Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROACTIVE competition inquiry has been launched into the European Union’s (EU) natural gas sector, with the aim of rooting out anti-competitive practices. If the European Commission discovers instances of gas companies breaking existing EU competition law, legal action could follow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is developing an information technology system that will provide real time advice to emergency services on reducing the damage from maritime disasters involving natural or man-made pollution. The DISMAR, or Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water Quality system is now being tested.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED studies from a series of collaborative projects on improving the groundwater aquifers of ‘Karst’ limestone coastal areas have been released by a group of scientists coordinated by Europe’s COST initiative (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical research).…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EXPOSING teens to anti-tobacco advertising in the United States has been proved to reduce smoking rates and increased anti-smoking attitudes, according to a study published in the USA’s Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Research indicated that 18.6% of students in states where anti-smoking ads were frequently shown reported having smoked in the past 30 days compared with 26.7% of those in markets with no exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS from the USA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have discovered that charred chicken faeces can be used as a filter to rid wastewater of heavy metals, such as hard to dispose of copper, cadmium and zinc. When burnt in an oxygen free environment, a spongy substance with a wide surface area is created that can be processed into pellets, granules and powders to accommodate different filters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS research unit has developed a solar power reactor storing the power of the sun in zinc batteries. The Paul Scherrer institute’s system concentrates the sun’s rays via mirrors onto zinc oxide ore, with a catalyst such as coal and coke.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is spending Euro 1.1 million on creating a sophisticated high-technology monitoring network for the Alps, aimed at helping local emergency services manage, reduce and mitigate the risks posed by avalanches, landslides and floods. Such natural disasters have the potential to be immensely destructive in Alpine regions, foisting heavy bills upon insurers, but the Commission’s ASSIST project is designed to reduce such physical and financial damage.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
MINISCULE wasps may one day be embraced by supermarket and food warehouse owners, because it has been discovered that their snack of choice is the pesky Indianmeal moth. Scientists from the USA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), found that using the harmless and virtually invisible Trichogramma wasps in conjunction with the also tiny Habrobracon wasp, can prevent foods such as grains, cereals and petfoods from being infested by the moths.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and its member states should gove more priority to fighting infectious diseases, an international working group of experts has claimed. Writing for the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC), the report said EU governments should better coordinate their actions against a problem that respects no political borders.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has ploughed ahead with approving a third money laundering directive, proving that it can sometimes act decisively and – say some critics – bloody-mindedly. Keith Nuthall reports.

JUST weeks before EU presidents and prime ministers infamously failed at a summit in Brussels to agree a future budget, European justice and home affairs ministers approved a key anti-crime law.…