Connecticut Green Living

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK reported that they have administered 13,911 tests for Coronavirus , formally called Covid-19, of which 13,860 were negative and 51 positive. Journalist Chris Hayes of MSNBC retweeted this and pointed out that "For context this is 26 times the number of tests the US has run, as of the last publicly available info. But CDC isn’t making this data available." Scientists and their research are the best in the world right here in the States, but whether the tests are being rolled out quickly enough does remain to be seen. Researchers at Purdue, though, have come up with a possible test they would like to see move forward, though. Only a select number of state and local laboratories have permission from U.S. health officials to use diagnostic tests for COVID-19. If the virus is spreading nationwide, most communities do not have access to the necessary tests. Purdue University biomedical engineers have developed a hand...

A new finding from the largest study of its kind could improve disease monitoring for the H1N1 flu, which is the same strain that caused the influenza pandemic in 2009. . In 2009, H1N1 was a huge concern in Connecticut, where the Centers for Disease Control classified its outbreak as being regionally located. Other states, such as Virginia suffered widespread outbreaks. In June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic. The virus had spread worldwide and had caused about 17,000 deaths by the start of 2010, but about a year later, WHO declared that the H1N1 influenza pandemic was over. Now, Penn State has announced via an Aug. 2 press release a new technique expected to be especially useful in the tropics, where H1N1 is still a concern because flu season never ends, and where new viruses often emerge. Scientists have identified a way to not only identify the presence of H1N1 in the body, but know whether it ever existed. In ...

A four-part documentary series called "The Crowd & The Cloud", showcasing the power of "Citizen Science in the Digital Age", airs this month on public television and is available online. Hosted by former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, now director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the series shows how citizens can cull data to augment the work of professional scientists. Everyday people can and are acting in ways leaders cannot - a timely message during a time of political upheaval on the scientific and environmental front. Whether one's concerned with Alzheimer's, fracking, weather, climate change, or epidemics like Zika, the documentary shows how citizens using smartphones and computers are harnessing the power of the digital age. Not only that, through mobile and other technologies people are helping scientists do their jobs. In the documentary trailer Abdala...