Barely a decade after the industry got its start, nanotechnology is poised to sweep the globe. Touted as the next industrial revolution, potential uses for nanomaterials include highly efficient solar collectors, medical devices capable of delivering medications to individual cells, odor-free gym socks and invisible sunscreen lotion. Nanotechnology fabricates and manipulates objects at a very small scale, less than 100 nanometers in size. For an idea of how small that is, a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick. A red blood cell is 7,000 nanometers across while a DNA molecule is 2.5 ... Read More
Riddles of an Acerbic Sea
April 13, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Just a quarter of the carbon dioxide generated by burning fuels ends up being recycled through the biological processes of terrestrial plants and animals, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Another quarter of this man-generated carbon dioxide floats aloft in the atmosphere, and the rest, NOAA says, ends up in the drink. That amounts to 260 billion tons of carbon dioxide dissolved into the sea since the beginning of the industrial era — a good thing when it comes to reducing greenhouse gasses that warm the planet. But, it also lowers the pH of the normally ... Read More
New Therapies Break Sickle Cell’s Painful Grip
March 22, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Sickle cell anemia, the first genetic disorder recognized by medicine, is still not well understood. Identified in 1910 by James B. Harrick in Chicago, the disease affects close to 100,000 people in the United States, mostly African American, and millions worldwide. The consequences for patients are devastating. According to Sophie Lanzkron, director of the Sickle Cell Center for Adults at Johns Hopkins University, 30 percent of sickle cell patients experience pain 90 percent of days. "This is a tough disease; they have intermittent episodes of excruciating pain — they can’t go to ... Read More
Warm Wishes for Ailing Bats
March 10, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Researchers suggest using space heaters to warms bats' chilly roosting caves, perhaps stalling the die-off associated with white-nose syndrome. Though scientists are still perplexed about the origin of white-nose syndrome, and why it is such an efficient killer of bats, a team of researchers announced last week in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment that they may have discovered a means to lower the death rate in affected caves. Rather than focusing on fighting the fungus that causes the disease, they plan to target the animal's behavior and environment. Justin Boyles, a graduate ... Read More
Bat-Killing Disease Marches South
March 3, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Al Hicks took it hard when laboratory tests confirmed the presence of white-nose syndrome among recently killed bats in West Virginia. It was the worst news the endangered species biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had heard concerning bats since in January 2007, when the disease was first discovered, killing bats in Schoharie Cavern not far from Albany where he leads a national effort studying the bat die-off problem. Hicks said white-nose syndrome is an efficient killer of cave bats, wiping out 75 to 90 percent of the individuals in the colonies ... Read More
Looking for a Traffic Cop in Space
February 19, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Hours before an out-of-control Russian Kosmos satellite and an Iridium communications satellite collided 485 miles above Siberia last week, Robert Bell, the executive director of the Society of Satellite Professionals International, told Miller-McCune.com about his hopes for some form of traffic-control system in space. "It's hard to get agreement on anything," he said. "There hasn't been much progress beyond the finger-pointing stage," and "unless we do it properly, we could run into big problems." Twenty-four hours later, those problems made themselves plain with the first collision of ... Read More
Much Ado About Nanotech
February 10, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
It's a quantum leap in materials science, revolutionizing manufacturing, food production and health care. Objects as small as a few dozen atoms across can be manipulated in size and shape, and function. But as nanotechnology rapidly worms its way into commerce, there has been very little government oversight addressing the risks that may accompany the breakthroughs. Experts say this is because the technology is so new and, in part, regulators are reluctant to hamper innovation. Meanwhile, manufacturers have, quietly, begun incorporating nanomaterials into all sorts of consumer products. ... Read More
Billions Haven’t a Pot to You-Know-What In
November 19, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
To hear the rationale for the space shuttle's $23.4 million toilet or learn from Herodotus that "in Egypt, women stand erect to make water; the men stoop," you need consult but one source, The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters. Released this fall, it is journalist Rose George's account of three years exploring the world of toilets. Though it covers much more, the author says the book was inspired by the plight of those without sanitation: Some 2.6 billion people, she says, "don't even have a bucket." Miller-McCune.com talked to George during a ... Read More
Unhappy Halloween: Bats In Grave Danger
October 31, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Something is killing off the bats in Northeastern United States and scientists are racing to find the culprit. A mysterious ailment affecting colonies of hibernating bats — first reported in the winter of 2006 — is spreading, raising serious concerns for scientists and conservationists. First observed among bats in caves and mines in New York, the phenomenon has wiped out 75 to 100 percent of the individuals in the colonies where it has occurred. The die-off has spread to the neighboring states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, ... Read More
