Trust to save food crops from extinction
ROME, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Italy's Global Crop Diversity Trust says it has collected about 53,000 seed samples of the 100,000 varieties of food crops it wants to save from extinction.
The biological rescue effort is designed to preserve the availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. It involves food crops from 46 nations and is one of the largest such programs ever undertaken.
"We are moving quickly to regenerate and preserve seed samples representing thousands of distinct varieties of critical food crops like rice, maize and wheat … that were well on their way to total extinction," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. "I think it is fair to say that without this effort, many of them would have been lost forever."
The seeds targeted for rescue by the trust are samples of staple crops stored in crop gene banks in Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and Central and South America.
After the seeds have been regenerated, three sample lots are prepared. One remains in the regeneration gene bank, another is sent to a gene bank meeting international standards for seed preservation and the third copy is sent to the so-called Doomsday Vault in Norway as part of a fail-safe collection of the world's agricultural biodiversity.
Drug may cut radiation brain function loss
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have discovered a common blood pressure drug might help prevent cognition loss following brain tumor radiation treatments.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers used a rat model to test as hypothesis from previous studies that a compound similar to the anti-hypertensive drug losartan (Cozaar and Hyzaar) can prevent brain function loss that's associated with radiation therapy following brain tumor treatment.
The scientists said their findings appear to validate that hypothesis in rats and they are optimistic the same theory could be applied to humans.
"We need to kill cancer cells, but also prevent or reduce treatment-related side effects," said Professor Mike Robbins, who led the study. "One very interesting feature of this compound is that it has never shown any pro-tumor effects. If anything, it appears to have anti-tumor properties.
"We're very close to having a compound that will protect the normal brain from cognitive injury as a result of radiation and, at the same time, we may very well increase the likelihood of one day curing brain cancer patients of their tumors."
The study was recently published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.
Satellite traffic control system urged
VIENNA, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Last week's collision of U.S. and Russian satellites has prompted the call for creation of an International Civil Space Situational Awareness system.
Brian Weeden, a consultant for the Secure World Foundation in Superior, Colo., proposed the concept Tuesday in Vienna during a meeting of a subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Weeden said the collision produced an enormous amount of orbiting debris that is threatening spacecraft launched by several nations.
"The owner or operator of a particular satellite usually has excellent knowledge about the position of that satellite in space, but little to no information about the locations of other objects around them," he told the subcommittee, noting the concept has been a part of military space activities for years, but there's also a need for such a system in the civil world.
"Such a network is very expensive to create and maintain, and only the United States has thus far developed one," Weeden said. "And while the United States' space surveillance network does provide the most complete SSA data in the world, it still has significant limitations due to the lack of coverage in areas where the United States does not have a presence."
He said such an informational system "could not only mitigate future collisions, but enhance cooperation, transparency and future space governance issues."
Beaufort Sea coastal erosion increases
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Researchers say coastal erosion along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea in Alaska more than doubled to about 45 feet annually between 2002 and 2007.
U.S. Geological Survey scientist Benjamin Jones, who led the study, said although the patterns documented in the research might represent a short-term episode of enhanced erosion, the findings might also represent the future pattern of coastline erosion in the Arctic.
Jones and his colleagues said recent shifts in the rate and pattern of land loss along the Beaufort Sea coastline segment are potentially a result of changing Arctic conditions, including declining sea ice, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action.
"Taken together, these factors may be leading to a new era in ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline," the researchers said. "And any increases in the current rates of coastal retreat will have further ramifications on Arctic landscapes -- including losses in freshwater and terrestrial wildlife habitats, and in disappearing cultural sites, as well as adversely impacting coastal villages and towns."
The study is reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
