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Background The current food system is responsible for significant environmental damage therefore, encouraging consumers to adopt an environmentally sustainable diet is a key public health challenge. Dietary guidelines have been developed that outline recommendations for purchasing and consuming food in an environmentally sustainable manner, but they have not yet been incorporated in UK national dietary guidelines. Methods Via an online survey of UK adults, we evaluated consumers’ perceptions of the environmental benefit of various sustainable diet recommendations, their readiness to adopt these behaviours using the stage of change construct of the Transtheoretical Model, the factors that influenced their food choices, and their current consumption of plant- and animal-based sources of protein. Additionally, we investigated how demographic characteristics and food choice motives were associated with perceived environmental benefit of and readiness to adopt these sustainable diet recommendations. Results The survey was completed by 442 participants (66% female, 80% aged 25–54 years, 85% with higher education). The majority of participants considered the recommendations to ‘reduce consumption of air-freighted foods’ (79%), ‘reduce food waste’ (75%), and ‘buy locally grown produce’ (78%) to have a high environmental benefit, whereas a smaller proportion of participants perceived ‘prioritise plant-based proteins’ (42%) and ‘choose organic produce’ (27%) to have a high environmental benefit. Differences in perceptions and readiness to adopt sustainable dietary behaviours were observed between demographic groups, with women significantly more likely than men to be in action/maintenance (A/M) stages of change for prioritising plant proteins (OR 0.54), and younger participants more likely to be in pre-contemplation/contemplation (PC/C) stages of change for ‘choose organic produce’ (OR 2.03) and ‘choose sustainable fish’ (OR 2.45). Health, cost, environmental sustainability and taste were the most commonly reported food choice motives. Reporting environmental sustainability as a food choice motive was associated with readiness to adopt sustainable diet recommendations. Conclusions We found that consumers in the UK are engaged with some aspects of sustainable diets but remain resistant to others. The results of this study indicate that acceptable dietary guidelines could be developed to address environmental sustainability. Several behaviours were identified that consumers were willing to adopt, but there were barriers preventing them, highlighting that policy action is required to enable behaviour change to occur. Differences between demographic groups highlight potential targets for future campaigns promoting sustainable diets.

[...]these nanotechnologists, together with ecologists interested in the global carbon cycle--in which diatoms play a central role--have a genomic blueprint to help them in their studies: the annotated genome sequence of Thalassiosira pseudonana (http://genome.jgi-psf.org/diatom/). The basic structure of all diatoms is similar: a single cell, often with a large vacuole, contained within a silica shell or frustule made of two overlapping halves or valves joined by girdle bands, which are also made of silica. (Images courtesy of Mary Ann Tiffany, San Diego State University.) Turning to Nature for Engineering Solutions Richard Gordon, Professor of Radiology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, somewhat accidentally laid the foundations of 'diatom nanotechnology' in 1988 when he was invited to give a lecture at an engineering conference. Molecular biologist Mark Hildebrand (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California, United States) is a member of a collaborative project trying to develop genetically engineered micro/nanodevices (also called GEMs).

• Premise of the study: Manioc (Manihot esculenta subsp. esculenta), one of the most important tropical food crops, is commonly divided according to cyanide content into two use-categories, “sweet” and “bitter.” While bitter and sweet varieties are genetically differentiated at the local scale, whether this differentiation is consistent across continents is yet unknown.• Methods: Using eight microsatellite loci, we genotyped 522 manioc samples (135 bitter and 387 sweet) from Ecuador, French Guiana, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, and Vanuatu. Genetic differentiation between use-categories was assessed using double principal coordinate analyses (DPCoA) with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Jost’s measure of estimated differentiation (Dest). Genetic structure was analyzed using Bayesian clustering analysis.• Key results: Manioc neutral genetic diversity was high in all sampled regions. Sweet and bitter manioc landraces are differentiated in South America but not in Africa. Correspondingly, bitter and sweet manioc samples share a higher proportion of neutral alleles in Africa than in South America. We also found seven clones classified by some farmers as sweet and by others as bitter.• Conclusions: Lack of differentiation in Africa is most likely due to postintroduction hybridization between bitter and sweet manioc. Inconsistent transfer from South America to Africa of ethnobotanical knowledge surrounding use-category management may contribute to increased hybridization in Africa. Investigating this issue requires more data on the variation in cyanogenesis in roots within and among manioc populations and how manioc diversity is managed on the farm.

The HEP is the brainchild of immunogeneticist Stephan Beck of the Sanger Institute and Alexander Olek, chief executive officer of Epigenomics AG. The Human Genome Project, explains Olek, 'provided the blueprint for life, but the epigenome will tell us how this whole thing gets executed', what determines when and where genes are switched on and off to produce a person. Even as long ago as 1998, explains Olek, 'it was pretty natural to be thinking about what would come after the Human Genome Project, and Stephan believed that it had to be methylation sequencing because that has the potential to tell us about the hundreds of genomes we really have'.\\n Because of this, many scientists argue that human reproductive cloning, leaving aside the ethical concerns about it, simply isn't a safe option at present, a concern reflected in the recent call by 60 scientific academies for a ban on its development.

Neuroscientist Lori Marino (Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States) and her colleagues have used computed tomography to estimate the body and brain size of 36 fossil whale species and have compared these data with those for modern toothed whales. Comparison of a Human and a Chimpanzee Brain Scale bar = 1 cm (Image: Todd Preuss, Yerkes Primate Research Center) Throughout mammalian and primate evolution, there has been a gradual increase in brain size, superimposed with \"spikes\" of fast growth such as the tripling in human brain size that occurred about 1.5 million years ago, 4 million years after the human lineage diverged from that of the great apes. Zilles and his colleagues also are currently using molecular imaging techniques to update the existing maps of the different areas within our brains. [...]we have this information, it is hard to make meaningful comparisons between our brain and that of chimpanzees.

Abbreviations: GFP, green fluorescent protein; TILLING, targeting induced local lesions in genomes Francis Hamilton, the Briton who first described zebrafish (Danio rerio) in 1822, would be astounded to see the scientific attention now afforded to this two-inch-long native of Indian rivers. Mutagenesis for the third screen is underway, but the assays, which include looking for defects that specifically affect adults, are still at the pilot stage; this autumn, the project's executive committee, which is headed by Nüsslein-Volhard, will decide which assays to use in the full-scale screen.\\n Studies on this mutant might lead to the discovery of molecules that can drive stem cell differentiation, for example, or could help improve understanding of human haematological malignancies. Where to Find Out More ZF-MODELS More details of the work included in this European Union Integrated Project can be found at http://www.zf-models.org ZFIN The ZFIN Web site, at http://z.n.org/ZFIN, provides an extensive database for the zebrafish community including genetic, genomic, and developmental information; search engines for zebrafish researchers and laboratories; listings of meetings; and links to many other zebrafish sites, including sites with movies of zebrafish development.

Investigators of a retrospective cohort study that examined data for influenza vaccinations, statin prescriptions, and cases of medically attended acute respiratory illness over nine influenza seasons report that statin therapy was associated with reduced effectiveness of influenza vaccine against acute respiratory illness. NASA/Science Photo Library Influenza surveillance Researchers have developed a so-called ensemble approach to influenza prediction that uses a machine-learning based method to combine information from several data sources including Google searches, Twitter microblogs, near real-time records of hospital visits obtained by a US health-care provider, and a US participatory surveillance system.

A phylogenomic analysis of all the known protein folds in 5080 completely sequenced proteomes from cells and viruses now suggests that modern viruses originated from multiple ancient cells that contained segmented RNA genomes and that co-existed with the ancestors of modern cells. [...]ancient cellular lineages common to both cells and viruses might have existed. Researchers identified ebselen in a screen for small-molecule drugs that inhibited the cysteine protease domain within the C difficile major virulence factor toxin B. They report that ebselen has activity against both toxin B and a second major virulence factor toxin A. Moreover, ebselen treatment had a beneficial effect on disease pathology in a mouse model of C difficile infection.

Though few crops display directly opposing domesticated phenotypes, these crops may be the key to understanding domestication processes that address conflicting selective pressures in the agricultural ecosystem. Two relatively well-known examples are cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), which has high-cyanide and low-cyanide varieties, and potato (Solanum section Petota). Among the potatoes are several species, including the common potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), that have low levels of glycoalkaloids and there are other species of “bitter potato” with elevated levels of glycoalkaloids. We propose that Oxalis tuberosa Molina, “oca,” may represent a third example of such a crop system, with opposing high organic acid and low organic acid cultivars. Each cultivar set has different cultural food preparation practices (“use-categories”), similar to the “use-categories” that have been described for potatoes in the Andes (Brush et al. Economic Botany 35;70–88, 1981; Zimmerer Journal of Biogeography 18;165–178, 1991). Our initial analyses suggest that organic acids in tubers may be an important biochemical difference between use-categories, based on both oxalic acid and pH data. Here, we review our understanding of organic acids in oca tubers, while highlighting areas that merit further investigation.