Author: Adam Clare

ADB Dislikes Corruption

divulge large expenditures to ensure that governments are transparent. Hopefully then, governments will be held accountable for their actions.

“ADB today launched a government and anticorruption action plan which aims to improve the effectiveness of ADB’s development assistance and to contribute to poverty reduction throughout the region.

ADB is committing $4 million to support initial implementation of the new plan, which follows a comprehensive review of the implementation of ADB’s first action plan, adopted in 2000, and will enable developing member countries in partnership with ADB to design and deliver better quality projects and programs.”

Gold in the Landfill

tyresBusiness Week is running a great article on innovative green entrepreneurs. The article is appropriately titled From Garbage to Gold, and is an easy read to make your weekend good.

“For a slew of new entrepreneurs, garbage is not just a matter of personal opinion, it is, ahem, their business. In other words, they’re creating new companies out of other people’s junk.
…
Reich says he is looking to broaden his product line and expand his distribution channels. “After we started the company, I didn’t see a lot of other recycling [products],” he says. “I’ve learned quite a bit about companies taking similar innovative approaches to product design. It’s a niche now, but it’s a growing field. People are becoming more aware of what products are made of and where they go after they are done owning them.””

Uranium Chewers

radioactiveReaders of ThingsAreGood know that bacteria can make dangerous heavy metals a lot less dangerous. Now scientists have found out how the bacteria can eat away at uranium with no harm done to it.

“Assembling a battery of evidence, scientists have for the first time placed the bacterial enzymes responsible for converting uranium to uraninite at the scene of the slime, or “extracellular polymeric substance” (EPS), according to a study led by the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in today’s advance online edition of PLoS Biology.”
Even after reading the article I’m still confused about how this actually works.

Bird Flu, No Flu?

We all know that the bird flu H5N1 is bad, some people argue that millions will die as a result of it. Ouch. Don’t despair though!

A team of researchers have noticed that a certain aspect of H5N1 itself can be used to fight other influenza strains. Still it’s a mixed bag because the same property can render existing H5N1 flu solutions null.

“Researchers have discovered a detail of the H5N1 bird flu virus’s structure that could be exploited to make new, targeted influenza drugs.”

Sub-Saharan Africa Makes Milestone in HIV Treatments

Universal health care for all is still years away, but the number of people receiving HIV antiretroviral therapy has reached the one million mark in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a huge milestone that was announced this week at the International AIDS Conference.

“The one million figure represents a tenfold increase since December 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for 70 per cent of the global unmet treatment need, however, and 95 per cent of the 38.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS live in the developing world, where countries face tremendous challenges in dealing with the epidemic.”