Tapir Research at Belum-Temenggor Forest Reserve

French scientists now study on tapir ecology in Belum, Perak. The project is sponsored by French Government. I am looking for one PhD candidate from Malaysia to work together with PhD candidate from France. unfortunately I cannot get even one candidate from Malaysia except two undergraduate students. BUT now I got one candidate from Japan, Miss Yuko TAWA (picture above) from Wildlife Research Center, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. Another opportunity to expand existing collaboration with Kyoto University.

Tapir usually solitary but very lucky this time we got two. Picture from camera trap set by Miss Yuko Tawa during my trip to Belum-Temenggor recently. Meaning the tapirs are still there and we need an urgent information, protection and conservation before too late. MNS is working hard because it is a logo for MNS.

 

Intellectuality, maturity, integrity, attitude and culture in academic society. Usually in academic society we look at the ideas and the best way to do thing. Not arguing on the best practice. We usually don't look at the way or style of delivering ideas but how good of the ideas and how far the ideas can improve something. Especially among the scientists. We are still in conflict between normal culture and scientific culture. OR we are too lazy to change.

If we want to be infront we must be proactive and ready to change. Any element of changes we need to take advantage. As I mention somewhere in my blog do not argue too long or thinking too far when we are going or ask to implement something good. Be open and ready to change.

We have the experts and facilities but we are not brave enough, proactive and leading. We like to follow others

New technology and techniques can answer many issues and giving new ideas, What happen to macaques in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand? Need more research.

Arsenic in chicken: a conflict between production, high income, food security, quality food and human health. We definately need experts to advice all this problems. Who suppose to do it if no expert to supervise.

We need to develop easy, sensitive, friendly and practical method to analyse analyse arsenic in the environment. Analytical chemist is needed. Why they keep changing fields and hunting for applied and recognise areas that more money and high impact factor journals. Just focus on method development and helps others such as biologist, environmentalist and toxicologist/ecotoxicologist.

The company that manufactures an animal drug that has been used since the 1940s to fatten up chickens is voluntarily halting sales of the drug, following a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report. The FDA study was prompted by scientific reports showing that organic arsenic, which is the form of arsenic in 3-Nitro, could be converted to the more toxic inorganic arsenic from in the environment

http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/1365-arsenic-children-fda-drug.html

Knowledge on toxicology, ecotoxicology are very important in human and environmental health. BUT why no acknowledgement for those involve in this field especially those who introduce this subject in Malaysia.

Arsenic In Rice: How Does Toxic Element Get Inside Grain? As we know arsenic is toxic and need to be monitored its existence in food by the authority. The question is do we have the knowledge on arsenic toxicity and do we know how to measure it, do we have people to do it? We need to train knowledgeble and skills workers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/arsenic-rice-toxic-element-inside-grain_n_1900654.html

Scientists have been aware for years that rice is a major source of dietary arsenic, but Consumer Reports is leveraging a new study, which found arsenic in a wide range of rice products, to urge the Food and Drug Administration to set limits on arsenic levels in rice. The findings show that inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen, is present in more than 60 popular rice products, including Kellogg's Rice Krispies, Gerber baby food and multiple varieties of Uncle Ben's rice.
As grains of rice take in arsenic, they accumulate a disproportionate amount in their outer hulls, which are stripped off if the grains are refined into white rice. This is why brown rice, which has some nutritional benefits when compared with white rice, has been found to contain more arsenic

RM600 millions was allocated for Research University to focus on nanotechnology, automotive, biotechnology and aerospace. Hopefully the university will plan wisely the allocations so that many new ideas can be implemented and not copying and repeating old ideas from other developed countries.

For food security, health, environment and high income society, focus on local products need to be given a priority. Not just on productivity but the detail science on the local fruits, cerals and other new food products. Studies on basic biology of the individual species at nano levels are important to support better productivity and security.