Futures Foundation

One difficulty faced by conservationists is getting hold of reliable statistics on the animals they are looking after.  For good reasion, many species of predators are rather shy. 

In a paper just published in Current Biology a small group of researchers describe a clever low-cost solution.

Their idea is to take another well-known difficulty of doing field work in tropical forests - the endless swarm of bloodsucking leeches - and turn it into a scientific tool.

Realising that leeches can go for months without food, they have taken to capturing leeches and examining the stomachs for DNA, and in the process identified a number of previously believed to be extinct species.

More about this work can be found in the current edition of the Economist:  http://www.economist.com/node/21554172

Michael Marien, long time editor of Future Search for the World Fuiture Society has created a new website summarising and analysing books focusing on the future.  Those who register at the wrebsite can receive a monthly email listing new books.  The website can be found at: http://www.globalforesightbooks.org/