ESA launches new project to protect biodiversity
...f grave importance for sustaining the planet's six billion people. The loss of biodiversity threatens our food supplies, energy and medicines. For instance, up to 80% of the world's population currently relies on plant and animal-based medicines for their primary health care needs. The sustainable use of bio...Nanotech safety needs specific government risk research strategy and funding
...Maynard's analysis, despite investing more than $1 billion annually on nanotechnology research, U.S. government spending on highly relevant nanotechnology risk research is only $11 million per year....ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 20, 2006
...folding controversy about aspirin -- more than 100 billion tablets of which are produced worldwide each year -- might quip, "Well, doctor, should I take Form I or Form II?" An article scheduled for the Jan.1 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the ACS' weekly newsmagazine, discusses the controversy that h...How many genes does it take to learn? Lessons from sea slugs
...easily identified, compared with about one hundred billion neurons in humans - the animal is capable of learn...network. "In the human brain there are a hundred billion neurons, each expressing at least 18,000 genes, and the level of expression of each gene is differen...Treatments for urinary infections leave bacteria bald, happy and vulnerable
...of the most common infections, causing around $1.6 billion in medical expenses every year in the United States. Scientists believe 90 percent of all UTIs, which have been linked to poor hygiene, sexual behavior, and migration of intestinal flora, are caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli). Half ...CellSearch System cleared for monitoring metastatic breast cancer
...ity to locate one circulating tumor cell in the 40 billion cells contained in a 7.5 ml sample of blood an achievement no other diagnostic approach has been able to accomplish. The CellSearchTM System was cleared by the FDA in January 2004 as a diagnostic tool for identifying and counting CTCs in a blood s...Linchpin discovered in insulin metabolism
...unction that it has hardly changed in just under a billion years: it is found in flies, but in a similar form it is also found in mice and humans. In the current issue of the prestigious journal Nature the Bonn researchers have published two articles on this topic. Sometimes science resembles a relay race:...Experts advise world policies to cope with causes, rising consequences of creeping desertification
...environmental crisis that threatens an estimated 2 billion people living in arid places, and a growing concer...loping country populations; Sequester up to 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year from the global atmosphere (and curb the 1 billion metric to...Microbe fixes nitrogen at a blistering 92 degree Celsius
...acteria, archaea and eukaryotes diverged some 3.5 billion years ago, according to oceanographer Mausmi Mehta, who recently received her doctorate from the UW, and John Baross, UW professor of oceanography. This is opposed to the theory that the nitrogenase system arose within archaea and was later transferr...UCSF stem cell study reveals cells' capability in mouse brain tissue repair
...lished by California voters in 2004 to allocate $3 billion over 10 years to support stem cell research. "The results were very surprising," says Kuo. "Our results show that neural stem cells in mice have the ability to sense damage in their environment that leads to their subsequent proliferation to help ...Nalco Company and Argonne National
...ntial to power plants, which consume more than 100 billion gallons daily in the United States. Advances in technology have the potential to reduce fossil fuel power plant water withdrawal and consumption, leading to more efficient use of water and energy. "Coal-based power plants have re-emerged as the pr...U of Illinois professor tout health benefits of Hispanic foods and beverages
...jia, the market for nutraceutical beverages is $60 billion and growing. "The new trend for companies in the beverage industry is to mix tea with soft drinks for a unique flavor and added health benefits. You can taste the tea in the new product. Its bubbly, its different, but people seem to like it," she sai...Study finds oysters can take heat and heavy metals, but not both
...t their concentrations occur at only few parts per billion quantities long assumed to be too low to threaten marine life. We have looked at oysters metabolism, and have found out that their respiration rate increases when they are exposed to cadmium at environmentally relevant levels, as the organism spen...American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- December 6, 2006
...s, and involves health care costs in excess of $26 billion annually. Intra-amniotic infection (IAI) is an important and potentially preventable cause of preterm birth, responsible for one-half of extremely preterm births and very low birth-weight babies. In the study, reported in the Jan. 5 issue of the m...Queen bee promiscuity boosts hive health
...epers, whose honeybees bring revenues of about $20 billion a year in the United States for pollinating services. Beekeepers could boost the health of their colonies, say the researchers, by promoting the queens' promiscuity by providing plentiful drones where queens are mating....Finding an answer to Darwin's Dilemma
...ings reported today shed light on why, after three billion years of mostly single-celled evolution, these large animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record. In a paper published on-line in Science Express, Dr. Narbonnes team argues that a huge increase in oxygen following the Gaskiers Glaciation 580 mi...Research highlights how farmers' agri-environment schemes could do more for wildlife
...y. European agri-environment schemes received 24 billion euros in funding from 1992 to 2003 and in England 123 million has been spent on one scheme alone so far (the Environmental Stewardship scheme - Entry Level Scheme). A typical scheme may involve farmers planting and maintaining hedgerows, limiting p...MIT: Engineered yeast speeds ethanol production
... into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Last year, four billion gallons of ethanol were produced from 1.43 billion bushels of corn grain (including kernels, stalks, leaves, cobs, husks) in the United States, accordi...Nanotechnology: The story behind the headlines
...corporations and venture capitalists spending $9.6 billion annually on nanotechnology research and development, and with an estimated $2.6 trillion in global manufactured goods incorporating nanotechnologyor about 15% of total outputexpected by 2014, there is a lot at stake in how these questions are answere......into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Last year, four billion gallons of ethanol were produced from 1.43 billion bushels of corn grain (including kernels, stalks, leaves, cobs, husks) in the United States, accordi...