Information

October 14, 2012October 14, 2012

Botanical lab wins big prize

Sainsbury laboratory Camb 008

In a surprise decision the 2012 Stirling prize went to neither of the critics’ favourite buildings, nor to the Olympic Stadium. The winner is a relatively modest laboratory in Cambridge, designed by Stanton Williams, set in the university’s Botanic Gardens.

How wonderful that a laboratory in a botanic gardens should have won the 2012 Stirling Prize, awarded to the building that has “made the greatest contribution to British architecture”. Apparently the scientists who work there love it too. Any of you working on crops or wild relatives? And that reminds me, I wonder whether they’ve appointed a new Director yet. We’re both available …

October 13, 2012October 12, 2012

Nibbles: Genetic erosion, Rural radio, PhD, Farm workers, Medlars

Drought threatens rare rice varieties. What d’you mean they’re not in genebanks?
Has video dimmed the radio’s star?
Wanna get a PhD in “climate services for development“? Course you do.
Apple harvest fails. Turns out you need a diversity of agricultural labourers too.
Medlars. I love it when people treat my familiar stuff as highly exotic.

October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

Nibbles: Online portals, Hops, EU craziness, Turfgrass breeder, Seed rental, Swaminatham, CG genebanks

Do you really need that portal?
Brits say local hops are best. And who am I to argue?
Weird statement on genetic resources from EU Commission. Clarifications gladly received.
Even turfgrass has its heroes.
Want to rent some seeds?
A reminder from someone who should know that crops have biodiversity too.
CGIAR Consortium talks up its crown jewels.

October 10, 2012

Getting to grips with the botanical literature

Mark Nesbitt of Kew manages a very useful resource on how to access botanical and ethnobotanical literature on the web. Compare and contrast with a recent similar effort aimed at the prospective germplasm collector. If you want a laugh, check out how we used to do things back before online was even a word. And if you want to look into the future, Roderic Page is a useful guide.

October 10, 2012December 4, 2017

Nibbles: GRISP, Wheat for Africa, African ag, Future genebanks, GCARD, Zoonoses, Urban ag, Goat feed, ICRISAT breeding, Old corn & apples, Millets, Chocolate, Medlars, Yam beans, Black Sigatoka, CBD and ITPGRFA, Fish policy, Dog miscegenation

Global rice and wheat in Africa tweetfests going on. And speaking of Africa, IFPRI has a big report.
Speaking of rice, read about how our friends at IRRI are rethinking the genebank.
Speaking of tweetfests, GCARD promises to be one too. More than a conference!
From ILRI, who will no doubt be at GCARD, the downside of urban farming. And more doom and gloom.
Speaking of urban agriculture, RAFI has a big report. (Oh, and agriculture is not the only thing that can be peri-urban.)
Speaking of ILRI, this time in better mood, they’re feeding improved sweetpotato and cassava varieties to improved goat breeds.
Speaking of improved varieties, ICRISAT has them too, of millets and the like. And they came from the genebank. And they were made by breeders, who have a newsletter, did you know? This is coming up because of the CBD meeting in Hyderabad, on which more later…
Speaking of genebanks (the USDA ones in this case), it’s not only breeders who use them. (And speaking of USDA genebanks, here’s a story about the apple one.)
And speaking of millets, they’re magic!
Speaking of magic, that’s the only word for chocolate, isn’t it?
Speaking of painting yourself into a corner, do yam beans go with chocolate? No? Well, maybe medlars do.
Speaking of fruits (good catch!), Ecuadorians find disease resistance gene in Indian banana. Or at least banana named after Indian city.
And that, I suppose, is why you need multiple ABS regimes, despite the confusion that may cause in Hyderabad and elsewhere.
Speaking of ABS, interesting how that doesn’t really figure in fish policy discussions.
And finally, a propos of nothing in particular, news of an unusual wolf-dog hybrid.