Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CHALLENGE to the extension of copyright protection after an author’s death in the United States, from 50 to 70 years, is to be heard by the US Supreme Court this year, with a decision being issued from October onwards.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AN AUSTRALIAN company has made a breakthrough in developing insect-repellent clothing. In tests, cloth samples impregnated with a synthetic pyrethroid repellent killed most mosquitoes before they even touched the material.

Its manufacturing method applies the chemicals with the softeners onto the fabric and becomes part of the chemical finish on the treated textile.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW report on the development of photovoltaics (PV) has been published by the European Commission, which recommends that new electricity storage technologies need to be adapted for use by this developing alternative electricity production method and also suggests ways to reduce the high price of developing this energy source.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
RESEARCHERS in Alberta, Canada, have discovered a novel and potentially revolutionary way to simultaneously sanitise two environmental hazards common to all oil producing regions that are also home to extensive beef industries: hydrocarbon contaminated earth and cattle dung.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
Australian researchers have invented a super-microscope that minutely examines the chemical components of a wide range of minerals and then produces a clear image to work from.

It is being hailed as a breakthrough by geologists and mining companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCLUDING that the health of between 100,000 to 200,000 people is still at risk because of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, a United Nations report has called for an international fight against the resulting pollution.

The joint study involving agencies such as the UN Development Programme and the World Health Organisation has claimed that 2,000 people have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer because of the explosion, and as many as 8,000 to 10,000 cases are expected to develop it over the coming years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROAD safety initiative has been launched by the European Commission, which has formally proposed a new directive laying down European Union-wide standards for the installation of additional rear view mirrors and other vision systems, including cameras, for motor vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NETWORK of noise experts funded by the European Union’s fifth framework programme for research is drawing up a plan for future noise research, to support the preparation of a new European Commission directive on the assessment and management of environmental noise.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
SCIENTISTS in Queensland, Australia, have been experimenting with crustacean blood lines to breed prawne that grow faster and produce the biggest specimens; they can now produce one measuring 30cm in length and weighing more than 450g.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN meat producers in Alberta are using their livestock excrement to heal contaminated soil caused by leaks from oil and gas exploration.

Researchers at colleges in Lethbridge and Olds, Alberta, have found that contaminated earth mixed with raw cattle or poultry manure, which was turned repeatedly to introduce oxygen to the mix, developed micro-organisms, (fungus and molds), getting to work to break down hardened hydrocarbons.…