• E-beam technology to keep food supply safe

    More than two million people a year, most of them children, die from food-borne or water-borne illness; more than one-third, or 1.3 billion tons, of the food produced for human consumption every year is wasted or lost because of spoilage; the UN nuclear weapons watch dog, the IAEA, says that irradiating food is a more effective solution for preventing death, illness, and food spoilage than techniques currently in use: heating, refrigerating, freezing, or chemical treatment

  • New technology sheds light on viruses

    Scientists develop diagnostic tests that rapidly detect disease-causing viruses in animals and humans; the scientists using a new technology called surface-enhanced Raman scattering, or SERS

  • New food fraud database launched

    DHS defines food fraud as the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering, or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients, or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain; a new database compiles thousands of food fraud reports; the most fraud-prone foods: olive oil, milk, and honey

  • Handheld plasma flashlight rids skin of pathogens

    Scientists develop a handheld, battery-powered plasma-producing device that can rid skin of bacteria in an instant; the device could be used in ambulance emergency calls, natural disaster sites, military combat operations, and many other instances where treatment is required in remote locations

  • Inovio Pharmaceuticals gets DoD continuation grant for synthetic DNA vaccine delivery device

    The U.S. Department of Defense has given a Small Business Innovation Research grant to Inovio Pharmaceuticals to continue developing a  low-cost, non-invasive surface electroporation (EP) delivery device; the testing of the device in conjunction with Inovio’s  synthetic DNA vaccines against viruses with bioterrorism potential, including hanta, puumala, arenavirus and pandemic influenza

  • Compound that halts growth of malaria parasite created

    Malaria sickens more than 200 million people and kills more than a million people annually; the disease is caused by fives species of parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes

  • Beef Industry Safety Summit notes successes, challenges

    The U.S. beef industry says that beef is increasingly safe and that consumers have more confidence in beef safety, but challenges remain

  • Rapid, low-cost, point-of-care flu detection demonstrated

    The novel H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results; scientists demonstrate a prototype rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises a better standard of care

  • More than half of all cancer is preventable

    Public health researchers outline obstacles standing in the way of cancer prevention; ore than half of all cancer is preventable, and society has the knowledge to act on this information today

  • Developing crop for livestock in dry climates

    Scientists at the University of Liverpool are working with international partners to develop new forage crop for the hot and dry climate of regions such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

  • Detection technology detects viruses, pathogens within 24 hours

    New detection technology could enable food safety professionals, law enforcement, medical professionals, and others to detect within twenty-four hours any virus or bacteria that has been sequenced and included among the array’s probes

  • Earth's crust is slowly being destroyed

    New research shows that the Earth’s crust is now undergoing high rates of destruction; the research shows the sharp decrease in the growth of the continental crust indicates a dramatic change in the way the Earth has generated and preserved this crust in the last 4.5 billion years

  • Two RNA-based therapeutic candidates for Ebola, Marburg viruses

    Under a contract for up to $291 million from the U.S. Department of Defense, AVI BioPharma has initiated clinical studies for two RNA-based drugs for the treatment of Ebola and Marburg viruses

  • Firefly technology sheds new light

    A new device, employing the same chemical which lights up fireflies, can easily detect food contamination; the researchers who developed the system hope it will soon be used to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS

  • Army scientists work to improve biothreat detection

    A married couple, both scientists working at the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, one of forty-five Biosafety Level 3 labs in the United States; they collaborate on improving the ability of soldiers and first responders to detect, identify, and protect against potentially lethal biological threat agents