Agriculture
- Agriculture
Of swine flu, pigs and a state fair
To date, federal monitoring has yet to turn up any U.S. pigs infected with the killer swine flu strain known as H1N1. But Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday that his agency’s veterinary labs would be reexamining whether any of the apparently healthy pigs exhibited last August 16 to Sept. 1 at the Minnesota state fair might have been infected with the virus. Why? “An outbreak of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair at the same time samples were collected from the pigs,” USDA notes
- Ecosystems
Windy with a chance of weevils
Scientists have traced the reappearance of cotton pests in west-central Texas to a tropical storm.
- Agriculture
Potato famine pathogen packs unusual, sneaky genome
DNA of infamous Phytophthora microbe reveals big, quick-changing zones, possibly the key to the pathogen’s vexing adaptability
- Chemistry
Nitrous oxide fingered as monster ozone slayer
Nitrous oxide has become the leading threat to the future integrity of stratospheric ozone, scientists report.
- Agriculture
Pesticide potency can depend on bug’s clock
The daily rhythms in gene activity can affect the toxicity of some poisons.
- Agriculture
How weed killers might protect our eyes: It’s corny
Herbicides can boost trace-nutrient concentrations in sweet corn.
- Agriculture
Pesticide may seed American infant formulas with melamine
An insecticide may underlie traces of melamine, a toxic constituent of plastics and other materials, now being found in infant formulas.
- Climate
Cultivation changed monsoon in Asia
The loss of forests in India, China during the 1700s led to a decline in monsoon precipitation.
- Earth
Federal budget’s new ‘black book’
The administration details a proposed $17 billion in budget savings in a new book.
- Health & Medicine
Science budgets look rosy, AAAS finds
The president and Congress have collaborated in targeting substantial increases for federal investments in R&D this year.
- Plants
Landscaper’s darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance
Variation underlies the Callery pear tree’s transformation .
- Agriculture
News from Experimental Biology
Senior editor Janet Raloff blogs from the 2009 meeting gathering dozens of societies together in New Orleans
