Monthly Archives: February 2018

Cool the planet: drink tap water and eat less meat at dinner time

steak

An article published today in BMC Public Health looks at the impact of adjustments to diet at specific moments of food consumption, to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve diet quality. The authors of the study have looked specifically at the Netherlands, where almost half of the GHG emissions of food consumption can be attributed to meat and dairy consumption. We take a closer look at this novel work below.

Health

Higher cigarette taxes may increase use of chewing tobacco and cigars in adolescents

E-Cigarette-E-Cigar-Electronic_Cigarette-E-Cigs-E-Liquid-Vaping_(16088078247)

New research published in BMC Public Health finds that raising cigarette taxes to combat smoking may inadvertently increase the use of alternative tobacco products among adolescents. In this blog, lead author of the research, Summer Sherburne Hawkins, discusses this new study involving 499,381 adolescents from 36 US states and explains why policy makers need to be looking beyond cigarettes.

Health

Facial attraction: red-fronted lemurs recognize photos of their own species

experiment

Species recognition, that is an animals ability to recognize a member of its own species, is essential for reproduction. The role of facial cues has been investigated for a number of non-human primates but not lemurs, until now. Here Dr Rakotonirina describes research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology that herself and her colleagues conducted on the role of facial cues for species recognition in the red-fronted lemur.

Biology