Search Results for: Research

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THOUSANDS of tonnes of mildly radioactive steel could come onto the European market because of pressure on countries waiting to join the European Union to dismantle their decrepit Russian-built nuclear power stations. Aware of the need to assuage public distrust of even the lowest levels of radioactivity, the European Union’s Joint Research Centre is investigating the levels of radiation likely to be involved in this steel, taken from buildings that do not house the reactor itself.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEXICO and the United States made pledges on several food industry issues during recent two-day talks. The countries have agreed to work together on sanitary policies, animal health, food safety, and research. US-Mexico agricultural trade has doubled since 1993 to US$13 billion in 2001.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
ELECTRONIC noses being tested in Australia could be used to monitor smell levels from meat processing centres. The odour sentinels, created by the Centre for ChemoSensory Research, in Sydney, contain conductive material which detects smells above certain levels of intensity and can identify the source.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ROLAND Schenkel, the German former director of the European Union’s Joint Research Centre’s Karlsruhe institute has been appointed the organisation’s Deputy Director-General with special responsibility for nuclear studies and decommissioning.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it is spending Euro 20 million on research projects designed to unveil the real effects of endocrine disrupters on human health and the environment. Grants will be paid to 22 research teams from 10 European countries which will explore the effect of exposure from low doses and mixtures of disrupters on human beings, aquatic wildlife and laboratory animals, among other topics.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
THE FIRST steps have been taken towards making cigarettes – a cornerstone of small shop revenue – an under-the-counter product worldwide. Laws have already been passed in Canada and Ireland banning the public display of tobacco products, dismaying shopkeepers’ representatives.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SYDNEY is the “defamation capital of the English-speaking world” according to a British legal expert working in Australia’s largest city. Based on his research, figures show that one writ is served for every 79,000 people in the state of New South Wales; a higher rate than England, (one writ per 121,000 people), and much higher than the United States, where the proportion us one writ per 2.3 million people.…

BY MARK ROWE
DISPUTES over who owns an idea and the right to stop others from stealing it probably date back to the cavemen who invented the wheel. It was most likely resolved by the application of a large club to the head.…

BY MARK ROWE
FRENCH scientists may have found the first biological evidence that tobacco can make smokers less intelligent and more forgetful. Scientists at the Paris-based National Institute for Health and Medical Research found in tests on rats that the harmful nicotine in cigarettes destroys brain cells and impedes production of new ones.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
ELECTRONIC noses being developed in Australia are to be tested to monitor smell levels from factories; industry is being pressured to clean up its act with smell being a key issue.

The odour sentinels, created by the Centre for ChemoSensory Research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, stand like small sentry boxes sniffing out bad smells and alerting engineers automatically.It…