2007 June

University of Nottingham scientists have been instrumental in helping to establish a pioneering branch of chemistry in Ethiopia.
They have helped to introduce Green Chemistry, an emerging field of sustainable science that will help African nations to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Green Chemistry - a field in which The University of Nottingham is a [...]

Most Americans now believe that global warming is happening, and they want the federal government to take action to limit its effects. But what form should that action take, and does support for action hold firm if people understand how much it may cost them financially?
To find out, New Scientist, Stanford University and Resources for [...]

In April 2007, the General Assembly of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations convened to discuss progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Patrick Webb, PhD, dean for academic affairs at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, presented on the status of the Millennium Development [...]

A research team has identified a new biological function for a soccer ball-shaped nanoparticle called a buckyball — the ability to block allergic response, setting the stage for the development of new therapies for allergy.
Allergic disease is the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States, and while various treatments have been developed [...]

Children and their teachers are already benefiting from online learning communities such as the Oracle Education Foundation’s Think.com, but there is a real opportunity for richer learning with such systems that is yet to be tapped.
Elizabeth Hartnell-Young of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham and freelance statistician Karen Corneille of Victoria, [...]

Official launch of location-aware service Plazes.com enables anyone to share their location and activities with others. Plazes lets its users stay on top of their friends and family’s whereabouts - anywhere in the world.
Plazes - the leading online community merging physical location with online communication - today announced the official launch of its service. Plazes [...]

No doubt you have seen them at plush weddings and other functions. The Tuxedo Strawberry is a delicacy that anyone can prepare.

Ingredients:

Eight ounces white chocolate chips

One tablespoon shortening

25 large strawberries with stems and leaves, chilled

Eight ounces semisweet chocolate chips

One tablespoon shortening

Directions:
Heat the white chocolate chips and one tablespoon shortening in a double boiler over hot [...]

In the Earth’s cold and icy far north, the harsh winters are giving way to spring weeks earlier than they did just a decade ago, researchers have reported in the June 19th issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press. The finding in the Arctic, where the effects of global warming are expected to be [...]

The long-running controversy about the origins of the Etruscan people appears to be very close to being settled once and for all, a geneticist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today. Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, will say that there is overwhelming evidence that the [...]

Technology has changed how we view our picture memories. Taking pictures used to be a matter of taking them, removing the film, and taking it to be developed. You got them back, and were able to finally see your memories. Now, thanks to the new digital cameras, you can see your results at once, and [...]

The QuickSeek from Kensington is an interestingly simple product, as is the case with a lot of the company’s other products. It’s designed to quickly find FM signals for your iPod and have those stations at your fingertips on the go. The device is relatively compact and sturdy enough to handle standard wear and tear [...]

Tom Zurinskas of truespel writes:
Hi Chris,
Love your work and the way you do it. Here’s an idea that can be the next killer application. I’ve been working on it for 20 years.
The key to all invention and global intelligence is The Written Word. That means reading and writing are key to everything. Yet reading instruction [...]

Going camping is fun. Sitting around the old campfire at night, eating s’mores, toasting marshmallows, all kinds of fun. But the fun can’t start until the fire has started, and unless you have a Boy Scout handy, then you might want to follow these few tips.
Situate your fire at least ten feet away from tents, [...]

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have succeeded in carrying out calculations with two quantum bits, the building blocks of a possible future quantum computer. The Delft researchers are publishing an article about this important step towards a workable quantum computer in this week"s issue of Nature.
Quantum computers have superior qualities in comparison to the [...]

Specialized pulsed lasers have been used to inject individual cells with a variety of materials, but little is known about how this type of injection might affect living cells. For the first time, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have analyzed this nanoscale injection process on living cells and discovered that minor changes in the intensity [...]

Living in a 100-year-old house, I always have some sort of project going on. Nailing this back up, repairing that crack. If it’s not one thing it’s another. One of the projects that can be time consuming is painting, and in particular, painting over old paint. Not the house, but areas of the house that [...]

In a study that insomniacs may find welcoming, imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) has been shown to subjectively improve their ability to get a good night’s sleep, according to a research abstract that will be presented Wednesday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
The study, conducted by Yara Molen [...]

The use of a particular contact lens solution has a strong association with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare severe eye infection, report researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago in a study published online this week by the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
AK is an often severe, painful infection of the cornea that commonly causes corneal [...]

Going to school when I was a kid was fun in one aspect: I usually got a new lunch box every year to take my lunch in. Some of those boxes I had would be worth a mint today. But back then, it was just cool to have something other than a sack to take [...]

A team of European scientists has proved within an ESA study that the weird quantum effect called ‘entanglement’ remains intact over a distance of 144 kilometres.
The experiment allows ESA to take a step closer to exploiting entanglement as a way of communicating with satellites with total security.
Quantum entanglement is one of the many non-intuitive features [...]