Archive by date | September 2013

Norway ditches large-scale carbon-capture plan

Norway’s government is cutting off support for a facility that by 2020 was to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions at a commercial scale. After years of delays and mounting costs, the plan to capture 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from an oil refinery and gas power plant at Mongstad would be halted, said oil and energy minister Ola Borten Moe on 20 September.  Read more

EPA proposes emissions limits for new power plants

Following through on President Barack Obama’s climate strategy, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed greenhouse gas regulations that would effectively ban coal-fired power plants unless they are equipped to capture and sequester a portion of their carbon dioxide emissions.  Read more

NIH approves first uses of HeLa genome

A US National Institutes of Health (NIH) committee approved the first uses of genomic data from the HeLa cell line on 16 September. The HeLa Genome Data Access Working Group includes representatives of the family of Henrietta Lacks, the African American woman whose fatal cervical tumour gave rise to the HeLa cell line in 1951.  Read more

CDC issues report on controlling antibiotic resistance

CDC issues report on controlling antibiotic resistance

In a comprehensive new report on antibiotic-resistant superbugs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t shy away from terms like “nightmare”, but its analysis is not completely pessimistic. The takeaway? It’s not too late to combat the emergence of new microbial threats.  Read more

European Research Council funds arXiv — a taste of changes to come

European Research Council funds arXiv — a taste of changes to come

The European Research Council (ERC) announced today that it has joined the list of more than 170 institutions to financially support arXiv, the major online repository for pre-print papers operated by Cornell University Library in Ithaca, New York.  Read more

European Parliament votes to limit crop-based biofuels

The European Union Parliament voted today to limit Europe’s use of biofuels based on crops such as palm oil and soya beans, years after scientists pointed out that making fuel from food crops can do more harm than good to the environment.  Read more