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 …
The Western world has come a long way in its drive to reduce air pollution from vehicles. Just over a decade back, the focus was on total suspended particulate matter (which includes natural dust too) and the black smoke vehicles emitted. Epidemiological evidence made governments shift the focus to respirable …
Research on nanoparticle emissions from vehicles is still in the academic domain. This is largely because the uncertainty over formation of nanoparticles and their measurement methods. As a spillover, regulatory mechanisms are not yet able to take into account this new science. They still use mass of emitted particles
Improved engine technology and fuel quality has thus created a new debate. “Ironically, particle control regulations may have made the situation worse,” points out Wexler, referring to increased nanoparticle emissions. Andreas Mayer, an engineering consultant based in Switzerland, does not quite agree. “Engine development does reduce the number of the …
india, which entirely depends on import to meet its requirement of two million tonnes of the potassic fertiliser, has taken the first step towards manufacturing the vital plant nutrient. The Bhavnagar-based Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (csmcri) has developed a technology to produce potash from seawater. Though seawater …
previous estimates of the neutron rays that Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors were exposed to are accurate. This was revealed during a study conducted by a team of scientists from the us and Germany. The research will help end a long-standing controversy on whether the existing standards to estimate risk for …
How important is it for a laboratory to go for accreditation? Accreditation is extremely essential as it is a question of standardisation. Standards for labs were set as late as December 1999. Before, there were only guidelines. The present iso 17025 addresses technical competency; training requirements; equipment maintenance; calibration traceability …
The Martian North Pole is honeycombed with frozen water. These are the findings of a us-Russian team of scientists, who recently analysed data of the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, two nasa satellites. The discovery is good news for those who believe life might have been present on Mars …
easy rabies cure: Tobacco plants have been genetically modified to produce proteins used to combat the rabies virus. Till now, the only way to fight the virus was to use antibodies derived from either horses or humans; but they are difficult to get. Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University, USA, …
Desolate, cold, inhospitable, relegated to the backyards of exploration and knowledge. Antarctica did not emerge from this unfortunate fate till less than 100 years ago, before which, whalers and seafarers were its only visitors. Cartographers barely acknowledged its presence (or chose to ignore it altogether). And the first explorations, which …
It is the earth's final frontier. Antarctica, a gigantic mass of ocean-encased rocky islands south of the Antarctic Circle, is the earth's southern-most continent. There is no place colder or drier. Stark but majestic, uncompromisingly bleak but alluring, 98 per cent of the continent's 14 million kilometres (km) is sheathed …
Clearly, a cat's waste is an otter's poison. Southern sea otters in their prime are dying in huge numbers off the California coast in the us due to a mysterious disease that marine biologists think can be linked to cat faeces in the sewage dumped into the ocean. Scientists at …
A 1996 expert group report on the Indian Antarctic programme says: "The programme has so far been working in complete isolation with no substantial element of international cooperation. While actual attempts are being made by various countries through the aegis of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) to join hands …
The official history of India's presence in the Antarctic begins from December 6, 1981, when the icebreaker M V Polar Circle steamed out of Goa with a 21-member team. But would it be true to say that the real history begins a decade ago, in 1971? This was the year …
On a hot June day in 1981 S Z Qasim, then environment secretary, reached out to answer a telephone. The caller was Indira Gandhi, the prime minister. The conversation was brief and to the point. "Can India reach Antarctica?' asked the prime minister. Qasim, who had only an academic knowledge …
Indian scientists have embarked on the final leg of an ambitious voyage to unravel the mysteries of the monsoon. The move assumes significance in the wake of predictions about the annual weather phenomenon going haywire during the past few years. About 100 oceanographers and atmospheric scientists from 25 Indian organisations …
the coast may not look like a sea of salt anymore. Instead, it may cradle plants that provide salt. Scientists from the Gujarat-based Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (csmcri) have figured out a way to obtain salt from Salicornia brachiata
Electronic display Scientists in the us have developed an ultra-thin electronic display that could well transform into an e-newspaper. The black and white display is constructed from steel foil and is less than 0.3 millimetres thick. It can be viewed from most angles and can be even be bent to …
A us federal judge has blocked scientists from carrying out trials of newly developed sonar on migrating grey whales. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scientific Solutions Inc. had planned the tests off the coast of central California during the whales' southward movement, but environmentalists protested. The us government argues …
