“Ecological biotechnology” – the new dimension in technology

Ecological restructuring of all areas is the most essential action needed for the future of our cultures on earth. This paper intends to clarify how human technology activities can be embedded in the cycles of the biosphere.A new quality of life will be maintainable by this concept of ecologically sustainable technology.The background of this innovation is explained in more detail and the fundamentals are eluciatated comprehensively. A series of principles of general validity are derived from the study of ecosystems in biosphere, which are to be transferred to technologies. This will result in the new technology paradigm of “ecologic process engineering” which is part of a new paradigm in sciences.     

“Infant Mortality in Armenia 1992–2003”: A comment

The purpose of this comment is to counsel caution in some of the conclusions drawn in an otherwise fine article recently published in Economics and Human Biology on infant mortality in Armenia by Hakobyan, Mkrtchyan and Yepiskoposyan. These relate first, to the reliability of estimates and trends in infant mortality estimated from DHS data; second, to the interpretation of what the authors consider to be a ‘low’ infant mortality rate in former communist countries given their level of economic development; and third, to the role of the health care infrastructure in countries of the former Soviet Union in producing these ‘low’ infant mortality levels. This comment argues that trends in infant mortality in Armenia and other CIS countries, although probably declining, are perhaps less certain than the authors allow, that existing evidence does not suggest that they are uniformly low by global standards, or that the health care systems in CIS countries are uniformly effective in reducing infant deaths.     

Small but Manifold – Hidden Diversity in “Spumella‐like Flagellates”

Colourless, nonscaled chrysophytes comprise morphologically similar or even indistinguishable flagellates which are important bacterivors in water and soil crucial for ecosystem functioning. However, phylogenetic analyses indicate a multiple origin of such colourless, nonscaled flagellate lineages. These flagellates are often referred to as “Spumella‐like flagellates” in ecological and biogeographic studies. Although this denomination reflects an assumed polyphyly, it obscures the phylogenetic and taxonomic diversity of this important flagellate group and, thus, hinders progress in lineage‐ and taxon‐specific ecological surveys. The smallest representatives of colourless chrysophytes have been addressed in very few taxonomic studies although they are among the dominant flagellates in field communities. To overcome the blurred picture and set the field for further investigation in biogeography and ecology of the organisms in question, we studied a set of strains of specifically small, colourless, nonscaled chrysomonad flagellates by means of electron microscopy and molecular analyses. They were isolated by a filtration‐acclimatisation approach focusing on flagellates of around 5 μm. We present the phylogenetic position of eight different lineages on both the ordinal and the generic level. Accordingly, we describe the new genera Apoikiospumella, Chromulinospumella, Segregatospumella, Cornospumella and Acrispumella Boenigk et Grossmann n. g. and different species within them.