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. …
Genetically engineered potatoes and tobacco plants would now save themselves from four major fungal diseases. Matteo Lorito of the Federico II University of Naples and his colleagues have equipped these plants with a gene which helps make a powerful anti-fungal endochiti-nase. This enzyme digests fungal cell walls and other structures …
on june 7, 1998, Swiss citizens voted in favour of research in genetic engineering. The biotechnology industry has not stopped smirking since. To the environment organisations, at the end of two years of campaigning against genetic engineering, this has come as a rude shock. The Swiss vote is relevant in …
In the recent years, scientists have employed diverse means to protect the environment, among which bioremediation has shown great potential as an effective method to clean up toxic wastes. But how do we know whether the genetically-modified bacteria that are used in this process are doing their job or not? …
a two-year campaign against genetic engineering by environmentalists, animal rights and consumer groups in Switzerland received a severe jolt on June 7, when Swiss voters, in a referendum, decisively rejected a proposal to ban the production and patenting of genetically modified organisms ( gmo s). The people rejected the ban …
Due to pressure from the European Union (EU) countries, the European Commission has said that genetically modified food will only have to be labelled when its presence is proven. The EU dropped its requirement that foods should carry "may contain" labels when it is uncertain if they include genetically modified …
farmers can now grow tobacco plants on demand or crops that produce pesticides only when under attack. Scientists have found a gene that can be switched on in tobacco plants or other crops in the presence of ethanol to get the desired result. When foreign genes are inserted into a …
after months of debate, the European Parliament (ep) has finally allowed the patenting of genetically engineered organisms. While EuropaBio, the European Association of BioIndustries, Brussels, has welcomed the legislation, several environmental organisations, like Greenpeace, Gaia Foundation and European Campaign for Biotechnology Patents (ecobp), are up in arms. According to a …
heart disorders are responsible for the greatest number of annual deaths worldwide. In the us, for instance, as many as 80,000 people undergo major heart surgery every year, and experts predict a continual rise in this figure as the population ages. Moreover, many of these patients succumb, not because of …
tampering with genes in human sperm and eggs is outlawed, as any unforeseen side effects would be passed on to future generations. However, us health officials are worried that the human repro-ductive cells may have accidentally been contaminated during gene therapy trials. Therapeutic genes are usually shuttled into the body …
it was an experiment right out of science fiction: scientists taking different species, extracting their genetic sequences and then combining these to get a new sequence that promises some amazing powers. However, before telling you how they did it, some background information is essential. Evolution, through sexual reproduction, enables new …
more than half of all tumour cells contain tiny extra chromosomes that encourage the cancer to grow. Now scientists may finally be able to find a way to obviate cells of the excess dna , using a technique that lets them watch these chromosomes at work in living cells. Called …
In the US, this is the third year of farmers successfully growing crops that are genetically engineered to make their own pesticide, known as Bt toxin, a natural poison obtained from the soil bacterium * Bacillus thuringensis *. Even organic farmers approve of Bt-crops as the toxin is highly specific …
recent developments in genetic engineering have created a furore. The successful cloning of a sheep, christened Dolly, and the possibility of human cloning have raised questions of ethics which must be urgently addressed. Application of genetic engineering biotechnology is proceeding at a relentless pace today. There is increasing moral and …
they stand ready to zap, vaporise or otherwise transmogrify the "bad" chemicals into good ones and they are not a bunch of cartoon heroes. They are the National Science Foun-dation(nsf)-funded next generation of pollution fighters. Take plasma generators. At the University of Illinois, usa , engineer Mark Kushner and his …
Is our quest for better food creating aliens hostile and powerful enough to overwhelm the environment? In our desire to create an apple without a wormhole are we about to upset nature's apple cart? These are genetically modified organisms (gmos): a tomato with a chicken's gene that can sit on …
A genetically engineered organism or a transgenic is one in which genes or the hereditary material which determines the characteristics of the organism is transferred from one organism to another through artificial means, either within species or between species. Genetically modified products are those that are obtained as a result …
Rapeseed was given a dose of genes to induce lethal stomach upsets in beetles and other pests feeding upon the leaves and stalks of other plants. The genes were supposed to produced protease inhibitors, proteins which scramble the process of digestion by interfering with enzymes in the intestinal tracts of …
One of the major decisions taken by the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd), which came into force in 1993,when over a 100 countries ratified the Treaty, was to work out a foolproof biosafety protocol. Even though Chapter 16 of Agenda 21 of the cbd document deals with the 'environmentally sound …
