By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Can you imagine how many feathers are accumulated when chickens you eventually feast on are slaughtered?

While watching the slaughter of chickens, Filipino scientist Menandro Acda was likely thinking of this when he realized the potential use of chicken feathers that are often considered waste in the poultry industry.

Chicken feathers are often incinerated. But the burning can cause environmental problems, according to Acda

“Millions of kilos of waste feathers are generated each year by commercial poultry processing plants resulting in serious solid waste problem,” added Acda who is a professor from the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

AMID the availability of off-the-shelf fire prevention devices that are mostly expensive, two researchers from the University of the Philippines Los Banos developed a low-cost fire detection mechanism that only uses an ordinary computer and a webcam.

Professor Jaderick Pabico and his colleague Deiter Dizon have designed a real-time fire detection system using an existing software algorithm on a computer that connects to a USB-mounted web camera.

Unlike most commercial fire detection sensors that use infrared and heat, web cameras can identify spectral, spatial and temporal properties of fires — actually “seeing” the fire.

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By Louise Daly
Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO–It sounds like something out of “Star Trek” — a tropical plant that uses toxic and come-hither odors and rising temperatures to ensure pollination.

But in fact, this scenario is straight out of nature.

In a paper released Thursday, US biologists report that the Australian cycad, a primitive tropical plant with large seed cones, uses a novel “pull-push” method to manipulate the tiny flying insects, or thrips, that it relies on for pollination.

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By Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON–Men with deep voices have more children, probably because they have a wider choice of mates, according to a study released Tuesday.

“We found that men with deep voices have more children than their high-pitched counterparts,” said Coren Apicella, a graduate anthropology student at Harvard University, who spent six months in northern Tanzania last year, studying the nomadic, hunter-gatherer Hadza people.

The study, a collaborative effort between Harvard University in Massachusetts, McMaster University in Canada and Florida State University, was the first to try to determine if there is a link between voice pitch in men and “Darwinian fitness” in humans.

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By Agence France-Presse

PARIS–A man’s testicles could one day provide a plentiful and accessible supply of adult stems cells to help him fight off disease or regenerate damaged organs, according to a study published Wednesday.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have already isolated the multi-purpose cells in mice, and successfully coaxed them to grow into cardiac cells, brain cells and working blood vessel tissue.

If the same technique can be extended to men, the study points out, it would sidestep the morally charged debate over using embryonic stems cells for the same purpose.

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