Although British scientists have pronounced some genetically modified crops harmless, European Union experts declined to approve another new GMO product for the eighth time in a row.
The EU environment experts also brushed aside an attempt by the executive commission to enlist their support in forcing five member state governments to end bans on GMO foods and crops within 20 days.
The lack of agreement underscores lingering European distaste for "Frankenstein" foods just six months after the end of a five-year blockade on authorizing new GMO products.
Nuclear hydrogen power: A government laboratory and a private company announced a $2.6 million project to develop hydrogen in a nuclear reactor using a process with the potential to one day trim the country's reliance on fossil fuels.
High temperature electrolysis could become economically feasible by using the next generation of nuclear reactors to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, said officials with Ceramatec and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
Researchers said the process of obtaining hydrogen by splitting water using electric energy has been known for about 150 years. Its high cost in dollars and electric energy, however, made it an unpopular choice.
Researchers admit it will be decades before hydrogen power and its infrastructure are as commonplace as refineries and gas stations. Researchers believe the most immediate use of hydrogen made from the new process would be to upgrade poor-quality petroleum for use as motor fuel, followed by synthesizing existing fuels that cars can use, like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
This just in: Pollution kills: Tiny air-born particles released by burning fossil fuels are reducing the average human life span across Europe and North America by eight months, a leading research body said.
Studies showed that the particles are a major cause of heart attacks, one of the world's biggest killers, a scientist from an Austrian-based research body told a U.N. news conference. The fossil fuel particles that cause heart attacks are light and can travel between 1,200 and 1,900 miles on air currents.
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis is working with the Economic Commission for Europe and the World Health Organization to analyze the results of studies from North America, Europe and former Soviet Central Asia on the effects of the particles.
Recognizing the problem: Bipolar disorder, a sometimes misdiagnosed mental illness characterized by wide emotional swings, may be identifiable by chemical abnormalities visible in victims' brains, researchers said.
Detailed brain scans performed on 42 adults, half of whom had been previously diagnosed as bipolar, showed consistently different levels of five chemicals in areas of the brain that control behavior, movement, vision, reading and sensory information, they said.
The Mayo Clinic study used a high-power magnetic resonance imaging scanner that had twice the magnetic field strength of scanners previously used to examine the brains of bipolar patients.
The types of therapy used with bipolar disorder differ from those employed to fight depression, so a correct diagnosis is important. Most diagnoses are made based on conversations with the patient.
Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
