There are 76 sites on the official list of historic sites and monuments in Antarctica. 11 of them are, or used to be, Norwegian. Cultural heritage is a non-renewable resource endangered by environmental pollutants and increased tourism.
We need a lot more research on Norwegian historic sites in Antarctica, says Susan Barr, special adviser at the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. She is president of the International Polar Heritage Committee and has been to the South and No
A major foresight project on materials technology has been launched to put Norway’s need for expertise in nano- and materials technology on the agenda.
Norway hasn’t had a general R&D strategy for materials technology or nanotechnology since the 1980’s and is far behind the USA and the rest of Europe. In 1999, Bill Clinton allocated 500 million US dollars to nano research through the Nanotech Initiative. The same year, the Norwegian White Paper on Research was presented without ment
The framework conditions for Norwegian research in Antarctica are completely changing. The Norwegian summer station, Troll, will be a year-round station, and the airstrip beside Troll will soon accommodate intercontinental flights. This will have enormous consequences for Norwegian research.
From February 2005, year-round operations at the Norwegian research station in Antarctica will commence. At the same time, the airstrip will be able to receive heavy intercontinental flights betw
SOCOFER will be present at the INNOTRANS trade fair in Berlin from 21 to 24 September 2004. On this occasion, the French engineering company will present its know-how in railway infrastructure maintenance systems, as well as its expertise regarding shunting locomotives and other locomotives, and diesel railcar re-powering.
Forty years of experience in the railways sector and the successful management of a range of international projects – with 50% to 75% of sales generated in expo
For patients who suffer severe heart damage during a heart attack and those with weak hearts who must undergo high-risk procedures, a new ventricular assist device that can be inserted without open-chest surgery assumes 85 percent of the heart’s pumping function for several hours or more than a week. The potentially lifesaving device benefits patients who arrive in the emergency room after experiencing damaging heart attacks, as well as those whose hearts are too frail to undergo major procedur
New research from the University of Warwick examining return to school and classroom performance following head injury reveals that teachers are often unaware of the injury and that children only very rarely receive specialist help, despite having attention and memory problems.
The results show that regardless of injury severity many children have difficulties in retrieving and retaining information, and these impairments are particularly handicapping in the classroom. The stud
Expert-witness physicians who specialize in interpreting chest x-rays for plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming asbestos-related injury greatly overstate their findings, compared with independent readers interpreting the same films without knowing their source, reports the August issue of Academic Radiology, published by Elsevier on behalf of the Association of University Radiologists.
In a study of 492 chest x-rays obtained by plaintiffs’ lawyers and entered as evidence in lawsuits ag
New, clear-leaded safety glasses allow eye cancer patients to see during week-long sessions of radiation therapy at home, without sacrificing safety, according to a study by Paul T. Finger, MD, director of Ocular Tumor Services at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, that was published in the June, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
The best treatment today for tumors that grow inside the eye, called intraocular tumors, is plaque therapy, in which a small bowl-shape
How can we build communities that encourage a more active lifestyle? Researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health have received a $99,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to answer that question as they study how the features of our physical environment affect our activity levels.
The researchers, led by Ross Brownson, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and director of the Prevention Research Center at Saint Louis University School of Public Health, will
A University at Buffalo research team has invented a new way to synthesize quantum dots — luminescent nanocrystals made from semiconductor material.
Sometimes called artificial atoms, quantum dots have the potential to be used to build exciting new devices for biological and environmental sensing, quantum computing, lasers and telecommunications, among other applications.
The new technique developed by a team led by T.J. Mountziaris, Ph.D., professor of chemical and biolog
Why did human ancestors evolve such large brains? While humans have an unusual array of characteristics that distinguish us from other species, it is our cognitive abilities and open-ended thinking that are most remarkable. University of Missouri-Columbia researchers found that the ability to excel at social problem solving led human brains to surpass other species in size, developing ecological dominance 1.5 to 2 million years ago.
Mark Flinn and Carol Ward, associate professors of anthrop
Every family unit is a complex social network influenced by numerous inputs. In nature, social organizations at the family and small-group level can range from violent to peaceful, monogamous to polyandrous, segregated to sharing work. On Wednesday August 4, 2004, scientists will gather for the symposium, “Family Dynamics: the Evolution and Consequences of Family Organization.” The session, to be held during the Ecological Society of America’s 89th Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, will examine t
For most of the past 4,500 years, cod was king in the Gulf of Maine’s coastal waters. Today, cod have given way to the Jonah crab with potential long-term consequences for coastal fisheries, according to a University of Maine research report published in the journal Ecosystems.
With crabs and lobsters at the top of the proverbial heap, the Gulf may have entered a new stable phase marked by the presence of expansive kelp beds and the near absence of sea urchins. These findings
A huge, largely underground industry has been built on the moss that drapes some forest trees, raising ecological concerns, questions about export of potentially invasive species, and other issues that have scientists, land managers and businesses unsure about how to monitor, regulate or control this market amid so many uncertainties.
A report on this trade in forest moss – which is sometimes legal, often on the black market – was made today by a botanist from Oregon State Universit
In the next 100 years, Alaska will experience a massive loss of its historic tundra, as global warming allows these vast regions of cold, dry, lands to support forests and other vegetation that will dramatically alter native ecosystems, an Oregon State University researcher said today.
Polar regions such as Alaska will be among the first to illustrate the profound impacts of climate change, said Dominique Bachelet, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Bioengineering and
A new clinical study to determine how people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) evaluate improvements in disease symptoms will be carried out by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health. The study will examine how much of an improvement in pain, stiffness, function and other symptoms is needed before patients consider the change important.
The Clinically Important
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