The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
From boils to postsurgical wound infection, there is only one genus of bacteria that keeps itself busy. This microbe resides on the skin and nose of about one-third of the world’s healthy people. Simple boils can be treated without antibiotics but infections that lead to blood poisoning need attention. The …
The antibiotic industry boomed during the 1950s. The wonder drugs were fed to human beings and animals alike. They slowly permeated the environment—factory effluents seeped into groundwater; manure and sewage contaminated the soil. Microbes adapted to the changing environment by mutating, quickly. They entered the food chain and ended in …
The increasing cost of energy and concerns about the environment have emphasized the need to find new sources of fuel, with the microbial production of high-energy fuels a promising approach. Here, Escherichia coli is engineered to produce more complex biofuels
In a bid to overcome the drawbacks of existing biofuels, researchers have engineered a bacterium that can convert a form of raw plant biomass directly into clean, road-ready diesel.
Uttar pradesh chief minister Mayawati reportedly complained recently of foul odour from an open drain with sewage near her Kautilya Marg residence in New Delhi. There was no formal complaint, just her word. The New Delhi Municipal Council had to act. On November 14, at Rs 8.5 lakh annually, it …
In a recent experiment, conducted May through July 2009, Kanpur Nagar Nigam invited WWF India to carry out a pilot project as part of its living Ganga programme under a 5-year WWF HSBC climate partnership. A 2.5 km stretch of a drain in Kanpur was handed over to J M …
The latest trends in the paper industry are towards manufacturing by a neutral or alkaline process, greater consumption of secondary fibers and the closing up of the process water systems. Paper machine systems usually support significant growth of micro-organisms due to congenial and favorable conditions persisting during the manufacture of …
Scrub Typhus, or tsutsugamushi disease is a febrile illness caused by bacteria of the family rickettsiaceae and named Orientia tsutsugamushi. Scrub typhus is endemic to a geographically distinct region, the so-called tsutsugamushi triangle, which includes Japan, Taiwan, China, and South Korea. It also occurs in nepal, northern Pakistan, Papua new …
US EPA and its state and tribal partners have conducted a survey of the nation's lakes, ponds and reservoirs. This National Lakes Assessment is designed to provide statistically valid regional and national estimates of the condition of lakes. It uses a probability-based sampling design to represent the condition of all …
The objective of this study was to determine the bacterial contaminations in drinking water samples collected form some rural habitations of northern Rajasthan, India. A total of ten bacterial species: Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella sp, Proteus vulgaris, Alcaligenes faecalis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus lactis and Micrococcus …
Bacterial population in the coastal water of Orissa, up to 10 km from shoreline along 6 transects were observed during 2005-06 and 2006-07. Total viable counts (TVC), total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC), faecal streptococci (FS), presumptive E. coli, Shigella, Salmonella, Proteus/Klebsiella, total Vibrio, Vibrio cholera, V. parahaemolyticus and Pseudomonas …
This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that spatial variations in soil microbial variables in a Thai rice paddy are accurately described by multivariate profiles of the soil bacterial communities. The authors found that community-level physiological profiles of soil bacterial communities could better describe the population density of Rhizoctonia …
In arid environments such as deserts, nitrogen is often themost limiting nutrient for biological activity. The majorityof the ecosystem nitrogen flux is typically thought to be drivenby production and loss of reactive nitrogen species by microorganismsin the soil. We found that high soil-surface temperatures (greaterthan 50
Engineers are brimming with ideas of how to extract every last tonne of fossil fuel: one company is now showing that all it takes is common fertiliser.
ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute) developed a compact biogas system, which uses feedstock in the form of sugar, protein, fat or cellulose. It produces 1 kg biogas per kg of feedstock taking only about 24 hours to complete the reaction. The reason behind the high efficiency of the compact biogas …
This study presents bacteriocin, produced from Bacillus sp. MTCC 43 isolated from rhizosphere of root crop radish, Raphanus sativus, as inhibitor against serious food pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus and Aeromonas hydrophila). Bacteriocin of Bacillus sp. MTCC 43, partially purified by salt saturation method, exhibits very high activity (2.66 x 105 AU/ml). …
In the present studies, attempts are made to optimize digestion time, initial feed pH, feed temperature and feed flow rate (organic loading rate, OLR) for maximum yield of methane gas and maximum removal of chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand (BOD) of food processing industry wastewaters in three-phase fluidized …
