Although spending on science has risen worldwide, greater investment is needed in the face of growing crises, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended in a new report published. The latest edition of its Science Report, which is published every five years, further reveals that there is …
A GROUP Of Scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboragtory In the us have come up with a unique strategy to Pee the carbon dim (Cod gas emans from fuel-burning plants - report responsible for the global war" phenomenon - harmless. Atcordin Klaus S Lackner, the chief physich the laboratory, …
Thefamous i9th century pipe organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has gone hi-tech. The French ministry of culture has spent US $2.2 million to digitise the organ. Now, a system of microprocessors and sensors interprets how the keys and pedals have been pressed. The system, once perfected, will …
TRYING to forge a strong link between the researchers and the industrialists has proved to be a thankless job for the British government. The office of science and technology is about to come up with a report on a unique scheme called Realising Our Potential Awards (ROPA). Introduced in the …
The US Department of Energy is experted to endorse plans of build- ing a US $3 billion particle accelerator. The primary purpose of the accelerator will be to produce tri- tium for nuclear weapons (Nature, Vol 376, July 20, 1995). But the facility will have another spin-off. it will be …
TO THE question "What is time?", Saint Augustine of Hippo, the revered 4th century thinker is reported to have remarked, "If no one asks me, I know, but if any person should require me to tell him, I cannot." This enigmatic statement is probably what most of us would agree …
Science must contribute substantially to the development of the society as a whole in the country: this is the new policy being promoted by the government's Foundation for Research Development (FRD), that has recently come up with the Reconstruction and Development Programme, a scheme which enjoys cross- party support, and …
TO A male sports fan, the victory or defeat of his favourite team in a match is of'vital' importance- it actu- allyaffects his hormone level. According to a study conducted by the Georgia State University, the testosterone level of a male spectator nosedives if the team he was cheering for …
AFTER it has been brewing for a while now, the Republican-dominated Congress in the us launched a determined drive to cut-back federal funding for civilian sciences since early this year. Some of their most radical moves have been a proposal to disband the Department of Energy (doe) altogether and to …
ASIA, not Africa, was the home of the first simians. A.group of Chinese scientists working with the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Sciences claim that they have discovered evidence at Shanghuang town in eastern Jiangsu province which pushes the history of simians back by 8 to 10 million years compared with …
THE government in Beijing is chanting a new mantra now -- science must create wealth. The Chinese comrades are no longer interested in draining the already cash-strapped state treasury by funding more and more "esoteric" research projects, which, they are convinced, contribute little to the society as a whole. So …
SOUTH Africa can break new ground in the world of science if only its scientists and researchers show the government the right way. In an impassioned speech made at a conference held at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Bernie Faranoff, the official in charge of South Africa's Reconstruction and …
BRITAIN's criminals could well be in a biological trap. Their DNA combination, a deadly giveaway of their true identity, will be stored in a bank, the world's first of which was launched in Birmingham on April 10 this year. It will primarily support the national police network and is expected …
THE universe is bloated almost beyond measure but about 90 per cent of its bulk is invisible. Intrigued cosmologists have postulated several theories about the missing folds of mass, but so far not one has as much as poked its nose out. Now, scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory …
Biologists use vibrating blades to neatly slice tissue for microscopic examination. While scientists thought of this technique only about 50 years ago, a biological version has existed for millions of years, sayl a team of scientists led by Jurgen Tautz of the University of Wurzburg, Germany (Science. Vol 267, No …
IMAGINE a rapidly expanding gas confined in a container and subject to immense external pressure. The laws of science tell us that the balance of forces cannot be sustained for long without some transformation taking place in the gas. Now, substitute the gas with the institution monolithically called "scientific research" …
LINUS C Pauling, the only man to have won the Nobel Prize twice, both times unshared, died on August 22, 6 years short of a century. Pauling won his first Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954 for his brilliant insight into the nature of the chemical bond that glues atoms …
Scientists have long felt the lack of an adequate mathematical definition of intelligence as a major hurdle in the creation of genuine artificial intelligence. Last fortnight, 2 Bangalore-based software experts, V Rajaraman and A Srivastava, announced that they had come up with what they claim to be the "world's first …
The title would cause non-scientists to groan, "Not another harangue on equity..." Scientists might dismiss it as a bit of hackery -- how could anyone be preposterous enough to say that equity is good science? But C V Seshadri is no hack writer or blinded boffin. Despite his Carnegie Mellon …
SOUTH Africa's president-elect Nelson Mandela shocked environmentalists in the West when he told a Time correspondent: "My health is good ... One of these days I am going to take a gun and go and shoot, but don't tell the environmentalists!" The remark by the leader of the African National …
IT IS extremely difficult to measure the scientific performance of a nation, both statistically and in terms of effect. But the few indicators that do exist clearly indicate that developing countries are not performing very well. And a giant like India is performing particularly badly. Between themselves, the USA, the …
