This official region of Yorkshire and Humber is a large area on the north-eastern coast of England. It should not be confused with the larger and historical country of Yorkshire from which it was created, in part, along with a small part of Lincolnshire. The region, as it exists today, was created in 1996 and […]
Ask an Urban Farmer: Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Gardening on the Balcony
Hi there, You mentioned in this entry http://www.flickr.com/photos/sillydog/63252751/ that you would be glad to answer questions about growing more plants and veggies in cities. I have a balcony that is basically storage for my bike at the moment. It’s pretty windswept, and doesn’t get much if any direct sun. I’m not allowed to put […]
World’s Largest Seed Collection Receives a Multimillion Dollar Grant from Gates
A series of multi-million dollar grants have made it possible for few dozen of the world’s major food crops, almost always propagated clonally, to be stored as seed in Norway’s famous Svalbard (also called the “Doomsday Vault” in popular media) facility. Originally opened in 2006, Svalbard is just one of many germplasm repositories of valuable […]
On the Long-awaited Cusp of a New Generation in Computing
In February of 2007, D-Wave Systems, of Burnaby, Canada, successfully demonstrated the world’s first quantum computer, to much fanfare. Known as Orion, this 16-qubit adiabatic quantum computer is designed to be scaled up to a 1024-qubit model by mid-2008 that can very quickly compute a very specific sort of problem using somewhat different properties of quantum […]
Organics as Medication
The evidence has been mounting for some time that organic food contains a higher concentration of valuable nutrients than conventionally produced counterparts. Modern nutritional science has determined the lacking compounds are powerful components of our natural immune and cellular repair systems. Moreover, there are well-known, physiological reasons in botany for this effect that has been known for […]
One Step Closer to ET Life – Water Vapour Atmosphere Detected in Pegasus
Water vapour has been observed in the atmosphere of a planet in the Pegasus system, as reported by researchers at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The planet, HD 209458b (called Osiris by some), seems to be in the process of having a water vapour-rich atmosphere boiled away as it swiftly passes before its parent star. The telltale […]