Fleet of Automated Electric Taxis Could Deliver Environmental and Energy Benefits

It may be only a matter of time before urban dwellers can hail a self-driving taxi, so researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley decided to analyze the cost, energy, and environmental implications of a fleet of self-driving electric vehicles operating in Manhattan.

Meningitis B Vaccine Trial for Teenagers Launched

Researchers are working with schools around the county to find 24,000 volunteers aged 16 to 18 years to take part in the Be on the TEAM (Teenagers Against Meningitis) trial, led by the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford with funding and support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Mandatory nutrition policies may impact sugar consumption

Mandatory nutrition policies could be a valuable tool in helping high school students to lower their sugar intake, a University of Waterloo study has found.

The study compared the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks between 41,000 secondary school students in Ontario, where school nutrition policies are mandatory, and Alberta, where they are voluntary. The study took place during the 2013-14 school year.

Ragweed Casts Shade on Soy Production

Ragweed, its pollen potent to allergy sufferers, might be more than a source of sneezes. In the Midwest, the plant may pose a threat to soybean production.

New National Academies' report lays out path forward for methane research

A new National Academies of Sciences' report calls on several federal agencies to work together to improve techniques for measuring one of the most important greenhouse gases produced by humans - methane.

Early Earthquake Warning! New Study Examines Safety Potentials and Limits

In a newly published study, U.S. Geological Survey scientists and their partners calculate possible alert times that earthquake early warning systems can provide people at different levels of ground motion from light to very strong shaking.

A Bill of Rights for Clean Water

The protection of our shared environment has long been among government’s most fundamental responsibilities. Ancient Rome’s Code of Justinian, one of the first efforts at constitutional governance, guaranteed to all citizens the use of the “public trust” or “commons” — those shared resources that cannot be reduced to private property, including the air, water, forests and fisheries. Throughout Western history, the first acts of tyrants have invariably included efforts to deliver public-trust assets into private hands. During the Dark Ages, when Roman law broke down in England, King John attempted to sell off the country’s fisheries, place navigational tolls on England’s rivers, and seize its woodlands and game animals. Enraged at that theft of public-trust assets, England’s people confronted John at Runnymede in 1215, forcing him to sign the Magna Carta. That seminal democratic document included a powerful articulation of the principle that the commons of water, fisheries and woodland were not commodities to be bartered away by a prince, but the rightful property of all citizens.

Repurposing Existing FDA-Approved Inhibitors May Provide New Treatment Approach for Ovarian Cancer

Wistar researchers have found rationale for repurposing a class of antitumor compounds called HDAC inhibitors, already approved by the FDA for the treatment of diseases such as leukemia, as a new therapeutic option for ovarian cancer with mutations in the ARID1A gene. Study results were published online in Cell Reports.

Newly-Discovered Planet is Hot, Metallic and Dense as Mercury

• Hot, metallic, Earth-sized planet with a density similar to Mercury detected 339 light years away and characterised by global team of astronomers, including the University of Warwick
  
  
• K2-229b is 20% larger than Earth but has a mass 2.6 times greater - and a dayside temperature of over 2000°C >> Read the Full Article

MSU Researchers Find That Beetle Odor Could Help Tackle Tamarisk

In the fight against an invasive plant colonizing portions of the state, a Montana State University doctoral student is luring shrub-munching beetles with an odor as tantalizing to them as the smell of bacon and pancakes, or perhaps a barbecue, is to humans.