Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
The mosquito-borne West Nile virus has begun to wane as winter approaches, but the number of reported cases and deaths still make this the second worst year ever in the USA. west nile mosquitos A complete report of cases and deaths may not be available until "well into next year," …
The glistening waters and sandy beaches of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area have drawn millions of tourists over the years. But the lake also collected wastes dumped into the Columbia River from one of the world's largest lead and zinc smelters, just across the border in Trail, British Columbia. …
A moderate earthquake was widely felt as it rattled the central California coast, but authorities said it didn’t cause any damage. Nearly 6,700 people reported on the US Geological Survey Web site that they felt the magnitude 5.3 quake when it struck late yesterday outside of King City, the federal …
Polar bears' designation as a threatened species was challenged in a U.S. appeals court on Friday, with a lawyer for Alaska and other parties arguing that regulators had failed to back up the listing. Alaska and other plaintiffs that include hunters and the California Cattlemen's Association are appealing a federal …
U.S. wind power developers are installing record-high numbers of turbines in 2012 but that growth could weaken if a production tax credit expires at the end of this year, an industry group said. The U.S. wind industry in August for the first time surpassed 50,000 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity …
Logjam over funding pushes talks beyond closing time at biodiversity summit The Convention on Biological Diversity summit ran into overtime on Friday night, as nations struggled to find a way out of the logjam on funding talks, negotiating far beyond their scheduled closing time. While countries have set ambitious goals …
Restricting access to US death records could have serious consequences for long-term health studies. Government agencies should rethink their decision. (Editorial)
The secrecy that has long surrounded drug-industry trials is crumbling. Scientists are applauding drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for its announcement last week that it will make the trove of detailed raw data underlying its clinical trials systematically available to researchers. And GSK’s move — the first such commitment for a …
Rich in fish, minerals and scientific potential, the seas around Antarctica are among the planet’s most pristine waters — but fishing vessels are already moving in. Next week, negotiators at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR, pronounced ‘cam-lar’) may try to contain …
Salt marshes are highly productive coastal wetlands that provide important ecosystem services such as storm protection for coastal cities, nutrient removal and carbon sequestration. Despite protective measures, however, worldwide losses of these ecosystems have accelerated in recent decades. Here we present data from a nine-year whole-ecosystem nutrient-enrichment experiment. Our study …
Stockholm: Two Americans were awarded the Nobel economics prize on Monday for studies on the matchmaking taking place when doctors are coupled up with hospitals, students with schools and human organs with transplant recipients. The work of Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley has sparked a “flourishing field of research” and …
Fungal meningitis tied to a contaminated steroid has affected 205 people in a worsening outbreak of the infection that has killed 15 people in the US, officials have said. Fourteen states have been affected by the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, on Sunday. On Saturday, it …
Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the Nobel economics prize on Monday for research that helps explain the market processes at work when doctors are assigned to hospitals, students to schools and human organs for transplant to recipients. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists …
According to a new poll, 74 percent of Americans agree that climate change is impacting weather in the U.S., including 73 percent who agreed, strongly or somewhat, that climate change had exacerbated record high temperatures over the summer. The findings mean that a large majority of Americans agree with climatologists …
China's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday voiced strong dissatisfaction with the United States's affirmative final determinations on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, saying the decision "signals protectionism" and "hinders the development of new energy." MOC spokesman Shen Danyang said the US Commerce Department ignores reasonings from the Chinese government …
The United States on Wednesday slapped steep final duties on billions of dollars of solar energy products from China, but turned down a request from lawmakers and U.S. manufacturers to expand the scope of its order. China's government and its solar manufacturers criticized the decision, adding more heat to the …
Drought conditions in the United States grew even worse over the last week as historic drought conditions crept north and threatened new winter wheat planting in several states. September was the driest in 118 years of U.S. record keeping for North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana and was the third-driest …
Walt Disney Co, the world's biggest publisher of children's books, said on Thursday it changed its purchasing policies to reduce paper use and avoid paper harvested from endangered forests. The new policy aims to eliminate paper made with "irresponsibly harvested fiber" and maximize use of products that come from areas …
The outbreak of West Nile disease in the United States moved a step closer on Wednesday to becoming the second worst on record with federal health authorities reporting 280 cases of the virus-caused illness over the past week. There have now been 4,249 cases of West Nile recorded this year, …
Two Americans — Robert J Lefkowitz and Brian K Kobilka — shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the communication system that the human body uses to sense the outside world and send messages to cells. Lefkowitz, 68, is a professor at the Duke University Medical Center in …
