The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since …
A polymer coating designed to protect electronic components like microchips has been developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research, Germany. The film -which is about 100 nanometres thick -is produced by electrodeposition in which the amino resins are broken down chemically by an electric current. The polymers are …
AIRSHIPS (dirigible powered balloons having a rigid elongated structure) are all set to take on the skies. The lighter- than-air craft is being manufactured by Zeppelin Luftschifftech1:1ik at Friedri- chshafenin southern Germany. During the '20s and '30s, airships were the fastest means of crossing the Atlantic - doing so in …
Two accidents at Germany's largest chemical group, Hoechst AG, in the last week of January this year, has led to nearly one tonne of toxic powder escaping into the environment and another 1.5 tonne of an unnamed substance spilling into the Main River, near Frankfurt. The powder used to make …
Scientists working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Germany, have devised an 'intelligent window' which can automatically modulate the amount of sunlight entering a room. Just as sunglasses block light, the window's glass surface has a coating which is transparent at cool temperatures but becomes opaque when the …
ANGERED by the dangerous inflow of narcotics into Germany due to lopsided policies of the Netherlands government, the Germans have demanded a change in the Dutch drug policy in no uncertain terms. Eduard Linter, a parliamentary secretary of state in the German interior ministry, said on January 4 that Germany …
Scientists at the Greesthacht research centre In Germany have devised a remote-controlled underwater robot. This robot, designed to work 1,000 metres below the sea level, is being programmed to detect crude oil deposits beneath the sea bed. In addition, it can carry out repairs, change electric couplings or activate valves …
A WORLD where your computer's mouse is rendered redundant and the keyboard relegated to the dustbin of history may sound like an H G Wells fantasia. But researchers from Tubingen University in south Germany could soon be turning this fiction into fact. "Most people can learn to control computers by …
Two brothers from Hamburg, Germany, have invented a new type of pedal scooter. This new innovation on two wheels is not a replacement for the normal scooter, but a complement (Design Review, Vol 4, Issue 15). The 'Shuttle' (as it is called) is portable and once it folds up, it …
Electronic immobilisers have been highly successful in cutting down car thefts. But security experts fear that skilled thieves could 'crack' an immobiliser if the code sent to the engine control were intercepted by a hidden receiver. Siemens in Germany is using cryptography to make immobilisers even more secure. A microchip …
EARUER this year, the German multinational, Hoechst, found itself the target of a fierce confrontation, the battle lines being drawn between the greens and the scientific community. All that the company wanted to achieve was to test *a effectiveness of a new weed killer, but instead had to face the …
'Smart' solar panels have fina been developed by researchers of Albert Ludwigs University, Freibi and Fraunhofer Institute for So Energy Systems, Lauenforde, bw in Germany. The material used - polymer blend of polypropyh oxide and a copolymer containi styrene and 2-hydroxyethyl met] crylate - allows the solar panels change from …
GERMANY will build its nuclear research reactor at Munich's technical university even if it has to risk brickbats from the rest Of the world community. The us is particularly perturbed about this obstinacy: it fears that the new reactor, which will use highly enriched, capons-grade uranium, will encourage nuclear proliferation. …
EVEN while the Berlin Summit on climate Change was in progress, 20 European companies, under the aegis of the European Business Council for a sustainable Energy Future, have forged alliance for "promoting technologies it fight global warming". The Council mctions as a sister concern of the Fear-old us group that …
AGRICULTURE ministers of the European Community (EC) member-nations seem extremely reluctant to go ahead with their proposed "green agenda" at the cost of offending the farming population. At the 2-day farm council meeting at Luxembourg, they put off the decision to implement rate changes in the green currency system, agreeing …
GERMAN researchers have developed a tiny reversible pump which allows through just 50 nanolitres of liquid, equivalent to 1/1,000th of a drop of water. The micropump was designed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute based in Munich for Solid State Technology. The pump consists of 4 silicon chips superimposed on …
BERLIN, almost 3 years after the Earth Summit at Rio. Once again, a storm buffets the I I day-long Climate Summit held here from March 28 to April 7. The issue is whether the threat - that there is a threat is undeniable - of a possible global climate change …
AFTER a gap of 4 uneventful years, the Greens have emerged as a strong force in the German parliament bagging 7.3 per cent of the vote. "We can remove the current government if necessary. I don't exclude its collapse during the next 4 years," said the jubilant co-leader of the …
Tourism is dealing a body blow to the Maldivian government's waste management, as it leads to piling up of garbage every year. LTU, a Germah airline, has offered help in an innovative way. As passengers arrive in the Maldives, it issues them 30 litre garbage bags. The waste that the …
The European Court of Justice has rejected Germany's complaint about the European Community's (ec) banana import rules. Germany, the largest importer of bananas, favours the Latin American variety and its grouse is that the ec regime prefers producers in Europe and its former colonies over Latin America. Until recently, Germany …
A piece of good news for those who cannot give up smoking -- take a lot of vitamin C and you could avert heart and lung diseases caused by cigarette smoke (Nature, Vol 370, No 6489). A team of German and US scientists successfully tested the hypothesis on hamsters exposed …
