Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- “Computational sociologists” are using recipes to understand global eating patterns.
- Global food prices have been increasing for a decade and rose 2.7% in 2012. Price volatility has also increased substantially in the last few years, though neither prices nor volatility have reached all-time highs. In addition to weather, drivers include biofuels production, climate change, increased fuel and fertilizer prices, and a variety of trade factors.
- New research finds that the brain works like the rest of the body and a good brain workout may be important for maintaining mental functions.
- Genetic sequencing of the human microbiome has started to reach the consumer.
- Writing in Science, researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico point out that agricultural development in Latin America has caused major disruption to the nitrogen cycle and “human impacts on the nitrogen cycle require sustainable ecological solutions to preserve ecosystem and human health.”