Warming temperatures will take a heavy toll on agricultural productivity, according to climate scientists. How will society adjust? One possibility might be increased trade: If one country suffers a decline in, say, wheat production but can still grow as much rice as ever, then -- in theory -- it might grow more rice and trade for its usual amount of wheat instead.

But a new study co-authored by an MIT economist suggests that international trade will do little to alleviate climate-induced farming problems. Instead, the report indicates that countries will have to alter their own patterns of crop production to lessen farming problems -- and even then, there will be significant net losses in production under the basic scenarios projected by climate scientists.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- As the export of wood pellets from the U.S. to the European Union has increased six-fold since 2008, questions have been raised about the environmental impact of the practice. According to a new paper from a University of Illinois expert in environmental economics, even after accounting for factors ranging from harvesting to transportation across the Atlantic Ocean, wood pellets still trump coal by a wide margin in carbon emissions savings.

The greenhouse gas intensity of wood pellet-based electricity is between 74 to 85 percent lower than that of coal-based electricity, says published research co-written by Madhu Khanna, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois.

Researchers are reporting a breakthrough toward developing an artificial pancreas as a treatment for diabetes and other conditions by combining mechanical artificial pancreas technology with transplantation of islet cells, which produce insulin.

In a study of 14 patients with pancreatitis who underwent standard surgery and auto-islet transplantation treatments, a closed-loop insulin pump, which relies on a continuous cycle of feedback information related to blood measurements, was better than multiple daily insulin injections for maintaining normal blood glucose levels.

The armored shells of some marine mollusks have evolved to satisfy two conflicting design requirements, protection and sight, a new study shows.

Kids and teens who take medications like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are also twice as likely to be physically or emotionally bullied by peers. At even higher risk were middle and high school students who sold or shared their medications--those kids were four-and-a-half times likelier to be victimized by peers.

The main findings are the same for both sexes, said the study's first author, Quyen Epstein-Ngo, research assistant professor in gender studies at the University of Michigan. 

Pedestrian wheelchair users in the US are a third more likely to be killed in road traffic collisions than the general public, and men's risk is five times higher than women's, according to a paper in BMJ Open.