Asia’s rice bowls

Source: The Economist12/11/2011 – IN ASIA kingdoms are said to rise and fall with the shifting price of rice. So the continent’s rulers presumably ought to be worried by the effects of disastrous floods in Thailand, the world’s biggest exporter of the white grains (see chart).

Rice seed yields blood protein

Source: Scientific American31/10/2011 – One can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, but new research suggests that a bit of transgenic tweaking may make it possible to squeeze blood–or at least blood protein–from a grain of rice. In a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe rice seeds that…