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 …
• 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 …
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 …
EVE MAY not have been the mother of the human race after all. Molecular biologists have been arguing that the genetic components of human beings indicate that all family trees lead back to a single African woman, nicknamed Eve, who lived about 200,000 years ago. But there is a school …
WHAT IS common between Rajasthan's deserts and quality paper? The National Chemical Laboratory has isolated an enzyme from a micro-organism found in the Haldighat region of the state. This chemical breaks down a component of paper pulp, hemicullulose, which lowers the quality of paper. But the enzyme leaves the cellulose, …
THERE IS A missing link that keeps the work of our scientists very insulated. It keeps their work from reaching potential beneficiaries. These are educated people who ought to know. They visit Delhi regularly from areas where such work could be of use but are totally unaware of what is …
DIAMONDS may be forever, but the dinosaurs of yore must have wished it otherwise. The glittering jewel is now being held responsible for their extinction. Canadian scientist David Brez Carlisle feels that dinosaurs perished in a storm of diamonds from outer space. This adds a now dimension to the traditional …
"IF the HIV virus spreads through the general population in India, it will be through blood and not, sexual transmission." says P N Talwar, director of the National Institute of Immunology. However, according to the new strategy document of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Global Programme on AIDS (GPA), while …
AN octopus can learn tasks simply by watching other octopuses at work. This observation has surprised researchers who believed such mental capacities to be the sale preserve of higher vertebrates like mammals. The octopus belongs to the family of molluscs which are invertebrate. Research on Octopus vulgarid, the common octopus …
MERCK and Co's "hair raising" research involves Proscar, its experimental prostate shrinking drug, which holds out a promise of greening the bald heads of men. Scientists believe Proscar might grow hair by blocking the formation of the male hormone dihydrotestosterone. People born with reduced levels of this hormone are rarely …
THIS was one storm that the meteorologists couldn't predict. When Vasant Gowariker, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, and a team of meteorologists from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), announced in early April that the coming monsoon will be on the lower side of normal, the prediction drew a great …
EL Nino refers to the warm current that flows southward along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, between January and March, which marks the end of the local fishing season when the sea temperature falls. Some years, however, the temperature continues to remain high. This anomaly, which occurs every two …
THE Indian silkworm is likely to become rather superior - once scientists at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore are successful in their application of a method developed recently by them in isolating and transferring specific genes. The low-yielding but sturdy Bombyx mori (mulberry silk-worm) will remain sturdy, of …
A trick that Nature rarely performs is homeosis - the substitution of one body part by another. A team of zoologists at Utkal University, led by Prof Priyambada Mohanty-Hejmadi, became part of one such display when they discovered that even vertebrates can exhibit homeosis, which earlier was thought to be …
Honey bee THIS honeycomb is at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. The worker bee is Anil Gupta, a professor at the institute who specialises in socio-ecological studies of communities living in dry areas. His product is a publication called Honey Bee: an informal newsletter for documentation and experimentation …
FOR the first time ever humans have grabbed a peep-hole into the birth of the universe about 15 billion years ago. Since the Big Bang theory was first mooted in 1964, scientists have found it difficult to explain how the universe acquired its lumpy character, that is, its stars, planets …
@sunitanar Why this weird weather? Why have western disturbances—the extra-tropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas—been lashing us again and again, with devastating impacts on agriculture? Is this normal? Or has weird weather become the new definition of normal? The India Meteorological Department says the severe and …
The ICFAE 2014: International Conference on Food and Agricultural Engineering aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Food and Agricultural Engineering. It also provides the premier interdisciplinary forum for researchers, practitioners and educators …
Hosted and organized by the Hong Kong Climate Change Forum (HKCCF), this conference will be an important platform focusing on urban climate impacts, adaptation and resilience options. It will bring together distinguished scientists, policy makers, business leaders, climate experts and their Asian counterparts to share approaches, best practice methods and …
