• Audits find “troubling” security flaws in CDC labs

    Laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) have been cited in  government audits for  failing to  secure  bioterror agents such as  anthrax and plague. The audits also found that  employees handling these agents have not been trained properly to do so.

  • DHS awards contract for utility plant at the Kansas biolab

    DHS has awarded a $40 million contract to build a utility plant at a $1.15 billion animal research lab in Kansas. The 87,000 square foot facility will replace an animal research lab on Plum Island in New York and will be used to research deadly animal diseases that affect livestock.

  • Killing superbugs dead

    The overuse of antibiotics has created strains of bacteria resistant to medication, making the diseases they cause difficult to treat, or even deadly. Now, however, researchers have identified a weakness in at least one superbug that scientists may be able to medically exploit.

  • Better management of water resources in Canada

    Canadian agriculture is faced with great opportunities, but also challenged by water — related risks and uncertainties. An expert panel convened by the Council of Canadian Academies has found that water and land resources in Canada can be more sustainably managed by developing forward — thinking policies and effective land and water management strategies, adopting effective governance mechanisms, and harnessing technological advancements.

  • New drug developed to combat flu pandemic

    Scientists have helped to design a new drug to safeguard against epidemic and pandemic flu strains. The new drug has been proven to be effective in preventing the spread of different strains of influenza in laboratory models — including resistant strains of the virus.

  • Malaria infection risk influenced by daily variations in temperature

    Identifying areas of malarial infection risk depends more on daily temperature variation than on the average monthly temperatures, according to researchers, who believe that their results may also apply to environmentally temperature-dependent organisms other than the malaria parasite.

  • Malaria can be defeated without a global eradication program

    In 1955, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a malaria eradication campaign that eliminated the disease in many temperate and subtropical regions but did not achieve worldwide eradication. The program was scrapped after less than two decades in favor of controlling malaria. WHO, however, attributed about 660,000 deaths to the disease in 2010, mostly African children. New research finds that malaria does not have to be eradicated globally for individual countries to succeed at maintaining elimination of the disease.

  • Six in ten people worldwide lack access to flush toilets, adequate sanitation

    It may be the twenty-first century, with all its technological marvels, but six out of every ten people on Earth still do not have access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation that protects the user and the surrounding community from harmful health effects.

  • Defusing the threat of ionizing radiation

    The damage to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake raised concerns regarding U.S. preparedness to treat large-scale human exposure to ionizing radiation. Additionally, the immediate destructive potential of nuclear and radiological weapons, as well as their long-term health and economic impacts, continue to be of concern to DoD. Researchers look for  novel approaches to mitigate immediate and long-term health damage from acute exposure to ionizing radiation and model its biophysical effects.

  • Countering the threats of fake or substandard medications

    No country acting alone can protect its citizens against the health risks posed by illegitimate medications, and reducing this problem requires international cooperation. A new study calls for global agreement on an international code of practice on drug quality. It also recommends establishing a mandatory drug tracking system and tightening the licensing requirements on medication wholesalers in the United States.

  • Improving detection of, responses to biological warfare

    Biological warfare agents pose more than a hypothetical threat to U.S. soldiers. Troops operate in hostile areas where they could come under attack from adversaries wielding bio-agents like anthrax and toxins. The first step in reacting to any such attack is knowing that it occurred. Quickly and accurately identifying the presence of airborne antigens can be difficult given their complexity, the presence of numerous similar microorganisms in the environment, and the fact that even minute quantities of a threat agent can cause infection. Researches seek to advance sensitivity and durability of antibody-based biosensors better to protect soldiers.

  • Keeping an eye on the world’s dangerous chemicals

    In the chemistry labs of the developing world, it is not uncommon to find containers, forgotten on shelves, with only vague clues to their origins. The label, if there is one, is rubbed away. Left alone for years, some chemicals can quietly break down into explosive elixirs, and what was once an innocent experiment by a well-meaning scientist becomes a very real, unsecured threat. Should such chemicals fall into malicious hands, the consequences could be widespread and deadly.

  • The sobering reality of water security

    Agriculture is one of the world’s most insatiable consumers of water. Yet, it is facing growing competition for water from cities, industry, and recreation at a time when demand for food is rising, and water is expected to become increasingly scarce.

  • Genetically modified crops are overregulated: expert

    It has been almost twenty years since the first genetically modified foods showed up in produce aisles throughout the United States and the rest of the world, but controversy continues to surround the products and their regulation.

  • Toxic legacy of lead pollution persists despite regulatory efforts, modest gains

    Efforts to reduce lead pollution have paid off in many ways, yet the problem persists and will probably continue to affect the health of people and animals well into the future. The good news, he said, is that atmospheric lead concentrations in the United States have fallen by 89 percent in the past three decades.The bad news is that blood lead levels are still about 100 times higher than the natural background level, and there is no known threshold for lead toxicity. In other words, even tiny amounts of lead in the body can be harmful.