Counter affidavit on behalf of Chief Municipal Engineer, Patna Nagar Nigam in the matter of Saurav Narayan Vs Bihar Pollution Control Board & Others dated May 20, 2025. The report said that the corporation has been diligently performing its statutory duties within the limitations of the available resources and infrastructure. …
heart cells, unlike most cells in the human body, lose their ability to divide and multiply soon after their birth. However, by tinkering with the genes, researchers have created mice whose hearts do not lose this ability. They say the discovery could pave the way for treating heart failure using …
france has decided to suspend a judgement on whether it will allow the planting of genetically-altered corn, dashing industry hopes that the French market would soon be open to the products. France's Council of State, which monitors administrative law, had been due to decide in December whether to let Swiss …
common sense tells us that limbs of all animals have three clear axes: shoulder-to-tip (proximal-distal), thumb-to-little finger (anterior-posterior), and wrist-to-palm (dorsal-ventral). The arrangement of bones confirms this and reveals a similar pattern in birds as well, whose limbs appear to differ drastically from humans for instance. Among the more impressive …
US SCIENTISTS have used genetic engineering to change the function of a plant enzyme for the first time. The breakthrough paves the way for designer plants that can be used as a source of food, fuel and renewable raw materials. John Shanklin headed a team of biochemists from Brookhaven National …
The field trials of US-based biotech company, Monsanto, on transgenic cotton "Bollgard' in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have, stirred a lot of controversy. On November 29, a group of farmers belonging to the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha MRS), a farmers' union, set fire to the first trial of the genetically …
Diabetic? Then avoid potatoes. That is an advice all diabetics receive. But now, scientists have taken a step towards 'making' potatoes that could, one day, help prevent diabetes. Transgenic - genetically modified - potatoes that produce large amounts of auto-antigens have been suggested as potential vaccines for suppressing the development …
APPLYING the same technique used for cloning Dolly, the first adult animal clone, scientists in Japan have cloned 15 calves since July 15. Out of the 15 cloned calves, nine have survived. "Our primary aim is to revive Japan's cattle industry," said Makato Tabata, in charge of cloning research in …
LEADING Islamic scholars have ruled that Muslims should be allowed to take advantage of the medical benefits of genetic engineering. But they urged companies to take steps to ensure the technology does not become dangerous or violate Islamic laws. According to the Saudi newspaper Arab News, scholars from the Islamic …
IN THE last few years, scientists have come up with a novel method to fight pollution called bioremediation, or using biological means to clean up polluted lands and water bodies. It usually involves plants that have been geneticaily-modified to absorb a certain pollutant. Though still in its infancy, bioremediation can …
ALAN GRAY, director of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology's Furzebrook Research Station, and a member of Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), warns that it is impossible to predict how the genetically-engineered crops to resist plant viruses will behave. "Viruses are, in ecological terms, something of a black …
SCIENTISTS in India have developed a genetic probe to prevent poaching of the endangered one-horned rhinoceros. The probe, developed by scientists at the New Delhi-based National Institute of Immunology (NII), can detect rhino horn even if it is crushed into powder or mixed with something else to deceive detection by …
Brazil has broken its ban on genetically engineered crops by approving of Monsanto's transgenic Roundup Ready soybean seeds. This decision will open up the world's second largest soybean producer to modified crops. Monsanto's herbicide-resistant seeds will be regulated like any other agricultural product, although a decision has yet to be …
A DEBATE similar to the one raised during the time when scientists were busy harnessing atomic power is taking place in the field of agriculture. The issue this time is genetically modified crops. Those in favour are claiming that production will go up many folds while those opposing it believe …
PHYSICIST Richard Seed, 69, a Ph D from Harvard University who had claimed that he will clone human beings, has said that he will first clone himself because of the possible medical risks attached to the process. He said his wife will carry the embryo which will be created by …
A POPULAR type of deoxyribose nucleic-acid (DNA) fingerprinting used by conservation biologists may give false results with some species of animals, say researchers in Germany. DNA fingerprinting is a fairly recent innovation that involves taking samples of an organism's genetic structure. Like the human fingerprint - which has a pattern …
Males and females of most species differ in several characteristics. But strangely, this is most obviously so with regard to traits that have no direct relation whatsoever to their reproductive functioning as males or females. Size, colour and pattern in birds and butterflies for instance and song in cicadas and …
WHAT is common to syringes and mosquitoes? Both, to a point, perform similar functions: piercing the skin and drawing blood. But syringes, unlike mosquitoes, do not infect us with diseases. Malaria, filariasis, dengue... spread thanks these winged pests. However, researchers are now trying to genetically alter mosquitoes so that they …
TWO Fox TV reporters in Tampa, Florida, have reported that Monsanto's gene-tically engineered milk hormone, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hor-mone), may promote cancer in humans. The milk is sold to dairy farmers, who inject it into their cows every two weeks to increase milk production. Monsanto and other organisations have …
A SINGLE vaccine can save more lives and money than any other form of medication currently available. This is a universal truth. In the next century, some 15-odd months away, doctors and scientists will strive to develop vaccines far more powerful and effective. Vaccines that will finally put an end …
JUMPING genes, also known by other names (one of them being "transposable elements"), are quite extraordinary in themselves. These fragments of parasitic DNA found within the genetic material of almost all organisms, can jump from one gene sequence to another with no apparent difficulty. Their existence implies that genetic material …
