HUMAN AND ANIMAL HEALTH

By Tom Metcalfe, Live Science Contributor     455   67   15   15   596 MORE Scientists have confirmed a "huge" gas field at Rukwa in Tanzania's East African Rift Valley region that could help solve a global shortage of valuable helium gas. Credit: Thomas Abraham-James/Helium One A "huge" cache of helium discovered in East Africa could ease a decades-long shortage of the rare and valuable gas.    Researchers in the United Kingdom and Norway say the newly discovered  helium  gas field, found in the East African Rift Valley region of Tanzania, has the potential to ease a critical global shortage of helium, a gas that is vital to many high-tech applications, such as the  magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners used in many hospitals. The researchers say the discovery is the result of a new approach to searching for helium that combines prospecting methods from the oil industry with scientific resea...

A newly discovered helium field in the geothermally active East African Rift Valley may contain more helium than the U.S.   Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, which holds about 30 percent of the world's helium supply. Independent experts have calculated a probable resource of 54 billion cubic feet [1.5 billion cubic meters] in just one part of the rift valley. The Federal Helium Reserve currently holds just 24.2 billion cubic feet, and the total known reserves in the U.S. contain about 153 billion cubic feet (4.3 billion cubic m), Ballentine said, while global consumption of helium is about 8 billion cubic feet (0.23 billion cubic m) per year. The newly discovered gas field in Tanzania holds enough helium "to fill over 1.2 million medical MRI scanners," he said: "This is a game changer for the future security of society's helium needs, and similar finds in the future may not be far away." One of the project leaders, geologist Jon Glu...

SCIENCE Latest News Save for later Subscribe A new method of finding helium may mark the end of a decades-long shortage of the gas.  By   Nicole Orttung , Staff   Save for later (AP Photo/Mark McBreairty) View Caption About video ads View Caption Scientists had never known where to look for the Earth’s helium supply, until now. Researchers in the United Kingdom and Norway tested out a new approach to gas exploration and struck exactly what they were looking for: a huge helium gas field. The  discovery of the helium cache  could ease the current shortage of the valuable, rare gas – both because of the astounding amount of helium found and the potential for these discovery methods to be applied elsewhere around the world. Recommended: Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz This is good news for more than just the balloon industry: Helium is used in M...

A university degree is linked to a heightened risk of developing a brain tumour, suggests a large observational study, published online in the  Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health . Gliomas, in particular, were more common among people who had studied at university for at least three years than they were among those who didn't go on to higher education, the data show. The researchers base their findings on more than 4.3 million Swedes, all of whom were born between 1911 and 1961 and living in Sweden in 1991. They were monitored between 1993 and 2010 to see if they developed a primary brain tumour, and information on educational attainment,  disposable income , marital status, and occupation was obtained from national insurance, labour market,and national census data. During the monitoring period, 1.1 million people died and more than 48,000 emigrated, but 5735 of the men and 7101 of the  women  developed a brain tumour. Men with univers...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Drinking alcohol increases the risk of several types of cancer, and was responsible for 236 cancer deaths under 80 years of age in New Zealand in 2012, according to a new study at the University of Otago. The research, in collaboration with the Global Burden of Disease Alcohol Group, and just published in the international journal  Drug and Alcohol Review , builds on previous work that identified 30 per cent of all  alcohol -attributable deaths in New Zealand to be due to cancer, more than all other chronic diseases combined. The study uses evidence that alcohol causes some types of cancer after combining dozens of large studies conducted internationally over several decades. The cancers that are known to be causally related to alcohol include two of the most common causes of cancer death in New Zealand, breast and bowel cancer, but also cancer of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx and liver. This New Zealand study estimated mortalit...

TANZANIA has started to build its own helicopters in a project that will see the first batch of such choppers taking into the sky sometimes in 2018. BY MARC NKWAME IN ARUSHA Already, the prototype model, a two-seater aircraft is in its final stages of completion at the Mechanical and Engineering Department of the Arusha Technical College, which runs a fully-fledged factory producing various forms of machinery, including a prototype motor vehicle and a number of industrial engines. But it is the Tanzanian-made new helicopter that seems to be turning heads here; “We are complementing President Magufuli’s industrialisation policy in pioneering the first locally made helicopters that will be available to ordinary residents at affordable prices,” explained the man behind the ATC chopper project, Engineer Abdi Mjema. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ms Maimuna Tarishi, who also toured the project over the weekend seemed surpri...

A loophole in the World Bank’s policy protecting indigenous communities could allow governments around the world to displace locals in the path of agricultural development without restoring their livelihoods. Sasha Chavkin Sasha Chavkin is a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Reporters, a nonprofit newsroom based in Washington, D.C. Dana Ullman Reporter DANA ULLMAN/THE GROUNDTRUTH PROJECT Salumu Kundaya Kidomwita, 60, with the youngest of his 22 children. Last year, after fierce protests from human rights groups, the World Bank retreated from a proposal that would have allowed its borrowers to sidestep its rules for protecting indigenous communities.    Now the World Bank’s board has granted a massive agribusiness project in East Africa a waiver that exempts it from following the bank’s Indigenous Peoples Policy — sparking fears that the development lender is making an end run to resurrect a policy that it ab...