• German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel
• Egypt's Mediterranean coast protected in reserve
• Italy: 'Secret' Giotto uncovered in Florence chapel

• New research published: Transcendental Meditation activates default mode network, brain's natural ground state
• United Kingdom: New inventions, policies reflect rising collective consciousness
• Great Britain: Leading researcher demonstrates increased brain coherence during Transcendental Meditation

• New form of malaria threatens Thai-Cambodia border
• Special Report - Amazon projects undercut Brazil's new green path
• Study finds weed killer affects frogs' development

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel
10 March 2010 - Germany's largest fishing vessel will leave the Netherlands this week, towed by a giant kite harnessing trade winds for South America that will help cut its fuel consumption by up to a third. The 15,000 tonne 'Maartje Theadora' is the first fishing vessel to use the system, in which a 160 square meter blue and white kite similar to a paraglider pulls the ship on a 300 meter rope, assisting its main engine. (more)

Egypt's Mediterranean coast protected in reserve
9 March 2010 - Egypt wants visitors to discover its Mediterranean coast at a marine reserve being established near the border with Libya, the government said on 9 March. 'The goal is to protect endangered species ... and encourage ecotourism in the reserve area, putting it on the global ecotourism map,' Environment Minister Maged George said. (more)

Italy: 'Secret' Giotto uncovered in Florence chapel
8 March 2010 - Restorers using ultra-violet rays have rediscovered rich original details of Giotto's paintings in the Peruzzi Chapel in Florence's Santa Croce church that have been hidden for centuries. 'We have uncovered a secret Giotto,' said the head of Florence's Opificio delle Pietre Dure, one of the world's most prestigious art restoration laboratories. Under ultra-violet light, all of a sudden all the very faint paintings that were ruined by old restorations took on a new life, the project co-ordinator said. Giotto's paintings in the chapel are believed to have had a major influence on Michelangelo. (more)

Australia: 'Extinct' frog species found again after 30 years
4 March 2010 - A species of frog thought to have been extinct for 30 years has been found in rural Australian farmland, officials said Thursday. The rediscovery of the yellow-spotted bell frog was made in October 2008, but the find wasn't made public until now to allow enough time to establish conservation measures to protect the frogs from many dangers, including poaching, a government official said. The rediscovery is a reminder of the need to protect natural habitats so 'future generations can enjoy the noise and colour of our native animals,' said Frank Sartor, minister for the environment. (more)

American medical journal bars tobacco-backed research papers
23 February 2010 - A leading scientific journal will no longer publish research papers that receive any funding from tobacco companies, its editorial board said on 23 February. The PLoS Medicine (Public Library of Science) board expressed concern at 'the industry's longstanding attempts to distort the science of and deflect attention away from the harmful effects of smoking'. PLoS Medicine is a well regarded journal covering the full spectrum of the medical sciences. (more)

British Library to capture oral history of science
23 February 2010 - The British Library intends to capture the voices, memories, and experiences of hundreds of eminent scientists to get a first person account of how science really works. An Oral History of British Science, led by National Life Stories, is the first project of its kind in Britain and will gather 200 audio-visual interviews with British scientists who have led the world in innovation. (more)

Good news from Canada, 13-15 February 2010
15 February 2010 - Canadian physicists say they have taken a step closer to what they call the 'holy grail' of quantum science by building 'houses' made of light particles. University of Calgary researchers said they manipulated a mysterious quantum property of light known as entanglement to mount up to two photons on top of each other to construct a variety of quantum states of light, thereby allowing the construction a two-story quantum toy house of any style or architecture. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver marked the first time in the history of the Olympics that indigenous peoples have been recognized as official partners. And a survey has found number of people using public transit in Montreal rose 15 per cent between 2003 and 2008. For details on these and other Canada news stories: (more)

Baltic leaders underline pledges to clean up sea
10 February 2010 - Regional political leaders on Wednesday underlined their commitment to clean up the Baltic Sea, which faces rising sea traffic. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg noted that 15 per cent of the world's cargo traffic passes through the Baltic Sea, while Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said 90 per cent of all trade in the region is transported by sea. (more)

Good news from Canada, 2-4 February 2010
4 February 2010 - York University's Schulich School Of Business in Ontario was deemed Top Global Green MBA school by US-based humanities organization The Aspen Group for 2009-2010, beating out competitors such as Yale. Also, Greg Scholes, a University of Toronto biophysicist, and his team of researchers have revealed the quantum physics underlying photosynthesis. University of Chicago chemist Greg Engel called Scholes' finding 'an extraordinary result' that 'shows us a new way to use quantum effects at high temperatures'. A fleet of of hydrogen fuel cell buses will transport visitors during the Olympics. The 20-bus fleet will become the largest single use of zero-emission fuel cell buses worldwide. The buses will look like any others used in public transit, but are much quieter and emit only water into the air. For details on these and other Canada news stories including continued good business news: (more)

UN stresses economic benefits of saving rare species
3 February 2010 - In 2010 -- the International Year of Biodiversity -- the United Nations wants efforts to slow the accelerating pace of extinctions to reach beyond nature lovers, to companies and economists. Shifting emphasis from emotional images of wildlife that stress the fragility and beauty of nature, the focus is on a harder-headed assessment of how the natural world is a key to economic growth and new products. 'Boosting biodiversity can boost the global economy,' the UN Environment Programme said. Natural services by coral reefs, forests or wetlands are too often undervalued, it said. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

New research published: Transcendental Meditation activates default mode network, brain's natural ground state
5 March 2010 - A new EEG study conducted on college students at American University found they could more highly activate the 'default mode network', a suggested natural 'ground state' of the brain, during their practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique. This three-month randomized control study is published in a special issue of Cognitive Processing dedicated to the Neuroscience of Meditation and Consciousness, Volume 11, Number 1, February, 2010. (more)

United Kingdom: New inventions, policies reflect rising collective consciousness
26 February 2010 - In the United Kingdom, new inventions and new local government policies reflect a rise of coherence, orderliness, and purity in collective consciousness: London is cleaner than it has been for ten years, and a new electric taxi has been launched in London. (more)

Great Britain: Leading researcher demonstrates increased brain coherence during Transcendental Meditation
7 February 2010 - One of the world's most published researchers on the brain, meditation, and education, Dr Fred Travis, visited London, England, in December 2009. Dr Travis, Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management, USA, presented a live EEG (electroencephalogram) demonstration of increased coherence in the frontal lobes of the brain during Transcendental Meditation. (more)

Germany: New scientific documentary discusses benefits of Transcendental Meditation practice
11 January 2010 - A Teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Programme from Germany, Gottfried Vollmer, was featured in a new documentary, titled R'Evolution 2012, in which he lectures on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation practice for counteracting future effects of increased sunspot activity and its influence on the geomagnetic field of the earth and the human brain. (more)

New US study to examine adding Transcendental Meditation to standard care for heart disease patients
25 December 2009 - A new study will examine how adding the Transcendental Meditation Programme to standard care for heart disease patients compares with standard care alone. The current therapy--considered top-of-the-line in conventional medicine--will be compared to top-of-the-line conventional therapy plus a new addition from Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health: the experience of Transcendental Consciousness. (more)

Advanced cardiac imaging technology allows US researchers to examine effect of Transcendental Meditation on the heart itself
23 December 2009 - While previous studies have examined the effects of the Transcendental Meditation Technique on risk factors including high blood pressure, smoking, and alcohol, a new study proposes to look directly at the effects of Transcendental Meditation on the heart itself. Utilizing a new advanced technology--quantitative Positron Emission Tomography (PET)--researchers will see what happens to the heart, the blood vessels, the coronary arteries, and the blood flow through those coronary arteries. (more)

New Transcendental Meditation study in US awarded funding through federally sponsored competition
21 December 2009 - Following the success of a nine-year study showing a 47 per cent reduction of heart attack, stroke, and death through the Transcendental Meditation Technique, a new study to examine the effects of Transcendental Meditation on the heart itself is beginning. The new study was among only 800--four per cent--chosen for funding from 20,000 submissions to a federally sponsored competition in the US. (more)

Live EEG demonstrations to feature unique brain coherence during Transcendental Meditation: International training conference
8 December 2009 - This past weekend, 4-6 December, a conference on 'Brainwaves and Transcendental Meditation: Basic Science and Global Application' was held in MERU, Holland. The goal of the course was to explain--and demonstrate using an EEG machine--the unique brain wave patterns found during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation Programme. (more)

Brain research reveals how inner wakefulness during Transcendental Meditation maintained in dynamic activity: Dr Fred Travis
10 November 2009 - In his presentation on the business webinar, 'How to Optimize Your Brain to Realize Your Full Leadership Potential,' in New York 23 October, Dr Fred Travis, Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, gave a demonstration of EEG brain wave coherence during Transcendental Meditation. He explained that during the technique, 'all the localized processes settle down and there is just the experience of wakefulness, awareness.' (more)

Four dimensions of peak performance: Transcendental Meditation promotes higher development in many areas simultaneously - Dr Harald Harung
7 November 2009 - Dr Harald Harung, Associate Professor of Management, Oslo University College, Norway, and Dr Fred Travis, Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, have conducted research on peak performers in sports and business over the last five years. Dr Harung spoke recently about the four dimensions of peak performance: brain integration, self-actualization, higher individual consciousness, and higher collective consciousness. By promoting higher development, the Transcendental Meditation Programme creates beneficial effects in many areas of life--for example, health, education, rehabilitation, and performance--simultaneously. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

New form of malaria threatens Thai-Cambodia border
28 December 2009 - An isolated spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. Scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin. If this drug stops working, there's no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million annually. As a result, earlier this year international medical leaders declared resistant malaria here a health emergency. Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying. (more)

Special Report - Amazon projects undercut Brazil's new green path
13 December 2009 - Nearly 20 per cent of the Amazon has already disappeared and large chunks of the forest are still destroyed every year. In the year through July 2009 an area the size of the US state of Delaware was chopped down. Political pressure -- such challenges are likely to be multiplied with the planned construction of the much larger Belo Monte dam on the upper Xingu river. The region is home to numerous Indian tribes and the dam would directly impact 120,000 people. The environmental agency Ibama is again under pressure, this time to speed up the Belo Monte approval process. Again, two officials resigned and conservationists cried foul. Perhaps the biggest worry for environmentalists is the planned pavement of the BR 319 motorway between Porto Velho and Manaus, which leads through one of the most pristine areas of the Amazon. Satellite images showing patterns of deforestation show how roads attract settlers to set up farms and cattle ranches. (more)

Study finds weed killer affects frogs' development
3 December 2009 - The widely used weed killer atrazine affects the sexual development of frogs, raising questions about the effects of its use in the environment, the University of Ottawa said on Thursday. A study by researchers at the University found that at low levels comparable to those measured in the Canadian environment, fewer tadpoles reached the froglet stage and the ratio of females to males increased. The EPA said in October that it was reviewing the health impacts of the herbicide. Some studies have tied it to birth defects, low birth weight, and premature babies. Syngenta AG, a major Swiss manufacturer of atrazine, has long defended its safety. (more)

Report shows Pfizer manipulated studies to show favourable results for Neurontin
12 November 2009 - A study of internal company documents suggests Pfizer Inc altered or omitted unfavourable study findings to expand its epilepsy drug Neurontin's market, US researchers said on Wednesday, offering a look at how drugmakers influence scientific research. Clinical trials are supposed to answer a specific, predetermined scientific question, but experts found that eight out of 20 study reports never made it into medical journals. And in eight of the 12 published studies, the primary outcome -- the answer to the main scientific question -- was changed by Pfizer. The company paid $430 million to settle a lawsuit over illegal promotion of Neurontin, and was sued again last year for holding back negative study results and changing the design of its trials to produce more favourable results. That case was the latest in a string of allegations against the pharmaceutical industry suggesting it has controlled the flow of clinical trial research to boost its marketing position. (more)

UK starts study on using human DNA in animals
12 November 2009 - British scientists begin a new study on Tuesday to consider how human DNA is used in animal experiments and to determine what the boundaries of such controversial science might be. Experts have been swapping human and animal DNA for years -- like replacing animal genes with human genes or growing human organs in animals. Scientists also have tried to grow human organs in animals that could one day be transplanted back into humans -- like a mouse onto whose back scientists grew a human ear. Two years ago, controversy erupted in Britain after scientists announced plans to create human embryos using empty cow and rabbit eggs. Scientists said they are now trying to determine where the line should be drawn on experiments that use human material in animals. At the moment, the regulation on how much human DNA can be put into an animal is vague. (more)

Deforestation sped demise of Nasca in Peru: study
2 November 2009 - The mysterious people who etched the 'Nasca Lines' across deserts in Peru hastened their own demise by clearing forests 1,500 years ago, according to a study on Monday. The Nasca people, famed for the lines that depict animals or geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air, became unable to grow enough food in nearby valleys because the lack of trees made the climate too dry, scientists said. The Nasca people cleared valleys for farming by felling huarango trees -- a key species which can live more than 1,000 years and helps regulate soil fertility and moisture, Remaining huarango forest in the region is now being destroyed by illegal charcoal-burning operations. (more)

World must use GM crops, says UK science academy
21 October 2009 - The world needs genetically modified crops both to increase food yields and minimize the environmental impact of farming, Britain's top science academy said on Wednesday. The world must develop over the next 16 years through genetic modification and conventional breeding varieties of crops resistant to disease, drought, salinity, heat, and toxic heavy metals, the report said. Progress in DNA-sequencing had made more plant genes available for engineering, improving the predictability of results in a 'second generation' GM approach. But the pressure group Greenpeace said GM crops were a costly distraction from tackling hunger through fighting poverty and helping smallholders in developing countries sell their product. (more)

Human's faulted as Arctic now warmest in 2000 years
6 September 2009 - Climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions pushed Arctic temperatures in the last decade to the highest levels in at least 2,000 years, reversing a natural cooling trend that should have lasted four more millennia. 'If it hadn't been for the increase in human-produced greenhouse gases, summer temperatures in the Arctic should have cooled gradually over the last century,' Bette Otto-Bliesner, a co-author from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in a statement. (more)

Scientists study huge plastic patch in the Pacific Ocean
5 August 2009 - Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'. The expedition will study how much debris -- mostly tiny plastic fragments -- is collecting in an expanse of sea known as the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, how that material is distributed and how it affects marine life. Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants, such as pesticides, far out to sea, and whether tiny organisms attached to the debris could be transported to distant regions and thus become invasive species. (more)

World 'sleepwalking' into disasters: UN aid chief
16 June 2009 - The world is 'sleepwalking' toward preventable natural disasters whose effects could be cut significantly with a modest increase in spending on risk reduction, the United Nations aid chief said on Tuesday. 'The trends in disasters, particularly from climate change, are of enormous concern,' said John Holmes, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. About 90 per cent of disasters are climate-related, said Mr Holmes, who noted cyclones in Brazil in 2004 and Oman in 2007 had been of an intensity never before seen in those regions. (more)