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 …
EVERY child has been fed the story of Isaac Newton's discovery of universal gravitation. But what is not told is that this idea did not come to Newton as a flash of insight. Treating the discovery as just a bright idea vulgarises the creativity of a great scientist and philosopher, …
SINCE Independence, India's prime minister has delivered the inaugural address at the annual session of the Indian Science Congress (ISC). In recent years, a regrettable trend has been the tendency of the gathered scientists to forget this speech. The 81st session of the ISC, held in Jaipur from in January, …
Remember how Hansel and Gretel followed a trail of bread crumbs back home? Australian scientists have engineered an industrial robot that spits out camphor, which it can later detect and follow. The robot, developed by researchers at Griffith University in Brisbane and Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, can either follow …
"Colour without dyes" is the aim of Indian plant breeders, who have been trying to develop cotton coloured by nature itself. "Our labs have the germplasm of many types of coloured cotton and scientists are trying to develop stable colours," said S S Narayanan of the Central Institute of Cotton …
WHEN PETER Sutherland lowered the gavel in Geneva on December 15 to signify the end of the Uruguay round of negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the reaction in India was sharply divided. While an enraged opposition charged the "economic sovereignty of the country had been …
IF YOU are reluctant to leave bed on a dark, winter morning, stay right in there. People who wake up early in winters might be cutting short their required sleep, inviting unforeseen health problems (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1899). Researchers say the natural sleeping patterns of humans are strikingly …
If there is one thing a mouse cannot stand, it is the smell of other mice. Male mice with high levels of testosterone -- a male sex hormone -- mark their territories by secreting an oil in their urine, which scares off other mice. Scientists at Indiana University in the …
Socialist economist Ignacy Sachs of the Centre de Recherches Sur le Bresil Contemporain ***(translation) in Paris has severely criticised current Indian development policies. Addressing scientists at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) in Delhi on November 25, he said, "The present policies seek to cater to …
With the demise of Sunil K Roy, often described as "a soldier, diplomat, administrator and environmentalist, all in one", environment has lost one of its best friends. Starting his career in the army and later, the foreign service, Roy was appointed director general of tourism by former prime minister Indira …
• WITH WESTERN governments trying to cut health-care costs and consequently, the pharmaceuticals market becoming more competitive, many companies including Glaxo are keen to move into untapped markets. Glaxo chief executive Richard Sykes insists that to be successful, the company must develop "innovative medicines". "Every week, 3,000 genes are being …
SCIENTISTS at the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) say a healthy diet rich in spinach and other leafy green vegetables offers protection against cancer of the mouth. Their studies also show that certain vitamins and minerals taken regularly can retard the development of malignant oral cancers. The team of …
SOME 1,000 dinosaur eggs found in China have become a bone of contention between scientists and commercial collectors (Science, Vol 261, No 5122). Scientists covet these beautiful and undamaged eggs because they could provide an insight into the Cretaceous period (140-65 million years ago) when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But …
TURMERIC -- the age-old panacea for headaches, pimples and fractured limbs -- could also keep cancer away, say scientists at the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition. Kamala Krishnaswamy and her colleagues have recently reported that curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric (Curcuma longa), which is known to have an anti-cancer …
NEW RULES for approving experiments with altered genes will slash the red tape that British scientists claim obstructs research (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1895). A report by the British parliament's science and technology committee says British and European laws governing genetically altered organisms are "excessively precautionary", "obsolescent" and "unscientific" …
JAPANESE scientists have turned raw sewage into a a protein-rich creation that resembles beef in texture and hope to make it also taste and smell like beef. Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a member of the team, said: "We wanted to show that what comes out of the body can be recycled to …
Elders of the Navajo tribe still recount the legend of how the Bear, a great medicine being (What on earth does this mean?), instructed them to use a forest root for treating parasites, stomach problems and infections. There is now growing scientific evidence that this and other legends are based …
JUTE could find exciting new applications as an environmentally friendly raw material in paper-making, contend experts, even though it is being increasingly sidelined by synthetic fibres in the making of Hessian sacks. Scientists at the Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute (CPPRI) in Saharanpur, have found jute pulp to be …
ARSENIC pollution of groundwater in West Bengal is reportedly threatening 13 border districts in Bangladesh as well. Some people are said to have died because of the pollution in West Bengal, says a Panos report. Bangladesh scientists have found arsenic in water samples collected from the bordering districts, adds the …
THE NEXT electronics revolution may be round the corner. A group of scientists at the Delhi-based Solid State Physics Laboratory (SPL) claims to have produced a diode made of silicon, which will make tomorrow's supercomputers smaller and faster. "I think we are the first in the world to make a …
DINOSAURS in Stephen Spielberg's Jurassic Park may look authentic, but the sounds they make would not have been uttered by their long-dead ancestors. The best they could do was sound like a foghorn, says Matsumi Suzuki, director of Tokyo's Institute of Sound, who combined the sciences of palaeontology and acoustic …
