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 …
According to data from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases ( nicd ), Delhi, and the government of Bihar, 54,650 cases were reported in Bihar in 1990 and 59,611 cases of kala-azar in 1991. However, the numbers were placed close to 250,000 by an expert team constituted by the government …
Ecological changes have contributed to the emergence of kala-azar in some areas. Dams and irrigation projects create ideal conditions for sandflies to breed. Between 1966 and 1976, 29 cases of kala-azar from five districts in south Gujarat adjoining Tapi, Mahi and Narmada rivers were admitted to the Baroda Medical College …
Bacteria thrive beneath glaciers where their activity can erode rocks, say Canadian and British geologists. Martin Sharp of the University of Alberta in the UK and his colleagues found colonies of bacteria growing and producing carbon dioxide under two Swiss glaciers. Once dissolved in water, the gas weathers the rocks …
allan Walker and his colleagues at Horticulture Research International, a British government-owned research agency in Warwickshire, uk , have discovered a strain of bacteria that degrades phenylureas, the most widely used herbicide family in Europe. Spraying the phenylureas -eating bacteria on to the soil could soon destroy these herbicide that …
A switch in the species of phytoplankton dominating the Southern Ocean off Antarctica could accelerate global warming. During an expedition to the Ross Sea, a team led by Kevin Arrigo of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC, found that diatoms dominated …
MICROSCOPIC glass beads wrapped in artificial cell membranes have been made to glow red in the presence of cholera. Chemists in New Mexico, USA, say detectors with the beads can 'sniff' out cholera bugs in hospitals and disaster zones before people fall ill - and that the technology could also …
An estimated US $2 million worth of lobsters were found either dead or ill off the coast of Maine in the US in 1998. Though some of these lobsters were found to have bacterial infections, researchers believe that the mystery infection is not bacterial. Maya Crosby, marine biologist with the …
h g wells's 19th century vision of a Martian invasion of Earth, The War of The Worlds , saw Earthlings emerging victorious in the end of a lengthy, devastating war through sheer persistence, a will to fight back and those ever-popular human strongpoints
GREEK mythology can boast of some truly weird creatures. Centaurs - the furious half- man- half- horse warring class, Hydra, a three-headed monster and many more. But none is as frightening as the three snake-haired Medusa, one look from whom could turn people into stone. Well, as Mother Nature would …
THEY may be bad, but they are worth saving too. That is the message from a team of British biologists who say the millions of viruses, bacteria and fungi that kill or blight plant life across the planet should be conserved with the same urgency as other species. Though harmful …
GLOBAL warming is perhaps the biggest threat the Earth has ever faced. Scientists and environmentalists grappling with ways to avoid the disaster have found a bacterium that eats up methane. The researchers hope the organism could be used to fight global warming by preventing greenhouse gases from reaching the atmosphere. …
MYCORRHIZAL fungi or 'fungus root' are crucial for plant growth as they help in better root performance and provide natural defence against root diseases and pests. The fungi work as an extension of the plant's roots to help take up soil nutrients and water in exchange for steady source of …
Yeast and roundworms may give research into birth defects a boost. An enzyme needed to make healthy reproductive cells turns out to be the same in both, and probably helps prevent birth defects in humans as well. Before human sperm and eggs are formed, the chromosomes in the parental cell …
is a bacterium that can supposedly carry a metal load that is equal to its own weight. Amazing, right? The bug, the common cyanobacterium Oscillatoria sp which has been isolated from Wazirabad Yamuna water, can scavenge as much as one gram of copper per gram dry weight at 120 ppm …
ONE good place to look for better and cheaper medicines has always been our planet's biological treasure house. It has furnished numerous inexpensive alternatives to many expensive medicines and chemicals. And scientists are rediscovering this amazing treasure house, coming up with new applications for plant and animal derivatives. Chicken feather, …
AFTER years of disbelief, the world has finally realised that global warming, far from being an eccentric theory cooked up by environmentalists, is a very real threat. We are feeling the effects already: the us, for instance, experienced one of the hottest summers in its history this year. And if …
SCIENTISTS say there is life in the lakes of Antarctica which are perpetually covered by ice. An expedition to the McMurdo Dry Valleys led by John Priscu, a microbial ecologist from the Montana State University, USA, to investigate whatever life forms exist in the Antarctic waters turned out to be …
Does your car smell funny to you? Do you get a headache or a runny nose after long drives? Well, cars all across the globe are developing fool smells within a couple of years of leaving the showroom. Who are the culprits? Fungi and bacteria growing in their air-conditioning systems. …
THE thought of eating live animals certainly fills most of us with disgust. And yet, we do it all the time. These are "animals" too small to be seen by the naked eye. They are microorganisms, mainly bacteria. And their ingestion does us a lot of good. In India, yoghurt …
