December

A new HIV treatment shot is given only twice a year. It could be a 'game changer.'

Senlenca, a new injection regimen for HIV, is for patients who have suffered drug resistance. But experts worry about the hefty cost.

30/12/2022 USA Today

Man with terminal cancer cleared of disease thanks to UK drug trial

A man told he had less than 12 months to live is now cancer-free thanks to a UK trial of a new drug regime.

30/12/2022 The Independent

Progress at five peace wall sites in Northern Ireland

International Fund for Ireland chairman Paddy Harte paid tribute to community-level work to facilitate the progress.

29/12/2022 The Independent

How science fiction predicted recent high-tech developments in chemistry

Astounding leaps forward in diagnostics, recycling and food are just a few areas of chemistry that were once considered science fiction

29/12/2022 The Conversation

How a scrappy African start-up could forever change the world of vaccines

Afrigen aims to use mRNA technology not only to teach low-resource countries to make their own COVID vaccines but to attack other killer diseases, from TB to HIV. Will they succeed?

28/12/2022 NPR

Ancient farming practice makes a comeback as climate change puts pressure on crops

Farmers used to plant "cover crops" to rejuvenate fields in the off season. When those were replaced with chemicals, the soil suffered

28/12/2022 USA Today

Cutting down trees for high-rise buildings? How can that be environmentally friendly?

The push for mass timber buildings may appear counterintuitive. But the benefits come down to the evolving nature of Australia’s timber industry and timbers way of locking up carbon.

27/12/2022 Sydney Morning Herald

Water pipe robots could stop billions of litres leaking

About 20% of our water supply is lost to leaks and scientists say miniature 'pipe robots' could help.

26/12/2022 BBC

A New Strategy for Preventing Fentanyl Overdoses: Testing Drugs

Machines that examine samples of drugs can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, but experts say they are an increasingly vital tool in stemming overdoses.

24/12/2022 New York Times

A More Elegant Form of Gene Editing Progresses to Human Testing

Instead of cutting out chunks of the genome to disable malfunctioning genes, base editing makes a smaller, more precise swap.

23/12/2022 Wired

Car makes record-breaking trip on single solar-powered charge

A solar-powered car has made a record-breaking 1000km trip on a single charge fuelled by the sun. The Sunswift 7 averaged nearly 85kph (53mph) in less than twelve hours to set a Guinness World Record. The car, designed and built by students at UNSW…

21/12/2022 The Independent

Why the future of our cities might be headed underground

There is a megaproject underway that's not so much breaking new ground, as burrowing beneath it. In Singapore, a series of extensive tunnels are being bored into the soil some 60 meters down -- below subterranean shopping malls and even the city's…

21/12/2022 CNN

Could Floating Solar Panels Help Mitigate Climate Change?

“Floatovoltaics” are an emerging technology, but their environmental impacts are still unknown.

21/12/2022 Reset.org

Female genital mutilation rates peak in Kenya during school holidays - an alternative option offers a solution

In Kenya, the prevalence of female genital mutilation has dropped by 24.2 percentage points where an alternative rite of passage is being tried.

21/12/2022 The Conversation

Baby's life 'probably saved' by umbilical stem cells

A heart surgeon says he "probably saved the life" of a baby by carrying out a "world-first" operation using stem cells from placentas. Professor Massimo Caputo from the Bristol Heart Institute used pioneering stem cell "scaffolding" to correct baby…

20/12/2022 BBC

Historic agreement reached at UN conference to protect lands and oceans

The most significant part of the agreement is a commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030.

19/12/2022 Sydney Morning Herald

No big deal for Finns as defense chief takes paternity leave

Amid the biggest regional security crisis in decades, as Finland waits to join NATO, the country’s defense minister has chosen to claim nearly two months of parental leave from his job

19/12/2022 The Independent

How a solar microgrid became a town’s lifeline in blackout-prone Puerto Rico

When the power goes out in Castañer – which can happen three or four times a week – properties connected to the microgrid become a lifeline for the town of 6,000, explains Jim Wyss

18/12/2022 The Independent

A technology that makes water out of air

In the small town of Lucena in southern Spain, they can make water out of air. The amount of water in the atmosphere depends on a number of things, but it’s about 1% on average.

15/12/2022 El País

Lessons from Sierra Leone: How to get girls back to school

Millions of girls globally haven't returned to classrooms after COVID-19 lockdowns. One country has the solution.

15/12/2022 Al Jazeera

They Fought the Lawn. And the Lawn Lost.

After their homeowner association ordered them to replace their wildlife-friendly plants with turf grass, a Maryland couple sued. They ended up changing state law.

14/12/2022 New York Times

Do Fungal Circuit Boards Hold the Key for E-Waste Recycling?

Mushrooms are the forests' great recyclers, but can they also help reduce electronic waste?

14/12/2022 Reset.org

Lab-grown blood used in transfusion for first time – here are three other ways that making organs could change healthcare

Human volunteers have received the first-ever transfusion of lab grown red blood cells in a groundbreaking scientific first. Volunteers received about 5ml-10ml of blood (around 1-2 teaspoons), which contained around 15 billion red blood cells.

12/12/2022 The Conversation

First offshore wind power sites auctioned off California's coast. One day it could power 1.5M homes.

The auction of the floating offshore wind power sites is a critical step to build this technology off the California coast in the Pacific.

10/12/2022 USA Today

How Seychelles ocean plants could help tackle climate change

Seychelles is one of the first countries to map its seagrasses nationwide, which are a huge store of carbon.

09/12/2022 BBC

Sport NZ’s transgender guidelines are a good start – but can they filter up from grassroots to elite competition?

It remains to be seen how sports organisations implement and regulate transgender guidelines if some sporting bodies refuse to voluntarily adopt them.

08/12/2022 The Conversation

Renewable energy set to overtake coal as largest source of power globally

Renewable energy is set to overtake coal as the largest source of power generation globally in the next two years, according to a new report.

07/12/2022 The Independent

Pioneering method can detect 14 types of cancer with a blood test

A new class of biomarkers increases the sensitivity of liquid biopsies in locating early-stage tumors from 10% to 62%

07/12/2022 El País

'A life changing experience': how adult literacy programs can keep First Nations people out of the criminal justice system

After participation in the Literacy for Life Foundation adult literacy campaign, serious offences by students dropped by almost 65%.

06/12/2022 The Conversation

An HIV-free world is finally within reach

But to get there we need to give everyone, everywhere equal access to groundbreaking new drugs and treatments.

06/12/2022 Al Jazeera

In Bolivia, literacy training makes a profound difference

Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in South America, and nearly a fourth of its citizens could not read nor write a generation ago

05/12/2022 The Independent

Pharma's expensive gaming of the drug patent system is successfully countered by the Medicines Patent Pool, which increases global access and rewards innovation

The Medicines Patent Pool was created to promote public health, facilitating generic licensing for patented drugs that treat diseases predominantly affecting low- and middle-income countries.

05/12/2022 The Conversation

December 2022