Articles in the Category: Consumer Safety
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Engineering, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 04 15th, 2011 | No Comments
Navy Will Use Laser Guns to Fight Pirates
It sounds like the plotline for a young boy’s bedtime story. But real-life laser weapons are being tested by the U.S. Navy and their first target is modern day pirates who are tormenting shippers and sailors on the northeast coast of Africa.
A ship-based laser could seriously turn up the heat...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Computer Science, Consumer Safety, Earthquake, Engineering, Environment, Health and Medicine, Podcast, Video on 04 14th, 2011 | 1 Comment
Can Dancing Robots Help with Nuclear Clean Up?
Tokyo Electric Power is putting remote controlled machinery to use at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. Helicopters mounted with cameras can safely survey the damaged reactors to give clean up crews a clear view of the mess without exposing them to dangerous radiation,...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Animals, Consumer Safety, Environment, Health and Medicine, Marine Science, Oceanography, Physics and Chemistry, Podcast, Video on 04 8th, 2011 | No Comments
Radioactive Water Poses No Seafood Risk to People
Workers in Japan have started dumping more than three million gallons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo Electric officials spent about two days dumping out all that water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Japan, following the devastating March 11 earthquake....
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Animals, Consumer Safety, Health and Medicine, Podcast, SciLebs, Video on 04 4th, 2011 | No Comments
Bronx Zoo Cobra Alive and Well…and Ready for her Close Up
The national snake hunt is now hissstory! After a six-day search for an Egyptian cobra, the director of the Bronx Zoo told a relieved city that the snake was found in a non-public area of the zoo’s reptile house.
The poisonous snake disappeared from a Bronx Zoo exhibit and caught the nation’s...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Podcast, Politics, The Brain, Video on 04 1st, 2011 | No Comments
Fake Food Color Linked to ADHD
The consumer watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest wants to ban all artificial color from foods. At the very least the organization wants the Food and Drug Administration to put warning labels on foods containing some dyes, like Yellow 5 and Red 40, which have been linked to Attention...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Earthquake, Environment, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 03 16th, 2011 | No Comments
Radioactive Threat Real in Japan: What to Know
The radiation levels at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant continue to fluctuate. Overnight, the spike in radiation levels forced the remaining workers out of the plant for a short time. Police are planning to use water cannons normally reserved for crowd control to keep nuclear fuel...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Consumer Safety, Earthquake, Environment, Geology, Greenovation, Video on 03 14th, 2011 | No Comments
Nuclear Threat Remains After Japan Quake
There’s been more trouble at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant. With cooling systems down, fuel rods have been exposed at the facility’s Unit 2 reactor, and there was an explosion at Unit 3.
While not ideal these explosions keep the threat of a total nuclear meltdown to...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Inventions, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 03 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Student Uses Sound to Detect Bombs
Move over bomb-sniffing dogs. Here comes Benjamin Clough. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute doctoral student just received $30,000 for developing a safer way for police, military and bomb squads to detect hidden explosives and other dangerous chemicals using sound waves.
He has been working in...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Discoveries, Health and Medicine, Physiology, The Brain, Video on 02 22nd, 2011 | 1 Comment
Cell Phone Study Finds Increase in Brain Activity
Radio frequency exposure to cell phones may increase brain activity and glucose metabolism.
Scientists don’t know what it means for our health but a new National Institutes of Health study has found that hand held cell phone use stimulates brain activity.
Dr. Nora Volkow says the study shows that...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Climate Change, Consumer Safety, Diseases, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Plants, Politics, Scientainment, Video on 02 21st, 2011 | No Comments
A Comedic Take on an Unrecognizable Earth
Scientists say the growing number of people on the Earth could lead to a food crisis by 2050 and reshape the planet. Now@9 viewers and Actor/Comedian Hal Sparks discuss the idea.
The conversation was sparked by this weekend’s American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Video on 02 18th, 2011 | No Comments
Cola Color Could Cause Cancer
From the front line of the food wars comes a new warning for those who regularly consume beverages and condiments that contain caramel coloring.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is asking the FDA to ban all food products with an artificially dark color, including Coke, Pepsi and other cola...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Physiology, Video on 02 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Supplement Snake Oil, Not Science
Tony Ford may call himself a ‘technician,’ but in reality he’s more like a flimflam man: A purveyor of potions. A glorified vitamin salesman.
But he is one of thousands of independent sellers of L-Arginine, the latest miracle health cure, said to cure stroke, cancer, diabetes, reverse...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Health and Medicine, Politics, Video on 02 4th, 2011 | No Comments
Bill Gates Puts Polio on Notice
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is increasing his foundation’s commitment to eradicating Polio. At last week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Gates pledged $100 million to a global effort that appears close to eliminating the disease. Gates joins Rotary International’s...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Climate Change, Consumer Safety, Geology, Health and Medicine, Video, Weird Weather on 01 19th, 2011 | No Comments
ARkStorm Scenario Paints Grim Picture of California
Most Californians are worried about the Big One, referring to a massive and devastating earthquake. But now residents of the Golden State have a new natural disaster they can start sweating.
Scientists with the U.S. Geological survey held a 2-day seminar in Sacramento last week urging local communities...
Runway Closes for Realignment with Magnetic North Pole
Airport runways don’t need to be moved but they do need to reflect changes going on deep within the Earth. Many airports with runways running north-south are waiting for word from the Federal Aviation Administration to see if they need to rename their main runways.
Because the earth’s magnetic...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Bioethics, Consumer Safety, Featured Articles, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, The Brain, Video on 01 5th, 2011 | No Comments
Scientist Haunted by Misuse of Drugs He Invented
David Nichols studies the way psychedelic drugs act in the brains of rats. But he’s haunted by how humans hijack his work to make street drugs, sometimes causing overdose deaths. He was hoping that his work would lead to new ways of treating psychiatric disorders not become club drugs.
Today the...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biology, Consumer Safety, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 28th, 2010 | No Comments
Brace Yourself for Energy Bracelets
It’s the newest health craze. Magnets are back. This time they are supposed to harness the biological signatures of frequencies in our bodies to improve cellular efficiency. One new product even claims to use a hologram to optimize the body’s natural energy flow.
You’ve probably seen these...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Environment, Geology, Health and Medicine, Politics, Video on 12 27th, 2010 | No Comments
Oil Sands Slips Up With Inadequate Monitoring
In a new report (PDF), a high-level scientific panel has sharply criticized the water quality monitoring system in Alberta’s oil sands development near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The panel says, “there is no system” despite supposedly 13 years of rigorous scientific data.
The panel says...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Environment, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Horizon Oil Spill, Marine Science, Oceanography, Video on 06 14th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Health Concerns Rise Over Use of Oil Dispersant Corexit
Seven Louisiana fishermen reported getting sick after exposure to the oil dispersant that is being used to thin the oil slick on the Gulf of Mexico.
Nalco, the company that makes Corexit, the dispersant used after the April 20 Horizon Deepwater oil spill, says it has faith in its product. It insists...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Environment, Featured Articles, Health and Medicine, Politics, SciClips on 12 8th, 2009 | No Comments
Gaga for Zhu Zhu
The world has gone nuts for five robotic hamsters, called Zhu Zhu Pets. While the cute and cuddly creatures race around on a surfboard, skateboard or in a car, the “it” toy of 2009 has some heavy metals that are within safety limits but beg the question: Do toys need to have these toxic...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Featured Articles, Health and Medicine, Politics, SciClips on 11 19th, 2009 | 3 Comments
Mammogram Recommendations Pit Science Against Policy
A long-standing debate over younger women getting annual breast cancer screening is reigniting this week, after an independent medical panel changed its recommendations.
Confusion, fear and politics are swirling around the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations. The task force now recommends...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Health and Medicine, Video on 10 25th, 2009 | No Comments
H1N1 Flu Now a National Emergency
As the numbers of Americans sickened by the H1N1 swine flu skyrockets into the millions, President Obama declared the flu a national emergency.
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Consumer Safety, Diseases, Health and Medicine, Video on 10 14th, 2009 | 2 Comments
Anti-swine Flu Suit
Japanese menswear company Haruyama Trading has developed a suit that it claims can protect wearers from the swine flu.
For only about $600, white-collar workers in Tokyo and other crowded Japanese cities will help reduce the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, which has already infected more than 350,000...
