World Antibiotics Awareness Week

The first World Antibiotic Awareness Week 16 to 22 November 2015 aims to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers, policy-makers and the agriculture sector to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.
The theme of the campaign, Antibiotics: Handle with Care, reflects the overarching message that antibiotics are a precious resource and should be preserved. They should be used to treat bacterial infections, only when prescribed by a certified health professional. Antibiotics should never be shared and the full course of treatment should be completed – not saved for the future.
This information has been included in a short film by the WHO:

What you can do to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance:

1. Only use antibiotics when prescribed by a certified health professional
2. Always take the full prescription, even if you feel better
3. Never use left over antibiotics
4. Never share antibiotics with others
5. Prevent infections by regularly washing your hands, avoiding contact with sick people and keeping your vaccinations up to date.

 

More Edible Plants

Humans use only a mere 200 species of plants for food purposes. This is very meager compared to the possibly 300,000 edible plants, of an estimated 400,000 of the Earth’s plant species. John Warren described the use of these few species of food crops in his book ‘The Nature of Crops: how we came to eat the plants that we do’. This book was published in April 2015 and describes a journey through human history with crop plants. John Warren, Director of Learning and Teaching at Aberystwyth University, writes stories about 50 crops, including cereals, spices, legumes, fruit and ‘cash crops’ such as chocolate, tobacco and rubber. 

I have not actually counted all the plant species that I ate. Imagine trying to write down a list of every plant or part of plant that you ate in your whole life! No problem starting, wheat that was used to make my pasta that I had for dinner tonight, tomatoes that were in the sauce, some garlic and courgette to go in the sauce and some strawberries for dinner. But it would be near impossible to try and figure out if you’ve ever had more than a few of the 10,000 species in the cereal family. And no with that I do not mean Kellogg’s, Fruit-Loops or All-Bran!

According to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) only 15 crop plants provide 90% of the world’s food energy intake. I can’t seem to find the source of that information, but the ten staples that feed the world are listed on this page and include maize (corn), rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, soybeans, sweet potatoes, yams, sorghum and plantain. Except for those last two, I have actually eaten all of them, so I’ve got about 185 more species to go through. Bonne appétit!

Biolace - where science meets art

What if the plants which grow your food also produce the clothes that you wear? Welcome to the world of biodesign.

Strawberry Noir (Fragaria Fusca Tenebris). 

Produces black strawberries with high levels of anthocyanin and Vitamin C, 

and black lace doilies for the fashion market. (C) Carole Collet

This is the field of research in which professor Carole Colett operates. Carole Colett is professor in Design for Sustainable Futures and Director of Design & Living Systems Lab as well as a pioneer of the Textile Futures discipline at Central Saint Martins. Her research focusses on biodesign, biofacturing and high-tech sustainability.

One of her projects is called "Biolace" (2010-2012) which is currently  listed as a fictional project but which might well become reality in 2050. "Biolace" is a series of four plants which are presented in a so called hyper-engineered state. The Strawberry Noir, Bsil n 5, Tomato Factor 60, and GoldNano Spinach plants are shown with an intricate lace pattern as roots. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, they are also a 'green' alternative to the current textile factories. The plants require only water and sunlight and can create these beautiful lace trimmings for high-end fashion items. What's not to like about them? In her video on Biolace, Design and Biofacture, Horizon 2050, Collett explains the motives and ideas behind this work.


Collet's work is not only beautiful to look at, it also want to encourage the discussion on genetic modification and engineering. How far is ‘too far’ when it comes to controlling living organisms to our benefit? What happens when these plants become a reality? Synthetic biology is well on its way so create new traits in plants and even animals. It is really not that far a leap to these lace doilies made of strawberry roots.