2008 NOMINEE The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Award for a Significant Work in Botanical or Horticultural Literature now we have easier and better access to grass data than ever before in human history. That is a marked step forward. Congratulazioni Professor Quattrocchi!-Daniel F. Austin, writing in Economic Botany &n

The book provides an introduction to the basics of fungi, discussing various types ranging from edible mushrooms to Neurospora – a model system for genetics and epigenetics. After addressing the classification and biodiversity of fungi, and fungi in different ecological niches, it describes the latest applications of fungi, their role in sustainable environments and in alleviating stress in plants, as well as their role in causing plant and animal diseases. Further chapters explore the advances in fungal interactions research and their implications for various systems, and discuss plant-pathogen interactions. The book also features a section on bioprospecting, and is an extremely interesting and informative read for anybody involved in the field of mycology, microbiology and biotechnology teaching and research.

The classic case for why government must support science—with a new essay by physicist and former congressman Rush Holt on what democracy needs from science today Science, the Endless Frontier is recognized as the landmark argument for the essential role of science in society and government’s responsibility to support scientific endeavors. First issued when Vannevar Bush was the director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, this classic remains vital in making the case that scientific progress is necessary to a nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Bush’s vision set the course for US science policy for more than half a century, building the world’s most productive scientific enterprise. Today, amid a changing funding landscape and challenges to science’s very credibility, Science, the Endless Frontier resonates as a powerful reminder that scientific progress and public well-being alike depend on the successful symbiosis between science and government. This timely new edition presents this iconic text alongside a new companion essay from scientist and former congressman Rush Holt, who offers a brief introduction and consideration of what society needs most from science now. Reflecting on the report’s legacy and relevance along with its limitations, Holt contends that the public’s ability to cope with today’s issues—such as public health, the changing climate and environment, and challenging technologies in modern society—requires a more capacious understanding of what science can contribute. Holt considers how scientists should think of their obligation to society and what the public should demand from science, and he calls for a renewed understanding of science’s value for democracy and society at large. A touchstone for concerned citizens, scientists, and policymakers, Science, the Endless Frontier endures as a passionate articulation of the power and potential of science.

Herbs and herbal products are of paramount importance for human health. To beable to guarantee safety and quality, standards and testing methods are needed.Pharmacopoeias contain quality control protocols setting the standards which arethen required by governments. The quality traits are many, including the intrinsicvariables of medicinal plant, e.g. the levels of the active compounds, and the absenceof possibly natural occurring toxic compounds. On the other hand, many qualitytraits are related to agricultural conditions and practices, or to the harvesting andpost-harvest processing. With so many variables, quality control of the end productbecomes extremely complex, time consuming and costly. To ensure the quality ofmedicinal plants for human consumption quality management -the use of “goodpractices” at each step, from seed to final product- becomes a crucial aspect. In general, quality control includes the inspection of the product’s identity, purity,and content, based on its physical, chemical or biological properties. To ensure thequality of herbal medications, criteria such as botanical quality, type of preparation,physical constants, adulteration, contaminants, chemical constituents, pesticidesresidues et al. should be examined. Meanwhile, authentication of herbs is neededto avoid possible adulteration or contaminating plants, even toxic herbs such asAristolochia species. Many of the methods are long standing, such as microscopy incombination with color reactions, but some 50 years ago chromatography developedas a major tool for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of herbal preparations.Nowadays, research is working on the improvement of these methods and on thedevelopment of novel tools. For instance, next generation sequencing and mass spectrometry imaging, areemerging as new technologies for the quality control of herbal medicines. Withthese technologies, quick testing of herbal products and of mixed herbal powderpreparations, including the testing for specific plant parts (botanical drugs), can beachieved. Also, novel chemical tools such as metabolomics and Near Infrared Red(NIR) spectroscopy are being developed as powerful tools to identify and to linkthese with activity by using chemometric tools such as multivariate analysis. Finally,progress of informatic tools such as machine learning helps to deal with the big datagenerated by sequencing or mass spectrometry. However, these new technologies,like all other new born technologies, should be tested and perfected for a broaderrange of products.