Free Republic

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana plans to rebuild a small section of highway that by next summer could charge electric vehicles being driven. Purdue University and Indiana government’s Department of Transportation, in separate news releases issued Wednesday, touted the construction project as the first highway segment in the nation with wireless charging. Construction could begin as soon as April 1. Neither Purdue or the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reported how much the project will cost. Indianapolis-based White Construction was awarded a contract to build the wireless power-transfer technology in a quarter-mile of U.S. 231/U.S. 52 between Cumberland Avenue...

Mutant wolves roaming the deserted streets of Chernobyl appear to have developed resistance to cancer - raising hopes the findings can help scientists fight the disease in humans...

Critical Airspace Warning: Extreme Radiation Hazard at Kwajalein Atoll #image_title A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) has been issued for Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, warning of a severe radiation hazard. The airspace north of the airport’s runway should be avoided at all costs, as it poses significant risks to life. In order to mitigate these dangers, all flights are directed to utilize southern approach and departure routes instead. This information has been provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

French authorities said the iPhone 12 exposed people to too much electromagnetic radiation and ordered it withdrawn from sale. This move could lead to EU-wide restrictions. A French government watchdog agency demanded that tech giant Apple withdraw the iPhone 12 from the French market this week after determining that it emits too much electromagnetic radiation. EU countries will now have three months to object to the French restriction but if they do not object, it could lead to EU-wide restrictions on Apple's iPhone 12, a European Commission spokesperson confirmed. This is due to the EU directive on radio equipment. France's...

Japan will start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, despite opposition from its neighbours. The decision comes weeks after the UN’s nuclear watchdog approved the plan. Some 1.34 million tonnes of water – enough to fill 500 Olympic-size pools – have accumulated since the 2011 tsunami destroyed the plant. The water will be released over 30 years after being filtered and diluted. Authorities will request for the plant’s operator to “promptly prepare” for the disposal to start on 24 August if weather and sea conditions are appropriate, Japan’s Prime Minister...

The radiation belts around Earth are loaded with dangerous protons and electrons that can damage spacecraft. Now researchers are launching experiments to see if they can clear away the high-energy particles that pose the hazard by blasting them with radio waves.When humans began exploring space, the first major find was the Van Allen radiation belts, doughnut-shaped zones of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles. The Van Allen belts consist mainly of two rings: The inner belt starts roughly 1000 kilometers above Earth’s surface and extends up to 9600 km, while the outer belt stretches from about 13 500 to 58...

Steve Milloy, long-time editor and founder of JunkScience.com, announced an explosive exposé this month in an extended article. Government and private scientists in radiation safety have been attempting to cover up a pattern of misconduct and hijack the Health Physics Society, a professional organization of radiation safety experts and officials, to take down the society's series of twenty-two videos featuring Dr. Ed Calabrese, which exposes a longtime scam in radiation safety matters.The issue is Linear No Threshold Toxicology — LNT for short, also called the "one hit" theory of toxic radiation genetic mutation. These bad actors have also conspired to...

Washington -- Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space...

Patients with early-stage breast cancer who had a pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be able to skip surgery and receive standard radiation treatment with a low chance of disease recurrence, according to a study. The trial evaluated the likelihood of breast cancer returning in patients who are in complete remission after receiving chemotherapy and radiation without surgery. Each of the 31 patients followed had a complete response to chemotherapy and none had a breast tumor recurrence after a median follow-up of 26.4 months. High responses are indicated by state-of-the-art breast imaging-guided, vacuum-assisted core biopsy (VACB). These results...

Florida International University will launch the technology to the International Space Station this fall, although the institution hasn't specified exactly when(opens in new tab) or upon what spacecraft. A test sample will be mounted outside the orbiting facility for at least six months, to assess how well it performs in real life. The properties of the coating have not been publicly released, presumably because the innovation has not yet been patented nor proven. But if the tech performs well in low Earth orbit, there's promise for protecting structures that would be built on the moon for NASA's Artemis program, the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. government this week bought $290 million in supplies of a drug designed to treat blood cell injuries following radiological and nuclear emergencies as part of what it said were long-standing efforts to prepare for potential health impacts from threats to national security. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services purchased the drug Nplate from Amgen Inc. When asked whether the purchase, announced Tuesday, was linked to tensions with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, an HHS spokesperson said it was part of ongoing efforts to prepare for a wide range of threats including chemical, biological, radiological,...

As part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate from Amgen USA Inc; Nplate is approved to treat blood cell injuries that accompany acute radiation syndrome in adult and pediatric patients (ARS). Amgen, based in Thousands Oaks, California, developed Nplate for ARS with support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,...

The impact of the acute exposure to high doses of radiation was severe for the environment and the human population. But more than three decades after the accident, Chernobyl has become one of the largest nature reserves in Europe. A diverse range of endangered species finds refuge there today, including bears, wolves, and lynxes. As with other pollutants, radiation could be a very strong selective factor, favouring organisms with mechanisms that increase their survival in areas contaminated with radioactive substances. After detecting the first black frogs in 2016, we decided to study the role of melanin colouration in Chernobyl wildlife....

Researchers in China have discovered that inhibiting a protein called the GABAA receptor can protect intestinal stem cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The study suggests that the FDA-approved anti-sedative flumazenil, which targets GABAA receptors, could alleviate some of the common gastrointestinal side effects, such as diarrhea and vomiting, induced by many cancer treatments. Because they have to continually proliferate and replace the cells lining the wall of the gut, intestinal stem cells are highly sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These treatments damage the DNA of intestinal stem cells and cause them to die, leading to intestinal...

Women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer often can choose to have a lumpectomy, which removes only cancerous tissue and a thin margin of surrounding healthy cells instead of the entire breast. Current cancer guidelines for most women under 65 recommend following lumpectomy with radiation therapy, which targets stray cancer cells that might otherwise cause breast cancer to recur or spread to other parts of the body. A new study could eventually expand an option for skipping radiation to some women as young as 55. The new evidence suggests that younger women with tumor features similar to those described above might...

A new study published by researchers suggests that the common steroid betamethasone could be used to reduce unwanted side effects of radiation treatments for prostate cancer. The lab study led by Luksana Chaiswing, Ph.D., is the first to demonstrate that betamethasone protects normal prostate cells from injury induced by radiation therapy, while making the cancer cells more susceptible to the treatment. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the U.S. While radiation therapy is important to control the growth of prostate cancer, it presents a significant risk of increasing unwanted side effects, including injury...

Scientists have detected a completely new type of magnetic wave that surges through Earth's outer core every seven years, warping the strength of our planet's magnetic field in the process. The waves — dubbed "Magneto-Coriolis" waves because they move along the Earth’s axis of rotation, per the Coriolis effect — creep from East to West in tall columns that can travel up to 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) per year, the researchers wrote in a March 21 paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using a fleet of European Space Agency (ESA) satellites, the team pinpointed the...

A cancer survivor is vowing to untangle the twisted mystery of why almost 100 people associated with a New Jersey high school have developed “extremely” rare malignant brain tumors. Al Lupiano is among the 94 former staff and students from Colonia High School in the Woodbridge Township School District who have been stricken by the devastating diagnoses in recent years. “I will not rest until I have answers,” Lupiano, 50, declared in an interview with NJ.com and the Star Ledger on Thursday. “I will uncover the truth.” [snip] Lupiano told NJ Spotlight News that the school is located less than...

Radiation to the heart during treatment for locally advanced lung cancer is associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiac events within the first two years following treatment. The higher the cardiac dose exposure, the higher the risk of a cardiac event. A team at the University of Michigan Cancer Center, in partnership with the statewide Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium (MROQC) lung cancer collaborative, co-led by Shruti Jolly, M.D., and Peter Paximadis, M.D., of Spectrum Health Lakeland in St. Joseph, Michigan, found that raising awareness about the risk of radiation exposure to the heart and standardizing cardiac exposure...

As the staging ground for an assault on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, one of the most toxic places on earth, was probably not the best choice. But that did not seem to bother the Russian generals who took over the site in the early stages of the war. “We told them not to do it, that it was dangerous, but they ignored us,” Valeriy Simyonov, the chief safety engineer for the Chernobyl nuclear site, said in an interview. Apparently undeterred by safety concerns, the Russian forces tramped about the grounds with bulldozers and tanks, digging...