A novel technique to combat the UK’s looming landfill crisis begins its first field trials in Yorkshire this week.

The technique known as Biostore combines stabilised sewage sludge with industrial waste such as coal shale and demolition waste to create solid building foundations. It has been developed by scientists at Imperial College London, and is funded by Yorkshire Water Services, the Institution of Civil Engineers R&D Enabling Fund, and a Biffaward.

With England and Wale

Plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS) are reporting a significant increase in the occurrence of Phytophthora blight of vine crops, including cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash, in many vegetable-growing regions of the United States. This devastating disease, caused by a soilborne pathogen called Phytophthora capsici, often results in nearly total yield loss.

According to Mohammad Babadoost, a plant pathology professor at the University of Illinois, Phytophthora

Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC)and Institute of Food Research (IFR), Norwich, have today reported the discovery and use of a gene that may help protect plants and humans against disease. The gene (HQT) was identified in tomato and is responsible for producing an antioxidant called chlorogenic acid (CGA).

By increasing the activity of HQT, the scientists raised the levels of CGA in the tomato fruits and this helped protect them against attack from bacterial disease. CGA could also

Fossilized organic molecules of green sulfur bacteria are helping to unlock secrets of what may have been a period of helter-skelter climate change and mass kills of sea life during the Jurassic Period some 150-160 million years ago.

The fossils were found in sedimentary rock commonly used to make house bricks in England, quarried from what is called the Oxford Clay Formation.

The findings are reported in the May issue of the journal Geology (now online to subscribers.) Fabien Ken

Unlike the traditional approach, the new policy marks out the product as a focal point of performance, its aim being to reduce the environmental impact of its performance throughout its life cycle. This is why, in the near future, design and manufacturing departments of companies will base their activities on the development of products with less environmental impact, that incorporate reusable elements and new electronic controls, intelligent materials, that have a longer life and a demise that will

Leading UK scientists fear that one of South America’s leading natural tourist destinations, the San Rafael Glacier in Patagonian Chile, which is renowned for the spectacular way in which it releases icebergs into the San Rafael Laguna, may soon retreat to a point where it no longer reaches the sea. This, they warn, might remove one of the main reasons why thousands of tourists travel to this remote corner of Chile every year.

The glaciologists have been studying the San Rafael Glacier, one

Cloning on a grand scale could spell the end of species as they become progressively nastier, warn researchers at the University of Sussex.

Evolutionary biologist Dr Joel Peck has produced a mathematical model that suggests that asexual reproduction –in which organisms are reproduced from a single parent without fertilisation – leads to antagonistic behaviour within species and, subsequently, population decline.

“For decades evolutionary biologists have wondered why sexual reproduct

A new study strengthens evidence that the oceans and climate are linked in an intricate dance, and that rapid climate change may be related to how vigorously ocean currents transport heat from low to high latitudes.

A new study, reported April 22 in the journal Nature, suggests that when the rate of the Atlantic Ocean’s north-south overturning circulation slowed dramatically following an iceberg outburst during the last deglaciation, the climate in the North Atlantic region became cold

Freshwater from melting ice sheets set the stage several thousand years ago for production of natural gas along the margins of sedimentary basins.

Now researchers at the University of Michigan and Amherst College are reading chemical signatures of water in those areas to pinpoint places where gas is most likely to be found. Their most recent work is described in a paper published in the May/June issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Natural gas forms when organic ma

On hearing the word, “radar”, we usually think of speed controls or air traffic control systems. In fact, there are many kinds of radar and applications thereof.

At Punta Galea in Getxo the Climatology and Meteorology Office of the Basque Government has installed a very special kind of radar: a radar that indicates the patterns of winds; wind patterns at up to 3,000 metres altitude indicating its direction and speed. This is what is special about the radar at Punta Galea.

In normal

Like thermometers in space, satellites are taking the temperature of the Earth’s surface or skin. According to scientists, the satellite data confirm the Earth has had an increasing “fever” for decades.

For the first time, satellites have been used to develop an 18- year record (1981-1998) of global land surface temperatures. The record provides additional proof that Earth’s snow-free land surfaces have, on average, warmed during this time period, according to a NASA study appearin

Cornell’s Birdhouse Network Seeks Bird Enthusiasts to Help Monitor the Impact of Invasive Bird Species

In the mid-1800s, little brown birds called House Sparrows were introduced into the United States from Europe to alleviate homesickness for the Old World and because they were believed to control insect pests. Since then, these adaptable birds have made themselves quite comfortable here-spreading their wings across all of North America in vast numbers. Their surging populations have

Penn State acousticians put their new prototype for a compact chiller, based on “green” technology that substitutes sound waves for environment-damaging chemical refrigerants, on first public display in conjunction with Earth Day in New York City.

The roll-out took place at a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop in New York City where the chiller was hooked up to a standard ice cream sales freezer cabinet and successfully kept the creamy merchandise in delicious condition. Ben & Jerry’s partn

As the spring foliage grows, each plant, like an entrepreneur, builds its leaves according to an economic strategy. Some plants live like the proverbial hare, following a “live fast, die young” strategy; their leaves produce and consume energy quickly but soon “burn out” or fall victim to bad weather or hungry herbivores. Other leaves are more tortoiselike, taking a “live slowly and last long” approach. A new study has revealed the global continuum of leaf economics, documenting where 2,548 species g

About 75,000 years ago, some scientists say, the last truly colossal volcanic eruption on Earth came close to wiping out all the primates, including humans. That eruption occurred when the Toba volcano in Indonesia exploded in an almost unbelievably shattering display.

Other people with a flare for the dramatic warn that a supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park could erupt in the not-so-distant future and push humanity to the verge of extinction. University of North Carolina at C

Glaciers reached Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the most recent ice age about 20,000 years ago. But much harsher ice ages hit the Earth in an ancient geological interval known as “the Cryogenian Period” between 750 and 600 million years ago. A team of geologists from China and the United States now report evidence of at least three ice ages during that ancient time.

“The Cryogenian Period is characterized by some of the worst glaciations in earth history. But the available age constraints are s