A new process for drying wood could revolutionise the timber industry and lead to cheaper timber for customers.

The process combines a new microwave technology with more traditional drying techniques, such as solar drying. At present it can take a year or more to convert some Australian timber into top quality furniture or flooring. Much of this time is needed to dry the wood after it has been sawn.

The microwave technology, developed by a team in the Australian Cooperative

Even as Thursday’s Salzburg Envisat Symposium discussed the increasingly prominent role of Earth Observation in disaster relief, Envisat played a key part in a multinational emergency exercise taking place hundreds of kilometres to the north.

When is a flood not a flood? For the duration of the International Humanitarian Partnership’s Triplex 2004 exercise, taking place in Norway this week, humanitarian aid groups are taking part in a scenario where the country’s southern Lake Mj?sa

As sport fishes go, the blue marlin is a king of sorts – highly prized for its beautiful shape and its ferocious fighting ability when hooked.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that many blue marlin caught in the Gulf of Mexico contain 20 to 30 times the acceptable levels of mercury.

Texas A&M University at Galveston researchers Jay Rooker and Gary Gill are trying to learn why the mercury levels are so high in blue marlin compared to similar fishes and why so many of

Scientists have long recognized the importance of oceans in our climate. In fact, the unique physical characteristics of our oceans are largely responsible for making the Earth a livable environment. Oceans are major “climate-controllers” because of their large heat capacity. For instance, it requires four times the amount of energy to raise the temperature of water by one degree than it does soil. As a result, over a long period, oceans can store and transport heat from one location to another. Fur

Technology to monitor how the rock barrier around radio active waste reacts has been developed by an Anglo French consortium with the help of 466,286 euros from the EU’s Framework Programme towards the projects total cost of 765,619 euros.

As the sources of traditional fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas continue to decrease there is a growing demand for more sustainable forms of energy. The option to turn to nuclear power for the production of electricity has long been debated but

The greatest single strength of Earth Observation is its wideness of view: the 10 instruments aboard ESA’s Envisat spacecraft allow scientists simultaneous looks across large expanses of our planet.

Under discussion during Wednesday’s Envisat Symposium is how researchers use this ability to peer further through time, addressing the leading scientific question of our time – the likely extent of climate change. Human activities have been changing the chemical composition of the atmosp

In a treasure hunt through Western Australia’s south-west more than 20 new species of trigger plants have been discovered – small plants that catapult pollen onto visiting insects.

Perth botanist Dr Juliet Wege made her findings whilst researching at the Department of Conservation and Land Management in a study funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study. Juliet has formally named eight new species and is in the process of naming and describing many more. Her work won her a

As the rains from the downgraded Hurricane Frances move northward while the eastern U.S. continues to watch Hurricane Ivan’s approach, the destruction from the heavy winds and rains is mounting into the billions of dollars.

In Florida alone, initial estimates for losses caused by Frances were between $2 and 4 billion following the projected $7.4 billion in insured damages from Hurricane Charley, according to Reuters News Service.

In most cases, low-rise buildings, inc

A team of Australian astronomers have developed a way of forecasting the weather on Mars – without putting their toes in space and created beautiful images of our neighbouring planet.

Their discoveries will help us determine if Mars was a kinder place for life in the past. And by forecasting the Martian weather they hope to be able to reduce the risks to spacecraft, such as the recent failed Beagle mission and possible future manned missions to Mars.

Sarah Chamberlain of the

Soils provide humans with a whole range of irreplaceable ecosystem services the production and maintenance of which are largely dependent on the actions of the animal communities which inhabit them. Apart from the substantial agricultural production made necessary by humanity’s demand for food, soils filter and store water, holding back erosion and flooding. They provide a large proportion of the nutrients necessary for plant growth and for maintaining biodiversity, and at the same time limit g

A method that uses roughly only one-hundredth the fresh water customarily needed to grow forage for livestock may leave much more water available for human consumption, as well as for residential and industrial uses. As a byproduct, it also may add formerly untapped solar energy to the electrical grid.

The method for lessening water use is being tested by 42 wireless sensors being installed in a forage-growing hydroponic greenhouse built barely a stone’s throw from the Mexico b

Plankton poo could be the key to understanding how much carbon dioxide our oceans can store according to Tasmanian researcher Dr Karin Beaumont.

The greenhouse effect is arguably humanity’s greatest environmental threat. “We need to understand where and how carbon dioxide is stored in the oceans. Part of the answer lies in the poo of microscopic zooplankton: does it float or does it sink?” said Karin. “Heavy poo that sticks together and sinks to the ocean floor is good. It locks u

Pigs and other farm animals are harbouring major reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to research presented today (Wednesday, 08 September 2004) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting in Trinity College Dublin, by researchers from the University of Leeds.

The scientists were concerned about the effects that decades of use of antibiotics to treat infections, prevent diseases, or promote growth, have had on the spread of antibiotic resistance genes

The process of clearing consists of cutting down trees in such a way that those remaining have more resources and can grow more. The question was if too many had been cut down, with the concomitant removal of nutrients, and the manner, therefore, in which this process might affect long-term soil fertility.

A PhD thesis presented in the Public University of Navarre specifically analysed the internal cycle of nutrients in two wooded areas in Pinus sylvestris forests, this species, tog

Quake researchers ’look’ deep inside fault with cold war-era gravity sensor

Using classified technology developed by the military during the Cold War, a team of geoscientists led by Rice University’s Manik Talwani is conducting a first-of-its-kind experiment on California’s famed San Andreas fault this week. The researchers will gather data that could give scientists a much clearer picture of the fault’s “gouge zone,” a region 2-3 kilometers beneath the eart

Caring for more than 180,000 Sudanese refugees gathered in the desert landscape of eastern Chad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has begun using satellite data to identify hidden water resources and site new camps.

By permission of the Chadian government, there are currently nine United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps in place. UNHCR has transferred the vast majority of the refugees from the volatile border to the camps. Thousands more have co