Today’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are highest in 650,000 years, Science studies say
With the first in-depth analysis of the air bubbles trapped in the “EPICA Dome C” ice core from East Antarctica, European researchers have extended the greenhouse gas record back to 650,000 years before the present.
This 210,000-year extension of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane records — encompassing two full glacial cycles — should help scientists better underst
Design of smart homes takes into consideration technology as well as the wishes, needs and fears of residents.
The research results of Research Director Frans Mäyrä’s Morphome project confirm that test subject perceptions of computer technology are often critical or negative. The idea of computers playing a central role in the home is anathema to many. Computers are seen as being complicated and unreliable, so no one would readily submit key household functions to their control.
Delegations from 190 nations will attend next week’s United Nations summit in Montreal, Canada, to begin negotiating a post-Kyoto Protocol strategy to restrict emissions of heat-trapping gases that drive climate change. Joining them will be ESA, to share results from satellite-based services developed to support the Protocol.
More than 10 000 representatives of national governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations are expected at the first
Today incompatibility and standardisation barriers hamper the easy exchange of digital content between creators, providers and the public. One solution is to create a common open and shared delivery platform of the type recently developed by researchers.
If adopted, this platform could turn today’s proprietary technologies and services into commodities, benefiting everyone from the service provider to the end-user.
“The distribution of digital media and audiovisual conten
Professor Peter Hofmann and his team at the Competence Center Electrical and Electronic (EE) Architecture at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) have successfully developed the first self-organizing electronic components. These so called autonomous units form the basis for complex technical systems of the future. For this purpose, the scientists have adopted the knowledge of complex systems found in nature.
Organisms are structured according to the modular assembly concept –
New article in Geophysical Research Letters:
During periods of sustained northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) movement and high solar wind pressure, the IMF can reconnect with the Earth’s magnetosphere, merging field lines and forming a bright, long-lived, ultraviolet auroral spot, called a cusp aurora. On 18 September 2000, such cusp aurorae were simultaneously viewed for 15 minutes by the Polar and IMAGE satellites in northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.
T
DFG Approves Twelve New Collaborative Research Centres
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish 12 new Collaborative Research Centres as of 1 January 2006. These will cover a wide variety of topics including intelligent safety systems for cars, non-governmental governance models, and methods of preventing kidney failure or heart attacks. In addition, new Independent Junior Research Groups and Transfer Units have been approved. The objecti
Stakeholders of the Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) today unveiled their Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and three future scenarios demonstrating the value of innovations in chemistry. Based on a common vision, the SRA aims at responding to the challenges faced by the chemical sector in the next 20 years, while shaping solutions to critical societal demands.
The SRA outlines chemistry and industrial biotechnology’s contribution to sustainable European growth
The Valencian Urban Transport Company (EMT) presented in Brussels its latest innovative initiative for a sustainable public transport: the URBANBAT project. This project is financed by the European Commission through the LIFE-Environment programme.
Designed as a pilot project in this first phase, Urbanbat defines an integral management model for the liquid waste generated during the operation and maintenance of the public transport fleet of EMT Vehicles in Valencia such as wat
Media is invited to a press concerence on board on December 6, 2005.
This second multi-disciplinary research cruise (CIESM SUB-2) will be launched from Messina, Italy on December 6th with scientists from 14 marine Institutes and five different countries (France, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy) onboard. They will embark on the Italian R/V Urania to monitor changes taking place in the Tyrrhenian Sea through December 22nd. The SUB-2 cruise will also include an area of the Sicily Ch
A team of British scientists at Manchester and Lancaster Universities has turned established thinking on its head in a bid to understand the serious and often deadly condition, hydrocephalus, commonly known as ‘water on the brain’.
A simple dietary supplement taken during pregnancy could prevent the brain defect resulting from hydrocephalus, revolutionary research suggests.
Now, parents of children suffering from the condition in the United States have stumped up the m
AMBER instrument on VLTI Probes Environment of Stars
Using the newly installed AMBER instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, which combines the light from two or three 8.2-m Unit Telescopes thereby amounting to observe with a telescope of 40 to 90 metres in diameter, two international teams of astronomers observed with unprecedented detail the environment of two stars. One is a young, still-forming star and the new results provide useful information on the conditi
A new School of Pharmacy, which will increase the availability of pharmacists in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, was launched at the University of Hertfordshire last night.
Training more pharmacists will ensure that the NHS strategy to improve access to health advice and services will be made available to the community, making 24-hour pharmacies a reality.
The launch attracted approximately 200 guests from industry, community pharmacies and local representatives. In a
Exercise is good for your physical health. We have known this for a long time. We also know that physical activity is good for the brain and alleviates depression and stress. What’s more, training improves both memory and learning capacities. On the other hand, exaggerated exercise, when the body doesn’t have a chance to recover, has a negative effect, with fewer brain cells as a result. This is shown in a dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden. Moderation
“OECD governments must take concrete steps to make science and technology studies more attractive” – that was one of the main conclusions of the international conference on declining student enrolment in science and technology courses. The conference took place in Amsterdam on November 14-15. It was organised by the OECD Global Science Forum and the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Over two hundred participants from twenty-six countries debated ways to attract young peopl
Cancer of the pancreas is the number five in the list of deaths due to cancers in Spain and the third causing deaths due to digestive tumour. Moreover, the survival rate for patients with which it is possible to carry out a complete resection of the tumour does not reach 25% within five years. This is because, although good localised control, metastasis occurs, the principal cause of death in cancer of the pancreas.
Over the last few years the approach to this disease has improved considerab
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