Tech

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University.

Boston, MA (June 17, 2010) — In healthcare, less money doesn't always mean less service.

The 2005 Medicare Modernization Act, which substantially reduced Medicare payments to physicians for administering outpatient chemotherapy drugs, has had a somewhat paradoxical effect. Rather than resulting in fewer treatments, as one might expect, a new study finds that the Act has actually increased chemotherapy treatment rates among Medicare recipients.

Daily use of probiotics reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients by almost half, according to new research from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.

The study was published on the American Thoracic Society's Web site ahead of the print edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

KNOXVILLE -- Humans need plants to survive, and plants need soil. But what happens when human, geological and climatic activity alters soil composition and structure and diminishes the amount of fertile land available?

Erosion and weathering can hinder the soil's ability to maintain a nutritional balance -- a process crucial to maintaining life around the globe.

The benefits of the Summary Care Record (SCR) scheme, introduced as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), appear more modest than anticipated, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

The findings are based on an independent evaluation by researchers at University College London and come as the new coalition government announces a review of the scheme.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Firing off e-mails and cueing up videoconferences get work done fast, but not necessarily well, research by a University of Illinois business leadership expert found.

Gregory Northcraft says high-tech communication strips away the personal interaction needed to breed trust, a key ingredient in getting workers to pull together and carry their share of the load.

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Scientists can now peer into the inner workings of catalyst nanoparticles 3,000 times smaller than a human hair within nanoseconds.

The findings point the way toward future work that could greatly improve catalyst efficiency in a variety of processes that are crucial to the world's energy security, such as petroleum catalysis and catalyst-based nanomaterial growthfor next-generation rechargeable batteries. The work was performed in a collaborative effort by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California at Davis.

Putting a tree – figuratively speaking – into your car's gas tank may be the way of the future. Dr. In-Gyu Choi, associate professor in the department of forest science at Seoul National University, will coordinate a session at the 2010 IUFRO World Congress that will look at the future of forest biomass as raw materials for the development of green biofuels and chemicals.

Forest biomass is renewable, abundant and carbon-neutral. Its importance as a future source of green energy and green chemicals should not be ignored, he says.

MADISON — Establishing a firm link between environmental change and human disease has always been an iffy proposition.

Now, however, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writing in the current (June 16, 2010) online issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, presents the most enumerated case to date linking increased incidence of malaria to land-use practices in the Amazon.

The widespread belief that chemical dispersants will enhance the breakdown of oil from the Gulf of Mexico disaster is based on weak scientific data. That's among the topics in a comprehensive status report that is the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

We learned in science class that light beams travel in straight lines and spread through a process known as diffraction –– and they can't go around corners. But now researchers at Tel Aviv University are investigating new applications for their recent discovery that small beams of light can indeed be bent in a laboratory setting, diffracting much less than a "regular" beam.

In this edition of Science Picks, learn what the USGS is doing in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and how satellite imagery can be used to get information after a major disaster. Also, learn how the USGS is helping restore the Chesapeake Bay and how to receive text messages from rivers and streams. You can even go on a pollinator safari and follow a sea turtle named Bertha!

KNOXVILLE -- As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, policy makers and scientists are looking at new ways to tackle the problems associated with the greenhouse gas.

One method under much discussion is carbon capture and storage (CCS), otherwise known as carbon sequestration. CCS, a newly developing technology, involves injecting carbon dioxide underground to remove it from the Earth's atmosphere.