There are many reasons why insects are vanishing in alarming numbers. One reason is intensive farming and the corresponding use of synthetic crop protection agents and pesticides. For instance, the widespread use of the neonicotinoids has been shown to be hazardous to the health of bees and bumblebees.
Tasty food is “mouth-watering”. However, saliva I so much more than water: It contains mucosal and immune cells as well as a large number of molecules that perform a wide variety of biological functions such as ensuring healthy teeth, gums, and oral mucosa. Moreover, saliva is the first barrier against pathogens. Therefore, it also contains a number of antimicrobial molecules, including the antibacterial lysozyme. These are part of the innate molecular immune system.
This year the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting takes place for the 68th time, but for the first time in the newly renovated “Inselhalle”. For the last two years the meeting took place at the city theater and thus counted fewer participants.
An initial financing round helped the founders of ECF Farmsystems GmbH realize their idea of an aquaponics farm in Berlin in 2014. Since then, the start-up has been supported by co-founder and managing director Nicolas Leschke from the "IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH".
The increasing demand for living space is driving a rethink in the construction industry. Renewable raw materials such as wood or straw are becoming increasingly important in order to conserve finite resources such as sand, an important aggregate for concrete. To make construction more sustainable, scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are conducting targeted research into new materials that are not only environmentally friendly but also recyclable.
Using so-called genome-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas, the genetic material DNA can be processed as precisely as never before. The molecular tool can be used to selectively exchange or change specific sections or even individual building blocks of the DNA - the nucleotides. There are possible applications for these tools both in medicine and in agriculture: it would be much easier and faster to breed heat-resistant, pest-resistant or higher-yielding crops. In the US, some genome-edited plants are already approved for cultivation.
Be it hay fever, strawberry or cat hair allergy: more and more people are suffering from allergies. According to a study by the Robert Koch Institute, around 30% of adults and 20% of children and adolescents in Germany are allergic. Frequently, those affected even suffer from several allergies. While chronic colds can be treated quite well with medication, people who react sensitively to food can only protect themselves by doing without. About three to four percent of adults and five percent of children are affected.
A growing world population also means more mouths to feed. At the same time, consumers everywhere are becoming more and more aware that the traditional way of producing food and especially meat is unsustainable. One solution would be to replace animal protein with plant proteins from e.g. legumes or beans or even insects. Another approach is to use cultured meat rather than breeding, feeding and slaughtering animals. The term cultured meat refers to meat grown from muscle tissue in cell culture
All over the world, droughts are causing plant damage. Trees wither or die and entire forests perish. Such scenarios are being observed more and more frequently in the Southwest of the USA. Climate change is often cited as the reason for this. But this explanation does not go far enough. The increasing pollution of the environment by particulate matter also contributes to this, as an international study carried out with the participation of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn shows.
Better together – this applies in particular to many creatures that form symbioses with microbes in order to tap new food sources or protect their offspring. The same goes for the wool beetle Lagria villosa. This beetle is colonised by several strains of closely related Burkholderia gladioli bacteria, which protect the beetle's eggs from fungal attack.