Science

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - Opposition to nuclear power in Italy is based on prejudice, unjustified fear and suspicion, according to the head of the Italian electricity utility ENEL.

"Nuclear power is cleaner, safer and more socially responsible. It is part of the solution to move towards greater independence and is friendly to the environment," ENEL's chief executive officer Fulvio Conti said at a roundtable discussion here.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - The cabinet on Wednesday will definitively approve the guidelines and criteria to be used in choosing sites for future nuclear power plants, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said on Monday.

Speaking on a morning TV news show, the minister added that "from that moment on the construction companies will be able to choose the most adequate sites and once this is done I think within two years the necessary authorisations should be granted.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 5 - Italy may donate a larger share of its H1N1 flu vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) than it had originally planned, Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio said Friday.

''The government has already promised to give the WHO 2.5 million doses of the vaccine for developing countries, but they have asked us for more and we may be able to give it to them,'' Fazio said.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - The Italian government said Thursday it would take three regions to the Constitutional Court over their norms blocking the construction of nuclear reactors in the face of a new law reviving nuclear power in Italy.

Industry Ministry Claudio Scajola argued the laws in the southern Campania, Puglia and Basilicata regions, ''infringe on the central government's jurisdiction over energy and environmental protection policy''.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - The Italian government said Thursday it would take three regions to the Constitutional Court over their laws blocking the construction of nuclear reactors in the face of a new law reviving nuclear power in Italy.

Industry Ministry Claudio Scajola argued the laws in the southern Campania, Puglia and Basilicata regions, ''infringe on the central government's jurisdiction over energy and environmental protection policy''.

''If we leave these laws unchallenged, they could set a dangerous precedent undermining the government's authority,'' he said.

All three of the laws were passed after the parliament gave it's green light to a return to nuclear power last summer.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - Archaeologists have for the first time found evidence that people from the Far East were in Italy during Ancient Roman times.

A Canadian team has dug up a 2,000-year-old male skeleton at an imperial Roman estate in Puglia whose DNA matches those of present-day east Asians.

The discovery, if proven, would push back by several hundred years the date of the first direct contact between the West and the East, to more than 1,000 years before Marco Polo's historic trip to China.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 3 - Archaeologists have for the first time found evidence that people from the Far East were in Italy during Ancient Roman times.

A Canadian team has dug up a 2,000-year-old male skeleton at an imperial Roman estate in Puglia whose DNA matches those of present-day east Asians.

"Our data reveals that some of the inhabitants of Vagnari (near Bari) came from far outside the confines of the Roman Empire," said team leader Tracy Prowse, professor of anthropology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 2 - Swift action from the agriculture ministry could prevent the government being forced to comply with a court ruling paving the way for genetically modified (GM) crops, a leading expert said on Tuesday.

Mario Capanna, an anti-biotech campaigner and director of an independent research council on GM products, published an open letter to Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia urging him to respond to the Friday ruling.

''Please forgive our insistence in monitoring your response in order to ensure it does not miss the deadline,'' said Capanna, who heads the Genetic Rights Foundation.

''We just want to guarantee that the Italian agriculture system, the jewel in Italy's exports crown, does not fall prey to anarchy''.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 2 - Swift action from the agriculture ministry could prevent the government being forced to comply with a court ruling paving the way for genetically modified (GM) crops, a leading expert said on Tuesday.

Mario Capanna, an anti-biotech campaigner and director of an independent research council on GM products, published an open letter to Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia urging him to respond to the Friday ruling.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 1 - Putting the freeze on a human fertility hormone could be the next step in treating bone cancer, one of the most common and painful kinds of tumours affecting children, Italian scientists said Monday.

The study by researchers at the University of Padua found that Relaxin, the hormone which helps sperm find their way to the egg, also stimulates the spread of bone cancer.

''We found that the growth and invasiveness of bone metastisis were intensified in the presence of Relaxin,'' said Padua oncologist Carol Foresta.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 29 - Italian kids in hospital are in for a dose of "clown therapy" according to Equal Opportunity Minister Mara Carafagna who on Friday unveiled fresh funding for a scheme to treat young patients with a bit of fun.

''The idea is reduce the stress of hospital recovery and make our pediatric wards a little more child-friendly''.

''We think a little laughter is important to the healing process, especially for kids, and we're happy to support any effort to do that,'' she said.

(ANSA) - Berlin, January 28 - Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Thursday renewed his criticism of Italy for being "stingy" in its foreign aid and said he had placed the country and Premier Silvio Berlusconi on his 'shame list'.

In an interview published by the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, Gates said that "in the international community there is only one country which has reduced its foreign aid: Italy".

(ANSA) - Milan, January 27 - Italian researchers have made an advance in the study of lupin seeds to help diabetes, bolstering the notion that the yellow legume may help sufferers if added to their diet.

The insulin-like properties of a protein in lupins have been known for some time.

But researchers in Milan say that, as well as controlling blood sugar levels, the conglutin gamma protein has a range of other beneficial effects.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Italian health officials said Friday they were mulling what to do with millions of doses of unused H1N1 flu vaccine piling up in hospital freezers.

''We're holding a special meeting next week and by Thursday or Friday at the latest should have a better idea what the situation is,'' said Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio.

Last fall, the health ministry ordered enough vaccine to inoculate 24 million people, or 40% of the population, by April.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 21 - The billions of cigarette butts discarded by Italians every year ought to be treated as toxic waste, a new study by the National Institute of Technology (ENEA) concluded Thursday.

''Cigarette butts present health risks that have never received serious consideration before now,'' said a researcher for the institute, Carmine Ciro Lombardi.

According to Lombardi, cigarette butts contain hundreds of carcinogenic and even radioactive chemicals which, taken together, add up to tonnes and tonnes of toxic waste.