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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
The yield of China's new hybrid rice breed has topped almost 15,000 kilograms per hectare, with the country set to break the world record in rice output through large-scale planting.
Rice variety "Longliangyou 1813" set the record in the country's largest southern breeding base in Sanya, Hainan Province.
The record yield is the achievement of the fourth phase of China's hybrid rice development program and is made possible by a new high-yield breed, advanced cultivation technology and nanotechnology-supported fertilizer.
Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", is leader of the new breed's development team.
Yuan says the goal of achieving a new super rice strain with an expected yield of 15,000 kilogram per hectare will be achieved before next year.
The new breed will be planted in large-scale breeding bases in other provinces such as Hunan in central China to test its productivity later this year. It is expected to achieve a higher yield, as those regions enjoy more favorable environments for rice growth than Hainan.
The new breed is pest-resistant. Nanotechnology-based fertilizer is being used for the first time in breeding hybrid rice. The fertilizer can activate microbes in the soil, not only fertilizing the breed, but also the soil itself.
Scientists also designed a specific cultivation pattern for the breed to grow faster.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
They suffer searing headaches, a burning fever and so much pain in their joints they can barely walk or use their hands. It's like having a terrible flu combined with an abrupt case of arthritis.
Hospitals and clinics throughout the Caribbean are seeing thousands of people with the same symptoms. They are victims of a virus with a long and unfamiliar name that has been spread rapidly by mosquitoes across the islands. The first locally transmitted case was confirmed in December last year.
34-year-old patient Sahira Francisco says she feels it in her bones, her fingers and her hands; and it's like everything is coming apart.
The southern Dominican Republic has seen a surge of the cases in recent days.
The virus is chikungunya, derived from an African word that loosely translates as "contorted with pain". People encountering it in the Caribbean for the first time say the description is fitting. The virus is rarely fatal, but it is extremely debilitating.
Outbreaks of the virus have long made people miserable in Africa and Asia. But it is new to the Caribbean. The first locally transmitted case was documented in French St. Martin last December. It is likely to have been brought in by an infected air traveler.
Health officials are now working feverishly to educate the public about the illness, knock down the mosquito population, and deal with an onslaught of cases.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The human placenta is not as sterile as once thought, but rather harbors a small but diverse group of microbes that may influence the course of pregnancy.
The findings by U.S. researchers hint at an association between the composition of the placental microbial community and preterm birth, which means birth of a baby at less than 37 weeks gestational age.
Scientists characterized the bacteria in more than 300 placentas to investigate the idea that the placenta is a sterile environment.
Researchers say the placental micro biome is low in terms of microbial abundance, but not as sterile as doctors previously thought.
They suspected that oral microbes might slip into the mother's bloodstream and end up in the placenta.
The finding has important implications on the likely importance of oral health during pregnancy. It reinforces long-standing data relating to periodontal disease to risks of preterm birth.
It could lead to rapid breakthroughs in not only identifying women at risk for preterm birth, but developing new and worthwhile strategies to prevent preterm birth.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Once again, the world hit record heat levels recently. The average global temperature a month ago tied the hottest April on record four years ago.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States say April's average temperature was 14.5 degrees Celsius. That was almost 0.8 degrees warmer than the average last century.
The last time the globe's monthly temperature was cooler than normal was February 1985.
Scientists said April's heat was driven especially by Siberia and Eurasia. The United States and Canada were the few exceptions. Canada was slightly cooler than normal and the United States was a little warmer than usual.
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