News Articles

Could macro-scale chemical engineering be used to stop a volcanic lava flow in its tracks and save potentially thousands of lives and homes when the next eruption occurs? R.D. Schuiling of Geochem Research BV, based in The Netherlands, thinks so.
During the 1960s, Schuiling pioneered the discipline of geochemical engineering, which involves the use of natural processes to solve environmental and civil engineering problems. He recently turned his attention to the ongoing problem of how to tame volcanic lava flows. Lava flows regularly threaten and sometimes destroy human settlements. In 1973, the Icelanders had some success slowing the advance of lava from Heimaey by dousing the flow with huge volumes of seawater. Meanwhile in Sicily, the town of Zafferana was saved from being ravaged by the 1991-1993 eruption cycle of Etna by huge earth walls built to divert the lava flow.

British scientists are developing a new type of glass that can dissolve and release calcium into the body. This will enable patients to regrow bones and could signal a move away from bone transplants.
The porous glass, originally developed at Imperial College is capable of acting as an active template for new bone growth, dissolving in the body without leaving any trace of itself or any toxic chemicals. As it dissolves it releases calcium and other elements such as silicon into the adjacent body fluids, stimulating bone growth.

Proposals to overhaul the approach to obtaining patient consent lack detail, contain advice that is non-specific, and might prevent doctors from making major changes to their practice warns an editorial in this week's BMJ.
Writing in response to the publication of the General Medical Council (GMC) guidance on patient consent to be implemented in June, Professor Glyn Elwyn argues that although the guidance appears radical and urges a change in the approach to informed consent, it fails to address how doctors will do this in busy clinical settings.
The process of obtaining consent from patients for procedures such as surgical operations often just involves patients signing a piece of paper declaring that they understand the nature of the procedure and its consequences, only a few hours before an operation. This rarely provides time for patients to read or consider the information about harms and benefits. In addition, evidence shows that patients want to be given more information about risks and consequences.

Simplistic and unpiloted NHS reforms are inadvertently damaging patient care in general practice, according to a group of academics writing in this week's BMJ.
Professor Howie, from the University of Edinburgh, writing with colleagues, criticises recent reforms in general practice and says if they "continue unchallenged [it] will result in the dismemberment of a primary care system that has been the envy of other countries."
They argue that the holistic care patients have always received from their GP, and which has worked in the individual patient's favor, is in danger of being harmed by recent changes.

WATERLOO, Ontario, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new and generous act of personal philanthropy, Mike Lazaridis has provided an additional $50 million (Canadian) to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI). This private donation increases his personal contributions to $150 million in the research institute.
The private funding announcement, delivered by The Honourable John Wilkinson, Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation, was celebrated by over 600 people just prior to a PI Public Lecture. The donation was acknowledged by all dignitaries representing the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada, important members of a public-private partnership that fund the scientific research and outreach operations.

A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that makes California's earthquake problem seem trivial.
Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts&Sciences, and colleagues combined seismological and global positioning system (GPS) analyses to reveal two bursts of seismic waves from an ice stream in Antarctica every day - and each one equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake.
The ice stream is essentially a giant glacier 60 miles wide and one-half mile thick. The data show that the river of ice moves about 18 inches within ten minutes, remains still for 12 hours, then moves another eighteen inches. Each time it moves, it gives off seismic waves that are recorded at seismographs all around Antarctica, and even as far away as Australia.

At Euro 2008, the soccer championship for European countries held every four years, this event, held jointly in two countries, means both Austria and Switzerland regard themselves as having the upper hand due to the "twelfth man" - home field advantage.
But does it really exist? Eva Heinrichs, a future diploma statistician at Technische Universität Dortmund, has scientifically tackled the issue and examined all games of the premier and second German national league as well as the Spanish, Italian and English premier leagues since 1963 - which is nice work if you can find it - and concludes it does exist, though it was a lot stronger in prior decades than it is today.

Kylie Minogue's breast cancer triggered a surge of over 30 percent in breast imaging of low risk women, says new University of Melbourne study.
Use of mammography and breast ultrasound procedures soared among women aged 25-44 in the six months following Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis, says a new study from the University of Melbourne.
There was also a sharp rise in the number of women aged 25-34 years who underwent breast biopsies – but this surge in screening activity did not lead to the detection of more cases of breast cancer.

Traditional attitudes of masculinity, such as physical toughness and personal sacrifice, are valued in Mexican culture. A University of Missouri researcher found that Mexican-American men, as a group, are more likely to endorse traditional 'macho man' attitudes than European-American or black men.
Certain factors influenced this attitude, including socioeconomic status (SES). The higher the SES, the greater the likihood that Mexican-American men held tightly to traditional masculine roles, even at the expense of emotional pressure.
According to the study, Mexican-American men who embraced traditional 'macho man' beliefs were more engaged with traditional Mexican culture and often were the primary breadwinners for the family. There were no significant findings that age affected these attitudes.

Acts of piracy at sea are on the rise but there is little evidence to support concerns from some governments and international organizations that pirates and terrorists are beginning to collude with one another, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.
Piracy - boarding a ship to commit theft or another crime - totaled 2,463 actual or attempted incidents between 2000 and 2006, according to the report. The overall problem is almost certainly even greater than the figures suggest as researchers suspect nearly half of all piracy attacks are not reported, usually because of fears about subsequent investigation costs and increases to insurance premiums.
The objectives of the two crimes remain different -- piracy is aimed at financial gain while the goal of terrorism is political. Although both events are increasing, piracy is growing much faster and remains far more common than seaborne terrorism, according to the report.

Synthetic molecules designed by two Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have succeeded in reducing and even eliminating the growth of human malignant tissues in mice, while having no toxic effects on normal tissue.
The molecules developed by Dr. Arie Dagan and Prof. Shimon Gatt of the Department of Biochemistry of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School affected the metabolism of various sphingolipids and consequently those of cancer cells. Sphingolipids are a family of complex lipid molecules that are involved in signaling pathways that mediate cell growth, differentiation and death.
Several of the most active molecules developed by Dagan and Gatt are derivatives of ceramide (a member of the sphingolipid family). Ceramide induces programmed cell death (apoptosis) in a variety of cancer cells.

Cartilage, a tissue in the human body that cannot heal itself, has long been a target of tissue engineers. Cartilage is the skeleton's shock absorber, and its stiffness, strength and other mechanical properties derive not from living cartilage cells but from the densely woven matrix of collagen and proteoglycan that surrounds them. This extracellular matrix, or ECM, is produced during cartilage development in children, but cannot be repaired following injury in adulthood.
Injured cartilage often serves as the focal point for arthritis formation, so tissue engineers have long sought a means of growing new cartilage that can be transplanted into adults to repair damaged joints before arthritis can develop. Unfortunately, cartilage is difficult to engineer, in part because there are no natural healing processes to mimic.
Bioengineers at Rice University have discovered that intense pressure -- similar to what someone would experience more than a half-mile beneath the ocean's surface -- stimulates cartilage cells to grow new tissue with nearly all of the properties of natural cartilage. The new method, which requires no stem cells, may eventually provide relief for thousands of arthritis sufferers.