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 …
SCIENCE is a double-edged sword, as curative as a missionary and incomprehensibly barbaric in more or less equal measure. After decades of rampant scientism, there is now a perception that it is deeply and irretrievably dehumanising, a Faustian pact with the devil. Galileo was imprisoned 400 years ago because his …
DEVELOPMENT, environment and science could be said to be the troika driving modern progress. But while the United Nations has been offering the "big picture" on the first two through its annual world reports, science and technology (S&T;) has been conspicuous by its absence. Now, with the recent release of …
DID you know that the best remedy for jet lag is sunshine? Or that female athletes can outrun males in a marathon? And, if your teenage son drives his mobike at breakneck speed, blame it on an enzyme that regulates brain chemicals. These are not based on hearsay but on …
What do you think went wrong with scientific progress and the scientific establishments in Europe after the Second World War? The Second World War was a period of rapid technical achievement. Radar, jet engines and nuclear energy were successfully put to use in a very short period of time. As …
WHAT DISTINGUISHES the Gloria Land (GL) farm of Pondicherry"s Aurobindo Ashram and the farm run by Julie and Vivek Cariappa near Mysore from that of their neighbours, is that a mash of leaves, cattle dung and a carefully chosen mix of crops have displaced inorganic fertilisers and pesticides completely. Yet …
INDIA'S interest in petroleum has grown rapidly. Understandably so, because the investments made are large and the returns fair, and could be even more attractive if we priced it properly. But, despite the growing interest in the mechanics of petroleum, it is virtually impossible to find a book that is …
THE BELIEF that economic liberalisation and competition will motivate India's industry to upgrade its research and development has become almost axiomatic. However, a study of private sector R&D;, carried out by the Delhi-based Centre for Technology Services (CTS) and sponsored by the department of science and technology (DST), shows this …
THIS SLIM monograph explains Mahajan's preference for the term "human sciences" rather than "social sciences". Within the framework of social sciences, there are different disciplines, each analysing a particular dimension of the collective human enterprise. Human science stresses the similarities among different categories of human action and hence provides the …
WHEN FRENCH mathematician Pierre de Fermat died in 1655, he had not written down the proof of a theorem, "which this margin (of my notebook) is too small to contain". More than three centuries later, Andrew Wiles of Princeton University claims to have proved Fermat's Last Theorem. The theorem states …
POLITICAL support for expensive scientific projects, plagued as they are by cost overruns, is dwindling in the US because with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the defence applications of space research are now less urgent. Besides, US scientists have suggested -- for the first time in modern memory -- …
PRODUCING a newspaper or a newsmagazine is something like an unending string of little miracles. As technologists designing new machines well know, "if anything can go wrong, it will." The same happens with us too, all the time. Yet, the publication must and does come out regularly and, more or …
THOUGH medieval Christian saints such as St Thomas Aquinas and St Francis of Assisi never doubted the official ecclesiastical view that all creation exists for humankind's benefit, they still stressed in their preaching that spiritual merit could be gained by treating birds and animals kindly. St Francis referred to them …
FORMER environment minister Maneka Gandhi's exhortations against cruelty to animals were often extreme -- depriving itinerant animal trainers of their pets or campaigning against the killing of stray dogs even though this could expose children to rabies. Now, Richard D Ryder, former programme organiser for the International Fund for Animal …
OVER THE years, the world at large has come to realise that the results of science must cease to remain the private property of a privileged few. This is all the more significant today, when the results of science have touched the very problem of existence. The need for public …
A NEW CONDOM for women that gives them greater sexual freedom has been approved for sale in some European countries (Outlook Vol 10, No 2). The condom consists of a loose-fitting, polyurethane sheath with flexible rings at both ends. The smaller ring at the closed end is inserted into the …
MATHEMATICS is a language whose beauty can be appreciated only by those who know it. Consider Euler's famous relationship, ei = -1 (check with original). While mathematicians would find it a proposition of great elegance, most of us would be completely bewildered by such a relationship. An attempt to convey …
CHINESE science is going the market way. A new policy recommends the withdrawal of state funding for twothirds of the country's research scientists. But scientists protest their work has vital relevance to industry. Researchers fear that the new policy, which may only be a short-term measure to counter recession, will …
The controversial Human Genome Project -- a collaborative effort to decode and understand the human genetic code in chromosomes -- is already showing results and is likely to be completed ahead of schedule (Nature, Vol 359 No 6394). The first maps of two human chromosomes -- the long arm of …
THE GRAND Mughal Akbar, whose 450th birth anniversary was marked this year, once remarked he would venerate the person who could grow two blades of grass where one grew previously. Was he not talking of Appropriate Technology, a term that has come into vogue more than four centuries later? It …
POPULAR demand for informative and entertaining science fare is constantly rising. And, any doubts on this score would be dispelled by the public response to Doordarshan's recent invitation to write in and say what they would like to see on the extended transmission that becomes effective early next year. More …
