Feature Channels: Food and Water Safety

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Whether it’s casting a fishing line, launching a boat, or taking a dip to cool off, most people heading to a lake rarely think about how climate change is impacting their overall recreation experience. However, more often than not, it does. Research at the University of New Hampshire shows that as unfavorable water quality conditions in lakes continue to rise, anglers, boaters and beach goers are using various coping mechanisms that can alter their behavior, from switching to a different location or activity to simply abandoning the experience altogether.

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Ruth Richardson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and members of her lab are testing a new water-monitoring technology that, if approved by New York state and federal authorities, could drastically reduce the time state park swim areas must close when water is suspected of being unswimmable.

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Argonne physicists are using a unique, laser-based, atom-counting technique called Atom Trap Trace Analysis to selectively capture and count the krypton isotopes ⁸¹Kr and ⁸⁵Kr to determine the age of ice and groundwater. The results provide valuable information about the dynamics, flow rates and direction of water in aquifers, particularly those vital to arid regions.

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IMSA's unique way of thinking and learning reaches a global stage

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International Student Science Fair connects students from around the globe to solve the world’s biggest challenges.

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Tune in to watch live

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IMSA connects students from across the world to collaborate on making the world a better place

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A strong and diverse pipeline of innovative leaders is preparing to solve the world’s most complex social problems through STEM education.

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As national regulators work to develop mandatory GMO food labels, new research by UVM’s Jane Kolodinsky finds that consumer opposition to GMOs dropped significantly after Vermont adopted mandatory labels.

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The Society for Risk Analysis - Europe (SRA-E) awarded three prestigious scholarships at its Annual Conference in Ӧstersund, Sweden. These awards recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to the study and science of risk analysis.

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Dr. Jose M. Torres, President of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, will attend the first-of-its-kind State-Federal Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education Summit hosted by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on June 25-26, 2018, in Washington, D.C.

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The team examined city water policies over the course of four years to create a database of water conservation policies. They also developed an associated index of the number of different categories of policies each city adopted and gathered data on the climate, water sources, population, economy and political leanings.

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UVA Darden Professor Peter Debaere looks at how cities may be able to help improve their water systems, using the example of the steps taken by the water utility in Washington, D.C.

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West Virginia University could be at the forefront of solving a $57 billion dollar pollution problem and finding new ways to transform forestry waste into a cash crop for the state and region.

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Competition for faculty, staff, students and alumni to support entrepreneurship and innovation to advance IMSA’s mission to address one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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Dr. Torres, President of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), shares his excitement and vision for IMSA hosting the 14th Annual International Student Science Fair, June 27th - July 1st, 2018

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One of the iconic ingredients of the Mediterranean diet, which often has been associated with beneficial effects in the prevention of cancer as well as several other disorders, is extra-virgin olive oil. For thousands of years, olive trees were planted on Mediterranean coasts, initially by ancient Greek colonists, followed by several other civilizations and cultures, one generation after the other.

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University of Utah geoscientist William Johnson studies how contaminants – including bacteria and viruses – move through groundwater. After years of working on this problem, Johnson has found an answer that could help water managers better prepare for and respond to outbreaks caused by rain and floods. The answer involves chemistry, physics. . . and a little bit of decorative nanoscience.

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Foodborne illness is a serious and preventable public health problem, affecting one in six Americans and costing an estimated $50 billion annually. As local health departments adopt new tools that monitor Twitter for tweets about food poisoning, a study from Washington University in St. Louis is the first to examine practitioner perceptions of this technology.

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The latest research and features in cell biology in the Cell Biology News Source

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Contaminants in storm runoff can negatively impact water quality in rivers and streams, but filtering the water through steel chips may remove 85 to 95 percent of the E. coli.

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Few parents are using some simple strategies to protect kids from food poisoning outside the home, such as at a potluck or restaurant, according to a new report from C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

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Scientists from The Ohio State University compared three popular pitcher brands’ ability to clear dangerous microcystins from tap water. They found that while one did an excellent job, other pitchers allowed the toxins – which appear during harmful algal blooms (HABs) – to escape the filter and drop into the drinking water.

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Texas A&M AgriLife research will collaborate with the Texas Department of Agriculture and the University of California at Davis on a project to help agricultural producers and consumers through improving nitrogen use efficiency and food safety in spinach

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According to Notre Dame researchers, global applications are significant when considering those populations without suitable drinking water and limited resources.

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New research out of the University of Wisconsin–Madison has, for the first time, detected prions responsible for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in samples taken from sites where deer congregate.

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Some potentially toxic chemicals in water may be created, ironically, during the water treatment process itself.

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Aquaporins are proteins that serve as water channels to regulate the flow of water across biological cell membranes. They also remove excess salt and impurities in the body, and it is this aspect that has led to much interest in recent years in how to mimic the biochemical processes of aquaporins potentially for water desalination systems.

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Through their research in the Penn State Department of Mechanical and Engineering, the team has created a liquid-entrenched smooth surface (LESS) coating, an innovative spray-able, anti-fouling coating that dramatically decreases the amount of water needed when flushing a toilet.

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How can dietary changes shape a person’s gut bacteria, and then how do those bacteria shape health and diseases, like obesity, diabetes, and susceptibility to infection diseases?

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During a University of Virginia Global Water Initiative event held at the Darden School of Business, participants at different stages of the water investing ecosystem spoke before a capacity crowd on the opportunities for cultivating both meaningful environmental and humanitarian impact as well as return on investment in the still nascent space.

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Christopher Gorski, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Penn State, will develop devices that use electricity to desalinate water and can also generate their own electricity, thanks to an esteemed National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career (CAREER) award.

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By working directly with consumers and citizen scientists, the project is designed to increase public awareness of lead in water and plumbing on a national scale.

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The latest research and experts on Wildfires in the Wildlife News Source

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University of Georgia food scientist Xiangyu Deng has created a system that can identify foodborne pathogens in a fraction of the time taken by traditional methods.

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Researchers have found that increasing land clearing for logging in Solomon Islands–even with best management strategies in place – will lead to unsustainable levels of soil erosion and significant impacts to downstream water quality.

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Shared fates and experiences in a community can help it withstand changes to water availability due to climate change, a recent study by Sandia National Laboratories researchers found.The work, part of Sandia’s energy-water nexus program to help safeguard resilient and sustainable energy-water systems in the interest of national and global security, was recently published in a special socio-hydrology issue of Water Resources Research. The research paired a dynamic systems model of an acequia community and its water system with a hydrology model of an upland water source to study how the community responds to changes in water availability and flow.

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Click here to go to the Food Science News Source

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Researchers at Penn State have developed a water filtration system that removes contaminants and reduces toxicity in hospital wastewater.

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Choosing the right fertilizer or pesticide for your needs can be overwhelming. The April 7th Sustainable, Secure Food blog explains how to make the right choice, and why following label directions is important.

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McMaster researchers have developed a test to bring certainty to the delicate but critical question of whether meat and other foods are safe to eat or need to be thrown out.

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The guidelines cover everything from planning, design and construction of the courses to water quality and quantity used. They also cover nutrition, integrated pest management, pollinator protection and energy management, said Bryan Unruh, a UF/IFAS professor of environmental horticulture.

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Click here for the latest research and features on Children's Health.

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A slippery rough surface (SRS) inspired by both pitcher plants and rice leaves outperforms state-of-the-art liquid-repellent surfaces in water harvesting applications, according to a team of researchers at Penn State and University of Texas at Dallas.

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Dining out more at restaurants, cafeterias and fast-food outlets may boost total levels of potentially health-harming chemicals called phthalates in the body, according to a study out today.

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Flint children’s blood lead levels were nearly three times higher almost a decade before the year of the Flint water crisis, new research shows.

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Click here to go directly to Newswise's Obesity News Source

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Experiments testing a hybrid method of disposing of animal carcasses following animal health emergencies could point the way toward safer and more efficient carcass burial. The results of the experiments were published recently in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

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As Maple Weekend 2018 welcomes visitors to maple farms across the state March 24 and 25, Cornell University experts are assessing how fluctuating temperatures have impacted production this year. For sap to flow well, temperatures ideally need to dip below freezing at night and rise above it during the day. Despite 2018 having the fifth warmest February in New York’s recorded history with an average of 29.6 degrees, March has been unseasonably cool, which has stalled the state’s maple syrup production.