CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, June 6 /PRNewswire/ --

Effective July 1, 2008, or as allowed by contract, BASF will increase prices on all kaolin products that are manufactured at the BASF middle Georgia, USA, kaolin operation and exported to Asia and the Middle East.

This action is necessary primarily due to the dramatic escalation of ocean freight costs. Several other cost factors, such as energy, chemicals, and mining costs, continue to impact the overall business. The existing energy surcharge program remains in effect.

Kaolin customers can determine the precise impact on their purchases by contacting their local BASF sales representative.

BERLIN, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The German parliament (Bundestag) has agreed to new laws that strengthen conditions for renewable energies investments. The laws are part of the government's "Climate Package," the goals of which are saving 250 million metric tons of CO2 by 2020, with renewable energies contributing to 30% of electricity production by the same year. These legal changes strengthen Germany as an investment location for renewable energies and energy efficiency technologies.

LONDON, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- A famous name in car manuals has taken a diversion to give male carers of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) a guide to help them deal with the everyday challenges of their role.

To coincide with Carers Week (9 June to 15 June), the MS Society has teamed up with the renowned publisher Haynes to produce MS Carers - The man's guide to caring for someone with multiple sclerosis.

The new manual is written in an accessible and familiar style and discusses everyday issues such as relationships, financial help and gives tips to help the carer to also look after their own health and wellbeing.

Was Judgment Day at hand? At noon, it was black as night, there was lunch by candle light, the night birds came out to sing while flowers folded their petals and the animals behaved strangely. They called it 'New England's Dark Day' and it's been a mystery for almost 230 years.

The mystery has been solved, according to researchers at the University of Missouri, who say evidence from tree rings reveals massive wildfires as the likely cause, one of several theories proposed after the event but previously dismissed as 'simple and absurd.'

Limited ability for long-distance communication prevented colonists from knowing the cause of the darkness.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have taken a page from sports physiology and developed a low-cost optical sensor to measure the force with which tiny, migrating somatic cells push themselves away from an underlying surface. Force analysis devices like these could help to identify specific cell types more reliably than using a microscope or other conventional methods.

The sensor consists of a smooth surface that is studded with 250,000 tiny plastic columns measuring only five microns in diameter, rather like a fakir’s bed of nails. These columns are made of elastic polyurethane plastic. When a cell glides across them, it bends them very slightly sideways. This deflection is registered by a digital camera and analyzed by a special software program.

The researchers working with project manager Dr. Norbert Danz of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena have already shown that their ‘Cellforce’ sensor works. It will be the task of initial biological tests to show how different cell types behave.

HANOI, Vietnam, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- QIAGEN was featured this week for its efforts to eliminate cervical cancer at the 14th annual Global Summit of Women in Hanoi, Vietnam. CEO Peer Schatz came to this prominent international platform to issue a call to other leaders in business, NGOs and governments to join him and campaign to create a cervical-cancer-free world.

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, June 6 /PRNewswire/ --

- EQUIS is the Leading International System of Quality Assessment, Improvement and Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions in Management and Business Administration

Bentley College today became one of only two business schools in the U.S., and 113 business schools worldwide, to earn EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation. EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. EQUIS is run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

NEW YORK and LONDON, June 6 /PRNewswire/ --

- On June 6, 2008, Lord Steinberg filed as a 5 percent owner of Electronic Game Card, Inc.

Electronic Game Card, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: EGMI) ("EGC"), announced today that Lord Leonard Steinberg has agreed to join the Board of Directors as Chairman.

Lord Steinberg is one of Britain's most successful businessmen and one of the most well known personalities in the gaming industry. He founded Stanley Leisure in Belfast in 1958 with one licensed betting shop. Stanley Leisure plc became the largest casino operator and fourth largest retail bookmaker with 600 shops in the United Kingdom.

Biology remains a wide-open field because it has accomplished a lot but still has a long way to go. The dominant view in cellular behavior, for example, has been that it is largely chemistry-driven but there is increasing recognition that the mechanical aspects are vital to our understanding also.

Developing fundamental math and mechanics models to explain life processes like embryo development, cellular migration and growth could open doors to a new frontier in biology, say a group of researchers.

"A lot of what the cell does is mechanical. It needs to move things around. It migrates," says Krishna Garikipati, an associate professor in the U-M Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics.