Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised to negotiate a cooperation agreement with China on developing peaceful uses of nuclear energy. With the decision following Beijing’s move to become involved in the international fusion energy project ITER, one of the areas of joint-effort between the European Union (EU) and China will be “controlled thermonuclear fusion.”…

BY PHILIP FINE

A CANADIAN professor wants to know what makes the gecko stick to surfaces, research that will be used to promote the creation of artificial glues. In a series of experiments, University of Calgary’s Anthony Russell will try to capture the first close-up high-speed video footage of these reptiles’ footfalls, in order to see their unique stick-and-release dry adhesive system in action.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER utilities need to guard against the leaching of marine pollution through porous aquifers into freshwater groundwater sources, a European Union funded research project has warned. The Euro 2.4 million SALTRANS study has dismissed earlier assumptions that toxic organic pollutants are not sufficiently soluble to flow into groundwater reserves.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SCIENTISTS from Australia’s CSIRO, (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), have developed technology to produce electricity from waste coal unsuitable for normal power generation, and methane gas that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere.

The CSIRO-Liquatech system burns coal and methane in a kiln producing hot air, which is passed through a heat exchange unit to drive a gas turbine and produce power, which can supply a mine’s own electrical needs or power the national grid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DANISH scientists have developed a robot reducing the herbicide needed to kill off weeds during crop production. Offering advantages to food processors concerned about herbicide residues and input costs, the robot drives across a field, scanning the ground for weeds and noting their position.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government wants to limit pharmaceutical manufacturers to a one-month window in which to challenge a generic patent. Washington says multiple, consecutive patent challenges have been costing American billions of dollars in drugs costs. The Bush administration estimates that its planned regulatory changes will save consumers an estimated US$35 billion over 10 years.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN and Iranian governments have signed a protocol to cooperate in developing Iran’s coal industry. Russia’s energy ministry said it would work to improve all aspects of the industry, from coal production to processing. The Russians will initially help develop operations in the southern Iranian city of Yazd, the centre of Iran’s major coal producing region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission-funded research project has claimed that further reforms are required to the EU’s live exports legislation, concluding that stressful transport conditions are not only posing problems to animal welfare but also to meat quality and consumer perceptions of the industry.…

BY PHILIP FINE

BUPROPION, better known as Zyban, may help with smoking cessation, says a pharmaceutical industry-funded study from the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Research on 893 subjects found the anti-depressant tripled quit rates among women and smokers with a history of depression, as compared to those taking placebos.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…