Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Two institutions in the us are working to comprehend how contaminants, toxic chemicals and other environmental factors affect the human genome. The Environment Genome Project (egp), sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (niehs) , based at North Carolina, us, is studying variations of certain types of genes …
india has signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which is the only international framework that regulates trade in genetically modified (gm) products. The protocol allows countries to ban the import of gm seeds, microbes, animals and crops that they believe is harmful to their environment. The pact also stipulates that …
c the uk has become the first country to allow scientists to clone human embryos up to 14 days old for research purposes. The House of Lords, the British parliament's upper house, voted its approval to the new law by a majority of 120, despite protests from religious leaders. The …
Genes guide cliff swallows to select the size of colony in which they live. Charles and Mary Brown, researchers at the University of Tulsa, USA, who studied the swallows, may have scored one for heredity
new evidence suggests that larvae of fish that inhabit coral reefs do not get scattered and join other communities, as previously believed. They return to the reefs where they were born. Earlier, marine biologists believed that larvae got scattered by oceanic currents to other shores, settling and mating in other …
a debate is brewing in Europe over the creation of human embryos for stem-cell research. A report recently suggested that European Commission's ( ec ) approval to such practices would be a "premature' decision. The report was prepared by a 12-member European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies …
EVEN AS human-induced extinction depletes the Earth's biodiversity, frantic efforts are on to minimise this depreciation. Many see the science of genetics as a genie that can be commanded to fabricate extinct creatures out of fossils. This book quells such misconceptions. This compilation of scientific papers exorcises such sensationalistic myths …
gone are the days when scientists used to experiment on animals. Now human beings are the guinea pigs. Led by the Canada-based Rural Advancement Foundation International, a controversial Human Genome Diversity Project ( hgdp ) is now being undertaken by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology ( ccmb ), …
Human beings, like computers, are nothing but packets of information. Like all other living organisms, humans are made up of cells. The nucleus of each cell contains 46 chromosomes, each of which is composed of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and some proteins. In any human, the chromosomes are borrowed equally from …
The Human Genome Project is not all about humans. It is also about mice, chicken, fish and flies. It is about primitive creatures most of us have never heard of. It is also about worms and weeds. As sequencing of these organisms proceeds simultaneously with the human genome, scientists are …
A whole new world is about to unfold. A transatlantic joint announcement on June 26, by US President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK, marked the release of the Book of life - the chemical sequence of the human genome. The Human Genome Project (HGP) - …
We have entered an era of great hope and promise, of advancing human health and well-being and of social and economic progress. The shape of things to come can be visualised with a rough timetable. Will the new order of things reduce and eventually eliminate the inequities and disparities that …
In one of the largest settlements to arise from lawsuits involving biotechnology, us agribusiness group Cargill has been ordered to pay $100 million to Pioneer Hi-Bred to settle charges that it used genetic material belonging to Pioneer. Of the sum, only a part of the payment reflects damages for previous …
For the first time two Californian companies, after analysing the entire sequence published so far on the human genome, have come up with a jumble of bases which make up our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) into a meaningful inventory of genes, their locations and functions. "It's the first step towards turning …
while urging the European parliament to approve legislation on genetically modified (gm) products, European Union's (eu) environment commissioner Margot Wallstr
SPECULATION as to whether the modern human race has any blood link with the Neanderthals may now be put to rest. There is none. Possibility of the Neanderthals - people who inhabited Europe more than 28,000 years ago - having mingled with the human race as we know it now …
When the leaders of two of the most powerful free-market economies take a stance that upholds public good over private profit, it is good news for humankind. The Human Genome Project ( hgp ), aimed at 'mapping' the entire human genetic pool, is at the heart of one of the …
the disparity between the degree of investment in biotechnology research and the results was the focus of experts at a three-day exhibition and conference organised by the ministries of science & technology and agriculture, un -Asia Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology with other collaborating agencies in New Delhi recently. …
