EurekAlert!

In the midst of a difficult fire season in many parts of the world, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has launched a new online fire detection system that will help firefighters and natural hazards managers improve response time and resource management.

Research!America today called on Congress to take legislative action to allow federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research to proceed, in light of US District Judge Royce Lamberth's refusal yesterday to lift his injunction on federally funded hESC research. Research!America supports the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act introduced in March 2010 by Representatives Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Mike Castle (R-Del.) that would allow federal funding for ethical hESC research.

A new study published in the journal Nature may eventually help scientists predict when species are about to become extinct.

Gregory Stone, director of LSU's WAVCIS Program and also of the Coastal Studies Institute in the university's School of the Coast & Environment, disagrees with published estimates that more than 75 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident has disappeared.

The government's role in improving nutrition is now firmly established with nutritional labeling for restaurant meals now mandated across the US. An article in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association explains how state and municipal labeling laws developed and how the new national law will supersede these and replace them with a uniform standard. It addresses the ADA's involvement and how these new regulations will impact registered dietitians and dietetic technicians, registered, as well as consumers.

In what could be a step toward higher efficiency solar cells, an international team including University of Michigan professors has invalidated the most commonly used model to explain the behavior of a unique class of materials called highly mismatched alloys.

Cancer immunotherapy calls for revised clinical endpoints that differ from those used for chemotherapy, according to an article published online Sept. 8 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

We've all heard the predictions: e-commerce is going to be the death of traditional commerce; online shopping spells the end of the neighborhood brick-and-mortar store.While it's true that online commerce has had an impact on all types of retail stores, it's not time to bring out the wrecking ball quite yet, says a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology.

A research team led by Cary Pirone from the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University has identified bilirubin in the popular Bird of Paradise plant. The breakthrough study, published in the September 2010 issue of the American Society for Horticultural Science's journal HortScience, provides new insights into color production in this iconic tropical plant.

Treating intensive care patients who develop life-threatening bacterial infections, or septicemia, with insulin potentially could reduce their chances of succumbing to the infection, if results of a new preliminary study can be replicated in a larger study.

One of the antibiotics most commonly prescribed to treat adolescent acne can increase attention spans and communication and decrease anxiety in patients with fragile X syndrome.

Operational forecasting centers produce climate predictions that provide input for important decisions regarding water management, agriculture, and energy. Published today, "Assessment of Intraseasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction and Predictability," a report from the National Research Council/NAS, examines current predictive capabilities and identifies opportunities for improvement.

An article just published in the journal Osteoporosis International introduces a validated new model that can be used to forecast the current and future burden of postmenopausal osteoporosis in different national settings.

Kevin Bowyer and Patrick Flynn of the University of Notre Dame's Department of Computer Science and Engineering are examining how iris discrimination performs in twins to confirm prior claims that biometrics is capable of differentiating between twins.

The US economy is experiencing anemic growth, yet businesses are sitting on a mountain of cash worth nearly $2 trillion, according to Federal Reserve estimates. But this trend is nothing new for firms, who have been steadily increasing their cash holdings over the past three decades, a University of Illinois business professor says.

University of Pennsylvania biologists studying human reproduction have identified what is likely the major contributing factor to the maternal age-associated increase in aneuploidy, the term for an abnormal number of chromosomes during reproductive cell division.

Stanford University researchers have developed a revolutionary, noninvasive way of quickly predicting the future health of premature infants, an innovation that could better target specialized medical intervention and reduce health-care costs.

rmed with a decade's worth of satellite data, University of Illinois atmospheric scientists have documented some surprising trends in aerosol pollution concentration, distribution and composition over the Indian subcontinent.

Repeal of birthright citizenship for the US-born children of unauthorized immigrants would expand the nation's unauthorized population by at least 5 million over the next decade, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute.

Using a one-of-a-kind instrument designed and built at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, researchers have discovered an unexpected and tantalizing set of energy levels in graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon with potentially revolutionary electronic properties, when the material is exposed to extremely low temperatures and extremely high magnetic fields.