BOSTON (USA)— Health conscious consumers who hesitate at the price of fresh blueberries and blackberries, fruits renowned for high levels of healthful antioxidants, now have an economical alternative, scientists reported here today at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It is black rice, one variety of which got the moniker “Forbidden Rice” in ancient China because nobles commandeered every grain for themselves and forbade the common people from eating it. “Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants,” said Zhimin Xu, Associate Professor at the Department of Food Science at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge, La., who reported on the research. “If berries are used to boost health, why not black rice and black rice bran? Especially, black rice bran would be a unique and economical material to increase consumption of health promoting antioxidants.” Like fruits, “black rice” is rich in anthocyanin antioxidants, substances that show promise for fighting heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Food manufacturers could potentially use black rice bran or the bran extracts to boost the health value of breakfast cereals, beverages, cakes, cookies, and other foods, Xu and colleagues suggested. Brown rice is the most widely produced rice variety worldwide. Rice millers remove only the outer husks, or “chaff,” from each rice grain to produce brown rice. If they process the rice further, removing the underlying nutrient rich “bran,” it becomes white rice. Xu noted that many consumers have heard that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. The reason is that the bran of brown rice contains higher levels of gamma-tocotrienol, one of the vitamin E compounds, and gamma-oryzanol antioxidants, which are lipid-soluble antioxidants. Numerous studies showed that these antioxidants can reduce blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) — so called “bad” cholesterol — and may help fight heart disease. Xu and colleagues analyzed samples of black rice bran from rice grown in the southern United States. In addition, the lipid soluble antioxidants they found in black rice bran possess higher level of anthocyanins antioxidants, which are water-soluble antioxidants. Thus, black rice bran may be even healthier than brown rice bran, suggested Dr. Xu. The scientists also showed that pigments in black rice bran extracts can produce a variety of different colors, ranging from pink to black, and may provide a healthier alternative to artificial food colorants that manufacturers now add to some foods and beverages. Several studies have linked some artificial colorants to cancer, behavioral problems in children, and other health problems. Black rice is used mainly in Asia for food decoration, noodles, sushi, and pudding. Dr. Xu said that farmers are interested in growing black rice in Louisiana and that he would like to see people in the country embrace its use. http://portal.acs.org/

Boston (USA) – Sally Minteer, a chemist with Saint Louis University in Missouri presented a study at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in which the possibility that fuels are used to generate energy through mitochondria based fuel cells. This new battery-like device that opens the possibility that people one day could “recharge” cell phones, laptops, and other portable electronics in an unlikely way ― with a sugar fix from a shared sip of soda pop or even a dose of vegetable oil. Mitochondria are the cellular organelle responsible for energy conversion of pyruvate and fatty acids to ATP which is the energy currency of the cell. During the metabolism of these energetic substrates, the resulting electrons are shuffled through the electron transport chain where they reduce oxygen at the cytochrome complex IV and combine with the protons from oxidation to form water. If the electron can be intercepted, so that it gets transferred to a carbon electrode the oxygen reduction can be completed at a platinum cathode, creating a mitochondrial fuel cell. Studies were performed to probe the electron transfer mechanism from cytochrome c to a carbon electrode. In these experiments several bioanodes were exposed to well known cytochrome c inhibitors and power output was measured to show that competition for the electron decreases current and power density. In addition to studying the electron transport to the electrode, several fuel substrates were studied. Since the mitochondria can oxidize both fatty acids in addition to pyruvate their power output was studied using both pyruvate and fatty acid fuels.Minteer pointed out that biofuel cells are not new. Scientists have borrowed from Mother Nature to produce a variety of other biofuel cells that use enzymes, for instance, and bacteria to produce electricity. Fuel cells make electricity from the chemical energy in a fuel and oxygen in the air or liquid oxygen. Fuel cells work much like batteries. Unlike batteries, however, fuel cells do not run down or need a recharge. They produce electricity continuously, so long as fuel and oxygen are available. The fuel can be hydrogen, natural gas, alcohol, or other materials.Minteer and colleagues described the development and successful lab testing of the first mitochondria fuel cell. The device consists of a thin layer of mitochondria sandwiched between two electrodes, including a gas-permeable electrode. Tests showed that it produced electricity using sugar or cooking oil byproducts as fuel. Other potential applications of mitochondria fuel cells include their use as power sources in wireless sensors for temperature monitoring, motion detection, and monitoring the location of vehicles in a fleet. The new biofuel cells also could serve as a power-source for stamp-sized sensors designed to detect hidden explosives, the scientists said.http://portal.acs.org/

BOSTON (USA) — Scientists today reported the first evidence that eating blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries may help the aging brain stay healthy in a crucial but previously unrecognized way. Their study, presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), concluded that berries, and possibly walnuts, activate the brain’s natural “housekeeper” mechanism, which cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline.Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., who presented the report, said previous research suggested that one factor involved in aging is a steady decline in the body’s ability to protect itself against inflammation and oxidative damage. This leaves people vulnerable to degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.“The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline,” said Poulose, who is with the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston. Poulose did the research with James Joseph, Ph.D., who died June 1. Joseph, who headed the laboratory, pioneered research on the role of antioxidants in fruits and nuts in preventing age-related cognitive decline.Their past studies, for instance, showed that old laboratory rats fed for two months on diets containing 2 percent high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry extract showed a reversal of age-related deficits in nerve function and behavior that involves learning and remembering.In the new research, Poulose and Joseph focused on another reason why nerve function declines with aging. It involves a reduction in the brain’s natural house-cleaning process. Cells called microglia are the housekeepers. In a process called autophagy, they remove and recycle biochemical debris that otherwise would interfere with brain function.“But in aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up,” Poulose explained. “In addition, the microglia become over-activated and actually begin to damage healthy cells in the brain. Our research suggests that the polyphenolics in berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to restore the normal housekeeping function. These findings are the first to show these effects of berries.” The findings emerged from research in which Joseph and Poulose have tried to detail factors involved in the aging brain’s loss of normal housekeeping activity. Using cultures of mouse brain cells, they found that extracts of berries inhibited the action of a protein that shuts down the autophagy process. Poulose said the study provides further evidence to eat foods rich in polyphenolics. Although berries and walnuts are rich sources, many other fruits and vegetables contain these chemicals ― especially those with deep red, orange, or blue colors. Those colors come from pigments termed anthocyanins that are good antioxidants. He emphasized the importance of consuming the whole fruit, which contains the full range of hundreds of healthful chemicals. Frozen berries, which are available year round, also are excellent sources of polyphenolics, he added.http://portal.acs.org/

Campinas (Brazil) – Scientists of the Universities of Campinas and of the Mato Grosso del Sur, in Brazil published a research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry demonstrating for the first time that coffee beans contain proteins that can kill insects and might be developed into new insecticides for protecting food crops against destructive pests. Globulins are the major storage proteins in legume seeds, and with some few exceptions, legume seeds contain two major types of globulins, named vicilin (7S) and legumin (11S). An 11S legumin-like protein represents almost 45% of the total coffee bean protein content. Several reports have shown globulins acting as plant defenses against insects and other herbivores. Researchers purified legumin-like proteins from C. arabica and C. racemosa seeds, characterized their physicochemical properties, and tested their effects on the development of Callosobruchus maculatus larvae, a bruchid used as a model in studies to test insecticidal activity of isolated proteins. The study demonstrated that even tiny amounts of the coffee proteins quickly killed up to half of the insects. It is not known how these storage proteins become toxic to insects, but it is believed that they interfere with nutrient uptake by binding to chitin in the peritrophic membranes of the larval midgut. Researchers suggest that in the future, scientists could insert genes for these insect-killing proteins into important food crops to produce insect resistant crops. The proteins appear to be harmless to mammals.MIRELA BATISTA COELHO, MARIA LIGIA RODRIGUES MACEDO, SERGIO MARANGONI,DESIREE SOARES DA SILVA, IGOR CESARINO, AND PAULO MAZZAFERA. Purification of Legumin-Like Proteins from Coffea arabica and Coffea racemosa Seeds and Their Insecticidal Properties toward Cowpea Weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). J. Agric. Food Chem. 2010, 58, 3050–3055.

Murcia (Spain) – One of the challenges of the next future will be the reduction of the use of fossil fuel reserves and the switch to renewable sources of energy. Biodiesel represents one of the most promising alternatives also because, on the contrary of most other biofuels, it can be directly employed by existing Diesel engines. Biodiesel consists of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and is commonly obtained from plant oils derived from soy, rapeseed, palm, etc. The sources from which biodiesel is obtained represent a major problem for the social and the environmental impact, which an intensive production would originate. Already now, as also the FAO warned, the rising production of biofuels has a deleterious impact on food production subtracting fields from food commodities production and distorting the market prices of agricultural products. Research on alternatives for biofuel production is becoming of mandatory importance.A group composed of researchers of the Universities of Madrid and Murcia in Spain published a paper in the journal Energy & Fuels describing a biodiesel production process basing on the use of an oleaginous fungus, Mucor circinelloides. This mold can be easily genetically modified to fit the lipid profile required for biodiesel production and is cultivated in submerged cultures. The researchers demonstrate in their paper that the biomass from submerged cultures of the fungus can be used to produce biodiesel by acid-catalyzed direct transformation, without previous extraction of the lipids. Authors state that direct transformation results in cost savings in the production process and increased lipid extraction. Moreover they demonstrated that both structural lipids and energy storage lipids produced by the fungus can both be transformed into FAMEs. Finally, the analysis of the fungal biodiesel employing three different catalysts (BF3, H2SO4, and HCl) fulfilled the specifications established by the American standards and most of the European standard specifications for biodiesel fuels.Gemma Vicente, L. Fernando Bautista, Francisco J. Gutierrez, Rosalıa Rodrıguez, Virginia Martinez, Rosa A. Rodrıguez-Frometa, Rosa M. Ruiz-Vazquez, Santiago Torres-Martınez, and Victoriano Garre. Direct Transformation of Fungal Biomass from Submerged Cultures into Biodiesel. Energy Fuels 2010, 24, 3173–3178.

LIVERMORE (USA) - In collaboration with an international research team representing Germany, China and the United States, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories researchers Charles Westbrook and Nils Hansen and colleagues investigated in an article on the journal Angewndte Chemie the vastly diverse and complex chemical reaction networks of biofuel combustion. Understanding the key elements of biofuel combustion is an important step toward insightful selection of next-generation alternative fuels. The article, “Biofuel Combustion Chemistry: From Ethanol to Biodiesel,” examines the combustion chemistry of those compounds that constitute typical biofuels, including alcohols, ethers and esters. Biofuels such as bioethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel are of increasing interest as alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels. According to the authors, however, little research has been done on the vastly diverse and complex chemical reaction networks of biofuel combustion. In general, the term biofuel is associated with only a few select chemical compounds, especially ethanol (used exclusively as a gasoline replacement in spark-ignition engines) and very large methyl esters in biodiesel (used as a diesel fuel replacement in diesel engines). The biofuels are oxygenated fuels, which distinguishes them from hydrocarbons in conventional petroleum-based fuels. While much discussion surrounding biofuels has emphasized the process to make these alternative fuels and fuel additives, Hansen and Westbrook for the first time examined the characteristic aspects of the chemical pathways in the combustion of potential biofuels. Researchers used a unique combination of laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and flame chemistry modeling to explore the decomposition and oxidation mechanisms of certain biofuels and the formation of harmful or toxic emissions.Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus, Patrick Oßwald, Terrill A. Cool, Tina Kasper, Nils Hansen, Fei Qi, CharlesK. Westbrook, PhillipR. Westmoreland. Verbrennungschemie der Biokraftstoffe: von Ethanol bis Biodiesel. Angewndte Chemie Vol. 122, pp. 3652-3679 (2010)

Montevideo (UY) – A research on consumers’ behaviour in choosing functional milk desserts and on the importance of packaging has been conducted by a research team of the Universidad de la Repubilca in Montevideo, Uruguay. The results were published on the journal Appetite. Researchers start from the assumption that consumers perceive functional foods as member of the particular food category to which they belong. Apart from health and sensory characteristics, non-sensory factors such as packaging might have a key role on determining consumers' purchase decisions regarding functional foods. The study assessed the influence of different package attributes on consumer willingness to purchase regular and functional chocolate milk desserts. Moreover, it was also assessed whether the influence of these attributes was affected by consumers' level of involvement with the product.A conjoint analysis task was carried out with 107 regular milk desserts consumers, who were asked to score their willingness to purchase 16 milk dessert package concepts varying in five features of the package, and to complete a personal involvement inventory questionnaire. Consumers' level of involvement with the product affected participants' interest in the evaluated products and their reaction towards the considered conjoint variables, suggesting that it could be a useful segmentation tool during food development. Package colour and the presence of a picture on the label were the variables with the highest relative importance, regardless of consumers' involvement with the product. The importance of these variables was higher than the type of dessert, indicating that packaging may play an important role in consumers' perception and purchase intention of functional foods.Ares G, Besio M, Giménez A, Deliza R. “RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INVOLVEMENT AND FUNCTIONAL MILK DESSERTS INTENTION TO PURCHASE: INFLUENCE ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS PACKAGING CHARACTERISTICS”. Appetite. On line first

Pavia and Monza (I) – A research team of the Department of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition, Policlinico of Monza and of the Department of Applied Health Sciences of the University of Pavia, Italy, published on the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology an update about the effects of psyllium husk in Metabolic Syndrome patients. In 2006 a health claim was authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration on the fact that psyllium husk, beta glucan in oats and beta glucan in barley can reduce the risk of heart disease. The metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of hyperglycemia/insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, overweight and hypertension. MS identifies patients who are at high risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Psyllium seed husks are portions of the seeds of the plant Plantago ovata. They are soluble in water, expanding and becoming mucilaginous when wet. Psyllium seed husks are used as a source of dietary fibre. They are used to relieve constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticular disease, and diarrhea.Based on current data dietary fibre intake from whole foods or supplements may lower blood pressure, may improve serum lipid levels, may reduce indicators of inflammations,may lower serum glucose levels and favour body weight loss. Solubility in water, viscosity, fermentability, and the kind and amounts of protein and tocotrienols have been explored as possible basis for the effect of reduction of the risk of heart disease. Many experimental and clinical studies suggest that psyllium does lower serum and liver cholesterol concentrations and may increase HDL-cholesterol levels. Moreover, water soluble fibres, such as psyllium, moderate post prandial glucose and insulin concentrations in non-insulin dependent diabetic patients, if taken with meals, and favour the reduction of body weight and hypertension. Therefore, the favourable effect of various fibres and particularly of psyllium, on body weight reduction and satiety, on cholesterol and tryglycerides levels, on fasting glycaemia and on blood pressure suggests a potential role of these fibres in the treatment of MS.Giacosa A, Rondanelli M. The Right Fiber for the Right Disease: An Update on the Psyllium Seed Husk and the Metabolic Syndrome. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2010. On line first.

Brussels (B), Strasbourg (F) – The “Decisional Triangle” of the European Union (Commission, Council and Parliament) are currently preparing an amendment of the “novel foods legislation” with the aim to update it and to simplify authorisation procedures for these foods. Novel foods are defined as foods which have not been consumed to any significant degree in the EU before May 1997. They include newly-developed foods, such as ones from new production processes like nanotechnology, but also foods traditionally consumed only outside the EU. Animal cloning is a technique which allows to produce a huge number of genetically identical individuals (clones) from one single individual thanks to cell nucleus transplantation from certain somatic adult cell lines to enucleated egg cells and advanced embryology techniques. Since its development on adult animal cells in 1996, animal cloning has been object of huge ethical concerns and discussions. On March 2010 the competent ministers for environmental matters of each Member States, adopted in A European Council meeting a position proposing the inclusion of cloned animal in the amendment of the novel “novel foods” legislation. However the Ministers underlined that this measure was only a provisional one since they want a new legislation on the specific matter to be put into place in the next future. Now, Members of the European Parliament voted within the Environment Committee to exclude cloned animals from the draft legislation on novel foods. This is in contrast with what decided within the Council. The committee based its decision on concerns relating to food safety, safeguarding human health and animal welfare. MEPs voted to entirely exclude food derived from cloned animals and their offspring from the scope of the new legislation. Moreover, they called for a moratorium on animal cloning and urged the European Commission to develop a separate proposal on the matter. The final plenary vote on the issue is expected to take place in the European Parliament in July.http://europa.eu

Turku (Finland) – Several studies using milk and yoghurt as a probiotic carrier demonstrated that the regular oral intake of probiotics enhances immunity in elderly people. Now a research group at the University of Turku in Finland published on the journal FEMS Immunology & Medical Microbiology a study describing the use of a commercial probiotic cheese as carrier. In the study thirty-one volunteers, 21 females and 10 males, aged from 73 to 103 (median 86) consumed on daily basis a commercial cheese containing something like 10exp9 Colony Forming Units (CFU)per diem of two lactobacilli strains: Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM. The study was conducted over a period of 4 weeks, which was preceded by a two weeks pre-feeding with probiotic free “control cheese” and followed by a “wash out” period of four weeks, again with the probiotic free control cheese. To determine the effect on the immunological system of the feeding trial, the cytotoxicity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), the relative numbers of natural killer (NK) and NKT cells in the total PBMCs, and phagocytic activity were assessed. The analysis of results led to the observation that a significant increase in phagocytosis was observed for both the control and the probiotic cheese. Moreover a significant increase of the cytotoxicity of NK cells was observed in the case of probiotic cheese consumption. Researchers conclude that “Cheese was found to be an effective carrier for the study of probiotics, and daily consumption of the probiotic enhanced parameters of innate immunity in elderly volunteers” adding that “It remains to be determined whether this enhancement correlates with a beneficial effect on the health of the elderly population”.http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123280044/PDFSTART

Norfolk, Ithaca (VA, USA) – Two researchers, B Wansink1 and CS Wansink, respectively of the Applied Economics and Management Department of the Cornell University in Ithaca and of the Religious Studies Department of the Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, conducted a very peculiar research on the eating habits in the western world throughout the last millennium on the basis of paintings representing the Last Supper. In fact, the Last Supper, as the authors state, is most probably the most commonly represented meal in paintings. The assumption of the research is that the portion size and the qualities of foods represented in the paintings reflect those which were usually served at that times. The millennium between the year thousand and the year two thousand DC witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food. The study analysed 52 of the most known depictions of the Last Supper made in the last millennium for content. The sizes of the loaves of bread, main dishes and plates were assessed. The average sizes of these items were indexed based on the average size of the heads depicted in the paintings. This was aided by the use of a CAD–CAM program that allowed the items to be scanned, rotated and calculated, regardless of their original orientation in the painting. An index of 2.0 for the bread would indicate that the average width of the bread was twice the width of the average disciple’s head.The main dishes depicted in the paintings included fish or eel (18%), lamb (14%) and pork (7%) while the remaining paintings had no discernable main dishes (46%). Regarding the contents, as expected, the size of represented food increased over the course of centuries. Collected data clearly show that the date of the painting explained 27% of the variation in size of the main course, 9% of the variation in size of the bread, and 21% of the variation in size of the average plate at the table. From its depiction circa 1000 AD/CE to the present, the ratio of this main course entree has generally increased by 69.2%. Similarly, the ratio of the size of bread has increased by 23.1% and that of the size of plate by 65.6%. The authors conclude that “Whereas half of the paintings of the Last Supper included food and plates, it is interesting to note that most paintings did not depict wine, which precluded its analysis. Notwithstanding its absence, its spirit remains: the contemporary discovery of increasing portion sizes and food availability may be little more than 1000-year-old wine in a new bottle”. The study was published on the International Journal of Obesity.http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v34/n5/pdf/ijo201037a.pdf

Arisona State University (USA) - Press release - The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists – scientists responsible for species exploration and classification – today, May 20th 2010, announce the top 10 new species described in 2009. On the list are a minnow with fangs, golden orb spider and carnivorous sponge. The top 10 new species also include a deep-sea worm that when threatened releases green luminescent “bombs,” a sea slug that eats insects, a flat-faced frogfish with an unusual psychedelic pattern, and a two-inch mushroom that was the subject of a “Bluff the Listener” segment on the National Public Radio quiz show “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.” Rounding out the top 10 list are a banded knifefish, a charismatic plant that produces insect-trapping pitchers the size of an American football, and an edible yam that uncharacteristically sports multiple lobes instead of just one. The top 10 new species come from around the world, including Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States and Uruguay. The announcement of the top 10 new species list coincides with International Day of Biodiversity being marked May 22 by the United Nations.The taxonomists also are issuing an SOS – State of Observed Species – report on human knowledge of Earth’s species. In it, they report that 18,225 living species new to science were described in 2008, the most recent year for which complete data are available. The SOS report trumpets the latest discoveries of previously unknown plants, animals, microbes, algae and fungi. It also notes 2,140 fossil species described as new in 2008. The SOS report was compiled by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Plant Names Index, Zoological Record published by Thomson Reuters, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, AlgaeBase, MycoBank and World Register of Marine Species. Photos and other information about the top 10 new species, including the explorers who made the discoveries, and the SOS report are online at http://species.asu.edu. Also at the site is a Google world map that pinpoints the location for each of the top 10 new species. The winners are … Among this year’s top 10 picks is a minnow with fangs – Danionella dracula – found in a stream at Sha Du Zup between Mogaung and Tanai in Kachin State, Myanmar. The males of the species have canine-like fangs for sparring with other males. This is the first record of oral teeth-like structures being found in the Cyprinidae, the largest family of freshwater fishes. A top 10 choice in the animal kingdom is a golden orb spider – Nephila komaci – the first species of Nephila to be described since 1879 and the largest to date. Nephila has the distinction of spinning the largest webs known, often greater than a meter in diameter. In the category of “killer sponge” is a carnivorous deep-sea sponge – Chondrocladia (Meliiderma) turbiformis – that displays a special type of spicule for which the new term “trochirhabd” has been coined. Another deep-sea selection for this year’s list is a worm discovered off the central coast of California – Swima bombiviridis – that when threatened releases “bombs” that illuminate for several seconds with green bioluminescence. From Pak Phanang Bay in the Gulf of Thailand is a sea slug – Aiteng ater – that eats bugs, which is unusual since nearly all sacoglossans eat algae and a few specialize in gastropod eggs. Its discovery has resulted in a new family, Aitengidae. Several fish made this year’s top 10 new species list, including a frogfish – Histiophryne psychedelica – that has an unusual psychedelic pattern and is unique among frogfishes for its flat face. A two-inch mushroom – Phallus drewesii – was named, with permission, in honor of Robert C. Drewes at the California Academy of Sciences. Drewes, who initiated extensive multi-organism biodiversity studies on the island of São Tomé, Africa, where this news species of stinkhorn fungus was found, dedicated more than 30 years of his life to research in Africa, according to the scientists who made the discovery. An electric fish – Gymnotus omarorum – goes by the common name Omars’ banded knifefish. The species was named to honor Omar Macadar and Omar Trujillo-Cenoz, pioneers in the anatomical and physiological study of electrogenesis in Gymnotus. From the plant kingdom is a charismatic plant species – Nepenthes attenboroughii – that produces one of the largest pitchers known, each the size of an American football. It also is carnivorous, feeding on insects trapped by the fluid contained in the pitchers. Rounding out the top 10 picks is another from the plant kingdom, an “udderly weird yam” – Dioscorea orangeana – that was found in Madagascar. Its tuber morphology is uncharacteristic of edible Malagasy yams exhibiting several digitate lobes, instead of just one. It’s about diversity “Annually, an international committee of taxon experts, helps us draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens, in a fun-filled way by making the selection of the top 10 new species from the thousands described in the previous calendar year,” says Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an entomologist in the School of Life Sciences. “Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life,” says Wheeler. “It is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet.”Wheeler advocates a new generation of cyber-tools and Web accessible resources that will vastly accelerate the rate at which humans are able to discover and describe species. “Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted,” says Wheeler, who also is an ASU vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Commemorating May 23 birth of Linnaeus The annual top 10 new species announcement and issuance of the SOS report commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. The 300th anniversary of his birth on May 23 was celebrated worldwide in 2007. The 250th anniversary of the beginning of animal naming was marked in 2008. Since Linnaeus initiated the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century, an estimated 1.8 million species have been named, described and classified. Scientists estimate there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million. The SOS report summarizes the number of major plant and animal species newly described for the most recent year of complete data, which is 2008. The majority of the 18,225 species described (named) in 2008 were insects (48.25 percent), vascular plants (11.41 percent) and fungi (7.37 percent) with arachnids coming in a close fourth (7.24 percent). The SOS report also includes data for prokaryotes (bacteria and Archaea) in addition to protists. The State of Observed Species report and list of top 10 new species issued annually by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration is part of its public awareness campaign to shine attention on biodiversity and the field of taxonomy. Previous top 10 lists and SOS reports are online at http://species.asu.edu. Taxon experts pick top 10 An international committee of experts, chaired by Janine N. Caira of the University of Connecticut, selected the top 10 new species for the 2010 list. Mary Liz Jameson of Wichita State University served as vice chair. Nominations were invited through the species.asu.edu website and also generated by institute staff and committee members. “Committee members had complete freedom in making their choices and developing their own criteria, from unique attributes or surprising facts about the species to peculiar names,” Wheeler notes. Other members on this year’s committee included Philippe Bouchet, French National Museum of Natural History; Daphne G. Fautin, Biodiversity Research Center, University of Kansas; Peter Kämpfer, Institut für Angewandte Mikrobiologie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen; Niels Peder Kristensen, Zoologisk Museum, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; James Macklin, Harvard University; Ellinor Michel, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London; John Noyes, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London; Alan Paton, International Plant Names Index and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK; Andrew Polaszek, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London; Gideon F. Smith, South African National Biodiversity Institute; Antonio Valdecasas, Museo National Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain; and Zhi-Qiang Zhang, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, New Zealand.http://species.asu.edu. Nominations for the 2011 list – for species described in 2010 – may be made online at http://species.asu.edu/species-nomination.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Story by Carol Hughes, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Arizona State Universityhttp://asunews.asu.edu/20100521_top10

Analysis of the Neandertal genome indicates that, contrary to previous beliefs, humans and Neandertals interbred. The first genome sequence from an extinct human relative is now available. Together with an international research team, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig present an initial draft of the genome sequence of the Neandertal, a human form which died out some 30,000 years ago. Initial analyses of four billion base pairs of Neandertal DNA indicate that Neandertals left their mark in the genomes of some modern humans. (Science, May 7th 2010) A unique scientific task lasting four years has been completed: a team of researchers led by Svante Pääbo, Director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, is publishing an initial version of the Neandertal genome sequence in the current issue of the journal Science. This is an unprecedented scientific achievement: only ten years after the decoding of the present-day Homo sapiens genome, researchers have managed to do something similar for an extinct hominid that was the closest relative of modern May 7th, 2010 humans. "The comparison of these two genetic sequences enables us to find out where our genome differs from that of our closest relative," says Svante Pääbo. The Neandertal sequence presented is based on the analysis of over one billion DNA fragments taken from several Neandertal bones found in Croatia, Russia and Spain, as well as from the original Neandertal found in Germany. From the DNA fragments present in the bones the Leipzig researchers developed ways to distinguish true Neandertal DNA from the DNA of microbes that have lived in the bones over the last 40,000 years. Enough DNA fragments were retrieved to account for over 60 percent of the entire Neandertal genome. An initial comparison of the two sequences has brought some exciting discoveries to light. Contrary to the assumption of many researchers, it would appear that some Neandertals and early modern humans interbred. According to the researchers’ calculations, between one and four percent of the DNA of many humans living today originate from the Neandertal. "Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neandertal DNA in us," says Svante Pääbo. Previous tests carried out on the DNA of Neandertal mitochondria, which represents just a tiny part of the whole genome, had not found any evidence of such interbreeding or "admixture". For the purpose of the analysis the researchers also sequenced five present day human genomes of European, Asian and African origin and compared them with the Neandertal. To their surprise they found that the Neandertal is slightly more closely related to modern humans from outside Africa than to Africans, suggesting some contribution of Neandertal DNA to the genomes of present-day non-Africans. Interestingly, Neandertals show the same relationship with all humans outside Africa, whether they are from Europe, East Asia or Melanesia. This is puzzling, as no Neandertal remains have been so far found in East Asia. They lived in Europe and Western Asia. The researchers offer a plausible explanation for this finding. Svante Pääbo: "Neandertals probably mixed with early modern humans before Homo sapiens split into different groups in Europe and Asia." This could have occurred in the Middle East between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago before the human population spread across East Asia. It is known from archaeological findings in the Middle East that Neandertals and modern humans overlapped in time in this region. Apart from the question as to whether Neandertals and Homo sapiens mixed, the researchers are highly interested in discovering genes that distinguish modern humans from their closest relative and may have given the modern humans certain advantages over the course of evolution. By comparing Neandertal and modern human genomes, the scientists identified several genes that may have played an important role in modern human evolution. For example, they found genes related to cognitive functions, metabolism and the development of cranial features, the collar bone and the rib cage. However, 2 more detailed analysis needs to be carried out to enable conclusions to be drawn on the actual influence of these genes. The research team obtained the majority of the DNA used for their study from a total of 400 milligrams of bone powder, produced from three female Neandertal bones that were excavated from Vindija cave in Croatia where they lived over 38,000 years ago. Sequencing the genome of a species that died out tens of thousands of years ago posed a very special challenge, as the DNA had disintegrated into tiny fragments over the course of time and suffered other types of chemical damage. A further complication arose in the form of contamination. "Over 95 percent of the DNA in one sample originated from bacteria and microorganisms which colonised the Neandertal after his death," says Svante Pääbo. Human DNA, which can enter the sample during excavation or in the laboratory, could also jeopardize the results. Pääbo and his team in Leipzig used various techniques, some of them completely new, to eliminate the contamination from the DNA to be sequenced. For example, they processed the samples in ultra-clean rooms and marked each DNA fragment from the bone with a short synthetic piece of DNA as a label, to be able to distinguish it from any modern human DNA introduced later in the sequencing process. Crucially, the researchers could show that these anti-contamination measures were effective by careful analysis of the sequence results. Having overcome the multiple technical challenges, the researchers look optimistically into the future: "We will also decode the remaining parts of the Neandertal genome and learn much more about ourselves and our closest relative," says Svante Pääbo. [MA / SJ / BA] Related Links: [1] Further information at the Max Planck Society's website [2] Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Original work: Richard E. Green, Johannes Krause, Adrian W. Briggs, Tomislav Maricic, Udo Stenzel, Martin Kircher, Nick Patterson, Heng Li, Weiwei Zhai, Markus Hsi-Yang Fritz, Nancy F. Hansen, Eric Y. Durand, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, Jeffrey D. Jensen, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Can Alkan, Kay Prüfer, Matthias Meyer, Hernán A. Burbano, Jeffrey M. Good, Rigo Schultz, Ayinuer Aximu- Petri, Anne Butthof, Barbara Höber, Barbara Höffner, Madlen Siegemund, Antje Weihmann, Chad Nusbaum, Eric S. Lander, Carsten Russ, Nathaniel Novod, Jason Affourtit, Michael Egholm, Christine Verna, Pavao Rudan, Dejana Brajkovic, Željko Kucan, Ivan Gušic, Vladimir B. Doronichev, Liubov V. Golovanova, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Marco de la Rasilla, Javier Fortea, Antonio Rosas, Ralf Schmitz, Philip L.F. Johnson, Evan E. Eichler, Daniel Falush, Ewan Birney, James C. Mullikin, Montgomery Slatkin, Rasmus Nielsen, Janet Kelso, Michael Lachmann, David Reich, Svante Pääbo A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome Science, May 7th 2010

Brussels (B), Parma (I) – The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull represented a major issue for public transportation in Europe - and not only - in the last weeks. The risk associated to volcanic ashes released for aircraft turbines caused an unprecedented blockage of flights, worse than the one following to September 11th 2001 when the US airspace was shut down for several days. Now, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), located in Parma (Italy) was requested by the European Commission to provide a scientific advice on the potential dangers which the fallout of volcanic ashes could represent for humans and animals in Europe in a long term period. In fact, the presence of fluoride in volcanic ashes could potentially contaminate enormous amounts of food and feed stocks through the food-chain and drinking water.On April 26th the EFSA released an advice. Fluorine was investigated as first due to the lack of time and data on ash composition because it has been identified in most scientific publications on past volcanic eruptions around the world as the main component that could pose a short-term risk to food and feed safety.Fluoride is not essential for human growth and development but is beneficial in preventing dental caries. Excessive intake of fluoride can lead to dental fluorosis and in the long term reduce bone strength and increase risks of fracture and skeletal fluorosis. Upper levels for fluoride intake have been set at 0.10 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) per day for children and 0.12 mg/kg b.w. per day for adults. For terrestrial animals, the recommended maximum tolerable levels for fluoride in feed based on clinical signs of fluoride toxicosis are 40 mg/kg feed for cattle and horses and 60 mg/kg feed for sheep.Critical dietary exposure pathways for fluoride from volcanic eruptions for humans is often via contaminated water, while for animals it is often via ashes deposited on pasture leaves and consumption of soil along with pasture. Potential exposure to increased levels of fluoride will depend on the dispersion of the ash in the air volume, ash-fall amounts and geographical areas potentially affected, transport of ash constituents in soil and water and the resulting food, feed and water contamination levels. At this stage these quantities are basically unknown making precise assessment of the food and feed safety impact difficult. Acute fluoride intoxication may have severe effects on both humans and animals however such events, related to oral ingestion of volcanic ash, are very rare.EFSA concludes that “Based on available information, the potential risk posed by the fluoride in volcanic ash through contamination of drinking water, fruit, vegetables, fish, milk, meat and feed in the European Union is negligible. Therefore, the risk for human and animal health through food and feed is not considered to be of concern in the EU”. Finally, EFSA added to its statement the note “As further EU monitoring data becomes available for volcanic ash deposition levels and ash composition, risks associated with the components of the volcanic ash-fall should be re-evaluated, if the data indicates that toxicological thresholds have been exceeded”.http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/scdocs/scdoc/1593.htm

Brussels (B) – Policy making and science are often in contrast. Politicians many times forget about an extremely simple fact: while rules of mankind are mutable and can be adapted to an ever evolving society, rules of nature cannot be changed – only our understanding of nature can evolve along with our analytical tools. In addition to that, scientific advancement is not predictable to such an extent allowing policy-makers to develop in advance laws requiring a level of science beyond our actual capabilities. The European Commission has well understood this problem and those regulations requiring a sound scientific basis are developed with the support of experts in the field. Nevertheless, several questions remain open. To which extent policy-makers are willing to accept concrete limits posed by experts? Are policy makers making pressure (maybe involuntarily) onto experts to get from them what they would like to hear? The real risk is that “yes-man” among experts will be those more listened to and that those experts pointing out realistic limits will be at the end excluded from the pool of experts. No one likes people continuously telling “no, this is not possible”. A recent article published on the top scientific journal Nature by specialised journalist Natasha Gilbert (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/210410/full/4641116a.html )revealed that crucial data on REACH may not have been disclosed to the political level of the European Commission. As a consequence REACH could have been based on a too optimistic underestimate of the number of animal testing required to implement the Regulation. The scientific body of the European Commission produced during the course of years different estimates on the number of testing animals required on the basis of more or less optimistic estimations on the future availability of alternative testing methods or in–silico methods. The estimates ranged from 2.1 millions of animals required in the most optimistic scenario to 8-9 millions of animals in the most pessimistic one. Per se there is nothing negative in having such a discrepancy in the forecasts, especially considering that needed alternative testing methods and in-silico methods are still under development. The problem is that the great extent of variability in the estimates and the motivations for this variability were not passed over to the Commission and that the Council and European Parliament passed REACH legislation being unaware of the concerns of experts on its applicability and its costs. Former Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Industry and Enterprise, Guenther Verheugen declared that that REACH would not be ethically viable if it required excessive additional use of animals. Could REACH have been different if all data would have been available at the time of its development and approval? F. Weighardt, Teknoscienze Srl. NOTE: “The European Commission robustly refutes any suggestion that it has sought to conceal information over the effects of the REACH legislation.”

Raleigh (NC – USA) – Two scientists, Heather B. Patisaul and Wendy Jefferson, of the Department of Biology of the North Carolina State University and of the Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, published a review article analysing in depth the pros and the contra of phytoestrogens in dietary supplementation. Phytoestrogens are plant derived compounds found in a wide variety of foods, most notably soy. The authors stress that while a wide series of health benefits including a lowered risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, breast cancer, and menopausal symptoms, are very often attributed to phytoestrogens, many of these molecules are also considered endocrine disruptors. As a consequence, phytoestrogens could also have the potential to cause adverse health effects as well and the question of whether or not phytoestrogens are beneficial or harmful to human health remains unresolved. Authors state in their article that “The answer is likely complex and may depend on age, health status, and even the presence or absence of specific gut microflora. Clarity on this issue is needed because global consumption is rapidly increasing”. Phytoestrogens are present in numerous dietary supplements and widely marketed as a natural alternative to estrogen replacement therapy. Soy infant formula now constitutes up to a third of the US market, and soy protein is now added to many processed foods. As weak estrogen agonists/antagonists with molecular and cellular properties similar to synthetic endocrine disruptors such as Bisphenol A (BPA), the phytoestrogens provide a useful model to comprehensively investigate the biological impact of endocrine disruptors in general. H.B. Patisaul and Wendy Jefferson The Pros and Cons of Phytoestrogens. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. Vol. 31, On-line first (2010).

Naples (I) (ANSA) - A “supertomato” was created by scientists of the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry of the National Council of research (ICB-CNR) in Naples. The tomato variety, called “Maxantia” is the perfect food for helping keep cancer at bay, the head of the World Foundation of Urology Mauro Dimitri declared. Launching Prostate Cancer Week in Italy, Dimitri said the 'supertomato' created by the Biomolecular Institute at the Naples National Research Centre offered a unique blend of nutritional qualities: "This tomato has nutritional characteristics that are ideally suited for preventing disease". "It has a total anti-oxidant activity superior to all other tomato hybrids normally for sale, both fresh and preserved”. He added that "It has a greater content of the cancer-fighting carotene lycopene and vitamin C than the one found in purple tomatoes, and the same anti-inflammatory properties as the San Marzano tomato". According to Dimitri, these qualities not only make it suitable for fending off prostate cancer but also for reducing the risks of a host of other diseases in which oxidative stress and the subsequent creation of free radicals play a role. These include cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Parkinson's Disease and osteoporosis, as well as cancers of the lung and stomach. The team of scientists that created the tomato has been at pains to stress that it involved no genetically modified organisms but is a simple crossing through pollination of two existing varieties: the San Marzano, famed for its taste and anti-inflammatory properties, and the Black Tomato, a purple fruit high in anti-oxidants. The real name of the 'supertomato', Maxantia, is still awaiting registration but widespread cultivation of the bright red, plum tomato has already got under way in Campania. Speaking at the official unveiling of the 'supertomato' a few months back, Naples Agriculture Councillor Francesco Emilio Borrelli said it was a fruit that combined the best of Campania tomatoes. "Our supertomato is a natural blend that has fused two genetic heritages to obtain a new variety with high, health-giving properties," he said. In recognition of its healthy qualities, Campania regional authorities have also backed a commercial deal with local pizza makers.The aim is to encourage local pizzaioli to use the Maxantia on their pizzas as a healthier alternative to regular tomatoes. In addition to its innately healthy properties, the supertomato also boasts another key advantage over other fruit and vegetables, in that it loses just 20% of its anti-oxidant properties when cooked.Discussing the dangers of prostate cancer and the launch of the weeklong campaign, Dimitri warned it was the most common tumour among men in Italy, with 37,000 new cases each year, causing 9,000 deaths annually. (ANSA).http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2010/03/09/visualizza_new.html_1731952920.html

AIodine deficiency remains a nutritional problem in many developing countries, and iodine intakes are on the decline in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. A re-emergence of iodine deficiency in New Zealand has been attributed to lower concentrations of iodine in milk due to discontinuation of iodine-containing sanitizers in the dairy industry, declining use of iodized salt, and an increased consumption of processed foods not made with iodized salt. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted in 184 mildly iodine-deficient children aged 10-13 years old in Dunedin, New Zealand. The children received either placebo or 150 μg iodine per day for 28 weeks. Biochemical and other data were collected at the start of the study and after 28 weeks. Cognitive performance was assessed using 4 subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. At baseline, there was no significant difference between the placebo and iodine supplementation group for any of the cognitive subtests. The researchers, however, report that iodine supplementation resulted in a significant improvement in two of the four subtests. Improvement was seen in the iodine group in the “picture concept” subtest and the “matrix reasoning” subtest. No difference in performance between the groups was seen on the “letter-number sequencing” subtest or the “symbol search” subtests.www.fortitech.com

New York (USA) (*) - MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has acquired the @ symbol into its collection. It is a momentous, elating acquisition that makes us all proud. But what does it mean, both in conceptual and in practical terms? Contemporary art, architecture, and design can take on unexpected manifestations, from digital codes to Internet addresses and sets of instructions that can be transmitted only by the artist. The process by which such unconventional works... are selected... and acquired for our collection can take surprising turns as well, as can the mode in which they’re eventually appreciated by our audiences. While installations have for decades provided museums with interesting challenges involving acquisition, storage, reproducibility, authorship, maintenance, manufacture, context—even questions about the essence of a work of art in itself—MoMA curators have recently ventured further; a good example is the recent acquisition by the Department of Media and Performance Art of Tino Sehgal’s performance Kiss. The acquisition of @ takes one more step. It relies on the assumption that physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary, and therefore it sets curators free to tag the world and acknowledge things that “cannot be had”—because they are too big (buildings, Boeing 747’s, satellites), or because they are in the air and belong to everybody and to no one, like the @—as art objects befitting MoMA’s collection. The same criteria of quality, relevance, and overall excellence shared by all objects in MoMA’s collection also apply to these entities. In order to understand why we have chosen to acquire the @ symbol, and how it will exist in our collection, it is necessary to understand where @ comes from, and why it’s become so ubiquitous in our world. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. A Little History The @ symbol used in a 1536 letter from an Italian merchant Some linguists believe that @ dates back to the sixth or seventh century, a ligature meant to fuse the Latin preposition ad—meaning “at”, “to,” or “toward”—into a unique pen stroke. The symbol persisted in sixteenth-century Venetian trade, where it was used to mean amphora, a standard-size terracotta vessel employed by merchants, which had become a unit of measure. Interestingly, the current Spanish word for @, arroba, also indicates a unit of measure. The @ symbol was known as the ‘”commercial ‘a’” when it appeared on the keyboard of the American Underwood typewriter in 1885, and it was defined as such, for the first time, in the American Dictionary of Printing & Bookmaking in 1894. From this point on the symbol itself was standardized both stylistically and in its application, and it appeared in the original 1963 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) list of computer codes. At the time @ was explained as an abbreviation for the word “at” or for the phrase “at the rate of,” mainly used in accounting and commercial invoices. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Ray Tomlinson’s @ In 1967, American electrical engineer Ray Tomlinson joined the technology company of Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), where he created the world’s first email system a few years later, in 1971, using a Model KSR 33 Teletype device. BBN had a contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense to help in the development of ARPAnet, an early network from which the Internet later emerged. Working with Douglas Engelbart on the whole program, Tomlinson was in particular responsible for the development of the sub-program that can send messages between computers on this network. It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to the ARPAnet, while previously mail could be sent only to hosts that used the same computer. In January 1971, @ was an underused jargon symbol lingering on the keyboard and marred by a very limited register. By October, Tomlinson had rediscovered and appropriated it, imbuing it with new meaning and elevating it to defining symbol of the computer age. He chose the @ for his first email because of its strong locative sense—an individual, identified by a username, is @ this institution/computer/server, and also because…it was already there, on the keyboard, and nobody ever used it. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Is @ Design? The appropriation and reuse of a pre-existing, even ancient symbol—a symbol already available on the keyboard yet vastly underutilized, a ligature meant to resolve a functional issue (excessively long and convoluted programming language) brought on by a revolutionary technological innovation (the Internet)—is by all means an act of design of extraordinary elegance and economy. Without any need to redesign keyboards or discard old ones, Tomlinson gave the @ symbol a completely new function that is nonetheless in keeping with its origins, with its penchant for building relationships between entities and establishing links based on objective and measurable rules—a characteristic echoed by the function @ now embodies in computer programming language. Tomlinson then sent an email about the @ sign and how it should be used in the future. He therefore consciously, and from the very start, established new rules and a new meaning for this symbol. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Why @ Is in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art Tomlinson performed a powerful act of design that not only forever changed the @ sign’s significance and function, but which also has become an important part of our identity in relationship and communication with others. His (unintended) role as a designer must be acknowledged and celebrated by the one collection—MoMA’s—that has always celebrated elegance, economy, intellectual transparency, and a sense of the possible future directions that are embedded in the arts of our time, the essence of modern. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. What Have We Acquired? Tino Sehgal’s Kiss presents interesting affinities with @ in that it is mutable and open to interpretation (the different typefaces one can use) yet still remains the same in its essence: it does not declare itself a work of design, but rather reveals its design power through use; it is immaterial and synthetic, and therefore does not add unnecessary “weight” to the world. A big difference between the two pieces is the price, which brings to an extreme the evanescent difference between art and design. Being in the public realm, @ is free. It might be the only truly free—albeit not the only priceless—object in our collection. We have acquired the design act in itself and as we will feature it in different typefaces, we will note each time the specific typeface as if we were indicating the materials that a physical object is made of. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. A Few More Details About @ The @ symbol is now part of the very fabric of life all over the world. Nowhere is this more vividly demonstrated than in the affectionate names @ has been given by different cultures. Germans, Poles, and South Africans call @ “monkey’s tail” in each different language. Norwegians see a pig’s tail, Chinese a little mouse, and Italians and the French, a snail. For the Russians @ symbolizes a dog, while the Finnish know @ as the miukumauku, meaning the “sign of the meow,” and believe that the symbol is inspired by a curled-up sleeping cat. The @ symbol has become so significant that people feel they need to make sense of it; hence it has inspired its own folkloric tradition. The @ sign is such an extraordinary mediating symbol that recently in the Spanish language it has begun to express gender neutrality; for example, in the typical expression Hola l@s viej@s amig@s y l@s nuev@s amig@s! (Hello old friends and new friends!) Its potential for such succinct negotiations (whether between man and machine, or between traditional gender classifications and the current spectrum) and its range of application continue to expand. It has truly become a way of expressing society’s changing technological and social relationships, expressing new forms of behavior and interaction in a new world. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. (*) Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design - MoMA - New York (USA). http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/22/at-moma

Delft (NL) - Against mounting scepticism, bioenergy experts have hit back strongly with their belief that a future fuelled by bioenergy need not compromise production of food or fuel, and 20% of society’s energy demands could be met by 2050. Meeting at the 1st Global Sustainable Bioenergy conference in Delft, The Netherlands, leaders from energy related sectors around the world also emphasised that bioenergy is a viable alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuels, and that... by implementing a successful programme the global job market would experience a colossal boost. However, the conference also warned that the opportunity would be lost unless all those involved in every stage of bioenergy production from farmers, industries and governments through to stakeholders and national academies get their hands dirty. According GSB organiser Professor Lee Lynd of Dartmouth University: “Sustainable resources are the defining challenge of our time. There have really only been two major resource transitions in human history before: going from a hunting and gathering society to a pre- industrial agricultural society, and going from a pre-industrial agricultural society to a pre-sustainable industrial society which is where we are now. We need to undergo this third transition and if we fail it will be a great tragedy for humanity.” The conclusions of the Delft conference have been drafted into a European Resolution (see attached). This will be added to those arising from similar conferences GSB is holding in the next few months across the five continents to form a Global Resolution. “This Global Resolution should place Bioenergy firmly on the agenda and ensure this once in a lifetime opportunity is not missed.” °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° European GSB Bioenergy Resolution: Europe has the ability to provide substantial shares of its future energy demands from sustainable bioenergy. It has a unique set of opportunities including demographic trends (declining population and stable consumption), geographic conditions and institutional and political capacity to aggressively develop bioenergy solutions. Europe’s energy portfolio today is neither secure nor sustainable. It is dependent on fossil fuel imports that are subject to political and economic disruption and result in global environmental change. Bioenergy produced in sustainable ways is a necessary component of the set of solutions needed to address the forces of climate change, energy security and rural development. Among renewable alternatives, bioenergy has unique contributions to make in transport (e.g. aviation, heavy duty, long distance), electricity (base load), heat (district, crop drying / processing), and carbon management. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that to achieve the International Panel on Climate Change 2050 climate change targets, bioenergy must provide at least 20% of society’s energy demand. Europe must pick up this challenge. Europe could achieve very substantial shares of its energy using land that is either currently ‘available’ or that needs to be made available through sustainable productivity improvements in conventional agricultural and forestry systems in eastern and western Europe. Projections have highlighted 40 million hectares of agricultural land that is abandoned or under utilised in Europe as being potentially available for bioenergy. A fraction of this land could satisfy Europe’s share of the IEA’s projected bioenergy requirements. Such a dramatic transformation in land use will deliver large scale employment and investment benefits in often rural and deprived areas of Europe. With careful siting, it will deliver significant benefits to biodiversity, water cycle, soil stability and quality, as well as enhancing carbon stocks and food crop production. To achieve these benefits, agriculture and bioenergy policy must be integrated for the sustainable and synergistic production of food, fibre, chemicals and bioenergy. The biomass produced could be directed to multiple divergent or parallel uses in response to changing needs. Examples of the integrative benefits of bioenergy include the simultaneous production of bioenergy and food through double cropping, the exploitation of wastes and residues, recovery of protein and nutrients for animal feed and fertilisers, the use of perennial crops to enhance ecosystem services and redesigning landscapes to enhance resilience and productivity. There are powerful and urgent reasons why such an approach needs to be taken and grounds for optimism that multiple benefits will accrue if done well. This is the challenge to Europe’s policy makers and politicians, who need to set the robust sustainability frameworks needed to deliver sustainable bioenergy systems, but also the incentives and long term signals necessary to make it happen. Transparent and credible analyses are needed to foster understanding and consensus as well as to elaborate the multiple and sustainable paths to a bioenergy-intensive future. For more information: About the European Convention: http://www.kluyvercentre.nl/content/gsb/gsb.html About European land availability for bioenergy: http://www.porteralliance.org.uk/ About the GSB Project: http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/gsbproject/

Paris (France) - Water is vital for human and economic development, and for maintaining ecosystems. However, billions of people lack access to water and sanitation services, mainly due to poor governance and inadequate investment and maintenance. The situation is becoming more urgent due to increasing pressure, competition and even conflict over the use of water resources.The OECD has been working for many years to address these challenges. The results of recent work are summarised in this report, which emphasises the economic and financial aspects of water resources management and water service provision, the need for an integrated approach (including governance considerations) to address these complex policy challenges, and the importance of establishing a firm evidence base to support policy development and implementation. This report examines: strategic financial planning for water supply and sanitation that balances the key resources of revenues for the water sector - the "3Ts" of taxes, tariffs and transfers; the design and implementation of water pricing strategies that balance financial sustainability with other policy objectives; recent development in private sector participation in the water sector; and trends and the future outlook of water use in agriculture. It considers both developing and OECD countries and offers concrete recommendations and checklists for action. The report is an invaluable resoruce for policy makers, academics, NGOs and all others interested in the challenges facing the water sector today. http://www.oecd.org/waterhttp://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,3343,en_2649_37465_42289488_1_1_1_37465,00.html

Helsinki (FI) – The ECHA progress report 2009 released on March 1st 2010 evidenced that several submitted dossiers are biased by repeated errors/omissions. REACH Regulation foresees that substances produced or imported in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year (per company, manufacturers and importers) shall be registered through a dossier submitted to ECHA. In the year 2009 the Agency received 406 complete registration dossiers, slightly more than expected. In 2008 the complete... dossiers were 10 and until the deadline of November 30th 2010 a total of approx. 30,000 dossiers are expected. The evaluation of 35 of them was initiated. Twenty seven compliance checks and eight examinations of testing proposals were undertaken. Fourteen compliance checks were concluded and in seven cases a letter requiring further information to bring the dossier in compliance with information requirements in REACH was sent to the registrant. In all other cases the compliance check was closed without further action. The key findings related to the most common problems found in the submitted dossiers are listed in the report: · The identity of the registered substance and the substance used for testing were not clearly describe(precise composition and impurities). · Testing was omitted based on inappropriate or poorly justified scientific arguments. · The summaries of test reports did not include enough detailed information. · Shortcomings related to the risk assessment and the recommended risk management measures. · Omission of the classification and labelling information specified by the CLP Regulation. As a consequence, ECHA included in the report a detailed series of recommendations for registrants on information requirements (substance identity, adaptation of the standard testing regime and robust study summaries), on risk assessment and risk management and on the classification and labelling according to the CLP-Regulation. Companies are urged to go through the list of recommendations in the report and are also advised to deeply analyse the legal requirements and the relevant guidance or manuals to improve the quality of the dossiers. The Agency also organises introductive webinars to these topics. http://echa.europa.eu/doc/progress_report_2009.pdf

The REACH Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals entered into force on 1st June 2007. REACH joins in one single Regulation replacing them something like 40 pieces of previous legislation. In addition, REACH complements, without overlapping or entering in conflict with them, other regulations like the ones on cosmetics or on detergents and related legislation. REACH makes industry bear most responsibilities to manage the risks posed by chemicals and provide appropriate safety information to their users. All manufacturers and importers of chemicals must identify and manage risks linked to the substances they manufacture and market. For substances produced or imported in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year per company, manufacturers and importers need to demonstrate that they have appropriately done so by means of a registration dossier, which shall be submitted to ECHA. Once the registration dossier has been received, the Agency may check that it is compliant with the Regulation and shall evaluate testing proposals to ensure that the assessment of the chemical substances will not result in unnecessary testing, especially on animals. REACH specifies three independent evaluation processes to meet three distinct objectives: · Compliance check is used to check whether the information submitted by registrants is in compliance with the legal requirements. At least 5 % of the registration dossiers must be checked. · Examination of testing proposals to avoid unnecessary animal testing. Registrants must seek permission to undertake certain tests by submission of a testing proposal. All testing proposals are examined. · Substance evaluation aims to clarify whether the use of a substance may cause harm to human health or the environment. Prioritised substances are evaluated. Where appropriate, authorities may also select substances for a broader substance evaluation to further investigate substances of concern. REACH also foresees an authorisation system aiming to ensure that substances of very high concern are adequately controlled, and progressively substituted by safer substances or technologies or only used where there is an overall benefit for society of using the substance. These substances will be prioritised and over time included in Annex XIV. Once they are included, industry will have to submit applications to the Agency on authorisation for continued use of these substances. In addition, EU authorities may impose restrictions on the manufacture, use or placing on the market of substances causing an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.Manufacturers and importers must provide their downstream users with the risk information they need to use the substance safely. This will be done via the classification and labelling system and Safety Data Sheets (SDS), where needed. The scopes of REACH are: · The improvement the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals;· The enhancement of the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry;· The promotion of alternative methods for the assessment of hazards of substances;· Ensuring the free circulation of substances on the internal market of the European Union. http://echa.europa.eu/http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/chemicals/reach/index_en.htm

Brussels – On March 2nd 2010 the European Commission announced the end of the more than decennial moratorium of the cultivation of GMOs for commercial and industrial exploitation in Europe. Besides this the Commission also announced its intention to come up with a proposal to allow more decisional power to Member States in deciding whether to cultivate or not GMOs on their territory.The current European Regulatory framework on GMOs is based on the following pillars. Precautionary principle, case-by-case evaluation, traceability form-farm-to-fork, post-marketing monitoring, consumer’s right to be informed and to choose and finally coexistence between conventional and novel crops. The decision to allow Member States to decide whether to cultivate or not GMOs on their territory is a follow-up of the pressing requests of several Member States and of several European Regions to have more decisional power in these decisions. Until now, Member States have blocked GM cultivations on their territory invoking the safeguard clauses foreseen in the Regulatory Framework with consequences on the entire EU. This substantial change is subsequent to the two decisions on the “Amflora” (BASF) genetically modified potato which authorised both its cultivation in the EU for industrial use, and the use of Amflora's starch by-products as feed. The decision is subsequent to the favourable safety assessment carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy. After a comprehensive authorisation procedure, which started in 2003, and repeated favourable scientific opinions, the Commission decided to authorise Amflora. This GM potato is to be used for the production of starch that is suitable for industrial applications (e.g. paper production). The decision also provides for strict cultivation conditions to prevent the possibility that GM potatoes will remain in the fields after harvest and to ensure that Amflora's seed will not be inadvertently disseminated into the wider environment. A complementary authorisation was taken in order to cover the by-products of the starch extraction when they are used as feed.The presence of an antibiotic resistance marker gene in the GM starch potato was a major source of preoccupations and was subject to the highest scrutiny to exclude the risk of an eventual spread of the resistance marker into the environment.The Amflora potato (event EH92-527-1) was notified by the company Amylogene on August 1996 in Sweden HB. The Amflora potato was subsequently taken over by BASF, Germany, from Amylogene, Sweden. EH92-527-1 is a modified “Prevalent” variety of Solanum tuberosum modified to contain a starch fraction consisting of at least 98% of amylopectin. The GM potato, not for food and feed uses, is intended for the production of raw material for the starch industry and the cultivation should occur without contamination with other starch potatoes since the clone will be used for the production of a specific starch quality. As a by-product of starch production, potato pulp could be used as cattle feed by farmers. The event was obtained through Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation on cut leaf tissue. Two traits were inserted in the potato: the nptII (Neomycin Phosphotransferase) gene, which confers resistance to various aminoglycoside antibiotics, including kanamycin, neomycin and G418 (geneticin). The second trait consists in a reduced production of amylase thanks to an antisense construct of the gbss (Granule Bound Starch Synthase) gene. The antibiotic resistence gene is set under the control of the constitutive plant nopaline synthase promoter (Pnos) while the gbss antisense gene is set under the control of the gbss promoter (Pgbss). The scope of the antibiotic resistance is the selection of transformed plants. The gbss antisense gene is used to inhibit the expression of the endogenous gbss gene and thereby reduce the amount of amylose in the tuber by interrupting its metabolic pathway.The genetic modification has caused a reduced expression of the potatoes endogenous gbss and as a result, the content of amylose in EH92-527-1 is 2% compared to approximately 15% for the parent variety Prevalent and the content of amylopectin is 98% compared to approximately 85% in Prevalent. The introduction of nptII has also resulted in that EH92-527-1 has received a resistance against kanamycin and possible also against neomycin and geneticin.Molecular analysis shows that potato EH92-527-1 contains two partial copies of the DNA fragment, i.e. the insert, including the flanking region, was duplicated in reverse orientation and joined tail-to-tail. This is present at a single locus in the nuclear genome of the GM plant. The GMO Panel of the EFSA is of the opinion that bioinformatic analysis of the DNA insert and flanking regions indicates no cause for concern, and that sufficient evidence for the stability of the insert structure was provided. Moreover, the scientific assessment included examination of the DNA inserted into potato EH92-527-1, the nature and safety of the modification in protein expression in the plants with respect to toxicology and allergenicity. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of agronomic traits and composition as well as the safety of the food/feed was evaluated. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/222&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=frhttp://www.gmo-compass.org/pdf/regulation/potato/EH92-527_potato_2001_snif_summary.pdfhttp://www.gmo-compass.org/pdf/regulation/potato/EH92-527_potato_2001_snif_assessment-swe.pdfhttp://www.gmo-compass.org/pdf/regulation/potato/EH92-527_potato_assessment_EFSA_2001_18.pdfhttp://www.gmo-compass.org/pdf/regulation/potato/EH92-527_potato_draft_decision_2001_18.pdfhttp://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/gmo/db/17.docu.html

Orlando (FL—USA) - Henry Daniell and colleagues from the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida in Orlando developed stable lines of transgenic tobacco and lettuce plants expressing in their chloroplasts a construct joining the cholera toxin-B subunit (CTB) of Vibrio cholerae to malarial vaccine antigens apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA1) and merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP1). Southern blotting analysis demonstrated the stable integration of the transgenes in the chloroplast genome (*) and the fact that all chloroplats in the plant cell were transformed (homoplasmy). The fusion proteins expressed by the chloroplasts accumulated in tobacco and lettuce at considerable levels with respect to the total soluble proteins in the plant cells. Significant levels of antigen-specific antibody titres of immunized mice completely inhibited proliferation of the malarial parasite and cross-reacted with the native parasite proteins in immunoblots and immunofluorescence studies. The efficacy of the novel vaccine was tested in nine groups of 10 mice which were immunized either subcutaneously or orally with purified antigens or transgenic tobacco leaves. The immunisation studies revealed that dual immunity against the two major infectious diseases provided by chloroplast-derived vaccine antigens for long-term (>300 days, i.e. the 50% of mouse life span) offers a realistic platform for low cost vaccines and novel insight into mucosal and systemic immunity. The use of transgenic plants for the production of vaccines is a cheap and promising technique which will allow the production of high amounts of vaccine in a relatively short time with a relatively simple equipment. To this regard it is worth noticing that Dr. Daniell’s group already produced two vaccines against anthrax and black plague. Moreover, the possibility to administer orally offers the opportunity to immunize people with simple pills or other ways without the need to purify the proteins, store them and deliver them in a sterile way via injection. Cholera and malaria are major diseases causing high mortality. The only licensed cholera vaccine is expensive; immunity is lost in children within 3 years and adults are not fully protected. No vaccine is yet available for malaria.The study was published on the Plant Biotechnology Journal. (*) Chloroplasts (in plants) and mitocondria (in plants and animals) are cytoplasmic organelles of the cell deputed to important aspects of the energetic metabolism. Both organelles have an own genome, external to the main genome contained in the cell nucleus. The endosymbiotic theory postulates that both mitocondria and chloroplasts were bacteria which penetrated in the cell cytoplasm establishing a symbiotic relationship with the cells: nutrients and protection for the capability of an energetic metabolism. A. Davoodi-Semiromi, M.Schreiber, S.Nalapalli, D.Verma, N.D. Singh, R. K. Banks, D. Chakrabarti and H. Daniell (2010) Chloroplast-derived vaccine antigens confer dual immunity against cholera and malaria by oral or injectable delivery . Plant Biotechnology Journal Vol. 8, Pp. 223 - 242.

A new study from Canada reports that snack bars containing micro-sized flakes of lentils may boost the folate content of the finished product by 10 percent. According to an article published in Food Research International the lentil-based bar also had higher levels of iron, fibre and protein. And, according to the FAO: “the lentil has practically no anti-nutritional factors except for ingredients which cause flatulence but which are easily tolerated, particularly in the extreme conditions in which it is usually an essential foodstuff”. Food Research International

Rockville (MD, USA) – The research group led by J. Craig Venter of the homonymous research centre reported in an article published by Science about the synthesis of a fully synthetic genome able to confer autonomous replication capability to a bacterial cell. Until now it was only possible to prepare synthetic or partially synthetic genomes (plasmids or episomes) being able to replicate themselves in high or low copy numbers in bacteria but not to confer autonomous replication capability to the host. In fact, until now, the genome of the host bacterium has been required to drive metabolism and cell replication. The 1.08- Mbp synthetic genome was designed on the computer using as a basis the sequence of the genome of two strains of Mycoplasma mycoides. The Synthetic genome is almost identical to the “natural” genome of the bacterium if we exclude some sequence variations and the insertion of marker genes. Nevertheless, the experiment represents a real technical breakthrough because it demonstrated that it is possible to synthesise and assemble a full bacterial genome and to insert it in a bacterium conferring to it autonomous replication capabilities. In fact, it is relatively difficult to assemble and to handle such a big genome. In a series of preparatory experiments the group was able to demonstrate that it was possible to extract a whole genome from M. mycoides transfer it in Yeast, used as a host strain, modify it, extract it from yeast cells and re-insert it into bacterial cells. Per se, each step of this procedure represents an achievement with huge technical problems to solve, mostly originated by the dimensions of the genome and the difficulty to handle and transfer it. The experiment described in Science added the step of assembling a totally artificial genome made up of synthetic DNAs. Synthetic cassettes of 1080 base pairs were synthesised. Cassettes were cloned in Yeast vectors. 10 kilobase intermediates were obtained through recombination in yeast and subsequently subcloned in E. coli. 100 kilobase synthetic intermediates were obtained again in yeast transformed with pooled 10 kilobase assemblies. The 100 kilobase intermediates were maintained in yeast, since it is not possible to maintain stably in E. coli such long sequences. Microgram amounts of the 100 kilobase intermediates were extracted from yeast and used to assemble the final genome. The final assemblage was again made in yeast cells. Complete 1.08 Megabase genomes “transplanting” the genomes from yeast cells to M. capricolum recipient cells, a related species to M. mycoides. Transplanted cells of M. capricolum were analysed and it was possible to isolate cells containing the sole M. mycoides synthetic genome demonstrating the success of the procedure. As it can be envisaged by the short description of the procedure, the production and transplantation of the artificial genome was a very complex achievement. This discovery opens the doors to a series of novel applications in the field of biotechnology. The next steps will consist in fully designing a functional “minimal” genome being able to drive methabolism and replication of the transplanted cells. Such a genome could be used as a backbone to host specific applicative functions like the highly efficient production of specific molecules (compounds, metabolites, antibiotics, enzymes, antibodies, etc.), for specific productive cycles (fermentation processes, bio fuel production, etc) or for specific environmental processes like bioremediation or waste compounds degradation in industrial processes. All these applications can be also achieved using engineered existing biological systems, but custom design could greatly simplify the processes, focus the specific uses and allow the introduction of a series of “safety features” making the novel bacteria non viable in the natural environment and, in addition to that, impeding the spreading of their genomes. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5981/958http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/rapidpdf/science.1190719v1.pdf