Search Results for: Research

BY MONICA DOBIE
DESPITE its emerging trendiness in Mediterranean (and more northern) cafes, and contrary to popular belief, smoking a hookah or water pipe is actually worse for your health and can impart more nicotine than cigarettes, according to a recent study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EU-funded research programme is developing methods for extracting usable compounds from fruit waste. The EXTRANAT scheme seeks to secure vitamins, anti-oxidants, or dietetic fibre that have anti-cancer and heart health-protecting properties, using liquefied gas as a solvent.…

BY MARK ROWE
OVERSHADOWING the Japanese paint industry in recent years has been the overall shape of the country’s economy. The stagnation of the economy lasted for much of the 1990s but it showed signs of recovery in the first half of fiscal 2004-2005, driven by solid exports and strong corporate capital investment.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN researchers have developed a sunscreen made of soybeans. The sun-protecting active ingredient of biodegradeable SoyScreen, created by scientists from the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS), is ferulic acid, an antioxidant also found in rice, oats and other plants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE USE of more and increasingly sophisticated monitoring equipment to detect radioactive steel scrap, that might otherwise be melted and cause health problems for workers and the public, has been urged by a European Commission report. It warns: “The problem of rogue sources shows no sign of diminishing”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCH programmes funded by the European Union (EU) into fighting malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis have been listed and described in a new manual issued by the European Commission. Focusing on the work of the outgoing 2002-6 sixth framework programme in research, the manual says it has released Euro 289 million on studies fighting these diseases.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AIR travel may give you thrombosis but sometimes it can also deliver real gains to medical science. A group of European scientists has discovered an odd fact: that air passing over an aircraft’s wing to give it lift behaves like blood circulating in a human body when it meets an implanted device.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
NEW American research has blamed increased hospital patient and staff stress, plus a higher risk of medical errors, on rising levels of noise in medical facilities. Acoustic researchers at the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, found that since 1960, average daytime hospital sound levels worldwide have risen from 57 decibels to 72 and night-time levels from 42 decibels to 60, exceeding the World Health Organisation hospital noise guideline maximum of 35 decibels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is boosting the development of new ‘membrane bioreactor’ systems to cleanse municipal waste water, by reducing the cost of installing and operating these effective devices. It is funding two research projects, ‘AMEDEUS’ and ‘EUROMBRA’, which aim to replace conventional technologies, because membrane systems completely disinfect treated water, better eliminating trace substances.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCH programmes funded by the European Union (EU) into fighting malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis have been listed and described in a new manual issued by the European Commission. Focusing on the work of the outgoing 2002-6 sixth framework programme in research, the manual says it has released Euro 289 million on studies fighting these diseases.…