Purple tomatoes: Could GM crop be food of the future?

Scientists in Norwich have developed a genetically modified purple tomato, which is being produced in Canada due to European hostility to GM foods.

Their dark pigment potentially offers the same health benefits as fruit such as blueberries and could be used in everything from ketchup to pizza topping.

The prospect of genetically modified purple tomatoes reaching the shelves has come a step closer.

Their dark pigment is intended to give tomatoes the same potential health benefits as fruit such as blueberries.

Developed in Britain, large-scale production is now under way in Canada with the first 1,200 litres of purple tomato juice ready for shipping.

The pigment, known as anthocyanin, is an antioxidant which studies on animals show could help fight cancer.

Scientists say the new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everything from ketchup to pizza topping.

The tomatoes were developed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich where Prof Cathie Martin hopes the first delivery of large quantities of juice will allow researchers to investigate its potential.

"With these purple tomatoes you can get the same compounds that are present in blueberries and cranberries that give them their health benefits - but you can apply them to foods that people actually eat in significant amounts and are reasonably affordable,"she said.

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Although the invention is British, Prof Martin says European Union restrictions on GM encouraged her to look abroad to develop the technology.Canadian regulations are seen as more supportive of GM and that led to a deal with an Ontario company, New Energy Farms, which is now producing enough purple tomatoes in a 465 square metre (5,000sq ft) greenhouse to make 2,000 litres (440 gallons) of juice.

According to Prof Martin, the Canadian system is "very enlightened"."They look at the trait not the technology and that should be a way we start changing our thinking - asking if what you're doing is safe and beneficial, not 'Is it GM and therefore we're going to reject it completely'.

"It is frustrating that we've had to go to Canada to do a lot of the growing and the processing and I hope this will serve as a vanguard product where people can have access to something that is GM but has benefits for them."

The first 1,200 litres are due to be shipped to Norwich shortly - and because all the seeds will have been removed, there is no genetic material to risk any contamination.

FRom BBC- Sci/ Environment

New river dolphin species discovered in Brazil

Scientists in Brazil have discovered the first new river dolphin species in almost 100 years.

The Araguaia river dolphin

It's named the Araguaian Boto after the Araguaia river in South America where it was found.

These dolphins have long beaks which let them hunt for fish in the mud at the bottom of rivers.

The species is only the fifth known of its kind and river dolphins are among the world's rarest creatures.

The new dolphins are very similar to the Amazon river species

Researchers say this species separated from other South American river dolphins more than two million years ago.

South America is also home to the Amazon river dolphin, which is thought to be the most intelligent of all the river dolphin species.

Endangered species

Scientists think that there are about 1,000 of the creatures living in the Araguaia river in South America.

Three of the river dolphin species are on a list of critically endangered animals.

One of the best known species, the Yangtze river dolphin or baiji, is thought to have become extinct in about 2006 and researchers are concerned about the future for the new dolphin.

FromCBBC Newsround

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Sea otters: Saving kelp forests and our climate

Sea otters aren’t just cute – these fuzzy marine mammals also perform an important role protecting the kelp forests which maintain our climate and prevent storm damage.

The kelp forests fringing the North Pacific coast are one of the richest marine ecosystems on Earth. The fish that find refuge form the basis of an immense ocean food web and a huge fishing industry. Kelp beds buffer coastlines from storms and sequester carbon as effectively as tropical rainforests. One of the kelp forest’s most endearing denizens, the sea otter, is an important key to its survival.

In some places this valuable kelp carbon store is disappearing, mown down by a hungry army of sea urchins.

In this film, marine ecologist Professor James A Estes, cameraman Doug Allan, ecological economist Pavan Sukhdev, and lead scientist with the Nature Conservancy, Dr M Sanjayan, reveal how sea otters eat sea urchins which would otherwise devour the kelp and disrupt the rich web of life that relies on it. So the otters are helping the forests to store as much carbon as they can.

We tend to think that we can deal with the challenge of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by planting more vegetation, but it turns out that animals like sea otters are providing another solution by helping to keep forests growing.

From BBC -Future-Science & Environment

Dolphin slaughter: Taiji cove hunt begins in Japan

Although it seems this is not an illegal procedure in Japan, we can feel it is unfair for these poor animals the way they die. The truth is that tradition, honour and survival cannot be an excuse to certain actions towards helpless, intelligent, nice and sociable animals like dolphins.

The British and American ambassadors to Japan have joined a chorus of international criticism at fishermen there who hunt and slaughter dolphins.

The annual killing takes place at a coastal town in the south of the country where the mammals are driven into a pen and then killed for their meat using metal poles.

Environmentalists claim the practice is cruel and dolphins can take up to 30 minutes to die by suffocation or drowning.

Rupert Wingfield Hayes says dolphins are being dragged up onto the beach and slaughtered.

From BBC news