Search Results for: Research

BY EDWARD PETERS
THE PAST decade has seen China grasp an increasing share of the world’s cosmetic packaging industry. Low production prices and international manufacturing standards — to say nothing of an increasing appreciation of the beauty business — have all contributed to the People’s Republic upping its packaging profile.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers are experimenting with co-firing plastic waste with coal in the blast furnace iron-making process. If the trials are successful this technique will – said the Australian government – provide a way to dispose of large volumes of plastic waste, whilst benefiting the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission-funded research project is developing an integrated sales, production and storage system for small-and-medium sized timber businesses, which have difficulty serving a number of niche markets simultaneously. The IN-TIME project involves eight companies covering the whole timber supply chain, coordinated by UK software design house MJC2.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AN ONLINE database of information on how pathogenic bacteria respond to different environmental conditions in food has been established by Britain’s Institute of Food Research and the Eastern Regional Research Centre’s Microbial Food Safety Research Unit, in the United States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL study involving 40 research facilities is trying to discover whether there is one key cause of all degenerative neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. The APOPIS (abnormal proteins in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders) project has received Euro 9 million in European Union research funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE USE of acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) as a plasticiser in children’s toys is not only safe, but current risk assessment models are reliable, European Union (EU) scientists have ruled. The European Commission’s scientific committee on toxicity, ecotoxicity and the environment (CSTEE) has concluded that Toxicology/Regulatory Services Inc.’s…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AN INNOVATION in optical fibre technology developed in Australia has opened the way for an advance in medical imaging inside the human body, as well as significantly speeding up the capacity of personal computers. The development of hollow optic fibres made from Perspex has been achieved by a team from the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre (APCRC) and the University of Sydney’s Optical Fibre Technology Centre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INITIAL results from the world’s largest ever study into whether mobile phone use causes cancer suggest that the technology is safe. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says that research carried out in Denmark, forming part of the global INTERPHONE study, has concluded: “Use of a cell phone for 10 years or more did not increase acoustic neuroma risk over that of short term users.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
A NEW volcanic gas and ash detector created by Australian scientists could enable the airport and airline industries to save both money and lives. The ‘Ground-based Infra-Red Detection’ (G-bIRD) system is being developed by Australia’s CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the country’s Tenix Defence Electronic Systems division.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers are exploring the future use of waste plastics to help create fuel when combined with coal. The project at the Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development might be a solution to ridding the world of tonnes of plastic waste.…