Search Results for: Research

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN scientists have successfully developed a synthetic virus in only two weeks, creating a breakthrough technique encouraging researchers to believe that they may within 10 years be able to create viruses large enough to eat pollution and even create hydrogen fuel as a by-product.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BINDING energy conservation targets have been proposed for European Union (EU) Member States by the European Commission, a move that could further tighten fuel economy rules for Europe’s transport sector. Brussels has proposed a general energy saving target of one per cent a year from 2006-12, measured against average energy distribution from the previous five years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SUB-PAR job performance due to pain, rather than absenteeism, costs US employers more than US$60 billion per year in lost productivity, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Headaches were the most frequently cited medical condition causing problems at work, followed by back pain, foot pain, arthritis and other joint and muscle aches.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TOBACCO industry is facing another assault from the European Union (EU), this time at the hands of a new environment and health strategy for 2004-2010 being developed by the European Commission and which has already received approval in principal from the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved a European Commission plan to increase the amount of European Union (EU) funding for cross-border telecommunications infrastructure installation via its e-TEN (trans-European networks) programme. MEPs backed boosting the maximum proportion of a project’s deployment costs that can be sourced from e-TENs budgets from 10 to 30 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve a detailed fishing access deal allowing EU fishing boats access to the Atlantic fishing waters off west Africa’a Guinea Bissau until June 2006. Under the agreement, licences to fish shrimp will be granted to Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek vessels, with boats from Spain (enjoying the overwhelming majority of rights), Italy and Greece being allowed to take fin-fish/cephalopods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW) and the Organisation of American States have struck a deal, leading them to cooperate in the publicising of health and safety best practice that can be applied on both sides of the Atlantic.…

Keith Nuthall
AIRPORT security is to be a priority subject for studies funded by a proposed European Union research programme commanding Euro 65 million from 2004-6. An expert industry, government and academic group has been formed to advise the European Commission on how it should spend this money, which would also finance some military and general security research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNET related networks designed to boost security in the wake of the September 11 attacks should be scrapped if they are excessively eroding privacy, a report from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has claimed. Ordered by the European Parliament, the study “Security and Privacy for the Citizen in the Post-September 11 Digital Age: A Prospective Overview” suggests that “privacy-invasive” measures resulting from the Al Qaeda assault should be “temporary and limited”.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane
AUSTRALIAN researchers have developed a pilot plant that will sterilise ships’ ballast water. This technology, invented by researchers from the Cooperative Research Centre for Reefs, at James Cook University in Queensland, is undergoing tests in Townsville.…