Plastic made of potato starch is a promising material for packaging, which is a big new application for starch plastics. This is shown in Åsa Rindlav-Westling’s doctoral dissertation, which was carried out in Paul Gatenholm’s research team in polymer technology at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

Our huge quantities of refuse could be reduced and a greater proportion than today could be composted. Combustion of materials from oil, such as conventional plastics and fossil fuels, ra

Approximately 375,000 Europeans suffer cardiac arrest every year – often with fatal consequences. Even upon successful resuscitation, several patients suffer severe and irreparable brain damage. One in seven patients could be saved and the amount of serious damage resulting from cardiac arrest could be drastically reduced by reducing the body temperature of those affected to between 32 and 34 degrees in the first 24 hours following the cardiac arrest. Such are the results of a Europe-wide study, in w

Nitric oxide, normally toxic at high concentrations, is now known to be involved in a number of functions within the nervous system of many animals. New research being presented today at the Society for Experimental Biology conference reveals for the first time that nitric oxide is also present within the neurosecretory system of fish and may help them cope with changes in environmental salinity.

Within the mammalian nervous system it was thought that nerve cells communicated exclusively usi

The journal Nature has announced that a report claiming that genetically engineered DNA had found its way into wild Mexican corn should not have been published. The announcement, unveiled online last Thursday, came with two critiques of the study and a rebuttal by its authors. Though they are not retracting the original article Nature editor Philip Campbell states that the journal has decided to make the circumstances surrounding it clear and “allow our readers to judge the science for themselves.”

Even a conventional mobile phone user demands more functions and better performance of his mobile phone in the smallest possible space. The mobile phone should also be easy to use, reliable and inexpensive. In order to meet these demands, more data and functions than before must be packed into the circuit boards of mobile phones in the future.

The researchers at the Helsinki University of Technology have met this challenge by developing a new type of production method for electronics, a so-c

Research by Dr Mark Nieuwenhuijsen published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine today (4 April) highlights an area of potential risk to pregnant women through exposure to the by-products of chlorination in swimming pools.
The following statement clarifies the potential risk:

Dr Nieuwenhuijsen, from the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at Imperial College, London says:

“There is no empirical evidence that chlorination by-products in swimming