science wire

The UCL Institute for Global Health's 9th Symposium, 'Straight Talking: Population growth and family planning', was held on 16 March 2009.

A high-resolution graphic depiction of the virtual trails scientists leave behind when they retrieve information from online services. Data provides high-resolution picture of scientists' information retrieval habits LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, March 11, 2009—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have produced the world's first Map of Science—a high-resolution graphic depiction of the virtual trails scientists leave behind when they retrieve information from online services.

BERKELEY — The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law) and UCLA School of Law today announced the launch of a new blog, Legal Planet, which provides insight and analysis on climate change, energy, and environmental law and policy.

10 March 2009 Going back to nature for funerals Why are farmers turning some of their land into burial grounds?

Green Week 2009 kicks off to encourage College community to think green Staff and students encouraged to take responsibility for their own environmental impact - %0A " Imperial becomes first universi

Minster announces creation of new National Transport Research Centre Co-hosted at Imperial Lord Adonis announces funding for research centre during a visit to discuss biofuels and clean energy %0A "

BERKELEY — Even as debate rages over the safety of Australia's "Prepare, stay and defend, or leave early" policy of wildfire defense, fire researchers at the University of California, Berkeley,

BERKELEY — A new speaker series at the University of California, Berkeley, will explore the state's landmark climate control legislation's critical connections to sustainable development and land-use planning.

UCL has signed up as an institutional member of the Climate & Health Council (CHC), the aim of which is to mobilise health professionals across the world to take action to limit climate change, a serious threat to human health.

25 February 2009 British butterfly offers hope for threatened species Most wild species are expected to colonise northwards as the climate warms, but how are they going to get there when so many landscapes are covered in wheat fields and other crops?

Researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick are calling on all vegetable growers so that they can learn more about traditional and unusual vegetable varieties that are still grown, with a view to preserving them for use by future generations.

Cornfield waste, or stover; perennials grown on marginal land; or municipal waste, ranging from kitchen scraps to cardboard, could be used as feedstocks to produce ethanol using cellulosic technology.

In order for plastic solar cells with 8% efficiency to supply U.S. electrical energy needs, a land area of 58 million acres (shown as eight green blocks) would have to be covered by solar farms.

Residents across Birmingham are being asked to help researchers with a major project that aims to understand how some of our best loved garden birds survive in Birmingham's urban jungle.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a New York firm known for its careful attention to context, creative use of materials and innovative modernist work, has been chosen to design Princeton University's new Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment .

Imperial becomes first university to commit to halving the construction waste it sends to landfill New agreement signed with WRAP to reuse and recycle more waste materials - %0A " Imperial College Lo

BERKELEY — The decline of amphibian populations worldwide has been documented primarily in frogs, but salamander populations also appear to have plummeted, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists. The terrestrial salamander Pseudoeurycea goebeli , one of the commonest 40 years ago on the cloud forest slopes of the Tajumulco volcano, has now disappeared.

09 February 2009 Fuelling up on waste coffee New research at the University of Sheffield has shown that oil can be extracted from waste coffee beans and used to produce biofuel for cars.

PA 29/09 Scientists using revolutionary new technology developed at The University of Nottingham have recorded the earliest evidence of animal life so far. Using a scientific technique known as Hydropyrolysis (using hydrogen gas at high pressure) they have been able to date chemical fossils discovered in sedimentary rocks in Oman.

Office of News and Information Johns Hopkins University 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 Phone: 443-287-9960 Fax: 443-287-9920 February 4, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JOHNS HOPKINS: Lisa De Nike Lde [a] jhu (p) edu , 443-287-9960 AMER. GEOPHYSICAL UNION: Maria-José Viñas mjvinas [a] agu (p) org , 202-777-7530 Increasing greenhouse gases could delay, or even postpone indefinitely the recovery of stratospheric ozone in some regions of the Earth, a Johns Hopkins earth scientist suggests.

Princeton's Department of Facilities will host an Environmental Protection Agency workshop on Monday, Feb.

PA 16/09 Fruit and veg may be good for you but in 10 years time we could be replacing fossil fuels and helping to save our planet by using the inedible bits that we throw away to run our cars, boats and planes.

Imperial researchers to help develop new 'green' fuel sources Life scientists receive part of UK's largest ever public investment in bioenergy %0A " By Danielle Reeves Tuesday 27 January 2009 Imperia

New Imperial studentships established to help scientists train for a career in the media Young scientists encouraged to enter the broadcast industry to improve science communication - %0A " Friday 23

Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than genetically, according to a study by Professor Nick Chater (UCL Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences) and US colleagues published today in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' (PNAS). By modelling the ways in which genes for language might have evolved alongside language itself, the study showed that genetic adaptation to language would be highly unlikely, as cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes.

Bleeding hearts revealed with new scan Images that show bleeding inside the heart after a heart attack captured in new study %0A " Imperial College London News Release Under STRICT EMBARGO for 00.

New genetic study sheds light on serious childhood disease Genetic variations that predispose children to Kawasaki Disease discovered %0A " Imperial College London News Release Under strict embargo for 01.

Research by the University of Birmingham has provided evidence that a warm atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide was present in an ancient ice age. This could only have happened if the planet was nearly all covered in ice and snow. Scientists from the University's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, say that, whereas today, we associate more greenhouse gases with a warm world, in a very severe ice age, even plenty of greenhouse gas cannot stop the world being covered in reflective ice and snow.