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 …
Need for an independent ethics body for India's science research has got stronger after a reputed science journal has recently withdrawn an Indian research study on cancer cells. On February 23, 2007, the Journal of Biological Chemistry called off a study by researchers from the Pune-based National Centre for Cell …
In 1999, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in the US faked crucial evidence linking power lines to cancer in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences and F E B S Letters. In 2002, claims by researchers at Bell Labs in the US on creation of …
indian scientists have developed the country's first infra-red probe to measure snow surface temperature. The probe, designed by the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (csio) in Chandigarh, assumes importance in the wake of growing criticism that India lacks state-of-the-art instruments to study the effects of climate change. This is the first …
The two-week long 30th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting concluded on May 11 in New Delhi. Among other resolutions, India's proposal to set up its third base station was accepted. U R Rao, chairman of the meeting, talks to Archita Bhatta on the resolutions and measures agreed upon to save Antarctica's …
the Supreme Court has permitted conditional field trials of genetically modified (gm) crops approved by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) in 2006. The anti-gm lobby in India, however, says it is not possible to implement the conditions. But the government says that biosafety protocols will be firmly adhered to …
robert goodland, an environmental scientist, has come out with a report on Canadian mining giant Alcan's involvement with the Utkal Alumina and Bauxite Project in Kashipur, Orissa. The report reveals series of human rights abuses on adivasis protesting the project. Alcan has now withdrawn from the project. In an interview …
on may 14, the government announced that an expert committee has been set up to study the impacts of climate change in India and identify measures to address the "vulnerability to anthropogenic climate change impact'. The committee comes at a time when India is under pressure from international ngos and …
Cambridge University has published the diaries of Emma Wedgewood Darwin, the wife of eminent evolutionist Charles Darwin. The diaries documenting Darwins' six decades of family life add to an online collection of Darwin's works, journals, field notes and images. Emma's notes add a different aspect of Darwin's life. "Across decades …
Nine months ago, India's big power ambitions suffered a setback. The 3,000-km range Agni-3, launched for the first time last July from Wheeler Island off Orissa coast, fell into the Bay of Bengal. The then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee looked at it positively. "Partial success," he called it. "The first …
The us Congress is finally taking climate change seriously, with the Democrats, who are in control, reversing the existing policy of denial. The change has galvanised environmental groups. Business groups, including large corporations, have joined hands with bodies like the Natural Resource Defense Council, Environmental Defense, World Resources Institute and …
The Union ministry of science and technology (most) has circulated the draft of a bill on intellectual property rights that seeks to give government-funded universities and research institutions the power to patent innovations. This power was vested with the union government. Though, most claims it will give benefit-sharing access to …
a group of Asian scientists has framed a new plan to set up a comprehensive system to approach the study of changing monsoon patterns in Asia. A piecemeal approach towards the subject so far has led scientists to take this step. The plan, called mairs (Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Studies), …
Paul J Crutzen received the 1995 Chemistry Nobel prize for showing that nitrogen oxides react catalytically with ozone, thus accelerating the rate of reduction of the atmospheric ozone content. His findings have triggered off much research on biogeochemical cycles like the carbon and nitrogen cycle. But he tells Archita Bhatta …
>> Abul Hussam, a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, was awarded the Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The Bangladesh-born US citizen was awarded by the Lake-Forest, USA-based Grainger Foundation for his work on a filtration system that prevents serious health problems caused by arsenic in water. >> …
The media is often accused of hyping research to attract interest. But many distortions and misunderstandings arise because scientists themselves fail to communicate results in a meaningful way. Now a new set of guidelines designed to help scientists communicate effectively with the media has been drawn up. The guidelines were …
