science, health & technology

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WHO approves indoor use of DDT
The science of political polling and its potential for abuse
First World illness: the maladies that Europeans get
The good news is that Panama has no goldenrod or ragweed...

In Panama we have no goldenrod or ragweed...

We do, however, have elephant grass, known in Panamanian Spanish as paja canalera, to make many hay fever sufferers miserable. This tall grass, which was brought into this country from Vietnam in the 1950s by the old Panama Canal Company to shore up the banks of Culebra Cut, is in bloom right now and many of us are walking around with watery eyes and stuffy sinuses. The elephant grass has proven to be a major agricultural pest and a factor in deforestation, because it's highly invasive and will take over any unshaded field that is left fallow. Photo by Eric Jackson