HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed small, portable solar cell water purification plants. With the help of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus the purification plant stations, called Micro Production Centres (MPC), have now been placed across rural Bangladesh.

At the request of two drug companies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will withdraw approvals for three of four arsenic-based drugs currently approved for use in food animal production. A fourth arsenic-based drug used to make turkeys and chickens grow faster, among other purposes, will remain on the market.

“The geckos stuck just as well under water as they did on a dry surface, as long as the surface was hydrophobic [water-loving],” Stark explains. “We believe this is how geckos stick to wet leaves and tree trunks in their natural environment.”

The study has implications for the design of a synthetic gecko-inspired adhesive. Geckos' ability to stick to trees and leaves during rainforest downpours has fascinated scientists for decades, leading a group of University of Akron researchers to solve the mystery.

Sainsbury's has installed 69,500 new photovoltaic solar panels, or 16 MW of power, across 169 stores in the UK.  The significant investment means collectively Sainsbury's supermarkets currently host the largest solar array in the UK and Europe. The solar power will reduce Sainsbury's total CO₂ emissions by an estimated 6,800 tonnes per year, and each store's energy consumption as well as delivering energy cost savings.