Now that “neemania” has gripped scientists in the West and neem (Azadirachta indica) is being hailed as the wonder tree that can solve global problems from locust swarms to AIDS, Indian scientists are jumping onto the bandwagon. After Western scientists proved that neem-based pesticides are safer than synthetic ones such …
Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, is trying to force a British university to reveal details of its research involving thousands of children aged between 11 and 16 about their attitudes towards smoking and cigarette packaging. The demands from the tobacco company, made using the UK’s Freedom of …
How much water should flow in Indian rivers? Hydrologists have been discussing minimum river flows for over four decades now. The churning has resulted in the concept of environmental flow, or e-flow. This implies strategically releasing water downstream of dams and reservoirs to protect the services a river provides. Two …
IT WAS not until mid-1900s that scientists woke up to the importance of prebiotics—a non-digestible food ingredients that helps nurture bacteria in human gut. Consequently, nutritionists started recommending foods like whole grains and pulses more often. Now a study suggests that the secrets of nutrition related to prebiotics were well …
AUTISM is one of the few developmental disabilities the cause and cure of which remain elusive even 50 years after it was identified. There is no biological test to detect this lifelong disorder until it manifests at the age of around two. Diagnosis is largely based on behavioural and psychological …
Why a health film festival? I thought it would be a good idea to have the festival in Greece because Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was born there. Coincidentally, I found support from the mayor of the island where Hippocrates was born. The directors who have participated in the first …
IT IS standard practice in most Indian hospitals to recommend a physical regime consisting of yoga and gentle exercises to patients undergoing cancer treatment. There has been an understanding that yoga improves physical function and emotional wellbeing as chemotherapy—the commonly used treatment for cancer—causes fatigue and weakens the immune system. …
MOSQUITOES rely on chemical cues such as smell of human breath, sweat and skin to get to a potential prey. This olfactory pathway has spawned several research papers. The latest comes from scientists led by Anandasankar Ray from the University of California, USA. They have discovered chemicals which can prevent …
RESEARCH suggests that habitat loss, thought to be a major threat to amphibians across the world, might in some cases be protecting them from a deadly fungus. Amphibian species, which include frogs, toads and salamanders, have dwindled at an alarming rate since 1980s; a third of the world’s amphibian species …
IN WHAT can pave the way for obesity treatment, scientists have decoded a key mechanism through which insulin controls a part of brain that manages body’s energy balance. They have shown how insulin in the satiety centre of the brain—known as the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)—can lead to obesity. VMH controls …
More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, making the creation of a healthy urban environment a major policy priority. Cities have both health risks and benefits, but mental health is negatively affected: mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers and the incidence of …
AN animal’s ability to acclimatise to urban surroundings is believed to depend on its brain size. Evolutionary biologists have for the first time provided evidence of it. Alexei A Maklakov and his team from Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Sweden, have found that relative brain size in birds is a …
ELEMENTS like nitrogen and phosphorous are required in small quantities by both plants and animals. With increasing agriculture the levels of these fertilisers being released into water bodies has increased. This has led to pollution and depletion of oxygen in water bodies due to excessive growth of some plants. This …
IT is a neurotoxin that accumulates in marine organisms and can have serious implications on human health. The toxin, monomethylmercury, is of particular concern to people whose traditional diet consists of seafood. But the source of monomethylmercury in oceans has remained uncertain. It was till now suspected that industries were …
NO MATTER what season it is, denims are now a wardrobe staple. But the techniques used to process denim to suit the fashion, like rugged or faded, are highly polluting and hazardous. Now a team of researchers from University of Innsbruck, Austria, have found a cheaper, more efficient and eco-friendly …
PUZZLED why plants like congress grass, or Parthenium hysterophorus, spread fast? Any attempt to remove it is a failure as it would grow back quickly, while a plant like bracted arrowwood (Viburnum bracteatum) is slow to spread. Biologists now have an answer. They say it all depends on how many …
On the idea behind the project The project was developed for the eighth edition of the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in synthetic biology, hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in November 2010. Under this project we developed an artificial sweetener. We wanted to develop something that could …
AN EARTHQUAKE measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale recently shook Japan, causing a massive tsunami. Changes in groundwater electrical conductivity and soil radon gas can help predict an earthquake in quake-prone regions, according to a team of geologists in India. Earlier studies by Japanese scientists have shown that prior to …
In the Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 28 February 2011, the science, technology and environment sector was allocated Rs 16,186 crores, an increase of more than 18% over last year’s allocation of Rs 13,677 crores (http://india-budget.nic.in/ub2011-12/bag/bag41.pdf). The budget which has been largely touted …
A PLANT species native to tropical and subtropical America was introduced in India as an ornamental shrub during 1809-1810. Called Lantana camara, this weed is now found all over the subcontinent. Similar is the case with freshwater species Eichornia crassipes (water hyacinth). This weed was introduced from Brazil during 1914-1916. …
