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 …
An uncharted reservoir of briny liquid, buried under an inland Antarctic glacier, supports unusual microbial life in a place where life is unthinkable. After sampling the outflow from below Taylor Glacier of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, researchers believe that microbes have adapted over the past 1.5 million years to …
A colony of iron-breathing microbes has survived for millions of years under an Antarctic glacier, thriving without air or sunlight, researchers reported on Thursday. The tiny organisms were probably trapped when the sea they were living in became sealed in the ice and they may have survived since then on …
Committee yet to issue guidelines for monitoring probiotics PEOPLE who buy probiotic drinks, ice creams and curds in India cannot really be certain of their health benefits. There is no monitoring mechanism for checking the genuineness of these products or verifying the claims on their labels. A committee set up …
Ahmedabad companies found selling contaminated drinking water bottled water in Ahmedabad may not be safe. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has found faecal bacteria in samples of water from three bottling plants last month. No action has been taken against the erring firms yet. The corporation carried out tests on 23 …
A total of 243 children aged one month to five years with World Health Organization defined severe community acquired pneumonia were studied for the presence of atypical bacterial pathogens: 24 were found positive for mycoplasma infection. There was no significant association with any of the clinical, laboratory and radiological variables …
The mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder has wiped out large numbers of the bees that pollinate a third of our crops. The causes turn out to be surprisingly complex, but solutions are emerging.
Agriculture has fueled the eruption of human civilization. Efficiently raised, affordable crops and livestock feed our growing population, and hunger has largely been banished from the developed world as a result. Yet there are reasons to believe that we are beginning to lose control of our great agricultural machine. The …
The most common and accepted method of fumigation is to produce fumes using formaldehyde along with potassium permanganate. The formaldehyde cause sulphydryl poisoning, protein aggregation and cancer inducing nature due to protein cross linkage. Indians follow the practice, Homam
health Cracking the capsule Every year a million people, mostly aids and transplant patients, are killed by a disease called cryptococcosis, symptoms of which include chest pain, dry cough, abdominal swelling, headache and blurred vision. This disease is caused by the deadly fungus Cryptococcus neoformans which attacks immune systems that …
Six major groups of enteric bacteria, viz, Faecal coliforms, E. coli, Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholerae were screened for the present study. The overall percentage occurrence of enteric bacteria in water and sediment was maximum accounted for Vibrio parahaemolyticus (81.7%) and minimum for Salmonella spp. (9.6%) …
The marine environment is one of the most fascinating realm. Due to the physical and chemical conditions of the marine environment, almost every class of marine organism exhibits variety of molecules with unique structural features, which are not found in terrestrial natural products. Today researchers have isolated approximately 11,000 marine-derived …
Since in-feed antibiotics (IFAs) are being taken out of broiler diets around the world, beginning in Sweden in the year 1986, the search for alternatives to replace IFAs has gained increasing interest in animal nutrition. Gut microflora appears to be the target for IFAs and alternatives to exert health benefits …
conservation Fishing casualties Fishing has dwindled the numbers of the pantropical spotted dolphin, a Pacific Ocean inhabitant, at a worrying rate. Initially the cause was traced to
Tropical forests can capture carbon FORESTS hold the centrestage in climate change. They can reduce carbon emissions up to 10-20 per cent of what has been projected by 2050. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that the greatest potential for carbon capture exists within tropical forests. Based on …
Environment ministry admits bacteria is major river pollutant MAJOR rivers in India have high bacterial contamination, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) said in a press release dated December 24, 2008. Yamuna and Ganga top the list of most polluted rivers (see graph below). Bacterial contamination in water …
Coastal waters support 90 per cent of global fisheries and are therefore an important food reserve for our planet1. Eutrophication of these waters, due to human activity, leads to severe oxygen depletion and the episodic occurrence of hydrogen sulphide
There are some bacteria in all waters. In general they carry out beneficial processes but some bacteria or other microorganisms may cause disease in humans. New water-related diseases, periodically emerge either because they are newly recognized or because their importance increases.
The paper is about the removal of arsenic from aqueous solution using the bacterial species Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. The bacterium was cultured under aseptic condition.
