British hospitals are under attack from a variety of pests, according to reports obtained under U. K. 's Freedom of Information Act. From January 2006 to March 2008, almost 20,000 incidents of infestations were reported by the National Health System. They included sightings of rats, mice, fleas, bedbugs, ants and cockroaches.

A firm formed by Silicon Valley executives is trying to produce in commercial quantity genetically-modified bug waste that is similar to crude oil but cheaper, cleaner and renewable. LS9 Inc. is planning to build by 2011 demonstration-scale and commercial-scale plants that will produce the so-called Oil 2. 0, which is composed of excrement from altered industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli bacteria. So far, the company's laboratory can produce the biofuel in small amounts, enough to fill a beaker, but has yet to test a 264-gallon (1,000-liter) fermenting machine that can produce the equivalent of one barrel of the fuel per week.

Consumer magazine Which? has found that computer keyboards can be a home to bacteria that may cause food poisoning symptoms and stomach upsets. Tests made on 33 keyboards at its office here showed four posed a health risk, with one being host to five times more germs than the office's toilet seats.

Health officials in mainland China express alarm over reports that a company in Southern China was recycling condoms as hair bands, which they say could pass over the sexually transmitted diseases to whoever will use the recycled condoms, report said Tuesday. Latest report shows that in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in Guangdong southern province, Chinese-made recycled products such as headbands and rubber bands made of used condoms were seen being openly sold in local markets and beauty shops.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix is to produce and protects good germs for your gut. This theory is explained in an online edition of the Journal of Theoretical Biology. According to the study, there are massive amounts of bacteria in the human digestive system. Most of it is good and helps digest food. But sometimes this bacteria dies off or is purged from the intestines. When the diseases such as cholera or dysentery cause bacterial purging, the bacteria in the appendix are safely harbored. According to the researchers, the appendix's job is to "reboot" the digestive system when that happens.