Tech

Tel Aviv ― Environmentalists around the world agree ― plastic bags are choking our landfills and polluting our seas. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is developing new laboratory methods using corn starch and sugar to help sustainable plastics –– those that biodegrade and are even tougher than those made from petrochemicals –– compete in the industry.

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – December 13, 2010 -- When a field of tubeworms was unexpectedly discovered on the side of a large underwater mountain 50 miles off the coast of Cyprus this summer, the finding was notable both for the discovery itself and for the process of the discovery.

High-speed trains consume 29% less energy than conventional trains per passenger transported, and reduce CO2 emissions by the same proportion. These are the conclusions of a study by the Spanish Railways Foundation published in the journal Transportation Research Record.

It's colds and flu season, and as any parent knows, colds and flu spread like wildfire, especially through schools.

New research using human-networking theory may give a clearer picture of just how, exactly, infectious diseases such as the common cold, influenza, whooping cough and SARS can spread through a closed group of people, and even through populations at large.

It's too early to say whether tidal turbines could harm fish in this way, Javaherchi said. The existing model uses the blade geometry from a wind turbine.

"The competition between the companies is very tight and they are hesitant to share the designs," Javaherchi said.

Boston, Mass. – It's widely recognized that fragmentation of medical information is a problem in health care, but the extent of the problem and how many patients may be at risk haven't been well quantified. In a new retrospective study, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston looked at adult acute care in Massachusetts and found that of 3.6 million adults visiting an acute care site during a five-year period, almost a third sought care at two or more different hospitals.

Opioids appear to be associated with more adverse events among older adults with arthritis than other commonly used analgesics, including coxibs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, according to a report in the December 13/27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In a second report assessing only opioid use, different types of drugs within the class were associated with different safety events among older patients with non-malignant pain.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Obama administration's decision to maintain a ban on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is a mistake, according to a University of Illinois expert who wrote a six-volume book series on marine pollution.

UPTON, NY - One big challenge in converting plants to biofuels is that the very same molecules that keep plants standing up make it hard to break them down. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are unraveling details of how plant cells' structural supports - their cell walls - are made, with the hope of finding ways to change their composition for more efficient biofuel production.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — December 9, 2010 — A new collaborative paper by economist Richard Easterlin — namesake of the "Easterlin Paradox" and founder of the field of happiness studies — offers the broadest range of evidence to date demonstrating that a higher rate of economic growth does not result in a greater increase of happiness.

Across a worldwide sample of 37 countries, rich and poor, ex-Communist and capitalist, Easterlin and his co-authors shows strikingly consistent results: over the long term, a sense of well-being within a country does not go up with income.

TEMPE, Ariz. – In 1986, Marc Reisner published "Cadillac Desert: The American West and its disappearing water," a foundational work about the long-term environmental costs of U.S. western state's water projects and land development. It sounded an alarm about the direction of the American West and how it was using its most precious resource. Now it all appears to becoming true.

A new UC Davis study contradicts earlier reports that salmon farms were responsible for the 2002 population crash of wild pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago of western Canada.

The Broughton crash has become a rallying event for people concerned about the potential environmental effects of open-net salmon farming, which has become a $10 billion industry worldwide, producing nearly 1.5 million tons of fish annually.

DURHAM, N.C. – A key focus of the health care debate has involved immigrants and their impact on the U.S. health care system.

A new study shows that Mexican Americans most integrated into the culture -- including those born in the United States -- are more likely to require resources to manage their health conditions than more recent immigrants to the U.S., according to researchers at Duke University, Rice University and the University of Colorado Denver.