Electricity consumption from the manufacture of artificial intelligence (AI) chips has soared by more than 350 percent worldwide between 2023 and 2024, according to new research from Greenpeace East Asia. In East Asia, the global hub for AI semiconductor production, growing electricity demand from AI chipmaking has been met primarily …
"A plant in the backyard has no value," says an Indian proverb. This attitude, which has been the bane of Indian society -- and that of the nations of the South -- repeatedly tends to overlook the traditional in pursuit of the modern. These societies often forget that modern technology, …
A MAJOR preoccupation of developing countries that have undergone the colonial experience is to avoid, at any cost, the substitution of political colonialism with economic colonialism. An important and influential theoretico-ideological position of the post-colonial era has been the "dependency theory" of social scientists Immanuel Wallerstein and Andre Gunder-Frank, that …
WHO MERITED the gold medal and world record for the 4,000 metre individual pursuit event in cycling at the Barcelona Olympics -- Chris Boardman or Lotus Engineering, the manufacturers of the bike? And are Nigel Mansell's eight Grand Prix wins this year a reflection of his skills or a credit …
Lichens as pollution monitors Pollution Zone I Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Beacidia convexula Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecanactis premnea Arthania antillarum Catilaria indica Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida …
JAPANESE cows now have their personal paging systems... call, and they come -- more eagerly if its piano music that has distinct and individual notes. With cowherds becoming unaffordable in Japan, researchers considered the feasibility of an individual musical call that would be transmitted to the cow via tiny pagers …
INDIAN scientists rank among the 10 most prolific producers of scientific papers in the world; yet their research is among the least cited in international scientific and technological literature. This dismal finding is contained in a paper published in the Journal of Industrial and Scientific Research (Vol 51, No 2) …
WITH INCREASING emphasis being placed on upgrading of technical training, Indian institutes providing such training are seeking help in this area from multilateral agencies. The World Bank is funding two such projects that are being implemented by the ministries of labour and human resource development (HRD). The projects aim to …
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. …
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 …
IF ONE were to pick a single product to represent the tremendous technological progress in the second half of this century, it would certainly be the computer. In few fields has progress been so dramatic, so sustained and so significant. Popular opinion has it that computers came to India with …
THE SOUTH had a two-point agenda in Rio: funds and technology. It failed to get both. The North continued to insist that technology is a private resource which states cannot give away, whereas the South continued to ask for technology on preferential and concessional terms. If there was any movement …
TRADE wars between Japan and USA are common, but now there are major technology wars brewing. And the US companies may be getting an upper hand. Japanese electronics have flooded markets worldwide with cheaply-produced and diverse products, but their capacity to be innovative does not seem to match their manufacturing …
PALM OIL will be the cooking medium of the future in India, if the Regional Research Laboratory at Thiruvananthapuram is to be taken seriously. It has developed a machine which can process 1,000 kg of palm fruit per hour. The process technology covers fruit harvesting, stripping, oil extraction and purification. …
THE VILLAGE of Seed stands out as a green oasis in Rajasthan's denuded Aravallis. Its gram sabha meets regularly and, being a gramdan village, it has full control over all the land within the village boundary, including erstwhile government land. Rawat was the adhyaksha (chairperson) of Seed's gram sabha from …
THERE IS A missing link that keeps the work of our scientists very insulated. It keeps their work from reaching potential beneficiaries. These are educated people who ought to know. They visit Delhi regularly from areas where such work could be of use but are totally unaware of what is …
THE US National Cancer Institute plans to test nationwide a drug called taihoxifen that might prevent breast cancer, lower the number of deaths from heart attacks and reduce the number of broken bones among middle-aged and older women. The trial, over a period of five years, will involve about 16,000 …
SCIENTISTS are now advocating that harvesting locally used medicinal plants from tropical forests could be more lucrative than clearing the land for farming or growing timber. When compared to other land uses, medicinal harvesting appears to be more valuable. For example, clearing the rain forest for agriculture is 'worth US …
BRITAIN'S Automobile Association has developed an in-car navigation system that not only locates the nearest car park, but also tells you whether there is enough space available in the facility or if the route is congested, This is one of the several applications of the geographical informstion systems (GIS), which …
FOR once the Japanese are running scared from the Americans. Minolta, the camera manufacturer, recently coughed up US $127.5 million to Honeywell, the US controls technology group, which had slapped a suit for patents infringement on the auto-focus process now so widely used in Japanese cameras. The US company may …
