• Hosted model suitable for disaster recovery plans

    Business continuity was once complex and costly; new services offer continuity and disaster recovery services which are less expensive, more technologically rich

  • Chatham creates School of Sustainability and the Environment

    Two trends — globalization and the centralization of food production — have pushed food safety issues to the fore; Chatham University launches a new degree program designed to provide students with “a deep understanding of the issues surrounding food such as the environmental costs of food production and distribution, cultural issues, sustainability of communities, and safety of the food supply”

  • WHO declares H1N1 swine flu an official pandemic

    Declaration will activate a slew of government pre-orders for pandemic vaccine, which will take precedence over recent orders for H1N1 vaccine; countries that do not have pre-orders will also face delays

  • Scientists reveal swine flu origins

    Oxford University researchers use computational methods to reconstruct the origins and timescale of this new pandemic; the latest swine flu strain has been circulating among pigs, possibly among multiple continents, for many years prior to its transmission to humans

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  • U.K. white supremacists plotted to use ricin against minorities

    White supremacist cell in the U.K. plotted to use ricin to kill black people and other ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom; ricin is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide

  • Panel object to using bioterrorism funds for swine flu

    The Obama administration’s requested to take $3 billion from the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund for use in the effort to contain sine flu; expert panel says it a risky move

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  • U.K. hospitals missing true scope of swine flu infection

    An expert says the extent of swine flu infection in the United Kingdom is being underestimated because hospitals are failing to test patients with respiratory illnesses for the virus

  • Dutch researchers develop new virus detector

    A prototype of a new system can detect within minutes if an individual is infected with a virus; the system carry out measurements many times faster than standard techniques, and it is also portable

  • New lethal virus discovered in Africa

    Scientists identify a lethal new virus — called Lujo — which has already killed four people in Zambia and South Africa; the bug comes from a family of viruses found in rodents

  • Opgal technology helps identify flu patients

    Israeli company says its heat sensors can help stem the spread of swine flu and other diseases which cause elevated body tempreture

  • Flu vaccine contracts worth $46.7 million awarded

    Two companies awarded $46.7 million to supply influenza vaccine to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies

  • New security measures on passenger planes may hurt cherries growers

    About a quarter of the cherries grown in Washington state — some 1.3 million 20-pound boxes — are flown in the cargo hull of passenger planes to Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Korea; growers of highly perishable crops like cherries worry that a new requirement that all cargo on U.S. passenger flights undergo a security scan could create lengthy delays, leaving crops to rot in hangars as they await inspection

  • DHS develops medical scanner-at-a-distance device

    The first task of first responders arriving on a scene of a disaster is quickly and accurately to sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care; new device assesses — from a distance — the medical condition of those injured in the disaster; it does so by using laser doppler vibrometry and a camera to measure pulse, body temperature, and muscle movements such as breathing

  • Food poisoning outbreaks prompt oversight efforts, II

    President Obama had an organic vegetable garden planted at the White House, and his nominees to the FDA are pushing a more aggressive approach to food safety; many are are pinning their hopes on the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would essentially split the FDA, creating a separate agency to focus on food safety

  • Food poisoning outbreaks prompt oversight efforts, I

    In 1973, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employed 35,000 inspectors; in 2007, the FDA employed 6,700 inspectors; at the same time, food imports into the U.S. increased exponentially