The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has published the R&D; Roadmap for Green Hydrogen Ecosystem in India. This document was published on 13th October, 2023. One of the central pillars of the National Green Hydrogen Mission is the establishment of a supportive research and innovation ecosystem for green hydrogen …
PETER Smetacek, 30, has a rare collection of butterflies, said to be among the largest in India. He is an authority on Himalayan butterflies. His love affair with butterflies began in his early childhood. Fascinated by the huge collection of the lepidoptera that his father had, Smetacek would roam the …
Peter Smetacek 5,25 a, Jangpura-b New Delhi 110 014 The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Post Box 30772 Nairobi, Kenya International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru 502 324 Andhra Pradesh Andrew Thompson Murdoch University Murdoch, wa 6150 Australia
To finance scientific and industrial research, a new tax on royalties on imported technology paid by industries was announced during the 82nd session of the Indian Science Congress in Calcutta by prime minister Narasimha Rao. He had earlier given indications last year in Jaipur that Indian science had better look …
A COMMITTEE of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) -- the world body that finalises names of chemical substances -- recently abandoned a move to name an element after the American Glenn T Seaborg, who won the 1951 Nobel Prize for chemistry. The only reason given for …
Although the Mayan civilisation of central America flourished almost 1,000 years ago, archaeologists are increasingly intrigued by the modern echoes of its political and social life. A generation ago, when its language was still Greek to researchers, the Mayan civilisation was imagined to be a haven for mystics and astronomer-priests. …
The Chinese government is all set to take action against "fraud scientists". From 1995, stricter controls will be imposed on scientific achievements to weed out fraudulent breakthroughs from genuine discoveries. This was announced by Han Deqian, vice-minister, State Science and Technology Commission. As many as 33,000 research cases are sent …
India's investment in research and development activities in 1990-91 was Rs 4,186.83 crores. This was just 0.89 per cent of the country's gross domestic product - a paltry figure compared to investments in'this field by member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The government continues to shoulder …
IN OCTOBER 1993, the US House of Representatives voted to terminate funding for the $11-billion Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), the most expensive basic research project in history. However, the chances are that only a few of the representatives realised the consequences of their decision: it could scuttle the fate of …
Our perception of what constitutes fundamental particles has changed continually with the ability to "see" at smaller distances. The microcosm has revealed several layers within itself: starting from molecules and atoms to electrons and nuclei, to protons and neutrons within the nucleus and finally to quarks within the protons and …
The idea of a fundamental simplicity underlying the observed diversity of the universe is a powerful one that has stood the test of time. Admittedly, the nature of truly elementary particles has undergone a continual change, from English chemist John Dalton's atoms to the particles of the Standard Model of …
"WE HAVE been the providers of knowledge, but we have never been able to convert it into something profitable, useful and productive," admits the eminent Indian material scientist, C N R Rao, in a recent interview to The Asian Age. Rao attributed this to the poor investment in scientific research, …
US drug companies are responding to criticism of the high cost of prescription medicines by putting out a new message for consumers: "We are not out to fleece you. We are, in fact, toiling hard to 'discover' drugs that will cure terminal diseases". They have kicked off a television advertising …
THOUGH floods cannot be wished away, they could soon be whisked away. A group of British computer experts is trying to model river flows so as to predict the best way to control flooding (New Scientist, Vol 141, No 1907). When a river spills over its sides, some of the …
Operators of X-ray machines and patients in India may be vulnerable to unnecessary radiation overexposure. This was revealed by A Gopalakrishnan, chairperson of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), at the 47th Congress of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association in Kochi recently. According to an AERB study of 750 …
CONTRARY to common belief, the main culprit of the "sick building syndrome" is neither cigarette smoke nor polluted air wafting in from outside. It is the increased airborne fibres from ceilings, insulation, ventilation duct linings and other construction materials, says a recent study (Environmental Science and Technology, Vol 28, No …
JUPITER will be the site of violent activity when fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the planet in the second or third week of July. The once-in-a-millenium event will offer astronomers a grand 6-day fireworks spectacle. The comet, now broken up into 21 large chunks, will bombard the planet and …
IT'S NOW almost taken for granted that if a flood occurs in the plains, then a forest must have disappeared in the mountains. However, this notion, which indicts the land-use practices of the mountain people, is fast losing its punch for lack of evidence. Two recent studies sponsored by the …
A BRITISH astronomer may be the first to have witnessed a bizarre celestial phenomenon: the formation of strange heavenly bodies when a superdense neutron star -- one that has been crushed by its own gravity -- insinuates itself inside a red giant star and transforms it (Science, Vol 262, No …
THE BATTLE of wits between the hunter and the hunted calls for increasingly ingenious strategies on the part of each. Recently, two Danish scientists reported that certain species of fish may be evolving the ability to detect sonars -- high-frequency sound signals -- used by whales, dolphins and humans alike …
AFTER designer clothes and designer food, will designer babies be next? Are you a black who wants a white baby or a 65-year-old woman who wants to conceive? No problem, except that of ethics. Made-to-order babies are now possible with the rapid development of assisted reproductive technologies (See box). Till …
