Tampa, Fla. (June 26, 2014) – Academic technology transfer – the process of moving research from the lab to the market – provides intrinsic benefits to universities that go far beyond any potential revenues from licenses and royalties.

So say the authors, from five universities across the country and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), in a new article from the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) that appears in the current issue of Technology and Innovation and is available Open Access.

Recently, Subway declared they would stop using a chemical because a food activist convinced people it was in yoga mats, and was therefore dangerous.

What's really dangerous are the toxic chemicals in solar panels. Soon, they could have the same ingredient as tofu, though you shouldn't stop eating tofu just because Vani Hari, the "Food Babe", can't pronounce any of the the chemicals it contains.

Cadmium chloride is currently a key ingredient in solar cell technology used in millions of solar panels around the world. This soluble compound is highly toxic and expensive to produce, requiring elaborate safety measures to protect workers during manufacture and then specialist disposal when panels are no longer needed.

What big environmental win has happened in the last 10 years for Americans? Most importantly, the country switched to natural gas from coal, and that is a good thing because emissions from energy plummeted, and a lot of manufacturing has left the country due to a punitive regulatory environment, that is bad, but the upside has been a reduction in pollution across the country.

New satellite images from
the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite
demonstrate the reduction of air pollution across the country.

After ten years in orbit, has been in orbit sufficiently long to show that people in major U.S. cities are breathing less nitrogen dioxide – a yellow-brown gas that can cause respiratory problems.

Its been a bad week for science, particularly for the science related to food production.

The notoriously flawed "Seralini Study" about tumors in rats fed GMOs is being republished in another journal after having been retracted. Another paper has come out making a rather questionable link between autism and proximity to pesticide applications on farms.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (June 26, 2014) – It's tough being the parent of a child with food allergies. Constant vigilance is needed for everything your child eats, when a single food item containing a hidden ingredient can be fatal. Although worry is a factor for anyone caring for a child with food allergies, according to a study published in the July issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), there is increased anxiety and strain for caregivers of children allergic to milk and eggs.

A recent experiment was able to demonstrate that the articulation of vowels systematically influences our feelings - and vice versa.

The research project looked at the question of whether and to what extent the meaning of words is linked to their sound. The specific focus of the project was on two special cases; the sound of the long 'i' vowel (/i:/) and that of the long, closed 'o' vowel (/o:/). Psychologist Prof. Ralf Rummer and phoneticist Prof. Martine Grice were interested in finding out whether these vowels tend to occur in words that are positively or negatively charged in terms of emotional impact. So they carried out two fundamental experiments.

MINNEAPOLIS – Older veterans who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are 60 percent more likely to later develop dementia than veterans without TBI, according to a study published in the June 25, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study also found that veterans with a history of TBI developed dementia about two years earlier than those without TBI who had developed dementia.

When it comes to organic, the last thing you expect is cheap but a new battery may end up being just that. 

USC researchers have developed a water-based organic battery that is long lasting and made from cheap, eco-friendly components. It used no metals or toxic materials and is intended for use in power plants. Power plants are not in the storage business, they are in the generation business, but if solar and wind power become viable we are going to need high-capacity storage to even out the ups and downs of Mother Nature.

An electric discharge experiment simulates early Earth conditions using relatively simple starting materials. The reaction is ignited by a spark, simulating lightning, which was likely very common on the early Earth.

The 1958 reaction samples were analyzed by Parker and his current mentor, Facundo M. Fernández, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. They conducted liquid chromatography- and mass spectrometry-based analyses and found that the reaction samples from 1958 contained peptides. Scientists from NASA's Johnson Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center were also involved in the analysis.

Pathological thought can be helpful, especially the Asperger’s variety. Ludwig Wittgenstein became the arguably greatest philosopher, overseeing the postmodern. The mathematician Paul Erdös is another good example.