Research News
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Sustainable irrigation may harm other development goals, study shows
Pursuing sustainable irrigation, without significant irrigation efficiency gains, could negatively impact environmental and development goals in many areas of the world, a new study has found. Over-extraction of groundwater for crop irrigation is one of the main causes of groundwater depletion in regions including Mexico, North East China, northern Africa, the Middle East, and the […]
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US stands to save billions through renewable energy usage
Rolling out and extending existing US renewable energy standards nationwide could save hundreds of billions of dollars in health and environmental costs by 2050, a new study has found. The researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, found that the air quality and climate change mitigation benefits […]
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Cost-effective quantum moves a step closer
Canadian and US researchers have taken an important step towards enabling quantum networks to be cost-effective and truly secure from attack. The experiments, by the team from the University of Calgary, the California Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado, prove the viability of a measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD) […]
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US public backs carbon tax, and spending revenue on renewables
The majority of the US public is in favour of a tax on fossil fuels, provided the money goes into clean energy and infrastructure, according to a new study. The Yale University study surveyed Americans’ willingness to pay a carbon tax, and their preferences on how any revenue should be spent. The results were published […]
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Answer to bacterial antibiotic resistance may be found in plants
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an ever-growing problem for healthcare, agriculture and hygiene, thanks to their indiscriminate and often excessive use. While natural, plant-derived antimicrobial small molecules may offer a potential solution, they often lack sufficient activity and selectivity to fulfil antibiotic requirements, and their conventional methods activation may not be compatible with biomedical applications. […]
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Journal marks 60th anniversary of the first serious nuclear accidents
This year sees the 60th anniversary of the world’s first serious nuclear accidents – the “Kyshtym Accident” in Russia and the “Windscale Fire” in England. The accidents happened at nuclear weapons production sites within two weeks of each other in the autumn of 1957, and required measures to protect the public. To mark the anniversary, […]
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Paper reveals the theory behind ALPHA antihydrogen breakthrough
New research by a team from Aarhus, Swansea, and Purdue Universities has enabled recent experiments to make the first measurement of the 1S – 2S atomic state transition in antihydrogen. In the paper, published in the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, a theoretical approach is developed for the ALPHA experiment at […]
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Cell culture system could offer cancer breakthrough
A new cell culture system that provides a tool for preclinical cancer drug development and screening has been developed by researchers in the USA. The team, led by scientists from Princeton University, New Jersey, created a microfluidic cell culture device that allows the direct, real-time observation of the development of drug resistance in cancer cells. […]
