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 …
At the height of the dropsy scare, Lucknow-based Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (itrc) came up with a unique device to check for adulteration in mustard oil. Called the colour-detection strip (cd strip), it was promptly placed in the market at a nominal 50 paise with expectations of a deluge of …
organic farming method uses land far more efficiently and with less environmental impact than conventional farming methods, shows a 21-year study. Unlike conventional farming, organic farming uses no synthetic fertilisers or pesticides. Because of this, organic crop yield is little less. The study conducted by scientists from Switzerland-based Research Institute …
scientists have checked the bite of the mosquito. They have successfully inserted into the anopheles mosquitoes an artificial gene that renders the insects incapable of transmitting the malaria parasite. Preliminary findings of this experiment, conducted by researchers from the Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University, suggest that such genetically engineered mosquitoes …
scientists have recently discovered the 22nd amino acid, the building blocks of proteins that carry out the functions of a living cell. This is a significant discovery that would enable scientists to manipulate the human genetic code to make proteins to speed chemical reactions. The amino acid was discovered by …
in a valiant attempt to reduce inequalities in healthcare between rich and poor nations, the World Health Organisation (who) has suggested a strategy to help developing countries benefit from new discoveries in genetic research. The suggestions were made in a recently released who report called Genomics and World Health. The …
a severe heat wave swept across the southern, central and northern parts of India in May. More than 1,100 people are said to have succumbed to the scorcher. In Andhra Pradesh, the unusually intense and prolonged heat claimed more than 1,000 lives. This prompted state chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to …
for the first time, one type of human cells have been turned into another kind. Conventional scientific wisdom states that once a skin cell, always a skin cell. But researchers at the University of Oslo, Norway, have recently proved this wrong. The scientists used chemicals found in the body to
scientists have recently made a drastic downward revision of the number of insect species they believe the Earth contains. Instead of about 30-million-plus species previously estimated, the researchers say there are probably no more than four to six million insect groups. The new estimate stems from a six-year comprehensive study …
Insect Discovery An insect never heard before, has been seen. Researchers have identified a new order of insects in Namibia. With this discovery the total number of insect orders have come to 31. Scientists have named this predatory insect Mantophasmatodea, an animal originally found in a 45-million year old piece …
Scientists from the US-based Princeton University have developed biosensors that can provide electrical measurements for individual living cells. The cells pass through a small fluid chamber in between two electrodes and in the process change the capacitance of the biosensors. The development could provide researchers with valuable aid in identifying …
The world wide web has a huge resource of information available to tap. But precisely because of its size, it is also extremely hard to search for the relevant information. Now scientists have found that the web spontaneously organises itself into communities and a new search algorithm could speed up …
FROM Jawaharlal Nehru's evocative 'temples of modern India' dedication to the grotesque jubilation following Pokhran II, science has always played an important role in the way independent India has defined itself: a nation recognised not for its snake charmers but for its intercontinental missiles. Even during colonial times, science played …
Most people go about their lives unaware of the world of rats and the ingenious ways of this common rodent. Not Ishwar Prakash, principal investigator, desert regional station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur. Prakash is, in fact, one of the few rat experts in the country. Every detail he collected …
A team of British scientists analysed what has generally been accepted as the world's oldest fossils of bacteria, embedded in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks from western Australia, and they concluded that the rocks had never been more than non-living rocks. "None of the structures we see there we would interpret as fossils,' …
the use of adult stem cells to develop new transplant therapies might not prove to be very viable, indicate two recent studies. The medical world has for long been hopeful that stem cells
An international team of scientists plumbing the bubblingblack depths of a geothermal hot spring in usahave discovered an unique community of microbes that thrive without sunlight or oxygen. The one-celled organismsknown as Archaeagrow by consuming hydrogen that is produced by hot water reacting with bedrock. The creatures produce tiny amounts …
imagine a window pane repairing its own cracks! No, this is not science fiction. It can actually happen as has been shown recently by a team of scientists, who have developed a plastic which can heal itself when heated and cooled. Plastics that can heal themselves are not new. They …
in 1989, a couple of scientists in a small university created headlines by demonstrating a simple chemical reaction that led to cold fusion of nuclei. However, the claim was later found to be false and the whole incident remains a sad example of shoddy science. But now, another group of …
Rates of forest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon have accelerated over the last decade, according to a latest research done by a team of Brazilian and US scientists. The team analysed deforestation estimates produced by Brazil's National Space Agency that were based on detailed satellite images of the Amazon since …
for the past many years, Japan has come up with frivolous reasons for killing hundreds of whales: the mammals may be eating commercially important quantities of fish, therefore, it is important to identify the contents of their diet. Now, Australian and us scientists have developed a method that will challenge …
