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 …
Shanghai scientists have found a gene that provides crops with a higher resistance to heat, offering a potential boon to farmers coping with reduced yields in the face of global warming. The discovery, made after 10 years of study by the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, a branch of …
NEW YORK – Scientists have finally figured out how the key gene tied to obesity makes people fat, a major discovery that could open the door to an entirely new approach to the problem beyond diet and exercise. The work solves a big mystery. Since 2007, researchers have known that …
Describing solar energy as the ultimate solution to India's energy problem, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called upon Indian scientists to work towards developing more efficient equipment which could revolutionise the entire sector. His remarks came during his interaction with 30 eminent scientists from top institutions of India …
Scientists in the US have found a way to take carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and make carbon nanofibres, a valuable manufacturing material. Their solar-powered system runs just a few volts of electricity through a vat full of a hot, molten salt; CO2 is absorbed and the nanofibres gradually …
State agriculture department has undertaken a 15-day publicity drive to raise awareness among farmers for cultivating plots that were damaged in floods. The department will spend around Rs.44 lakh for the initiative. This apart, it has also approached agricultural scientists for suggestions on alternative crops and farming techniques for cultivating …
It is an idea that every small child has had at some point. Instead of sending up rockets into space, why not simply build a huge lift. Now a Canadian firm has been granted a patent for a ‘space elevator’ which will shoot cargo 12.4 miles into the stratosphere from …
What kind of impulses might rush through climate scientists’ minds as they scroll through some of the gumph that gets written on climate change? Perhaps partaking of a violent act at the expense of a computer monitor after reading how they’re only carrying on this atmospheric physics hoax to maintain …
Scientists found DNA footprints of 78 disease-causing micro-organisms on notes. There are dozens of disease-causing micro-organisms travelling inside your wallet. A study by a group of scientists reached the conclusion after studying currency notes in denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 100, procured from markets in south Delhi. …
PUNE: A group of city scientists has discovered a new leaping frog species on the edge of the Netravali wildlife sanctuary in Goa. "The Netravali Leaping Frog (Indirana salelkari) is the 12th species in the Indirana genus, an interesting genus because it is entirely endemic to the Western Ghats. In …
There is an increased risk of a future major earthquake in an area that straddles the west of Nepal and India, scientists warn. New data has revealed that the devastating quake that hit Nepal in April did not release all of the stress that had built up underground, and has …
Weather experts at the Aryabhatt Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, today said global warming in the stratosphere of the earth had affected the atmosphere of the world in recent times as well as monsoon forecasting, due to symptoms of extreme event in general monsoon. “Despite the weather department …
A domestic sheep has given birth to a baby mouflon in a rare successful example of interspecies cloning, according to scientists in Iran. The wild Isfahan mouflon – or ovis orientalis isphahanica – was cloned by researchers at Iran’s Royan Institute, which is dedicated to reproductive biomedicine and stem cell …
Mankind may be responsible for something we long thought out of our control: the changing of the seasons, according to a new study by Chinese and Canadian scientists. For the first time, researchers have found evidence that man-made climate change has suppressed the natural fluctuation of seasonal temperatures in the …
A device commonly used to measure the methane that leaks from industrial sources may greatly underestimate those emissions, said an inventor of the technology that the device relies on. The claim, published Tuesday in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, suggests that the amount of escaped methane, a potent greenhouse gas, could …
The El Nino weather phenomenon, which has often disrupted rainfall in India, is further strengthening and likely to persist into early 2016, the Australia Bureau of Meteorology said in an update on Tuesday. However, meteorologists are hopeful of the emergence of a rain-boosting phenomenon - a positive Indian Ocean Dipole …
The well-managed conservation reserves may safeguard flora and fauna from many threats, but not from climate change, Australian scientists warned on Tuesday. Scientists from James Cook University in northern Queensland have discovered many tropical, mountaintop plants won't survive global warming, even under the best-case climate scenario. The Wet Tropics World …
PATIALA: Researchers at Thapar University, Patiala, claim to have found the key to producing eco-friendly polythene. Due to concerns over its environmental impact, state governments and municipalities across India have been forced to ban use of polythene bags. This may change as the new polythene would be biodegradable, the group …
When it comes to vaccinating their babies, bees don't have a choice - they naturally immunise their offspring against specific diseases found in their environments, scientists say. Researchers from Arizona State University, University of Helsinki, University of Jyvaskyla and Norwegian University of Life Sciences studied a bee blood protein called …
A carbon sink may be located beneath the world's deserts. Scientists have found that massive aquifers underneath deserts could hold more carbon than all of the plants on land. Greenhouse gases are continuing to rise as more carbon dioxide is released through industrial processes and deforestation. About 40 percent of …
Years after the government imposed an indefinite moratorium on the commercial release of Bt Brinjal, genetically-modified for resistance to the fruit and shoot borer, a principal scientist of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, puts forth a strong case for its commercial approval. “Debunking” the criticism surrounding …
