Car pollution killing millions in China and India

An explosion of car use has made fast-growing Asian cities the epicentre of global air pollution and become, along with obesity, the world’s fastest growing cause of death according to a major study of global diseases. In 2010, more than 2.1m people in Asia died prematurely from air pollution, mostly from the minute particles of …

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Business Card VChip brings accurate, cheap, and portable blood testing everywhere

The V-chip is the size of a business card and can test for 50 measures (like insulin and other blood proteins, cholesterol, and even signs of viral or bacterial infection all at the same time) from one drop of blood. The V-Chip could make it possible to bring tests to the bedside, remote areas, and …

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Building 3D Microstructures from a 2D Template

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – A new etching method produces three-dimensional microstructures in silicon for the processing of light signals in telecommunications. In modern telecommunications, light carries digital information over kilometers within seconds. Adapted optical materials con-trol the light signals. In the AFM journal, researchers from Ber-lin, Louvain, and from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology present …

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Bakken Oil Rail Shipping Capacity increased to 1 millinon barrels per day

Bloomberg – Bakken oil traded at the most expensive compared with West Texas Intermediate in four months as Burlington Northern Santa Fe boosted crude rail shipping capacity for the grade to 1 million barrels a day. This seems to suggest that railroad and oil companies are expecting the oil from North Dakota to increase 660,000 …

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Virus kills cancer tumors in animals

Telegraph UK = Lab results show a virus is more effective than drugs at killing cancer tumors in animals. However, adenovirus serotype 5 is a common virus in which we have achieved transcriptional targeting by replacing an endogenous viral promoter sequence. Cheap to produce, the virus is exquisitely precise, with only mild, flu-like side-effects in …

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MIT has penny sized ion thruster for moving small satellites

A penny-sized rocket thruster may soon power the smallest satellites in space. The device, designed by Paulo Lozano, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, bears little resemblance to today’s bulky satellite engines, which are laden with valves, pipes and heavy propellant tanks. Instead, Lozano’s design is a flat, compact square — much …

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Liveblogging – DNA Testing How and Why

Sara Gottfried. How to make the new genetic information actionable By 2015 the full human genome sequencing will be $100. It should be about $1000 this year. $100 is about the cost of a blood count test (CDC) Why DNA testing * Diagnostic testing * presymptomatic and predictive testing * having babies – carrier testing, …

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India’s national and local authorities approve the completion of the Kudankulam Nuclear plant

Nuclear Power Daily – Tamil Nadu Monday gave the green signal for the Kudankulam nuclear plant, with an activist saying that 10 people opposing the project have been arrested. The state cabinet met Monday under Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and decided in favour of the Kudankulam plant. LA Times – The plan to build six …

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DARPA administrators: Just make it

Agency Director Regina Dugan and Deputy Director Ken Gabriel spoke at MIT about revitalizing U.S. manufacturing. DARPA Director Regina Dugan focused also on the importance of a revitalized national manufacturing mentality. Of DARPA’s perspective on technology development, she said, “We can’t predict the future, but we can build it.” She stressed that the question was …

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NRC battle Jaczko vs. fellow commissioners

A war among the five commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission broke into the open Friday night when Republican Rep. Darrell Issa released a letter in which four of the commissioners said they have “grave concerns” about NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko. A letter was sent by the four commissioners to the White House in October …

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