Science and Technology: First regional breast cancer conference held in Sarajevo

21/04/2008

Sarajevo hosted the first regional conference on breast cancer. Also in news this week: An international cardiology congress starts in Belgrade, and the first eye bank opens in Zagreb.

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The first-ever regional conference on breast cancer was held in Sarajevo on Saturday (April 12th) and April 13th. Health officials and experts from Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Russia, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure also took part.

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Serbia's Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic opened the International Congress of Interventional Cardiologists in Belgrade on Wednesday (April 16th). The forum assembled more than 400 cardiologists and 45 lecturers from around the world to discuss the 35 most complicated heart surgeries ever performed.

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The Turkish company Vestel has developed technology to obtain drinking water and electricity from sea water. Experts from the Manis-based company can use solar batteries to turn sea water into steam and then generate electricity. As steam is turned back into water, it becomes drinking water.

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The first eye bank has opened at the Clinical Hospital Centre in Zagreb. Corneas and other eye tissues are stored for transplantation there. Doctors hope that the new eye bank will increase the number of ophthalmological transplants.

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Romanian Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Karoly Borbely kicked off a national information campaign, "Mobile Communications and Health" on Tuesday (April 15th). The campaign ends in late June in Bucharest and 15 other cities nationwide.

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An international exhibition of new technologies took place in the Croatian Cultural House in Rijeka from Wednesday (April 16th) until April 18th. The exhibition, "Intelligent Solutions for the Cities", attracted around 100 companies and institutions.

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Experts determined that the collapse of the bee population in Greece was caused by a microbe, Nosema ceranae, discovered in 2006. This year, N. ceranae hit the island of Peloponnese the hardest. Honey production in Greece fell almost by half from last year, from 15,000 to 8,000 tonnes.

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Greek divers and archaeologists discovered the remains of three medieval ships with 4,000 golden coins and jewellery on the bottom of the Aegean Sea, near the port of Rhodes. Analysis of the wood suggests one ship was built in the 13th century.

(Various sources – 14/04/08-21/04/08)