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 …
AFTER three decades of dogged research, biologists have discovered how the sea urchin, a relative of the starfish, mates. They now hope this will help them solve some fundamental problems in developmental and evolutionary biology. The sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), like its other marine cousins, jettisons its eggs into the …
Two non-resident Indian scientists, Shibu Basuthakur and Supriya Roy, have proposed a project that will enable sick people in West Bengal to be examined by doctors in the US via satellite. The duo have presented a Rs 33-crore proposal to the West Bengal government to establish a healthcare network in …
THE PASSAGE of genes from one generation to another is a matter of chance. A given gene from a parent has a 50 per cent chance of turning up in the offspring, said Gregor John Mendel, often called the father of genetics. But now a Russian team, headed by Sergei …
MALE HOMOSEXUALITY seems to run in the family and the trait is passed on by the mother, according to US researchers. Dean Hamer and his colleagues at the US National Cancer Institute interviewed 76 homosexuals and found 13.5 per cent of the brothers of these gay men were homosexual too. …
SCIENTISTS claim to have unveiled through a DNA analysis the mystery about the fate of Czar Nicholas II and his family in the wake of the Russian Revolution. A team of British and Russian forensic experts matched the DNA from blood samples provided by three living relatives of the Czar's …
A PROSPEROUS belly often signals an impoverished heart. Nowhere is this connection more pronounced than in the characteristic potbellies of Indians, which make them more vulnerable to coronary artery disease (CAD) than any other ethnic group in the world, say researchers. Warns cardiologist K Srinath Reddy of the All India …
AT A SMALL function in New Delhi in August, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) honoured six of its scientists who had obtained international patents for their inventions. Three scientists had patents registered in the US and the others in Europe. N R Subbaram, adviser to CSIR"s patents …
AS SCIENTISTS make smaller and faster computers, somewhere down the road they are bound to run into barriers erected by the laws of physics. For instance, the ability of modern computers to wipe out files puts a limit on their power efficiency because deleting material consumes energy. Therefore, no matter …
LESS THAN a week before he faced a no-confidence motion in Parliament in July, Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao found time to keep an appointment with 25 top scientists. The meeting, called at the instance of minister of state for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam, was ostensibly a …
MICROBES found in the Antarctic region may soon find application in several industries, especially breweries and bakeries, which will exploit the ability of these microorganisms to produce enzymes at low temperatures. Scientists at Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) found these microbes produce appreciable amounts of enzymes even …
Western scientists set the trends RAGHAVENDRA GADAGKAR TO BEGIN with, we must realise there is a lot that is right with it. Even without considering those Indian scientists working outside the country, a significant number of Indian scientists have individually excelled in their fields of research and are easily comparable …
STEVEN Spielberg's latest science fiction blockbuster, Jurassic Park, has already broken records at the box office. It is a thrilling tale of humans encountering dinosaurs. Though the film may take some time to reach India, last month, STAR Plus telecast an hour-long special programme on the making of Jurassic Park, …
WHEN FRENCH mathematician Pierre de Fermat died in 1655, he had not written down the proof of a theorem, "which this margin (of my notebook) is too small to contain". More than three centuries later, Andrew Wiles of Princeton University claims to have proved Fermat's Last Theorem. The theorem states …
SCIENTISTS have confirmed environmentalists' fears about the depletion of the ozone layer, by measuring a 50 per cent increase in the ultraviolet radiation striking Ushuaia in south Argentina. According to a report recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, the increase occurred in December 1990 when a piece of …
US SCIENTISTS are making the most elaborate efforts yet to detect gravitational waves, which are the distortions in the fabric of space and time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. These waves are produced during violent events in the universe, such as the collision of two neutron stars or …
PARASITIC flies that lay eggs in bumble-bees would not be so smug if they knew that the bees have a way of hitting back. Entomologists say parasitised bumble-bees render their abdomens inhospitable to fly larvae development by staying outdoors in the cold all night. Swiss researchers C B Muller and …
Israeli scientists claim to have devised a cheap way to generate electricity in deserts near the coast by using sea water. The method can also be modified to desalt sea water and use it for desert farming. The scientists say in this process, sea water is pumped to the top …
Two British consultants have developed an underwater pump that can irrigate riverside fields without using fuel or causing pollution. The prize-winning turbine is easy to construct and can work continuously (Ceres 141, Vol 26, No 3). Originally designed to harness the energy of the Nile to irrigate the desert areas …
WANT A healthy heart? Then eat a lot of walnuts. Just 28 grams of walnuts a day would be perfect, recommends a recent study that found the nuts to be an excellent source of heart-friendly fatty acids. And, to boot, walnuts do not contain any cholesterol (The Lancet, Vol 341, …
WHITE House sources indicate a department of labour (DOL) project to ease immigration rules for professionals in selected industries may be scrapped following objections that it would worsen the lot of unemployed Americans. A host of industry groups led by the American Federation of Labour-Confederation of Industrial Organisations -- the …
