Health

The light-producing enzyme in the firefly is the key to rapid pathogen detection // Source: cri.cn

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - March 22, 2012

A new device, employing the same chemical which lights up fireflies, can easily detect food contamination; the researchers who developed the system hope it will soon be used to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.

Food contamination can now be detected easily by a new device based on the chemical which lights up fireflies.

The Bioluminescent Assay in Real-Time (BART), jointly invented by Professor Jim Murray of the Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences and Dr. Laurence Tisi of Lumora, allows users to test rapidly and simply for food poisoning bacteria. Professor Murray and his partners at technology company Lumora Ltd. hope to develop the system to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.

submitted by Janine Rees

by Andy Oram - radar.oreilly.com - February 6, 2012

I've come to look forward to the Massachusetts Heath Data Consortium's annual HIT conference because--although speakers tout the very real and impressive progress made by Massachusetts health providers--you can also hear acerbic and ruthlessly candid critiques of policy and the status quo. Two notable take-aways from last year's conference (which I wrote up at the time) were the equivalence of old "managed care" to new "accountable care organizations" and the complaint that electronic health records were "too expensive, too hard to use, and too disruptive to workflow." I'll return to these claims later.

The sticking point: health information exchange

This year, the spears were lobbed by Ashish Jha of Harvard Medical School, who laid out a broad overview of progress since the release of meaningful use criteria and then accused health care providers of undermining one of its main goals, the exchange of data between different providers who care for the same patient.

clickorlando.com - CBS Newspath - January 31, 2012

Scientists say dolphins dying at alarming rate

53,000 barrels of oil each day. Nearly 5 million barrels in all.  That's how much oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico because of the BP oil disaster.

It's easily the worst marine oil spill in history and 10 times that of the Exxon Valdez disaster.

But BP's most recent television commercials seem to indicate all is well with the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists say it is not, because dolphins are dying at an alarming rate.

(VIEW THE VIDEO AND READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE)