Tech

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.

A team of researchers led by Elliott Dasenbrook, MD, MHS, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital today published the findings from a major study about cystic fibrosis (CF) survival rates in the June 16 issue of JAMA.