• POSTnote

    Nutritional standards in UK schools, July 2009

    In 2006, 617 million school meals were served in England alone. The situation regarding school meals differs in the constituent countries of the UK. In England, new legislation on minimum nutritional standards in schools began in 2008 in primary schools and will come into force in secondary schools by September 2009. It consists of food- and nutrient-based standards for school food. The devolved administrations have already implemented similar legislation and face similar issues in improving school food. This note outlines children's nutritional requirements, the take-up of school meals in the UK, the capacity to enforce the standards and the impact of children's diet on behaviour and learning.

  • POSTnote

    The dual-use dilemma, July 2009

    This note examines three scientific areas posing a significant risk of misuse and considers how to tackle dual-use dilemmas in these and other areas.

  • POSTnote

    Arctic changes, June 2009

    This POSTnote summarises the environmental change occurring in the Arctic and its potential impact on the global climate, future commercial activities and Arctic governance.

  • POSTnote

    Crop protection, June 2009

    The pesticide approvals process in Europe is changing. This POSTnote explores the potential implications for UK agriculture and horticulture and examines other crop protection strategies available that complement or compensate for pesticides.

  • POSTnote

    Geo-engineering research, March 2009

    There is evidence that efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases may be insufficient to avert unacceptable levels of climate change; global emission levels are currently higher than even the highest scenario produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2001). Geo-engineering seeks to use global scale engineering to offset the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. This POSTnote summarises the arguments relating to research funding for geoengineering.

  • POSTnote

    Lessons from history, January 2009

    In the past decade, the government has repeatedly emphasised the importance of taking an "evidence-based" approach to policy-making. In 2006, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee welcomed the government's progress in integrating scientific evidence into decision making. However, despite increasing use of evidence from the natural and social sciences, evidence from humanities disciplines such as history is not widely used. This POSTnote considers how history could help to inform decisions on key scientific and technological policy issues.

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