Scientists have developed a method of determining whether eggs labelled as ‘free-range’ or ‘barn’ have in fact been laid under battery conditions. The procedure, published in Journal of the Science of Food & Agriculture this month, means eggs can be tested without the need to visit farms.

The give-away is the dust that the eggs pick up from the surface on which they are laid.

Because the eggs are wet when freshly-laid, the dust attaches to the shell surface

Bacteria that produce lactic acid have been used for thousands of years to preserve food. Some lactic acid bacteria also produce several other mold-inhibiting substances and are therefore of special interest to agriculture and the foodstuffs industry. This is demonstrated in a dissertation by Jörgen Sjögren from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU. One of the bacteria strains studied has been patented and will be part of a new biological conservation preparation.

Researchers from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University have developed a new group of adhesives that may revolutionize a large portion of the wood products industry, and have important environmental and economic benefits.

The discovery has already resulted in three pending patents and should lead to a wide range of new products. But it was originally based on the aroused curiosity of Kaichang Li, an OSU assistant professor, who was harvesting mussels one day from thei

Scientists have long held the belief that the fracturing of the Earth’s brittle outer shell into faults along the deep ocean’s mountainous landscape occurs only during long periods when no magma has intruded. Challenging this predominant theory, findings from a completed study show how differences in mid-ocean ridge magma-induced activity produce distinctly different types of ocean floor faulting. W. Roger Buck, Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), i

Last great global warming period 3 million years ago

Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the University of California, Santa Cruz have discovered that Earth’s last great global warming period, 3 million years ago, may have been caused by levels of CO2 in the atmosphere similar to today’s.

Reporting this week in a leading Earth Science journal, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, the scientists describe how they tested two widely held ideas tha

A new method for dating destructive past earthquakes, based on evidence remaining in caves has been developed by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Geological Survey of Israel.

Using this method, they discovered for the first time evidence of earthquakes that can be documented some distance from the Syrian-African rift that runs from Syria through Lebanon, Israel and Jordan and down into Africa. This rift caused great shifts in the topography of the region

A two-year joint ESA and UNESCO project to chart the habitats of endangered mountain gorillas with satellites came to a fruitful finish in Paris, with end-users receiving final maps and geographical data products for use in the field.

“These maps will help us make our anti-poaching efforts more effective,” said Eulalie Bashige, Director General of the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “We can also clarify the ex

ECM of France has launched Agroscan – a complete range of ultrasound scanners for veterinary use, suitable for performing ultrasounds on sows, cows, mares, ewes and goats. The Agroscan L is completely innovative as it is the only portable device to use both sector and linear probes.

ECM will be present at several upcoming trade fairs, including the VIV trade fair in Moscow, Russia, from 1 to 3 June 2005.

Agroscan scanners can be used to detect pregnancy and to diagnos

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates Earth in its infancy probably had substantial quantities of hydrogen in its atmosphere, a surprising finding that may alter the way many scientists think about how life began on the planet.

Published in the April 7 issue of Science Express, the online edition of Science Magazine, the study concludes traditional models estimating hydrogen escape from Earth’s atmosphere several billions of years ago are flawed. The new s

Even though spring and warm-weather thoughts are here, a chilling, soon-to-be published report says that December’s immense Midwest snowstorm was one to remember.

The Dec. 22-23 storm broke all records for storm intensity, size, and damages, garnered national attention, and dumped record snowfall — not only across Illinois but also in the Ohio River valley where heavy snows and ice seldom occur, said Stanley Changnon, chief emeritus of the Illinois State Water Survey.

Archaeologists from the University of Toronto, the Field Museum, and Shandong University announce the results of the first intensive investigation of early agriculture in Liangchengzhen, Shandong in Northern China. The results are published in the April 2005 issue of Current Anthropology. Several thousand crop and weed seeds were recovered by the team at the 4000 year-old Liangchengzhen site, a regional political center in Shandong.

Prior to the investigation, Longshan agricultur

But Earth’s elusive mantle is a near miss

Scientists affiliated with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and seeking the elusive “Moho”–the boundary, which geologists refer to as the Mohorovicic discontinuity, between Earth’s brittle outer crust and its hotter, softer mantle–have created the third deepest hole ever drilled into the ocean bottom’s crust.

Scientists had hoped to drill into Earth’s mantle, but found instead that their efforts h

More stringent federal standards for acceptable levels of arsenic in public drinking water go into effect next year, a prospect that has resulted in four new research projects on arsenic. The research, funded by the Midwest Technology Assistance Center for Small Public Water Systems, will address the new standards, which will change the acceptable level of arsenic in public groundwater supplies from 50 micrograms per liter to 10 mg/l. The center, housed at the Illinois State Water S

New report on 25 most endangered primates shows mankind’s closest living relatives under threat around the world

Mankind’s closest living relatives-the world’s apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates-face increasing peril from humans and some could soon disappear forever, according to a report released today by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN-The World Conservation Union’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IP

Thanks to observations from the ground and satellites in space, scientists know that the North and South Poles light up at night with Auroras because a “solar wind” of electrified gas continually flows outward from the sun at high speed in all directions, including toward the Earth. Recently, however, NASA and university scientists looking at the Earth’s northern and southern auroras were surprised to find they aren’t mirror images of each other, as was once thought.

Acc

Oil spills from tankers or simply your local garage could soon be cleaned up using specially-selected bacteria, according to research presented today (Wednesday, 06 April 2005) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 156th Meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Millions of gallons of crude oil and its derivates used by the plastics and chemical industries are transported vast distances around the world every day, and inevitably some of it gets spilled. Scientists fro