Tech
A UBC researcher is using her latest study to question whether soil additives are worth their salt.
Miranda Hart, who teaches biology at UBC's Okanagan campus, says despite a decades-long practice, there could be environmental consequences of adding bio-fertilizers into soil. It's common practice for farmers to use bio-fertilizers as a method to improve crop production. These added microorganisms will live in the soil, creating a natural and healthy growing environment.
(Gothenburg, Sweden): Industry fire-safety experts from the oil and gas and aviation sectors are joining with firefighter trade unions to urge governments to protect human health and the environment with a global ban on the toxic chemical, PFOA, and to reject loopholes for its use in firefighting foams. The use of PFOA and other fluorinated organic compounds (PFAS) is widespread across many industrial and domestic applications including textiles, food packaging, stain and oil resistant treatments, and industrial processes.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Not everything about glass is clear. How its atoms are arranged and behave, in particular, is startlingly opaque.
The problem is that glass is an amorphous solid, a class of materials that lies in the mysterious realm between solid and liquid. Glassy materials also include polymers, or commonly used plastics. While it might appear to be stable and static, glass' atoms are constantly shuffling in a frustratingly futile search for equilibrium. This shifty behavior has made the physics of glass nearly impossible for researchers to pin down.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new study has researchers hopeful that a ketogenic diet could prove useful in the military, where obesity is an ongoing challenge, both in terms of recruiting soldiers and keeping them fit for service.
The Ohio State University study included 29 people, most of whom were members of the campus ROTC. For three months, 15 of the participants followed a ketogenic diet and a comparison group of 14 peers ate their normal diet.
WASHINGTON - The array of toxic pollutants in California drinking water could cause more than 15,000 cases of cancer, according to a peer-reviewed EWG study that is the first ever to assess the cumulative risk from all contaminants in the state's public water systems.
In a paper published today in the journal Environmental Health, EWG scientists used a novel analytical method that calculated the combined health impacts of carcinogens and other toxic contaminants in 2,737 community water systems in California.
BALTIMORE - An estimated 5 percent of all children under the age of five were missed in the 2010 U.S. Census. A plenary during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2019 Meeting in Baltimore will address the impact this significant undercount had, how the Census relates to health care resources and the role pediatricians, clinics, hospitals and communities can play to help make sure all children are counted in the 2020 Census.
Physics and Chemistry scholars from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) have invented a new method which could speed up the drug discovery process and lead to the production of higher quality medicinal drugs which are purer and have no side effects. The technique, which is a world-first breakthrough, uses a specific nanomaterial layer to detect the target molecules in pharmaceuticals and pesticides in just five minutes.
Teams all over the world are working intensively on the development of perovskite solar cells. The focus is on what are known as metal-organic hybrid perovskites whose crystal structure is composed of inorganic elements such as lead and iodine as well as an organic molecule.
Milan, Italy: A single high dose of radiation that can be delivered directly to the tumour within a few minutes is a safe and effective technique for treating men with low risk prostate cancer, according to a study presented at the ESTRO 38 conference.
Radiotherapy traditionally involves a series of lower dose treatments that take place over several days or week. The new treatment is called high dose-rate brachytherapy and it delivers radiation via a set of tiny tubes.
Like memories in computers, quantum memories are essential components for quantum computers - a new generation of data processors that obey quantum mechanics laws and can overcome the limitations of classical computers. They may push boundaries of fundamental science and help create new drugs, explain cosmological mysteries, or enhance accuracy of forecasts and optimization plans with their potent computational power.
Women who have undergone weight-loss surgery appear to be at higher risk of developing complications during pregnancy, and their babies seem more likely to be born prematurely, small for gestational age, have congenital anomalies and be admitted to intensive care, according to the most comprehensive assessment of how bariatric surgery affects pregnancy outcomes, being presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Glasgow, UK (28 April-1 May).
BALTIMORE - A new study aims to determine the underlying etiology of seizures and help to target therapy, improve control of seizures, and potentially reduce morbidities in children. Findings from the study will be presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2019 Meeting, taking place on April 24 - May 1 in Baltimore.
New analysis by academics from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), part of the University of Oxford, predicts the dead may outnumber the living on Facebook within fifty years, a trend that will have grave implications for how we treat our digital heritage in the future.
BALTIMORE - A new study found that personal gun access was associated with depression, suicidal ideation and perceiving school as unsafe, while attending a school where gun access was common was associated with lower odds of perceiving school as unsafe. Findings from the study will be presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2019 Meeting, taking place on April 24 - May 1 in Baltimore.
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT engineers have designed tiny robots that can help drug-delivery nanoparticles push their way out of the bloodstream and into a tumor or another disease site. Like crafts in "Fantastic Voyage" -- a 1960s science fiction film in which a submarine crew shrinks in size and roams a body to repair damaged cells -- the robots swim through the bloodstream, creating a current that drags nanoparticles along with them.