Search Results for: Research

BY PHILIP FINE

THE RISK to consumers of tasting raw cookie dough, eating food with homemade mayonnaise or a prepared hollandaise sauce is that the raw eggs in these products can make you sick if they carry traces of salmonella. The US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) says it has just lessened that risk by developing a new vaccine that increases antibodies in the hens’ intestines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Health Organisation agency has concluded that chewing betel quid causes cancer, whether or not tobacco is included in the ‘pan’ mix especially popular with ethnic south Asians. It came to the same conclusion regarding another popular chewing ingredient, the areca nut.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US National Institute on Drug Abuse has released research that may assist smokers who have tried quit tobacco but have been stymied by treatments currently available. Its scientists not only developed a new vaccine that reduced rats’ behavioural response to nicotine, but they were able to administer it without any other substance.…

BY PHILIP FINE

FOOD production always starts with the farmer. It’s a truism that we all know, but sometimes needs restating; the desires of the consumer, often fed by the marketing acumen of the retailer, guide primary producers as to how, what and how much to plant and breed.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SELECTIVELY breeding beef herds from good-tempered cattle produces better tasting beef and saves money, according to Australian research. Project Leader, Dr Heather Burrow said the Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Beef Quality has found a positive relationship between ‘cool-headed’ cattle, improved productivity levels and meat quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCHERS from the leather industry are being invited to gather with their colleagues from the textile, pulp and paper sectors in a European Union workshop focusing on their recycling of water and the treatment of wastewater. The September 18 and 19 meeting in Copenhagen is being organised by the EU-funded PANATEX project.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
BUILDINGS and lives may be safer during a fire thanks to a unique polymer being developed in Australia that turns into a ceramic when exposed to fire. Its inventors say that there is a wide range of applications for the material in passive fire protection, including as door and window seals, fire barriers and in fire rated electrical cables.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A team from the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald have designed an experimental fuel cell that generates electricity when bacteria, in this case Escherichia coli (E. coli), feed on sugar. The resulting output is enough to power a medical ventilator or similar appliance.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
INDIAN scientists have developed a test to detect Bt genes in genetically modified cotton plants, because of concerns about the sale of fake Bt seeds. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research said its test would help quality assurance programmes, including large-scale screening.…

BY PHILIP FINE

HEALTH claims about nuts can now be made following the release of a study finding that the regular consumption of nuts could reduce the risk of heart disease. The US Food and Drug Administration says that research has discovered a 47 per cent lower risk of sudden cardiac death for men who ate nuts at least twice a week compared to

those who rarely or never consumed nuts.…