Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
RECENTLY, AIDS drug researchers found two reasons to celebrate. Firstly, a new anti-viral drug that could help solve the drug resistance problem posed by HIV was developed. And secondly, the efficacy of a drug that protects monkeys from infection from a related virus called SIV was confirmed (New Scientist, Vol …
THE phenomenon of senescence or aging is one of those problems that - as Mark Twain said about the weather - everyone talks about but no one does anything to solve. A number of experiments carried out on animals suggest that we may age because we burn ourselves up. As …
AMONG infectious diseases, tuberculosis (TB) stands out as the principal exterminator of humans, with an estimated 8 million new cases and 2.9 million deaths occuring worldwide annually. The situation is particularly alarming in developing countries, where 7 per cent of all deaths, and 19 per cent of deaths of adults …
Researchers have finally brought the controversy around 'gay gene' theory to an end. A study conducted on gay siblings revealed the existence of genetic material on an X-chromosome segment which may be responsible for homosexual preference in males, though not so in females. Dean Hamer and his colleagues at the …
A link has been established between aging and cell division by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, California. Earlier tests had shown that cells growing in culture medium stopped dividing after a certain number of divisions. Research has shown the presence of an unusual form of enzyme -betagalactosidase -in senescent …
Why do females sometimes reject transplants from males? This mysal tery was partially solved recently, when a cell marker that makes male tissues unacceptable to females was identified by two groups of sciento tists separately -one at the 1e Hammersmith Hospital in London and the other at the Leiden 101 …
THE world, as we perceive it through our senses, appears to be unitary: the final mental picture we have of the world, at any moment, is synthetic, built up from sensory impressions, received through sight and hearing primarily, as well as smell, touch and taste. In daily life, we do …
CASSAVA, the staple crop of over 500 million people across rural Africa, Asia all America can prove to be fatal if no properly. But researchers working the University of Newcastle in UK hope provide farmers with genetically safer varieties of the crop (New Scientists 147, No 1995). Cassava root contains …
The bill of the nectar-drinking iiwi bird of Hawaii has become shorter by 3 per cent since the last century, conclude University of Hawaii and University of California (Berkeley) zoologists after comparing the bills of 87 fiwis collected in 1902 with those of 135 recent specimens (Discover, Vol 16, No …
The largest and one of the most well preserved fossil specimens of an ammonite has been discovered on Seymour Island off Antarctica. Belonging to the class Molluscs, these animals have soft bodies like snails encased in calcareous shells (Discovery Vol 16, No 9). Called Diplomoceras ntsudmum, this animal belonged to …
IN A recent study, scientists at the On-based Columbia University have disproved the belief that cells in multicelular organisms do not stick together in a glue-iike fashion, but where to one another in the manner of bond formed by a zip (Discover, vol W NO 9). Life on earth evolved …
A LIFE history strategy is a set of blueprints according to which a plant or animal regulates its life from birth to death. How long to remain in an embryonic state inside the egg, how to face up to the risks that follow weaning, how to allocate one's time between …
After the disappointing performance of Interleukin-2 in suppressing cancer cell growth, scientists have pinned their hopes on its successor -the Interleukin-12 (IL-12). Interleukins are a group of proteins produced by special blood cells that improve immune-system efficiency. Recently, Judah Folkman and his colleagues at Harvard University reported that it eliminated …
Scientists at the US-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently suggested a new vaccine for blood flukes (Schistosoma mansoni) that cause snail fever in humans. The disease manifests itself by an excessive deposition of connective tissue in the liver, a condition known as fibrosis; the research team has …
What guides the growth of neurons, the basic cells of the nervous system, in embryonic human beings? Neurobiologists at the University of California recently identified 2 proteins that enable some 10 trillion neurons to grow at appropriate spots (The Sciences, Sept-Oct 1995). Named netrin and semaphorin, these guidance proteins work …
DON'T turn a deaf ear if someone told you that ears not only receive sounds but also produce them. Now, a team of scientists led by Nicholas L Powers at the Hearing Research Laboratory in Stat.e University of New York, USA, has confirmed that the inner ear sometimes acts as …
To discourage counterfeiters, signing of important documents with DNA is finding solid ground. Already a practice with American cartoonist Joe Barbara, who signs his creations with his own genetic material, the technique is the brain-child of Charles Butland of the Ios Angeles-based company, DNA Art Guard International (New Scientist, Vol …
Women are almost twice as much disposed to depression as men, suggests a collection of studies. While hormones and sleep cycles determine mood changes, it is confirmed that genes play no role (Scientific American, Vol 272, No 6). Positron Emission Tomographic scans conducted on equal number of men and women …
The link of male homosexuality to q28 gene on the X chromosome was recently reinforced by scientists, exactly 2 years after the first evidence in its favour was produced. After studying a sample of 33 pairs of homosexual brothers, a team led by Stacey Cherny in USA has now reported …
RESEARCHERS in Germany recently provided some vital clues about migraine and its origin by watching it in action. Carnelius Weiller and his colleagues at the University of Essen suggest that the real source of a migraine attack lies in the brain stem though the pain is experienced at the temples …
