NewsTrust - Sci/Tech - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Coal ash from U.S. blamed for Dominican town's birth defects

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Frances Robles - Nov. 07 (News Report) - Villagers in the Dominican Republic claim children have been born without limbs and organs because of coal ash from a Virginia power company dumped nearby. Maximiliano Calcano is 2 and was born with no arms.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Evergreen shifts work to China

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Erin Ailworth - Nov. 07 (News Report) - Little more than a year after cutting the ribbon at a new factory in Devens built with more than $58 million in state aid, Evergreen Solar said yesterday that it will shift its assembly of solar panels from there to China.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nidal Malik Hasan case: Are Army psychiatrists overwhelmed?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Gordon Lubold - Nov. 06 (News Report) - The case of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who is the primary suspect in the Fort Hood shooting spree Thursday that killed 13 people, is pointing up the enormous need to help soldiers overwhelmed by the stress – or even the prospect – of serving in wartime. As the military begins its eighth year of the war on terror, much of the focus has been on the inability to fully support the growing number of troops diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. But the events at Fort Hood cast the issue even wider.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Britain rules out climate treaty at summit

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Michael McCarthy - Nov. 06 (News Report) - Although there are various stumbling blocks, there is no doubt that the continued lack of a serious American offer on cutting its greenhouse gas emissions and providing climate finance for the developing nations – the bill which might provide them is stuck in the US Senate – is the principle obstacle to progress. "Copenhagen is one of the most important meetings in human history. But the politicians seem determined to blow it," said Joss Garman, climate campaigner for Greenpeace.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hasan Was ‘Mortified’ About Deployment to War

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By James Dao - Nov. 06 (News Report) - Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hopes fading for Copenhagen climate change treaty

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Allegra Stratton - Nov. 05 (News Report) - Political agreement rather than full treaty is now goal of the meeting, says global warming minister Hopes that a full, legally binding treaty on tackling climate change would be signed at next month?s Copenhagen summit are fading, Ed Miliband acknowledged today. The climate change secretary indicated that a political agreement, with a timetable setting out the path to a full international treaty, was now set to be the major goal for the meeting. He told MPs the government would have preferred a full treaty but any deal that does emerge from the talks must contain detailed commitments. African nations walked out of the latest round of UN climate change talks in Barcelona this week in a protest calling for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Scientists propose a 'genome zoo' of 10,000 vertebrate species, to be stored at University of California-Santa Cruz

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By By Lisa M. Kriegerlkrieger - Nov. 05 (News Report) - The University of California-Santa Cruz could someday house the world's largest zoo — holding not live animals, but the genetic codes of 10,000 different creatures, many of them exotic or extinct.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Gore’s Dual Role: Advocate and Investor

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John M. Broder - Nov. 03 (News Report) - Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Judge OKs Challenge to Human Gene Patents

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - Nov. 03 (News Report) - A federal judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit can move forward against the Patent and Trademark Office and a research company awarded exclusive rights to human genes known to detect early signs of breast or ovarian cancer. The first-of-its-kind lawsuit

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Three Contests on Election Day Could Signal Political Winds

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Adam Nagourney - Nov. 03 (News Analysis) - In this supposedly quiet off-year election, three contests taking place Tuesday are filling the void. Voters in New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors, while voters in upstate New York are fillinga vacant House seat in a race with national implications.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Farmers fight climate bill, but warming spells trouble for them

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - Nov. 02 (News Report) - Farm state senators and others soon will get a taste of what their colleagues from Missouri already have piled high on their desks: thousands of letters from farmers urging them to vote against the climate and energy bill. The Missouri Farm Bureau started the letter campaign early, weeks before the bill was fully written and made public. It was followed in October with a pitch from the American Farm Bureau, the nation's largest agriculture lobby, to get farmers to take farm caps, sign their bills and send them to senators with notes that say, "Don't cap our future."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Clever 'chopped' cars promise cheap electric commuting

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Scientist - By Tom Simonite - Oct. 30 (Special Report) - Clever 'chopped' cars promise cheap electric commuting

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Senate Climate Markup Set for Tuesday but Will Any Republicans Show?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Darren Samuelson - Oct. 30 (News) - But Boxer cannot hold the markup unless at least two Republicans show up, and EPW ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) signaled that he has unanimous support among the panel's minority members to boycott the session until they get more data on the legislation from U.S. EPA and the Congressional Budget Office.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

No Deal: Chamber Chief Battles Obama Agenda

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Stephen Power - Oct. 30 (News Report) - Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is working to defeat Obama on many of his top issues, sparking a furious reaction from the White House.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Thirsty Gaza

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Heather Sharp - Oct. 27 (News Report) - Gaza's aquifer and only natural freshwater source is "in danger of collapse," the UN is warning. Engineers have long been battling to keep the densely populated strip's water and sewage system limping along. But in September the UN Environment Programme warned that damage to the underground aquifer - due to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, conflict, and years of overuse and underinvestment - could take centuries to reverse if it is not halted now.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Depression's Evolutionary Roots

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Paul W. Andrews, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. - Oct. 27 (News Report) - Depression seems to pose an evolutionary paradox. Research in the US and other countries estimates that between 30 to 50 percent of people have met current psychiatric diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder sometime in their lives. But the brain plays crucial roles in promoting survival and reproduction, so the pressures of evolution should have left our brains resistant to such high rates of malfunction. Mental disorders should generally be rare — why isn’t depression?

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Our Brains are Wired for Hypocrisy

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Sharon Begley - Oct. 27 (Special Report) - It's not only the rich and famous who have made hypocrisy a fine art, though when advocates for the poor such as John Edwards build gargantuan homes, or family-values preachers such as Ted Haggard fess up to "sexual immorality", they sure make it seem so. But garden-variety hypocrisy is so rife—the "environmentalist" who bought a Hummer because, come to think of it, driving lots of kids to soccer practice would use much less gasoline than if every parent made the trip; the "humanitarian" who turns down the charitable appeal because, on second thought, it's much better for the poor to learn to fend for themselves—it seems as if the brain must have a special circuit for it.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wildlife under threat from drug cartels

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jamie Doward - Oct. 25 (News Report) - Colombia, one of the largest environmental hubs in the planet, with a territory of more than 1 million square kilometres, has been warning about the dangers of "ecocide" caused by the country's drug cartels for several years. As one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, it is home to 50,000 plant species and 18% of the world's bird species. But now it is attempting to make children aware that the threats facing its rainforests are a global issue that will have an impact on climatic stability.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Campaign to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Levels Picks a Number to Make a Point

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Andrew C. Revkin - Oct. 25 (News Report) - Activists on Saturday performed synchronized demonstrations centering on 350 parts per million, which some scientists have said is the upper limit for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nuclear energy becomes pivotal in climate debate

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By H. Josef Hebert - Oct. 25 (News Analysis) - Once vilified by environmentalists and its future dim, nuclear energy has become a pivotal bargaining chip as Senate Democrats seek Republican votes to pass climate legislation. The nuclear industry's long-standing campaign to rebrand itself as green is gaining acceptance amid the push to curtail greenhouse gases.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Senate Global Warming Bill Is Seeking to Cushion the Impact on Industry

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By John M. Broder - Oct. 25 (News Report) - The Senate bill aimed at reducing global warming pollution will initially grant billions of dollars of free emissions permits to utilities and industry but will require the bulk of the money be returned to consumers and taxpayers, according to newly released details.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

China steps up, slowly but surely, to address emissions issue

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steven Mufson - Oct. 24 (Special Report) - In a large greenhouse, hundreds of tubes hold strains of algae being tested for how much carbon dioxide they can suck from the air. Outside, half a dozen brands of solar panels are being matched for performance against the company's own. Next door,

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Poll: US belief in global warming is cooling

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Dina Cappiello - Oct. 23 (News Report) - At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change — from melting ice caps to the world's oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Proposed Water Plant Raises Growth Issues in Marin County

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Susan Sward - Oct. 22 (News) - Nothing about the Marin Municipal Water District storage yard and the run-down wooden pier protruding into San Francisco Bay give any hint of what they are: the site of what may become one of the fiercest water battles in Northern California in decades. It is, on the surface, a set piece: an emotional struggle over a large planned water project facing strong environmental opposition. But at a more basic level, it is a contest over the ever-volatile issue of growth in Marin County.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Iran, world powers agree to draft deal on uranium

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Borzou Daragahi - Oct. 21 (News Report) - The head of the world's atomic energy watchdog said Iran and world powers have until Friday to approve a proposed deal to transfer most of Iran's nuclear material abroad to be reformatted for medical purposes.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer