RTFA: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_…

Earlier this year, consumers around the world noticed higher food prices as the cost of most grains escalated. In many parts of the developing world, rice, a crucial staple for billions of people, became too expensive or not available at all, triggering large-scale hunger and food riots that destabilized entire countries and regions.

In May of this year, a group of computational biologists at the University of Washington began to tap the collective power of more than 1 million desk top computers to better understand the protein structures of rice plants …, the Nutritious Rice for the World project … Led by Ram Samudrala, an associate professor and computational biologist at the University of Washington, the project taps the World Community Grid, a distributed computing system created by IBM that links up computers all over the planet. The grid combines the spare power of computers not in use to handle large-scale computational problems such as analyzing rice genomics.

The project is one of five initiatives being tackled by the World Community Grid right now and, according to Samudrala, it is taking up about a third of the grid’s current capacity. By using the collective power of the grid, Samudrala and his collaborators estimate the project will be completed in two years, considerably faster than the 200 years they estimate it would take a conventional computer system to complete the same job.

Ultimately, the combined power of these computers should allow the researchers to map out the 30,000 to 60,000 rice protein structures and better understand their related functions. Armed with this information, plant biologists should be able to begin to provide the world’s farmers with rice varieties that can grow with less water, resist insects and diseases and provide a more nutritious meal.

… Given the large number of people who eat rice as their primary source of grain, this research could go a long way in tackling some of the food security challenges currently facing the human race.

This project demonstrates the power for great good that can be achieved through pure nerdiness. If you’re a bio-geek, you will probably enjoy checking out Prof. Samudrala’s website. The site is chalk chock full of goodies, including software downloads (and a web API!) to model genomes, proteins, et al. (: http://software.compbio.washington.edu/ Using their online “Bioverse” java app, I generated this DNA sequence of E. Coli and its closest evolutionary relatives … oh E. Coli: So good for the lower intestines; so bad for the stomach!

RTFA: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/07092…

Many plants form internal communications networks and are able to exchange information efficiently. Chat networkMany herbal plants such as strawberry, clover, reed and ground elder naturally form networks. Individual plants remain connected with each other for a certain period of time by means of runners. These connections enable the plants to share information with each other via internal channels. They are therefore very similar to computer networks. But what do plants want to chat to each other about?

Insane. Plants can be like animals… in the same way that fungus is marginally more animal-like than single-celled organisms.

RTFA: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/05/appendix.purp…

Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That’s the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week. For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function. Surgeons removed them routinely. People live fine without them. And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn’t removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interesting.

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6979891.stm

Investigators say the virus that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey had probably been present in a pipe on the Pirbright laboratory site.

Health and Safety Executive findings, given to the BBC, identified biosecurity lapses at the nearby site.

It said the pipe, which runs from pharmaceutical firm Merial to a plant operated by a government-run lab, may have been damaged by tree roots.

Merial said it could not comment until the report was officially published.

It said it “cannot speculate on pipes or anything else”.

It is believed the pipe may have been damaged by tree roots before flooding pushed virus traces to the surface.

It is not known how the virus found its way on to farmland a few miles way following the flooding on 20 July.

Damn! These are sensitive systems, people.