Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated January 21, 2024 in the matter of ‘News item titled “Feeling anxious? Toxic air could be to blame” appearing in Times of India dated 10.10.2023’. NGT had directed CPCB to file a …
NEXT TIME you liberally smear suntan lotion on your body and linger too long in the sun, beware: Sunscreens are not sunproof, say scientists. According to US epidemiologists Cedric and Frank Garland, though the lavish use of sun lotions blocks out the most damaging sun rays and prevents sunburn, it …
A US study refutes the notion that airline pilots nearing 60 are more likely to cause accidents than their younger colleagues. The two-year study, which analysed accident data between 1976 and 1988, was undertaken to test the validity of a US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule, which bars sexagenarian pilots …
ALCOHOLIC mothers whose babies suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) have a great deal for which to answer. Not only are such babies prone to mental retardation, but they rarely improve intellectually, even with careful parenting and education (The Lancet, Vol 341, No 8850). Hans-Ludwig Spohr and his colleagues at …
KHEJRI (Prosopis cineraria) is nature's best gift to the farmers of Rajasthan and Haryana for it not only thrives in drought conditions and in poor soils, but also encourages the growth of crops planted near it if its lateral roots are pruned (Changing Villages, Vol 12, No 1). Scientists at …
EVER SINCE man realised that sex is not limited to procreation, he has experimented with various concoctions to increase his libido. For scientists, however, aphrodisiacs such as ginseng and the Spanish fly have been little more than objects of ridicule. But now a traditional Indian sex vitaliser called Ipomea digitata …
SCIENTISTS have found that the ability of certain rats to reject a tumour can be transferred to other rats using a simple technique that could one day be used to enhance human resistance to cancers. Ashok Khar of Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) discovered a certain type …
A 61-YEAR-old Chinese architect, Cao Shizhong, who specialises in setting tilting structures straight, dreams of restoring the Leaning Tower of Pisa to its original tilt, a feat that would make him a millionaire. The Leaning Tower of Pisa could never attain its planned 13-storey eminence for when the tower had …
MOST OF us know fish to be cold-blooded creatures that alter their temperature to match that of the surrounding water. But some fish, the tuna for example, are warm-blooded, a fact that had long puzzled biologists. Barbara A Block, biologist at the University of Chicago and three of her students …
US ENVIRONMENTAL regulation to check industrial pollution and technological advances are causing a shift from petrochemicals to eco-friendly compounds, called biochemicals, which are obtained from plant matter such as wood and cellulose. Manufacturers can now separate different components of plant matter as easily as those of crude oil and convert …
INSTEAD of taking a bus or car to your place of work, you may soon be considering teleportation. The idea of moving people and objects instantaneously from one spot to another is no longer just science fiction, suggests a group of US theoretical physicists (Physical Review Letters, Vol 70, No …
FASTER, bigger and more comfortable. That's how one would describe the commercial jets of the 21st century, which will be superlative versions of the supersonic Concorde and the gigantic Boeing 747. While long-range, non-stop travel is on the increase, larger aircraft are needed to fly shorter routes so that congestion …
AFTER ten years of frustrating toil, a band of gene-hunters from USA and the UK have at last nabbed the gene that causes Huntington's disease, a debilitating disorder of the nerves. The researchers are hopeful the discovery will provide a better understanding of what causes the nerves to degenerate, and …
FROM THE house of Nikon have come electric spectacles that are battery-operated and change 0 from dark to light and back again at the touch of a button in less than 10 seconds. In contrast, the better known photochromatic lenses can take up to an hour to turn clear on …
SMALL farmers who cannot afford expensive rat-poisons now have a cheap, natural alternative: A fastgrowing tropical tree, Ghricidia sepium, whose leaves when fermented act as a potent rat-killer (Ceres, Vol 25, No 2). The vermin die of internal bleeding as the toxin reduces production of prothrombin, a blood-clotting agent secreted …
THE DAYS of the European corn borer, a notorious maize pest found in North America and Europe, seem numbered now that researchers have been able to inject into susceptible crops a gene fatal to the insect (BiolTechnology, Vol 11, No 2). But the gene, which has been taken from a …
A NEW COMPUTER voice synthesiser for people with speech disorders uses a rapid text facility that enables the users to conduct a near normal conversation and, more crucially, to alter. its speech mode to reflect their mood (Spectrum, No 233). Developed by scientists at Dundee University in Scotland, the system …
ALL PLANETS are believed to possess hot interiors that periodic volcanic activity helps to cool. But now American geophysicists have found Venus to be the odd one out (Science, Vol 259, No 5100). Quite unlike its namesake -- the goddess Venus who was known for her profligacy -- the planet, …
HOW DID birds learn to fly? For over a decade now, this question has been at the centre of a debate about whether Archaeopteryx, the world's oldest bird-like creature -- found nearly 150 million years ago -- was a bird or a dinosaur. While ornithologists believe Archaeopteryx was a bird …
COMPUTER manufacturers are propping up the all-too-familiar "sagging" image of the keyboard operator at last. A new class of designer keyboards now promises deliverance from slouches, painful wrists and embarrassingly fidgety fingers. The latest in the line is the innovative Maltron keyboard invented by Lilian Malt and Stephen Hobday of …
CHEERS! But be warned, the champagne in your glass may actually be a genetically engineered brew. A team of French researchers at a research centre run by champagne manufacturers Moet-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton in Colombes, near Paris, has genetically engineered grapes and implanted their cells with genes that protect them against the …
