Quantcast

White House explains Bush’s hydrogen car plan

In his State of the Union address, President Bush announced a $1.2 billion Freedom Fuel initiative to reverse America?s growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases. The Freedom Fuel initiative will include $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation. Combined with the FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) initiative, President Bush is proposing a total of $1.7 billion over the next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies.

Study sheds light on how the sun causes skin cancer

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have made a discovery that could help solve a mystery in cancer biology: how a sunburn acquired during a childhood day at the beach can develop into a deadly tumor decades later. The scientists report in the Feb. 4 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the sun’s damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays target a series of biochemical signals inside the young skin cell, impairing the cell’s ability to control its proliferation. The paper currently is available on the journal’s web site.

Expendable microphones may help locate building collapse survivors

Data gathered by Penn State engineers in a volunteer effort at the World Trade Center tragedy, suggests that simple, inexpensive microphones dropped into the rubble of a collapsed building may be able to aid search and rescue teams despite ground level noise.
Dr. Thomas B. Gabrielson, associate professor of acoustics and senior research associate at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, says, “In conventional survivor searches, noise generating activities at the surface must be stopped while listening for survivors.”
However, the Penn State team found that the noise level in the interior voids of the rubble was about the same as that of a quiet residential neighborhood even though the noise level at the surface was much higher due to constant operation of three heavy lift cranes, air hammers, and dozens of rescuers workers.

Clinical trials expanded with novel vaccine for advanced colorectal cancer

Several additional cancer centers in the United States and Canada are enrolling patients in an innovative clinical trial evaluating the use of a therapeutic cancer vaccine in patients with first-line metastatic colorectal cancer. In addition, a second trial using the vaccine earlier in the course of disease is now under way in centers across Canada, according to Aventis Pasteur Limited of Toronto, Canada, the study sponsor.

Vitamins C and E may enhance effectiveness of insulin for diabetes

Boosting insulin with vitamins C and E may improve the drug’s effectiveness for treating diabetes. A UC Irvine College of Medicine study has found that the popular antioxidant supplements not only enhance insulin’s ability to reduce blood sugar, but also lower the risks of organ damage that can occur despite insulin treatments. The study appears in the January issue of Kidney International.

NIH Study Shows MRI Provides Faster, More Accurate Way To Diagnose Heart Attacks

Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology can detect heart attack in emergency room patients with chest pain more accurately and faster than traditional methods, according to a new study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Published in the February 4 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the findings suggest that more patients who are suffering a heart attack or who otherwise have severe blockages in their coronary arteries could receive treatment to reduce or prevent permanent damage to the heart if they are assessed with MRI.

Ocean surface saltiness influences El Nino forecasts

NASA sponsored scientists have discovered by knowing the salt content of the ocean’s surface, they may be able to improve the ability to predict El Nino events. Scientists, studying the western Pacific Ocean, find regional changes in the saltiness of surface ocean water correspond to changes in upper ocean heat content in the months preceding an El Nino event. Knowing the distribution of surface salinity may help predict events. Salinity and temperature combine to dictate the ocean’s density. Greater salinity, like colder temperatures, results in an increase in ocean density with a corresponding depression of the sea surface height.

Study: Clean air act reduces acid rain

The federal Clean Air Act of 1990 appears to be successful in reducing two major types of air pollutants that contribute to acid rain, and signs of recovery are beginning to occur in lakes and streams in the Midwest and East, according to a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Steve Kahl, director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at the University of Maine, led the EPA research effort in New England and helped to lead the team that wrote the report. Katherine Webster, UMaine assistant professor of biological sciences, was a co-author of the report.

Nanodevice breaks 1-GHz barrier

Nanoscientists have achieved a milestone in their burgeoning field by creating a device that vibrates a billion times per second, or at one gigahertz (1 GHz). The accomplishment further increases the likelihood that tiny mechanical devices working at the quantum level can someday supplement electronic devices for new products.

Dramatic increase in college students’ mental health problems over last 13 years

College students frequently have more complex problems today than they did over a decade ago, including both the typical or expected college student problems — difficulties in relationships and developmental issues — as well as the more severe problems, such as depression, sexual assault and thoughts of suicide. That is the finding of a study involving 13,257 students seeking help at a large Midwestern university counseling center over a 13-year period. Some of these increases were dramatic. The number of students seen each year with depression doubled, while the number of suicidal students tripled and the number of students seen after a sexual assault quadrupled.