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. …
one of the most exciting discoveries in modern genetics concerns a phenomenon known as imprinting. In imprinting, the pairs of chromosomes that we inherit from our parents behave in an unexpected way. They show that they 'know' whether they have come from our mother or from our father. The reason …
A single genetically-modified fish is enough to invade and wipe out local populations of fish species. William Muir and Richard Howard of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, injected the human growth hormone gene, hGH , in embryos of fish called the Japanese medaka ( Oryzias latipes ). They …
for the first time ever, an international framework has been set up to regulate the trade in genetically-modified ( gm) products. Following a week of intense negotiations in Montreal, Canada, delegates from over 140 countries framed rules which will allow countries to ban the import of gm seeds, microbes, animals …
Beware of dogs. The dog, a human’s best friend after brewer’s yeast, tends to think with its nose and its tongue. If it finds a tasty morsel of unknown origin it will first smell it then lick it. Such contact may lead to dangerous consequences. Dogs, however, are unaware of …
many people are familiar with raga s and are able to say which musical note is being sung or played. However, not all can determine the absolute frequency at which a note is played, that is they may recognise a sa (doe) or a ma (far) but they may not …
for the first time ever, an international team of researchers has deciphered the complete genetic code of a human chromosome revealing the existence of hundreds of genes hitherto unknown in humans. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust-funded Sanger Centre near Cambridge, uk, Keio University in Japan and us laboratories at the …
biotechnology and bioresources are two issues that have been in conflict for a while. Biotechnology, proposed as "the technology of the next century', has its proponents in the developed countries and users in developing countries. But with companies in the North taking the bioresources from the South, patenting them and …
A valuable lesson for biologists about evolution comes from frogs that have an eye in the back of their heads. It has been observed in fruitflies that a protein called Pax6 can trigger the formation of extra eyes, suggesting that it plays a key role in the normal development of …
if there has been one major transformation over the past two decades in the way we look at evolution, it is the increasing trend to adopt a gene-centred view, instead of an individual-centred view or the old-fashioned
the indian Council of Agricultural Research ( icar ) has formulated a plant biodiversity management project for exploring, cataloguing and preserving the country's genetic heritage. The project will be funded from the resources available under the World Bank-aided National Agriculture Technology Programme. The five-year project will be implemented by the …
New species arise abruptly because of mutations in the genes that control the development of embryos. If such mutations occur in several individuals that then breed among themselves, they can lead to a new species. Jeffrey Schwartz, palaeontologist at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, has proposed this new theory of …
On India's biodiversity: India has one of the richest reserves of biodiversity in the world. It is a repository of genetic resources of several life-supporting plants of food and medicinal value that form a substantial base for future crop improvement. But this strength has always been underplayed by the North. …
