With the help of a gum chomping machine and years of careful chemistry, University of Kentucky researchers have developed a chewing gum that can help replace toothpaste and a toothbrush, thus improving the health of soldiers in the field as well as children in poor countries.

Seriously. Gum.

In what is known around the UK College of Pharmacy by the ever-so-catchy title of "the military gum project," an antimicrobial, known as KSL, is infused in chewing gum. KSL is anti-adhesive and abrasive agent that disrupts and helps dissolve plaque. » read more

WASHINGTON — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon met with Senate Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday and urged them to save international climate talks next month by speeding up work on a climate and energy bill.

Ban's admonition to the Senate comes as many are worried that next month's talks in Denmark won't produce a worldwide agreement to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

In contrast to his earlier hopes for a formal climate treaty in Copenhagen, Ban now expects that world leaders would sign a "robust global agreement that can serve as the foundation of a climate treaty." » read more