News in Brief: Inner Loop flooding; Nanotoxicology commendations

1/15/09 6:00pm

Flooding in Inner Loop due to city of Houston

The water flowing from a pipeline on the Inner Loop near Rayzor Hall for the past week is the result of a leak in a City of Houston waterline, the Communications Manager for Facilities, Engineering and Planning Susann Glenn said. Since the pipeline is not controlled by Rice, FE&P has not been able to shut it off. However, FE&P has been in continued contact with the City of Houston since last Wednesday trying to get the leak repaired. Glenn said she hopes and expects the leak to be repaired by the end of the week.

-Catherine Bratic

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Nanotoxicology publications commended

Rice's small discoveries reaped big rewards in December when researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara ranked Rice third in the world in the number of nanotoxicology publications for the university's work on nanoparticles.

The study, which was released Dec. 28 and will be published in February's Journal of Nanoparticle Research, concluded that Rice published 23 academic papers in the rising field of nanotoxicology, just five short of the University of California campuses and two fewer than the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China.

The UCSB study also found that worldwide peer-reviewed research in nanotechnology has increased nearly 600 percent since 2000.

In the study, UCSB researchers extensively utilized the International Council on Nanotechnology's Virtual Journal of Nanotechnology Environment, Health & Safety, also known as VJ-Nano EHS, which is the only journal of its kind to gather all published research on the safety, health and environmental implications of nanomaterials since 2005.

Although the researchers of the UCSB study found sizable gaps in the nanotoxicology literature made available by ICON's database, they nonetheless commended ICON in providing a valuable resource and compilation for their study.

-Melissa Tsang

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