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. …
Most DNA particles are said to be 'characterised' -that is, they code for a specific protein or possess regulatory properties. However, certain uncharacterised material in the form of short DNA sequences are also carried to the new organism in the course of the transfer of DNA from one organism to …
FORTY-ONE year old Tully ofCold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, us, bears an uncommon epithet: the lord of the flies. Sitting for hours together in a dark closet which resounds to the buzzing of hundreds of flies is the way, according to Tully, to unravel~ne of the least understood mysteries …
The Darwinian phrase, 'survival of the fittest', gives the impression that the over-riding force in evolution must be selfishness. In a fundamental biological sense we mat say that feel- ings of cooperation and trust are not genetic but social in character. The problem is brought out in a most telling …
VISION is one, of the most stunning achievements of evolution. Beginning in our ancestors with a semi-transparent membrane that had let in light, the visual system in higher animals has evolved to an amazing level of sophistication. The first element in the system, the eye, is as close to a …
INDIANS are a peculiar lot. They have three 'unique' genes which are not present in any other race across the world. These genes, belonging to the group DR2, put them at a high risk of contracting diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy. The DR2 group has 11 sub-types of genes. The …
THE Nobel Prize in Biology for 1995 was awarded jointly to Edward B Lewis of the California Institute of Technology (US), Christiane Nusselein-Volhard of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tubingen (Germany), and Eric Wieschaus of Princeton University, US, for "...discovering how genes control the early structural development of …
ON MARCH 14,1995, an indigenous man of the Hagahai people (a tribe dwelling in the highlands of Papua New Guinea) ... ceased to own his genetic material." This sensational statement has been made by Pat Roy Mooney, executive director of Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), a Canada-based plant genetics and …
Union minister of commerce P Chidambaram's statement Raiva Sabha, that a multi- disciplinary committee has been up'by the government to prepare a regulatory framework implementing the biodiversity convention in India, had like a glimmer of light at the end of a dark tunnel. The need for such a body can …
WHEN Meghnaad, brother of King Ravana of Lanka, grievously injured Lakshman, brother of Lord Rama, Hanuman was sent to Gandhamardan Parvat to fetch the Mritasanjeevani Sudha, a life-saving herb. Unable to identify the herb from among the thousands that greened that locale, Hanuman brought the entire hill to the war …
SCHEDULED to be held three years ago but repeatedly postponed due to the raging controversy surrounding it, the conference to debate on the possible relation between Genetics and Criminal Behaviour finally took place in the last week of September at Maryland, Washington DC. David Wasserman of University of Maryland's Institute …
LEADING environmental Ncos and public interest groups in Europe, persistently rooting against the patenting of genes and living organisms, are now seething with indignation against the European Patent Office (EPO). The organisation has gone ahead and presented a draft proposal at a forum in Munich in September end, claiming that …
Calauit island, the island reserve legacy of Ferdinand Marcos, the former president of Philippines, has become a killing field for African wildlife. Animal species including eight species imported from Kenya such as giraffes, zebras, impaias and gazelles, have struggled to survive on a shoestring budget from the Department of Natural …
Bacteriologists are now taking the help of molecular 'bar codes' made from dna to identify and disable genes that enable bacteria to cause diseases. Once the virulant genes have been identified, researchers can develop antibiotics acting specifically against them and the protein these bacteria make. The new screening system is …
INDIA's vast genetic resources will now have a protective cover with the setting up of the National Research Centre for Finger Printing of Animal and Plant Species in New Delhi. The centre, under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), will be involved mainly in cataloguing the …
WITH threats of fatal diseases and genetic disorders on the rise, genetic testing becomes an essential tool in diagnosing an ailment or assessing the possibility of a person acquiring one. However, being prohibitively expensive, such speculative genetic screening is restrict- ed to patients in research projects or to those with …
AGRICULTURAL research is going to hit rock bottom very soon and plunge the entire Third World into a state of severe food crisis - if more money to fund it does not come in immediately. The international agricultural research network is facing an acute resource crunch, according to the Genetic …
The contentious issue of management, utilisation and conservation of bioresources was sought to be resolved in 1992 with the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Rio Summit. The Convention is an important tool of diplomacy, termed "biodiplomacy" by the editors of this interesting compilation on the …
BRITAIN's criminals could well be in a biological trap. Their DNA combination, a deadly giveaway of their true identity, will be stored in a bank, the world's first of which was launched in Birmingham on April 10 this year. It will primarily support the national police network and is expected …
Romantic behaviour has more to do with environmental influences than heredity, according to a study by behavioural geneticists at the University of California, Davis, US. The finding comes as a surprise to psychologists who often cite the heritability of sexual promiscuity (Science Vol 266, No 5183). Niels G Waller and …
THE ghost of racism has this nasty habit of popping its head up off and on --- as televised hate talk in Russia; as neo-Nazi muggings in eastern Europe; as a hyperactive police baton in Los Angeles. Philistines and skinheads the world over keep repeating history. But it is all …
