This white paper examines the current challenges for clean energy infrastructure and identifies solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can jointly explore in order to accelerate its deployment. Thirteen new industrial clusters from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, …
BRITAIN'S voluntary bodies should be stripped of their charitable status, says Voluntary Action, a report published by the home office of the UK. The report, which is a comprehensive review of 1,200 organisations and hundreds of local groups in 14 different communities covering one million people, recommends that tax concessions …
A PLAN to reward UK farmers switching to organic methods has been criticised for not recognising those already practising organic farming. Under the five-year scheme, the government will pay British farmers who convert to organic methods $104.16 a hectare initially, reducing this to $37.2 a hectare in the last year. …
UNLEADED petrol is being touted as a green fuel. But it does more harm than good if vehicles using it do not have catalytic converters to render the exhaust gases safe, according to Roger Perry, professor of environmental control at the Imperial College in London (New Scientist, Vol 140, No …
The Union government's department of science and technology (DST) and the Madras-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) held a show to demonstrate the country's skills and capabilities in leather processing technologies. The planned highlight was a 9-hour satellite-linked, video conference of leather producers and technologists from India, the United States, …
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" …
ONE EXPECTS doctors to refrain from overdosing the patient. But do they really do that? Apparently not, as is evidenced by experiences in some European countries such as France and Italy. The governments of these nations are spending twice as much on medicines per capita than others without any significant …
BRAVO! No more burning bottoms. The next time you park your car in the sun, you needn't gingerly test the hot seat before getting in. Thanks to a new aerosol spray, which contains no ozone-destroying CFCs or alcohol, you can instantly cool off sun-baked vehicles, small spaces and even your …
BRITAIN'S environment secretary John Gummer is determined to limit the development of super stores, to protect declining town centres. Gummer's department issued guidelines that strengthen the position of local authorities resisting applications for super stores. The revised notes for local authority planners place greater emphasis on the need to maintain …
A TIMES poll showed 92 per cent of British citizens opposed the two-stage imposition of a value-added tax on domestic fuel and heating. Unperturbed by these figures, British chancellor Kenneth Clarke said in a television interview, that they must go ahead to help bring down the L50 billion borrowing requirement. …
* PATENT wars are heating up. British drug manufacturer Glaxo has won one patents case against a Canadian manufacturer, but faces a second against another. Both claim Glaxo's products -- stable and unstable forms of Zantac -- are not different enough to justify different patents. Zantac is the world's best-selling …
THIS YEAR'S Nobel prize -- worth $825,000 -- for physiology and medicine has been awarded jointly to UK's Richard Roberts and USA's Phillip Sharp for their 1977 discovery of "split genes". The discovery took everybody by surprise because till then, the gene had been thought indivisible. The two scientists made …
THOUGHT the dodo was a lumbering, fat bird? You might be mistaken, says Andrew Kitchner, curator at the Royal Museum of Scotland, who has discovered that early illustrations of the dodo, which became extinct in the 17th century, reveal a distinctly thin bird, while later drawings showed the more familiar …
Tissue from the gut transplanted into the brain could help repair nerve and brain disorders, and halt the slow degeneration seen in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, says Geoffrey Burnstock of the University College of London (New Scientist, Vol 139, No 1890). Burnstock's work focusses on the 100 million nerve cells …
A CONTROVERSY is raging in the UK about the setting up of windmills in the countryside. Some conservationists contend they spoil the landscape and are uneconomic, while others refute these allegations and say windmills are the cleanest source of energy. The debate heated up when British environment minister John Gummer …
Three years ago, an Orissa engineer's claims to have solved Fermat's Last Theorem was ignored by the state government. However, news that Andrew Wiles of the US has solved the long-standing puzzle has now prompted the state government to sponsor the engineer's trip to England to present his finding to …
AUDIO compact discs (CDs) were only half the story. Electronic entertainment manufacturers are now getting ready to flood the market with high-resolution video CDs that can be played on an audio CD player by simply attaching an adaptor. They are also planning to launch video recorders that can record digital …
DOES A hare flee when it spots a fox? Interestingly, no. Instead, it stands upright and signals its presence by flashing its ventral fur. As a brown hare can run much faster, once the fox knows it has been spotted, it desists from chasing the hare, thereby saving a lot …
PEOPLE with strong body odour may probably be carrying a faulty gene, according to researchers from London's St Mary's Hospital Medical School. The researchers say they are close to nailing the gene defect because of which the carriers cannot process a chemical called trimethylamine, a product of digestion that smells …
AFTER being called "a little squit" and "an inconsequential little creep", British environment minister John Gummer now has a new insult to add to his list of 'Names the World Called Me'. At an election rally in Norway, Norwegian environment minister Thorbjoern Berntsen, angry because Gummer was "insolent to Norway" …
The powers of local government in the UK derive from acts of Parliament -- not from the Constitution -- and can be amended to suit the wishes of the central government. The future of local government at the district (borough) and county levels is currently under review. The ruling Conservatives …
