Celebrate your skin colours

Hi,

This intriguing video explains why dark skinned people originate from equatorial countries such as Africa, India and South East Asia.

Melanin is a pigment molecule that give the dark colour to skin. It evolved by natural selection to cut out harmful UV radiation from the sun. It is a natural sunscreen.

However there has been much migration of light skinned people from low UV places to high UV places and vice versa. UVB light is important to make vitamin D in our skins. However, dark skinned people in the countries nearer to the poles are not getting enough of it and this will lead to serious health consequences such as bone and teeth problems, reduced immune system, mood and mental health problems.

Also dark skinned people who work at desk jobs should be aware of these health risks.

Light skinned people have less melanin and so they run the risk of skin cancer due to excessive UVB damaging their DNA. Lighter skin colour is a product of evolution by natural selection in a latitude that gets very little UVB light.






Cheers

"TACARE" and "Roots and Shoots", what are they?

Hi,

Watch this video and be convinced by Jane Goodall on why she is hopeful that we can help humans and animals live together in harmony.

She pins her hope on these three concepts:
1-Advances in technology can be harnessed to rally us to take care of nature.
2-Nature is resilient.
3-Determination and resilience of the human spirit when we are empowered.







Cheers

Dan Gilbert tells us how to make ourselves happy

Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

Be Happy

Three stories from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer

Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios draws from some of the most pivotal points in his life. He urged graduates of Stanford University to pursue their dreams. Choose a job you love to do and you will get better and better at it. "Stay hungry, stay foolish" he advises the 2005 cohort of graduates.

Cheers

Super Rice from genetically engineered rice plant

Source: International Rice Research Institute
Straits Times 25 Dec 2009



Research has been done to transfer genes for C4 photosynthesis system from other plants into rice.
Rice has genes for C3 photosynthesis which is less efficient at capturing sunlight for photosynthesis. The yield is less than in C4 plants such as sugar cane, wheat or maize. Dr Robert Zeigler and his team of scientists have introduced C4 genes into rice and are expecting this GMO rice to have 50% increased yields.


"Snorkel rice" or rice that can tolerate flooding -important to have due to global warming and rising sea levels.



Dr Robert Zeigler speaks on the genetic nature of rice, its diseases, soil, water quality and other factors that affects yield. These have to be known to develop new rice strains to meet the growing demands and the constraints of climate changes.

Rice plant having some bits of genes from wheat or maize is small matter really.


Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends.

Wangari Maathai the pioneer environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Prize winner

Wangari Maathai is the First African woman to win the Nobel Prize in 2004.
Born in Kenyan in 1940, she started the Green Belt Movement. It has since planted more than 35 million trees.

She is a pioneer in climate change activism. She believed in staying connected with the environment as it impacts us all in very aspect of our lives. She believes in sharing resources with all life forms in our environment. She has always taught the people of Kenya on the importance of sustainable resources and empowerment of women.

She started planting trees in 1977 and has tirelessly spoken about the 3Rs, using resources in a responsible way and has lead a successful environmental programme in her country. Listen to her reasons for planting the 35 million trees.



Cheers and merry Christmas to all my Christian friends.

Colour evolution in fruit flies

Hi,

Ugandan fruit flies have changed colour, according to scientists. Researchers have reported in the journal Science that genetic mutations have caused the flies to evolve darker colouration, which they believe helps the creatures adapt to higher altitudes.

Global warming allows organisms that adapt to live at higher altitudes. Everyone knows that the temperature drops as one goes up the mountains. As global warming occurs, the temperatures at higher altitudes also warms up and organisms that used to live in the valleys can now colonise the slopes of the mountains.

Source: Science Journal

Cheers

Save the seeds for the future of food

Hi,

Watch this video to understand the urgency in preserving and protecting the future of food.

With climate change happening so fast, the natural evolution of crop plants to cope with this rapid rise in temperature will not happen. Mass extinction of crop and food plants will happen very quickly. Scientists are really in a panic to save as many wild species and existing varieties of crop plants.

The seeds of these plants can then be resources which can be used for research and natural or artificial selection. The new varieties of plants created by man can then cope well with the higher temperatures and so our food production can keep pace with population growth.


30 or 40 years ago mass starvation used to be common in India and China due to rapid increases in population numbers in these countries. Research by scientists led to new strains of rice and wheat plants. Food shortages have since been forgotten due to Green Revolution, as it is called.

Scientists are coming to our rescue again to avert another catastrophe. This time the cause is different, extinction of food crops due to rapid global warming.

Click on the link below:

One seed at a time, protecting the future of food




Cheers

Bacteria that turns CO2 and sunlight energy into liquid fuel

Hi,



Scientists have come up with the perfect solution to global warming.

A genetically modified bacterium has been engineered with the ability to convert carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in our present cars.

This GMO bacterium carries out photosynthesis, ie it captures sunlight energy which it changes to the chemical energy in the fuel produced. This is very similar to the green plants, except that in plants glucose is the first product. The plant then changes glucose into other molecules that it needs to grow and develop.

Click on this link to read the full story Engineering bacteria to turn CO2 into liquid fuel.


Cheers

Global Day of Acion against global warming

Hi,

Today I have two videos to share with you:


(1) Click on this link Kumi Naidoo's Speech at the COPenhagen Global Day of Action.

This YouTube video was recorded on 12 Dec 2009 in front of 100,000 youth in Copenhagen.

Greenpeace International ED, Kumi Naidoo, delivered a passionate speech at the launch of the Global Day of Action March in Copenhagen 12 Dec. 2009. "Yes we can, yes we must and yes we will deliver a fair efficient and legally binding treaty to protect the future of our children!"

(2) Click on this link Storms of my grandchildren.

It is Youtube video where David Letterman speaks to James Hansen who authored the book "Storms of my grandchildren". He speaks his mind on global warming and the complacence we see around, us especially in the youth of today.

Cheers,