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 …
STRUTTING and swimming through the Antarctic, some emperor penguins are working on a scientific mission: monitoring the sea resources of the polar region. Every winter, emperor penguins -- the largest of the species -- travel long distances searching for food in open water, called polynias, that punctuate the sea ice. …
EVEN AS European Community researchers are developing a powerful computerised translation system that promises to break through language barriers, scientists in Japan, Germany and USA are working on a telephone translation system whose implications for world trade are mind-boggling. Both systems are reportedly in the test stage. The EC project, …
WESTERN infants are more likely to become victims of so-called crib deaths because they are far more frequently left alone to sleep than Asian children, a British study shows. Crib deaths -- known formally as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) -- is a phenomenon involving the unexpected and unexplained death …
MARIJUANA and heroin may be frowned on by parents and the police, but they do have a beneficial side for scientists. Recent breakthroughs in understanding how these two addictive drugs act on the brain could result in a non-addictive opiate that will help drug addicts cope better with withdrawal symptoms. …
A NON-SCIENTIFIC approach and closed-door decision-making in the sanctioning of grants, are blamed for hampering scientific research in India -particularly in government laboratories. This is one of the findings in a recent study of the problems of Jllanagement of scientific research, conducted by the National Institute of Science, Technology and …
THANKS to the Bubble Space Telescope, scientists can now actually see ancient galaxies being forI The instrument, unlike earthbound telescopes, can be aimed at galaxies 4 billion light years away. Because le the light that is picked up was emitted 4 billion years ago, it provides a view of the …
EVEN IN a freezing Ladakhi winter some houses stay comfortably warm, without either coal or electric heating. That's because these houses face the sun and they are well insulated, featuring heat-absorbing surfaces in dark shades. They are the products of a new architectural technique called passive solar architecture, which keeps …
THOUGH medieval Christian saints such as St Thomas Aquinas and St Francis of Assisi never doubted the official ecclesiastical view that all creation exists for humankind's benefit, they still stressed in their preaching that spiritual merit could be gained by treating birds and animals kindly. St Francis referred to them …
EXPERIMENTAL observations have amply confirmed the Big Bang theory, but some of its shortcomings have led scientists to develop the so-called inflationary theory, to pursue their bid to trace the early history of the universe. Proposed originally by Alan Guth of MIT in 1980, the inflationary theory predicts the density …
FINANCE minister Manmohan Singh contends non-conventional energy sources (NCES) have been given a boost through customs duty reductions of upto 20 per cent on a variety of items and continuation of the tax holiday for renewable energy projects. Funding for solar and wind energy programmes have been raised from 22.9 …
INEFFECTIVE funding and easily accessed foreign technology are twin reasons for Indian industry's halfhearted funding for research and development. In 1990-91, industry's share of the R&D; expenditure of Rs 4,186 crore was only Rs 970 crore, or about 23 per cent. In comparison, industry's R&D; funding in technologically progressive countries …
• Accessibility of technology to all segments of society, upgrading of traditional skills. • Waste prevention, lower raw material consumption, preventive pollution control. • Augmentation of scientific and technical personnel, improvement of management of R&D; institutions. • Thrust areas to include alternative energy technologies, agriculture, health services, transport, communication, housing, …
FORMER environment minister Maneka Gandhi's exhortations against cruelty to animals were often extreme -- depriving itinerant animal trainers of their pets or campaigning against the killing of stray dogs even though this could expose children to rabies. Now, Richard D Ryder, former programme organiser for the International Fund for Animal …
ASTRONOMERS are excited about the recent observations made by the satellite ROSATwhich provide the strongest evidence yet that as much as 90 per cent of the matter in the universe is invisiblewhose presence is indicated by its gravitational pull on matter in space. Astronomers have been searching for this invisible …
THE NEXT time you board a bus, don't make a beeline for a seat in the front and avoid the rear seats like the plague. They are the least comfortable. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Bombay say the seats in front, including the driver's seat, and …
MINISTER of state for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam's announcement of the formation of a body to select and finance industrially useful projects is caught in a contention over its funding and scope. Hectic meetings are under way in New Delhi's Technology Bhawan to finalise the shape of the …
INSPIRED by the human sense of touch, robotics engineers are trying to build a mechanical hand that can feel, grab and manipulate objects just like the human hand. Ultimately, engineers trying to design sensitive robotic hands picture their research coming full circle to biology -- by restoring tactile sensibility to …
SOCIAL insects such as ants, bees, wasps and termites fascinate us. Few, however, believe we have direct lessons to learn from social insects. Much like our fascination for a tribal society, it's more a question of wanitng to know how they do things. Our curiosity about social insects relates to …
The dons of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have devised a way to get around cuts imposed by the University Grants Commission's in fund allocations that threaten teaching and research programmes in several of the country's universities and colleges. After six months of negotiations, senior economics professors at JNU struck a …
The full moon is said to drive people loony. Now, a scientist says the sun makes them murderous. V S Venkatavardhan, director of the Nehru Planetarium in Bombay, asserts major disturbances on earth occur during solar flares, which are increased eruptions of nuclear protons, electron particles and gamma rays oii …
