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Vavilov in a novel

April 12, 2011

Anne Marie Ruff is a reporter and friend of the Vaviblog who wants to let readers know about her first novel, Through These Veins. With the recently published novel, Through These Veins, I am hoping to introduce Vavilov and his mission to a completely new audience; readers who enjoy a good yarn and who may [...]

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Anarchists at the gate

November 25, 2010

Thank heavens for human beings. How else would we have known that Google’s “Biofond importantly profit!” is better translated as “where money rules – nature perishes?” Thanks to Hannes Dempewolf and his friend Lisa Strecker, who responded to a request for a better version of this article: Пикет в защиту Вавиловской коллекции. And apologies for [...]

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Pavlovsk awaits change of law

November 15, 2010

There has been very little information recently about the fate of the Pavlovsk Experiment Station. The Vavilov Research Institute (VIR) reported that on 26 October Igor Igoshin, a deputy head of the parliament’s Committee on Science and Scientific Technologies, introduced a draft law that treats the status of genetic resources collections. The draft modifies a [...]

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A glimmer of hope?

October 27, 2010

Hard to know what to make of this story from RIA Novosti, reprinted below in its entirety. The Russian Pubic Chamber believes the unique collection of fruits and berries at the Pavlovsk Experimental Station near St. Petersburg are a national heritage, a member said on Tuesday. The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry and its Pavlovsk [...]

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Banana domestication revisited

October 19, 2010

Edible bananas have very few seeds. Wild bananas are packed with seeds; there’s almost nothing there to eat. So how did edible bananas come to be cultivated? The standard story is that some smart proto-farmer saw a spontaneous mutation and then propagated it vegetatively. Once the plant was growing, additional mutants would also be seen [...]

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Australian genebanks in trouble too

October 6, 2010

Further to the discussion of how all genebanks are threatened by the vagaries of funding comes news that Australia’s genebanks “are tumbling like dominoes”. The problem: funding. Seed banks “need long-term support that is outside grant or research support,” says Megan Clarke, chief executive of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency and the country’s main supporter [...]

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Gary Nabhan lecture in Rome

May 18, 2010

If you are in Rome, come and hear Gary Nabhan, author of Where our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine, speak on Cultural Communities Collaborating with Scientists to Conserve Diversity. The talk will take place on Friday 21 May 2010 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, starting at 21:00 hrs. Nabhan’s [...]

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The Silk Road on air

December 7, 2009

Vavilov’s travels through the Pamirs and Western China made great use of the oases of the Silk Road. If you would like to know more about the two-way traffic along this vibrant network of trade routes, you might want to listen to The Silk Road, a programme from BBC Radio 4 in the series In [...]

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