- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that West Nile virus is off to an early start in 2007 with cases of infected mosquitoes, horses or birds having been found in 26 of California's 58 counties. The newspaper said three Kern County residents are the only known human cases. However, a day later, a story in the Sacramento Bee reported a human case of West Nile infection in Stanislaus County.
The state could be on its way to beating the record for the disease set last year. In 2006, California recorded 276 human West Nile virus infections and seven...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A little piece on spiders in the UC Master Gardener column of the Contra Cost Times last month caused quite a stir. In answering a question about brown recluse spiders, the writer said: "Brown recluse spiders are not found in California, except in the far southern eastern desert regions, and it is highly unlikely that you have a population in your backyard. As of now, there has not been one confirmed brown recluse spider bite in the state."
The UC Integrated Pest Management Program reports similar information on its Web site: "There are no populations of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In the past week, many news media outlets reported on research by UC Davis food chemist Alyson Mitchell that was published in the June 23 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. For example, on July 5, the BBC News titled its story "Organic tomatoes 'better' for heart." The story was picked up in Australia, India, Africa and many American...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
I hate to throw a wet blanket on the holiday, but a heat wave and fireworks are colliding with dry grass and shrubs to create what could become a fiery Fourth of July. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that firefighters are already battling a barrage of blazes. Fires in Los Padres National Forest, near Pyramid Lake, two in San Diego County and mop up in the Lake Tahoe area are keeping firefighters busy before the holiday even begins.
And the worst may be yet to come. A UC Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Berkeley, Max Moritz, teamed up with researchers at the University of Utah to create...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The prestigious journal Science features a cover story on the work of UC Davis plant scientists Jorge Dubcovsky and Jan Dvorak in its current issue. The article is not written at the eigth-grade reading level, the typical goal of the general media. For the reader willing to devote some extra concentration, and perhaps look up a few words in the dictionary, there are many interesting facts. For example, the article says 620 million tons of wheat are produced annually worldwide, providing about one-fifth of the calories consumed by humans. About 95 percent of the wheat crop is common wheat, used for making bread, cookies, and...
