The paper focuses on the role of geographical indication in supporting strategies of food safety. Starting from the distinction between generic and specific quality, the article analyses the main factors influencing food safety in cases of geographical indication products, by stressing the importance of traceability systems and biodiversity in securing generic and specific quality. In the secon...

The typology of Yiddish and the name Ashkenaz cannot serve as arguments to support the theory put forward by Das et al. (2016) (Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to primeval villages in the ancient Iranian lands of Ashkenaz. Genome Biol Evol 8:1132-1149.) that the origin of Ashkenazic Jews can be located in ancient Iran. Yiddish is a Germanic, not a Slavic language. The history of the use of the term ...

Current breast cancer classification systems are based on molecular evaluation of tumor receptor status and do not account for distinct morphological phenotypes. In other types of cancer, taxonomy based on normal cell phenotypes has been extremely useful for diagnosis and treatment strategies. In this issue of the JCI, Santagata and colleagues developed a breast cancer classification scheme bas...

The literature on rheumatic diseases is enormous; yet the whole subject seems to be shrouded in a fog, while treatment furnishes the most lucrative field for quackery of every kind. The differentiation and nomenclature of the conditions commonly grouped together under the designation ' rheumatic' still furnishes the ground for differences of opinion which only bewilder a general practitioner. D...

While Darwin’s first major work, On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, is generally considered as the birth document of the theory of evolution, studies on and around this book often overlook the fact that the word evolution itself is rarely used by the author and thus complicates any attempt to properly analyze th...

This paper provides an overview of a FAIR research project into the specific conditions and institutional requirements for the development of PDO and PGI products (Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication). Twenty-one supply chains in seven countries are analysed (France, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, UK, Spain and Switzerland). The primary factor in success is the ca...

Serra da Estrela Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese is the most famous Portuguese cheese and has a high commercial value. However, the adulteration of production with cheaper/lower-quality milks from non-autochthones ovine breeds compromises the quality of the final product and undervalues the original PDO cheese. A Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method was developed for ef...