeremy Rifkin, which funds numerous vassal groups to promote the work of their corporate clients. Two of them are a "lab" called HRI and Regeneration International. Now OCA is putting them together so Fagan, from the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, can teach real farmers about his alternative vedic plant approach.
Culture
Obesity is a growing issue in many countries, accelerated by easy access to calorie-dense foods that are pleasurable to eat (known as an 'obesogenic environment'). But while it's clear that eating too much leads to weight gain, little is known about the underlying behaviours that lead to overeating.
A protein involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be a promising target for treating neurological disorders in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients, suggests a study published in JNeurosci of rat neurons and brain tissue from deceased humans. The research shows that the two conditions may damage neurons in similar ways.
A key factor in reducing the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially life-threatening complication of type 1 diabetes, in children at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, is having a regular health care provider, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
A new study has isolated a gene controlling shape and size of spikelets in wheat in a breakthrough which could help breeders deliver yield increases in one of the world's most important crops.
The team from the John Innes Centre say the underlying genetic mechanism they have found is also relevant to inflorescence (floral) architecture in a number of other major cereals including corn, barley and rice.
The genetic identification of an agronomically-relevant trait represents a significant milestone in research on wheat; a crop with a notoriously complex genome.
Social gadflies in an organization are the new superheroes of conservation, according to a study in this month's Nature Sustainability.
Conservation globally has received a boost from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals, placing new emphasis on, and opportunities for, support for the world's flora and fauna. Yet even as environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) like The Nature Conservancy prepare to rise to the challenge, they face size issues. Specifically, their own size.
Suspensions of live bacteria in a viscous liquid do not act as expected when spun at certain speeds and now a team of researchers know why the bacterial aggregation appears to explode when the spinning stops.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Georgia have described how the protein that allows strep and staph bacteria to stick to human cells is prepared and packaged. The research, which could facilitate the development of new antibiotics, will appear in the April 6 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
A team of chemical and biomedical engineers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, have discovered that HIV-infected patients experience a dysfunction in a certain type of immune cell: the follicular helper T (Tfh) cell.
Researchers at the Centre for Environmental and Climate Research at Lund University have studied how pollination varies in different agricultural landscapes, by placing pots with either wild strawberry or field bean in field borders. Plants that were placed in a small-scale agricultural landscape, with pastures and other unploughed environments, were better pollinated than plants in landscapes dominated by arable land.
Frankfurt am Main/ Germany, April 5, 2018. For the first time, scientists of the German Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, Goethe University and the University of Lund in Sweden have deciphered the complete genome of the blue whale and three other rorquals. These insights now allow tracking the evolutionary history of the worlds' largest animal and its relatives in unprecedented detail. Surprisingly, the genomes show that rorquals have been hybridizing during their evolutionary history.
Astrophysicists from the University of Surrey and the University of Edinburgh have created a new method to measure the amount of dark matter at the centre of tiny "dwarf" galaxies.
Dark matter makes up most of the mass of the Universe, yet it remains elusive. Depending on its properties, it can be densely concentrated at the centres of galaxies, or more smoothly distributed over larger scales. By comparing the distribution of dark matter in galaxies with detailed models, researchers can test or rule out different dark matter candidates.
A KAIST team presented a highly customizable neural stimulation method. The research team developed a technology that can print the heat pattern on a micron scale to enable the control of biological activities remotely.
The researchers integrated a precision inkjet printing technology with bio-functional thermo-plasmonic nanoparticles to achieve a 'selective nano-photothermal neural stimulation method.'
Chickens that grow up in an environment that they perceive as more diverse and manageable, retain an optimistic view of life and cope with stress better than individuals that grow up in more sterile surroundings, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. A team of researchers lead by researchers from Linköping University, Sweden, measured how optimism in chickens is affected by stress.
The receptors that sense the Earth's magnetic field are probably located in the birds' eyes. Now, researchers at Lund University have studied different proteins in the eyes of zebra finches and discovered that one of them differs from the others: only the Cry4 protein maintains a constant level throughout the day and in different lighting conditions.