Good Fact

U.S. stops breeding chimps for research

- Adam Clare

Good news for those who like animals! The U.S. National Institutes of Health has decided to stop breeding chimpanzees for biomedical research. Chimps that are already being used for research remain as test animals, but the fact that more chimps won’t be used in this way is a step in the right direction for the ethical treatment of animals.

“This decision is a huge step towards a day when chimpanzees are no longer used in invasive biomedical research and testing,” Kathleen Conlee of the Humane Society said in a statement.

Cut Risk of Getting Gout be Drinking Coffee

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Apparently drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting the gout. I’m going out for some coffee right now!

In this study, American and Canadian researchers tracked almost 46,000 men for 12 years. The men were ages 40 to 75 at the start of the study and had no history of gout.

The researchers found that men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day were 59 percent less likely to develop gout than those who never drank coffee, while the risk was 40 percent lower for men who drank four to five cups a day.

$10 to Save the Planet

- Adam Clare

Over at the ever-informative DeSmogBlog, they argue that based on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conclusion that it takes only 0.12% of the world’s domestic product to essentially save the planet.

The bottom line is that the cost works out to $10 a person to save the planet.

Oral HIV Test Fast & Effective

- Adam Clare

Traditional HIV tests have used blood samples, but that has meant discomfort for the people being tested and not particularly easy to setup. Oral tests for HIV have been tested and have received positive feedback, people prefer the oral test than getting poked by a needle.

According to lead author Nitika Pai of the McGill University Health Centre, Canada, the test is simple and quick. Swabs of oral fluid are taken and tested for the presence of antibodies against HIV. “The test kit is all-inclusive. It contains the swab, a stand and test solution. You get the test result in less than 20 minutes,” Pai told SciDev.Net.

The study also found that 66% of those who did a blood test for HIV complained of discomfort, while only 8% of those who submitted to the oral test had complaints.

Bricks a la Sewage

- Adam Clare

Yesterday some work was being done on the piping where I live and I couldn’t work from home like I normally do because of the stench. Good news may come from this because that stink, combined with a few other materials, may end up in future buildings.

Imagine if you could turn old rubbish into new houses. That’s exactly what civil engineer Dr John Forth from University of Leeds wants to achieve with the invention of a building block made almost entirely of recycled glass, metal slag, sewage sludge, incinerator ash, and pulverised fuel ash from power stations.

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