BAD news is a journalist’s bread and butter, a fact that is regularly pointed out by those who blame television, newspapers and magazines for filling their world with stories and pictures of doom and gloom. It is heartening, then, when the doom-mongering pays off and has a positive effect on people’s lives.
Almost a year ago we reported on how a virulent strain of fungus was threatening the wheat harvests on which billions of people depend for survival (New Scientist, 7 April 2007, p 6). We now understand that the article alerted the Chinese leadership to the peril and…
