The latest value of the EuroCOIN™ indicator released by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) shows: CEPR’s EuroCOIN reading for May 2005 points to a slowdown of economic activity for the 12 countries that make up the euro area. The upturn signal of March and April is not confirmed, indicating that we are still in a period of uncertainty. In the euro area, the cyclical component of quarterly GDP growth decreased from 0.418 in April to 0.351 in May. The April fig
Billions of tonnes of sediment are clogging up the world’s coastal zones, rivers and estuaries with devastating results to the environment, say scientists attending an international meeting organised by the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project, a global network of coastal and marine scientists.
Nutrient-laden mud, gravel and sand, pushed downstream by large rivers and estuaries, are changing the shape of coastlines, destroying aquatic life and even filling u
Pilot solar power-plant delivers promising results
For the first time solar energy has been successfully used in a pilot-plant to create storable energy from a metal ore. In a project funded by the EU, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) together with other research institutes and industrial partners, have reached an important milestone.
A 300-kilowatt pilot installation to create zinc using solar temperatures o
Can vision problems cause musculo-skeletal complaints and vice versa? This is a key question for anyone who works in front of a computer screen every day. Together with research colleagues at the Karolinska Institute, Uppsala University, and in the U.S., Associate Professor Hans O. Richter at Gävle University College has recently shown that when the tone is reduced in the focusing muscle of the eye, nerve impulses to the neck and shoulders are also affected. Now the team wants to go on to investigat
There is no doubt that steel is one of the materials that has largely contributed to the technological and economical development of the twentieth century. Its mechanical and magnetic properties are determined by its chemical composition and the microstructure obtained in its manufacturing process. Traditionally, it has been necessary to mechanically destroy the material in order to analyze its microstructure by means of a microscope, i.e. to get a small sample, to polish it and to attack it wit
University experts have studied one of Britain’s most prominent landmarks in a bid to discover how the latest satellite technology could make bridges last longer and remain safe for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
The team from The University of Nottingham’s world-leading Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy and Brunel University spent 48 hours on the Forth Road Bridge, which links the Lothians to Fife in Scotland, to find out how the bridge’s movements we
Researchers have discovered a new universal biological law whilst looking in holes in trees near Oxford according to a paper published in the journal Science on 24 June 2005.
The scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and University of Oxford found that patterns of abundance and genetic diversity of microorganisms living in water-filled holes in trees were similar to patterns found in higher animal and plant communities.
The study looked at the relationship
Global warming could result in northern Europe growing colder as the southern hemisphere gets hotter, according to new research led by the University of Edinburgh. A study, based on analysis of changing climate patterns at the end of the last ice age, confounds the widely-held view that global warming will be uniform across the world. It also suggests that ice age conditions could return to the northern hemisphere sooner than was previously thought.
The research, which claims that
Neste Oil’s new, proprietary NExBTL technology for producing biodiesel marks an important step forward in efforts to meet the growing demand for this type of fuel, as it offers not only valuable production-related benefits, but also results in a fuel with excellent product properties, particularly at low temperatures.
Various companies have experimented with the idea of combining a natural raw material with an oil refining process to produce a biofuel capable of competing with hyd
When comet Tempel 1 collides with a NASA space probe in the early morning hours of July 4, 2005, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory expect some holiday sizzle – a brilliant flash and a dramatic spray of debris.
This cosmic collision will create a crater exposing Tempel 1’s interior. Like all comets, Tempel 1 consists of the frozen remains of material that formed the solar system. But what, precisely, is this stuff? How is it put together? Peter Schultz, crater expert, wil
Indicates whether infection will develop
Simple analysis of a bone marrow transplant patient’s oral rinse can give medical personnel a quick indication of the transplant’s effectiveness and predict whether an infection will develop, says a University of Toronto researcher. Dr. Michael Glogauer, a U of T dentistry professor with the CIHR Group in Matrix Dynamics, Dr. Yigal Dror, a professor at the U of T Faculty of Medicine and a hematologist at the Hospital for Sick Chil
A new article publishing in the latest issue of Review of Policy Research examines the evolution and devolution of speed limit laws and their effects on fatality rates. The author did not find a significant increase in fatalities per miles driven after speed limit laws ceased to be national and states could, and some did, increase their highway limit to more than fifty-five miles per hour. “Automobile safety features and enforcement emerge as important factors in increasing highway safety; sp
In response to the discovery of soybean rust in the U.S., plant pathologists are offering an opportunity to learn more about this disease at a symposium held during the annual meeting of The American Phytopathological Society (APS), July 30 – August 3, 2005 in Austin, TX.
“This is the first year that farmers in the U.S. are facing soybean rust and we have a lot of questions that need to be resolved,” said Vince Morton, soybean rust symposium organizer and president of Viva, Inc.,
Assistant Professor Mark Pagani in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale and his colleagues mapped the first detailed history of atmospheric carbon dioxide between 45 – 25 million years ago based on stable isotopes of carbon in a National Science Foundation study reported in Science Express.
“Through the energy we consume, each of us makes a contribution to increasing greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, in the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Pagani
Humans with an appreciation of beauty may have marveled for millennia at the artistry of a darting hummingbird, but scientists announced today that for the first time they can more fully explain how a hummingbird can hover.
Using a powerful technology that was originally developed for engineering, researchers were able to exactly document the movement of air around a hummingbird’s wings and show how its flight is accomplished with the body structure of a bird but some of th
MIT scientists have brought a supercool end to a heated race among physicists: They have become the first to create a new type of matter, a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity.
Their work, to be reported in the June 23 issue of Nature, is closely related to the superconductivity of electrons in metals. Observations of superfluids may help solve lingering questions about high-temperature superconductivity, which has widespread applications for magnets, sensors a
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