First Electric School Bus Hits The Road In California
The first-ever electric school bus, introduced in November, started picking up students in Central California’s Kings Canyon Unified school district this week. And three more should be operating soon, according to a press release from developers Trans Tech and Motiv Power Systems. Buses are available with 80 or 100 miles of range, and hold 25 students, or 18 students and a wheelchair lift.
Summer of 2014 was the Hottest on Record
This summer is officially the hottest summer ever recorded. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, global temperatures reached an all-time high for the June-August period. Last month was also the hottest August since records began in 1880.
Australian gene-patent case dismissed
An Australian federal court has thrown out a lawsuit challenging a patent on the cancer-associated gene BRCA1. The decision, issued 5 September, is the latest setback for patient advocates who argue that the patent limits genetic-testing options for Australian cancer patients. The Australian case is an echo of a previous legal challenge to patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the United States. That case culminated last year in a unanimous, landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned decades of practice by the US Patent and Trademark Office, invalidating all patents on naturally occurring human genes. The implications of that decision for other US patents on natural products are still being worked out.
US Hacked Arab-Americans’ Phones and Gave Transcripts to Israel
National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden has accused the US of regularly sharing personal information about its citizens of Arab and Palestinian descent with Israel. In an interview with the New York Times, Snowden said the NSA “routinely passed private, unedited communications to Unit 8200, a secretive Israeli intelligence department”.
Trees saving 850 human lives a year in US
Trees are saving over 850 human lives and preventing 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms every year in the US. This has emerged from a study done by the US Forest Service on the removal of air pollution by trees. The study says that in monetary terms, the health benefits amount to $ 6.8 billion a year. “trees and forests in the conterminous United States” removed 17.4 million tonnes of air pollution in 2010. The study was done for four pollutants nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in aerodynamic diameter.
Traffic-related air pollution is bad for heart
Exposure to high levels of traffic-related air pollution is associated with changes in the right ventricle of the heart that may contribute to the known connection between air pollution exposure and heart disease, according to a new study. The findings were published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. “Using exposure to nitrogen dioxide as a surrogate for exposure to traffic-related air pollution, we were able to demonstrate for the first time that higher levels of exposure were associated with greater right ventricular mass and larger right ventricular end-diastolic volume. Greater right ventricular mass is also associated with increased risk for heart failure and cardiovascular death.”