Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse the trend, providing a service worth $43billion in storing carbon, the academics found. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that …
CORAL reefs in various parts of the world are getting bleached and scientists are debating whether this is an early warning of global warming, or simply a local warming of sea waters. Tom Goreau of the Global Reef Alliance says bleaching results from "expulsion by the coral of their symbiotic …
A GOOD night's sleep does wonders -- but not because it rests the tired brain as it has been proved that sleep is yet another form of mental activity. Scientists still have to identify the basic brain mechanism that brings about sleep and wakefulness or the real function of sleep, …
BELIEVE it or not, water that most people take for granted, is the most researched of liquids and scientists are still trying to determine why it is so fluid and why it has the extraordinary capacity of absorbing heat as its temperature rises. The answer probably lies in water's molecular …
INDIAN scientists find lichens can be used to monitor urban pollution levels. Lichens are disappearing within the core zone of the highly industrialised Haldia township in West Bengal, due to increasing air pollution. (Pollution Research, Vol 11, No 1). Sensitivity of lichens - essentially symbiotic associations of fungi and algae, …
SCIENTISTS at the School of Marine Sciences in Cochin have discovered that shells of some molluscs, such as two-shelled clams, which store trace metals in their shells and tissues, are good biological indicators of water pollution levels. Detailed investigations on accumulation of trace metals in the clam Villorita cyprinoides, found …
Lichens as pollution monitors Pollution Zone I Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Beacidia convexula Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecanactis premnea Arthania antillarum Catilaria indica Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida …
Environment ministry guidelines state that many of the adverse impacts of thermal plants can be foreseen and minimised through judicious siting, preventive and control measures and effective environmental management. The ministry has been trying to impose very strict emission controls and other standards to mitigate the environmental problems of power …
JOHN BURDON Sanderson Haldane, who was born November 5, 1892, is remembered today mainly for developing a quantitative theory of evolution. He was also a superb populariser of science, a strong believer in rationality and a Marxist. Exuberantly boyish in many ways, he was also kind and gentle. When Haldane …
SOUND waves can be used to measure factory emissions, say scientists at the Open University in UK. Pollution monitoring systems using light waves are often inadequate and direct sampling of air emissions is time-consuming as well as expensive, specially for smaller firms who need to monitor their own pollution levels …
THE TECHNOLOGY for manufacturing carbon fibre reinforced composites -- state-of-the-art materials used in making products as diverse as missiles, spaceships, top-quality sports goods, and prosthetics -- have long been the monopoly of the industrialised nations. But not any longer, for National Physical Laboratory (NPL) scientists have indigenously developed the technology …
INDIAN scientists rank among the 10 most prolific producers of scientific papers in the world; yet their research is among the least cited in international scientific and technological literature. This dismal finding is contained in a paper published in the Journal of Industrial and Scientific Research (Vol 51, No 2) …
WHEN YEAST'S chromosome III became the first chromosome to have its DNA described fully, a big surprise lay in store for scientists: They stumbled upon a wealth of genes whose functions are completely unknown. "All of a sudden we learn there is a whole class of genes, more than half …
Researchers at the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow have successfully used a crude extract from the plant baruri (Crataeva nurvala) to dissolve stones in bladder and kidney. G K Patnaik of CDRI's Centre for Advanced Pharmacological Research on Traditional Remedies says lupeol can be extracted from baruri and used …
Only one per cent of the world's bacteria -- those that can be cultured in the lab -- are known, but molecular techniques pioneered by the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) in Britain will enable researchers to identify and classify bacteria into reliable genetic groupings. This will provide a …
THE NATIONAL Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, has prepared terminology for their science in eight Indian languages. About 400 terms have been selected and their equivalents prepared in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. The aim of this exercise is to facilitate communication between people speaking the same …
THOUGH no commitments have as yet been made by industrialised countries to reduce &rbon; emissions, car manufacturers in the West are already gearing themselves up for renewable and cleaner technologies in the near future. The European Community is pushing for stabilisation of carbon emissions by the year 2000. In Germany, …
• Pesticides manufacturer Monsanto is testing genetically-engineered cotton resistant to the deadly bellworm. The cotton contains genes from a natural ly-occurri ng bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis which kills the bollworm. • Hundreds of wind turbines produced by the Japanese corporation, Mitsubishi, are now being used on one of the largest …
THIS YEAR, US President George Bush announced that US $1.4 billion is to be made available in 1993 to the US Global Change Research Programme (USGCRP), which will lead to a massive increase in humankind's understanding of the earth's atomosphere. As a part of the programme, a network of remote …
WHAT DIRECTIONS are science and technology going to take now that UNCED has put environment on the political agenda? Though they were not very much in the spotlight, many scientists were present in Rio to stress that while the development of science and technology has been held responsible for the …
Global warming, but so what? The data on its impact is still uncertain and contradictory. USA's Environment Protection Agency commissioned a study which involved 50 scientists from around the world for three years. The scientists found that the total cereal production by 2060 could be 1 per cent to 7 …
