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Abu Ghraib genebank rises from the ashes, thanks to Sanaa

Meet Mrs Sanaa Abdul Wahab Al-Sheikh. She used to work at the old Iraqi national genebank at Abu Ghraib. That genebank was looted and destroyed in the aftermath of the invasion. But Mrs Sanaa says she saved about a thousand accessions by hiding them underground and in her fridge. She now works at the new, rebuilt Iraqi national genebank at Abu Ghraib, under the State Board for Seed Testing and Certification. And the accessions she saved from the old collection have been joined by hundreds of others that she’s been collecting from farmers’ fields since 2004. A remarkable person.

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Bring on the meta-meta-analysis of organic agriculture’s benefits

Whether or not organic food brings nutritional benefits over conventional food has been a matter of considerable inquiry and debate. The issue came to a head last month when a study commissioned by the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) concluded that there is no evidence of nutritional superiority.

Now, however, a review published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development has said drawn wildly different conclusions.

Oh, this will run and run, you mark my words…

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Stop deforestation with pretty videos

With regard to the false choice between rainforests and beef, here’s a nice little bit of propaganda.

I expect it plays better on Central Park West and Holland Park than in Brazil or Indonesia, and a single tree downed by a chainsaw is no match for two Caterpillar tractors chugging through the rainforest linked by a massive chain. My question is this: what does the video, pretty and moving though it is, want me to do? All may be revealed on Earth Day 2010, apparently.

Thanks to Jeremy Yoder, who found it originally at kottke.

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Featured: Database discussions

Elizabeth synthesizes!

yes scientists do use social network tools like the common of human being! It is not incompatible with using books, inventories and databases. < … snip … >
I would suggest tagging this discussion with few keywords (perhaps using an automatic ‘tagger’ ), e.g. the name of the varieties involved in the pedigrees and trait names so we could link this discussion to a web site, to the content of a scientific or bibliographic database or a photos repository, etc.

Good thinking. We probably don’t make nearly enough use of tags for things like species names. NB: Commenters can add tags (I think).