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 …
A VULTURE is really a stork and albatrosses belong to the same super-family as the flightless penguins. This is what US ornithologists, Charles Sibley, Jon Ahlquist and Burt Monroe have concluded in their recent rearrangement of traditional classification, based on a controversial new technique developed by them known as DNA-DNA …
A biodegradable enzyme that can replace two conventional agents now used to de-hair animal skins for leather manufacture has been produced by the Madras-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI). Christened Clarizyme, the enzyme is extracted from a fungus, Aspergillus sp. It has several advantages over the conventional agents, calcium oxide …
WHEN YEAST'S chromosome III became the first chromosome to have its DNA described fully, a big surprise lay in store for scientists: They stumbled upon a wealth of genes whose functions are completely unknown. "All of a sudden we learn there is a whole class of genes, more than half …
EGYPTIAN scientists Y I Hanna and M M Kandil of the National Institute for Standards in Cairo have designed and tested a double-layered curtain using local textiles which absorbs sound and light to a high degree, reports the Indian Journal of Technology (Vol. 30 No. 6). The curtain is not …
SURGEONS may soon be able to call upon living micro-organisms to fight tumours that cannot be reached by the surgeon's scalpel. US scientists are proposing a new form of "molecular surgery" involving the transfer of a viral gene into the tumour and then attacking it with the anti-viral drug, ganciclovir. …
A NEW cryogenic system for industrial cleaning, using "dry ice" or solidified carbon dioxide, has been developed by Distillers MG, which is part of the German Messer Griesheim industrial gas group. The "cold jet" cleaning system, as it is known, uses small pellets of dry ice, which are blown in …
KODAK is about to launch a L 30-million photo compact disc (CD) campaign in which ordinary snapshots can be stored on special compact discs and then flashed on the television. The player works in a manner similar to an audio CD and can also play audio CDs. It uses a …
RECENT studies by four independent teams of astronomers indicate that planetary systems resembling the young solar system may exist in nearby parts of the galaxy. Three of these studies, presented at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society, focussed on a star called Beta Pictoris, which is visible from …
SCIENTISTS are now looking for a defective gene that leads to over-production of uric acid, a condition that may lead to gout-related disorders and kidney complaints. Recent research shows that gout is not confined to overweight, elderly people with a penchant for alcohol. Children can also develop gout and kidney …
A RECENT study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has established that women with osteoporosis suffered fewer fractures after treatment with estrogen. Osteoporosis is a potentially debilitating disease characterised by weakened bones and an increased risk of fractures. Estrogen is already being used to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. …
SCIENTISTS have discovered that celery, which was used as a herbal remedy in ancient times, contains a chemical that may lower blood pressure. A University of Chicago Medical Centre team found that a chemical compound, 3-n-butyl phthalide, which is extracted from celery, can lower blood pressure in laboratory animals by …
TECHNOLOGY is opening up the world of computers to the blind, everyday activity such as feeding oneself to the spastic and movement to the physically handicapped. A number of government and research organisations are investing ingenuity, time and funds in developing aids for the handicapped. But commercial organisations are lagging …
PARTICLE physicists scanning the cosmos for the slippery neutrino, claim once again to have established that it has a mass. Anthony Turkevich of the University of Chicago and his collaborators have published a study claiming to have uncovered "another independent line of evidence pointing towards neutrinos having mass." Predictably, this …
The Hindi proverb that derides the enfeebled mind as one with "worms in the brain", is no longer a literary expression. A study involving 159 worm-infected Jamaican children between 9 and 12, showed that removing moderate to heavy amounts of worms from children led to a significant memory improvement, in …
Only one per cent of the world's bacteria -- those that can be cultured in the lab -- are known, but molecular techniques pioneered by the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) in Britain will enable researchers to identify and classify bacteria into reliable genetic groupings. This will provide a …
Sunlight can be used to treat cancer using a method developed by University of Tokyo researchers. Their method focusses sunlight on the cancer-affected areas using optical fibres. The photochemical reaction with a previously injected substance kills cancer cells. Cancer treatment methods, using lasers in photodynamic therapy, already exist, but the …
Medical researchers at the University of Arkansas have found a way to reduce dramatically the time needed to diagnose tuberculosis. The new method, which involves analysing genetic material found in tuberculosis cells, will enable laboratories to diagnose TB in just 36 hours, instead of upto four weeks that it takes …
THIS YEAR, US President George Bush announced that US $1.4 billion is to be made available in 1993 to the US Global Change Research Programme (USGCRP), which will lead to a massive increase in humankind's understanding of the earth's atomosphere. As a part of the programme, a network of remote …
THOUGH no commitments have as yet been made by industrialised countries to reduce &rbon; emissions, car manufacturers in the West are already gearing themselves up for renewable and cleaner technologies in the near future. The European Community is pushing for stabilisation of carbon emissions by the year 2000. In Germany, …
• Pesticides manufacturer Monsanto is testing genetically-engineered cotton resistant to the deadly bellworm. The cotton contains genes from a natural ly-occurri ng bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis which kills the bollworm. • Hundreds of wind turbines produced by the Japanese corporation, Mitsubishi, are now being used on one of the largest …
