(ANSA) - Rome, September 29 - Italian Health Minister
Ferruccio Fazio on Thursday asked officials to look at extending
tuberculosis screening to all babies born at Rome's Gemelli
hospital after a crucial court ruling.
Earlier on Thursday an administrative court in the Lazio
region backed a request by Italy's largest consumer
organisation, Codacons, to extend the screening to all babies
after a serious outbreak of TB infected more than 100 newborns
at the hospital.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 23 - Italians are among the group
of international scientists who recorded neutrino particles
travelling faster than the speed of light, researchers said
Thursday.
In what appears to be a contradiction of one of the
fundamental laws of physics, measurements over a three-year
period showed neutrinos moving 60 nanoseconds faster than the
speed of light over a 730-kilometer distance between Geneva and
the Gran Sasso underground particle physics laboratory in
Abruzzo.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 2 - A team that includes an
Italian astronomer has found a new planet that may have water on
its surface and be able to sustain life.
''It looks big compared to planets in our solar system, but
it's small for a gaseous planet,'' said Italian scientist
Francesco Pepe, who is part of the team that discovered the
planet, named HD 85512 B.
''This leads us to believe that it may be rocky, like the
Earth.
(ANSA) - Rome, August 30 - The number of newborn babies
infected by tuberculosis at Rome's Gemelli hospital has grown to
52, the Lazio regional government has confirmed.
Health officials ordered the screening of newborns after a
38-year-old nurse who worked at Gemelli's neonatal ward between
March and July tested positive for TB.
Last week, tests showed 10 cases of newborns infected by
the disease.
That number spiked as screenings were stepped up from 25 to
150 per day in order to reach all babies at risk by the end of
August.
(ANSA) - Milan, August 29 - Leonardo da Vinci's Renaissance
designs have swarmed into Milan on the wings of a robot.
The tiny electronic aircraft, modeled after the shape and
movements of a real fly, weighs only 60 milligrams and has a
wingspan of three centimetres, capable of rapid wing movement
and taking flight according to da Vinci's 15th-century concepts
on aerodynamics.
(ANSA) - Rome, August 26 - Italian scientists have helped
locate a planet likely made entirely of diamonds in the Milky
Way.
The planet is believed to be a former star about 20 times
denser than Jupiter and is made of carbon and oxygen in a
crystalline state.
It was discovered by an international team of researchers
coordinated by Swinburne University of Technology in Australia,
including scientists at the Cagliari Observatory at the National
Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and the University of Cagliari
in Sardinia.
(ANSA) - Rome, August 22 - Italian scientists said Monday
that they may be within weeks of finding the Higgs boson, the
elementary particle that could explain such scientific mysteries
as why matter has mass and if dark matter exists.
"These are exciting times for particle physics," said
Sergio Bertolucci, the research director at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
(ANSA) - Rome, July 8 - Italian scientists and farmers have developed a black, anti-aging "super tomato", the Coldiretti farmers association said Friday.
According to Coldiretti, the "Sun Black" tomato is rich in lycopene, a red pigment that is one of the most powerful antioxidants known to fight against aging and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
The tomatoes will be commercially available within a few days.
Coldiretti will unveil the super fruit at the headquarters in Rome Wednesday morning.
(ANSA) - Milan, June 28 - The tiny town of Aramengo d'Asti
in northwest Italy is converting to solar energy in the latest
sign that alternative energy is growing in popularity.
Mayor Francesco Tavolato announced on Tuesday a consortium
would be set up to build a 400,000-euro solar plant to convert
the sun's energy into electricity and service the town's 640
inhabitants.
Italy is undergoing a solar boom and small plants are
particularly popular.
(ANSA) - Rome, June 6 - Italian scientists have found a
unique solution to help an estimated three million Italians who
suffer from allergies - a smartphone application to help them
identify food labels to manage their sensitivity.
The non-profit International Fund for Advanced Research in
Allergy and Immunology ONLUS and Allergy Data Laboratories
developed the application and presented details of the project
in Rome on Monday.
(ANSA) - Catania, May 12 - Etna erupted into fresh fireworks
this week with a series of visually stunning eruptions that
scattered volcanic ash over nearby towns and caused the
temporary closure of an airport in its lee.
The pyrotechnics peaked early Thursday when the Sicilian
giant, Europe's tallest active volcano, spewed out fountains of
lava and spat shards of incandescent magma more than 400 metres
into the air amid ear-popping explosions.
A plume of black smoke rose for some three kilometres into
the sky, 6,000 metres above sea level.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 11 - A Rome barman donned a hard hat
Wednesday to joke with the few Chinatown residents who have
stayed in the city amid an earthquake scare sparked by a
100-year-old forecast.
"They say the quake's coming today so it's better to get
ready," said Giovanni, sporting his yellow construction-worker's
helmet as he served coffee and pastries in the immigrant-heavy
Esquilino district.
"Of course, I really don't believe the prophecy and I'm
decked out like this to joke with the Chinese and Bangladeshis.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 11 - Many Italians fled Rome on Wednesday
amid fears of a pending earthquake despite reassurances from
seismologists and political leaders.
In 1915 the late Italian self-styled seismologist Raffaele
Bendandi predicted that the "the big one" would strike Rome on
May 11 2011.
Panic developed recently as word spread across social media
including Facebook, Twitter and through email and text messages.
"Rome is not at risk of any earthquake," said Enzo Boschi,
president of the National Institute of Geophysics and
Vulcanology.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 6 - Italian scientists have found out
how we remember dreams.
A team from Rome, L'Aquila and Bologna universities
discovered that people will recall their dreams only if they
experience a certain sort of electrical oscillation during the
well-known phase of sleep associated with rapid eye movements
(REM).
(ANSA) - Verona, May 4 - Alternative energy will take center
stage here this week at Solarexpo, Italy's leading trade fair
dedicated to renewable energy sources and one of the world's
three top solar events.
The international exhibition and conference on renewable
energy and distributed energy is considered crucial in the
market development of new technologies that will play a
fundamental role in the global effort to reduce greenhouse
gases.
