Science

(Phys.org) —Emerging Objects, a San Francisco based fabrication studio, is pioneering the use of new kinds of material for use as an "ink" with 3-D printers. To date, their materials are based on wood, salt, paper, cement, nylon and acrylic. Launched and run by architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the aim of the company is to develop material for the creation of 3-D buildings, building parts, and interior accessories using natural or renewable components.

Tourists set on relaxing and socialising when they reach their holiday destination tend to do little advance research on the internet before making their trip, but are more likely to share travel information and photos on social media once they return home, according to a study to be published in the International Journal of Tourism Policy. By contrast, travellers motivated by food-, nature- and culture-related factors do lots of online research before and during their trip, but share little information with others on social media.

Researchers from the University of Exeter are working with Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) on a ground-breaking study with 20 households in Great Britain and France to observe at-home recycling behaviors.

Flight operations quality assurance, or FOQA, the system contained in an aircraft's black box, could improve the safety of collegiate flight training programs in the future, according to research conducted by J.D. Swinney, one of the first two graduates of Kansas State University Salina's professional Master of Technology degree program.

(Phys.org) —From within an ancient German gravesite to laboratories under the harshest extremes of scientific scrutiny, traces of DNA from a deadly disease illuminate the cold pages of history with modern insight.

sciencehabit writes "Whooping cough, or pertussis, has exploded in the United States in recent years. A new study (abstract) confirms what scientists have suspected for some time: The return of the disease is caused by the introduction of new, safer vaccines 2 decades ago. Although they have far fewer side effects, the new shots don't offer long-lived protection the way older vaccines do." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/124330160/23764566/sizes/l/in/photostream/ A team of Croatian researchers are training honeybees to sniff out unexploded mines that still pepper the Balkans. Nikola Kezic, a professor in the Department of Agriculture at Zagreb University, has been exploring using bees to find landmines since 2007. Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and other countries from former Yugoslavia still have around 250,000 buried mines that were left there during the wars of the early 90s. Since the end of the war, more than 300 people have been killed in Croatia alone by the explosives, including 66 de-miners. Tracking down the mines can be extremely costly and dangerous. However, by training bees (which are able to detect odors from 4.5 kilometers away) to associate the smell of TNT with sugar, the researchers can create an effective way of identifying the locations of mines. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Cambridge archaeologists are illuminating some of the oldest graphic art of the past, by applying some of the most advanced graphic technology of the present.

(Phys.org) —Earth watcher Proba-V is in good health following its launch last week. The Vegetation imager has been switched on and the first image has been captured over western France.

Parts of the farm landscape that look overgrown and 'scruffy' are more important in supporting wildlife than they first appear, according to new research published today in Ecology Letters.