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 …
A REPORT sponsored by the department of science and technology (DST), called Profile and Productivity of Academic Science in India, gives policymakers a clear window into research by the scientific community. The report, which was finalised in late March and had been stretched out over 3 years, covered 1,075 academics …
BELOW a few shimmering points of achievements, the underside of Indian science is a vast abyss of failure and frustration. The contours of the 7th largest pool of scientifically trained personnel in the world are largely unmapped, simply because any social cartographer's exploration into this field makes for a gloomy …
ANJU Sharma's reply to my letter (Down To Earth, November 15, 1994) is replete with misinterpretations, incomplete understanding and, in at least one instance, a downright falsehood. Nowhere do I state that all elephants in a population would regularly raid crops. I have recognised that only some among the males …
What do you hope to achieve by patenting the protein gene extracted from Amaranthus or Ramdana? Cereals like rice and wheat are an important protein source. However, they are not nutritionally very efficient as they have very low concentrations of several essential amino acids, like tryptophan and lysine. Legumes like …
THE world lost a champion animal lover when Gerald Malcolm Durrell passed away on January 30, 1995. His collection of rare wild animals was recognised as the first of the new breed of conservation zoos, committed right from the start to the captive breeding of endangered species. He will always …
CYRIL Ponnamperuma, a luminary in the field of science and technology, spent most of his life delving into the mysteries of Earth's past. When he died in Washington on December 20, 1994, at the age of 71, the world lost a rare scientist: one who believed in the ability of …
FOR the scientists working with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's premier research and development organisation, August was a month of discontent, unionism in labcoats. From August 22 to 26, CSIR's scientists observed a symbolic protest week by wearing black badges to push their demands, mainly concerning …
The agitation There was no agitation. It was a creation of the media. They (SWA) claimed over 20,000 people participated, whereas not a single person agitated. No one abandoned work or caused any hindrance and very few wore black badges. But it hurts the cause of the CSIR because industry …
THE much-publicised winds of change supposedly sweeping through the official corridors in India seem to have passed by its scientific institutions. The latest evidence of this comes from the turmoil that has enveloped the country's premier government research institution, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This behemoth, with …
LINUS C Pauling, the only man to have won the Nobel Prize twice, both times unshared, died on August 22, 6 years short of a century. Pauling won his first Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954 for his brilliant insight into the nature of the chemical bond that glues atoms …
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin is dead. Just for the record, Hodgkin was Britain's only surviving woman Nobel laureate till arthritis claimed her on July 31 at the age of 84. One of brightest crystallographers of her time, Hodgkin earned renown for unravelling the molecular structure of penicillin, insulin and vitamin B12. …
THOUGH superconductivity research began with ductile metals -- those capable of being drawn into wires -- 8 years ago, they were sidelined by ceramic concoctions (also known as oxides) of elements like copper, nickel and barium, which could superconduct -- allow the free flow of electricity, without the loss of …
Most biographical dictionaries are inevitably born obese and tend to grow fatter with every edition. But this established reference work is comfortably lightweight, even in its 4th reincarnation. The most noticeable change from the third edition, which has been out of print for several years now, is the inclusion of …
PERHAPS the most interesting aspect of the speculation in the press about A P J Abdul Kalam Khan's continued association with India's missile development programme was the relatively high degree of public interest evoked by it. Other contemporary gossip about the country's scientific establishment had no such popular appeal. Almost …
Operators of X-ray machines and patients in India may be vulnerable to unnecessary radiation overexposure. This was revealed by A Gopalakrishnan, chairperson of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), at the 47th Congress of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association in Kochi recently. According to an AERB study of 750 …
THE BATTLE of wits between the hunter and the hunted calls for increasingly ingenious strategies on the part of each. Recently, two Danish scientists reported that certain species of fish may be evolving the ability to detect sonars -- high-frequency sound signals -- used by whales, dolphins and humans alike …
AFTER designer clothes and designer food, will designer babies be next? Are you a black who wants a white baby or a 65-year-old woman who wants to conceive? No problem, except that of ethics. Made-to-order babies are now possible with the rapid development of assisted reproductive technologies (See box). Till …
High-temperature gas bubbles that dance and emit light have been developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, by passing ultrasound through water. These astounding light-emitting bubbles (LEBs) can eventually be applied for inducing ultrafast chemical reactions in liquids and initiating nuclear fusion. The LEBs are generated from distilled …
DID CHARLES Darwin see evolution as "progressive", as being singlemindedly directed toward producing ever more advanced forms of life? Most contemporary scholars say no. But in this daring challenge to prevailing views, Robert J Richards of the University of Chicago argues that current perspectives on Darwin and his theory are …
WHOEVER said scientists were boring obviously hasn't attended the annual session of the Indian Science Congress Association. The 81st session, held in Jaipur recently, dispelled any doubts that when 4,000 scientists decide to congregate, they are far from dull, never mind that much of the fun took place outside conference …
