By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Can you imagine how many feathers are accumulated when chickens you eventually feast on are slaughtered?

While watching the slaughter of chickens, Filipino scientist Menandro Acda was likely thinking of this when he realized the potential use of chicken feathers that are often considered waste in the poultry industry.

Chicken feathers are often incinerated. But the burning can cause environmental problems, according to Acda

“Millions of kilos of waste feathers are generated each year by commercial poultry processing plants resulting in serious solid waste problem,” added Acda who is a professor from the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

Rainy season is here again. The crops, trees, and plants would gladly bathe under the showers of rain. However, when typhoons strike and floods flow like a river, the trees would sway and dance in a fast forward rhythm and plants may drown and die.

But among the plants, one variety of rice can survive flooding. This rice variety is named sub1 or submergence1, according to Dr. Dave Mackill, head of the plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology division of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Mackill and other researchers from IRRI and the University of California in Riverside and in Davis campuses have discovered from an Indian rice variety FR13A a gene that can withstand flooding of up to 17 days.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

MANILA — Filipino Physicist Caesar Saloma and Singaporean virologist Lisa F.P. Ng didn’t see themselves as heroes when they were younger.

They were only interested in pursuing their interests. Saloma liked how light works while Ng had a keen sense on biology. Their work bordered on laboratory science that very few knew would have an impact on industries and society.

[Read the rest of this entry »]