Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
old galaxies huddled together in clusters have always been dismissed as the rest homes of the cosmos, but scientists have recently found that many of them have massive black holes that are busy gobbling gases. Black holes are celestial objects whose gravity is so great that nothing, not even light, …
lungs are immediately damaged when people are exposed to particulate matter, and after an hour of exposure even the heart function gets affected. These are the findings of a study carried out at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, usa. The researchers used rats to analyse the effects of particulate …
Picturesque Santa Monica, located in California and known for its palm tree-lined boulevards, has of late been dug up by ungainly drilling rigs. At one level, the intensive boring operations are seeking to trace potential carcinogen methyl tertiary butyl ether (mtbe) that has seeped from underground petrol storage tanks into …
The Brookhaven National Laboratory, usa, is getting new equipment to conduct its latest research. Nothing highbrow though, it is just a garbage truck. The laboratory is going to use vegetable oil in the truck's hydraulic system. The experimental truck will be retrofitted with the technology under the laboratory's pollution prevention …
The Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals (gaap) Act may be a bitter pill to swallow for patent holders in the pharmaceutical industry. But it is definitely a shot in the arm for the generic drug segment. The legislation
Ralph Unger had to sell 60 per cent of his cattle because fields typically used to feed the animals have turned to dust. Unger's predicament sums up the plight of us farmers and ranchers who are the worst sufferers of this year's devastating drought. At a meeting with lawmakers in …
in accordance with the Bangladesh government's decision to ban two-stroke three-wheelers in Dhaka from September 1, around 12,000 such vehicles have gone off the road. The second part of the plan envisages the phase-out of the remaining 5,500 two-stroke three-wheelers
The ozone hole above the Antarctic has recently begun its annually occurring expansion. As per the estimates of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), it would grow significantly over the next few days. The first patch of low ozone concentration was detected near South America. Within a few days, this had …
the mechanism by which inhaled anthrax disarms and evades the human immune system, enabling the potentially lethal bacteria to rapidly spread throughout the body has been discovered by researchers from the University of California, usa. Their research describes how a complex of the anthrax bacteria's proteins called lethal toxin (lt) …
While Malawi has decided to mill genetically modified (gm) food from the us, Zambia is still resolute on its decision not to accept gm maize. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, has instituted a milling programme to ensure that none of the food aid it accepts is used for planting.
Good for a change A common pollutant strongly impacts the behaviour of arsenic and possibly other toxic metals in some lakes, shows a research conducted by us-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nitrate pollution reacts with naturally occurring iron to create iron oxides that in turn adsorb arsenic. The result is …
Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his country's intention to sign the Kyoto Protocol, while pointing out certain technical hitches in the deal. Experts say the Russian ratification would virtually ensure the implementation of the treaty, despite its rejection by the US
for the first time, a study has demonstrated that foreign genes from a genetically modified (gm) crop plant can migrate into weeds and make them stronger. The study was conducted by researchers from three us universities, including the Ohio State University. To conduct the study, the researchers used hybrid sunflowers …
recently, us researchers have proved for the first time that the water vapour exhaust trails or contrails that are left by cruising jet planes have an insulating effect on daily temperatures. Andrew Carleton from us-based Pennsylvania State University and colleagues measured the effect of contrails during the three-day grounding of …
finally, there's hope on the horizon for Zimbabwe's hunger-stricken population. The country's government has reached an agreement with international relief agencies for the quick release of thousands of tonnes of food aid. In an unusual pact between the Zimbabwean government, the un World Food Programme and Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board, …
Many workers who cleared debris from the site of the World Trade Centre attack of September 11, 2001 are showing symptoms of acute respiratory diseases, according to a health assessment conducted by the us-based Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The investigators believe the respiratory problems may be associated …
scientists from the Dhaka-based International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (icddr,b) have recently initiated clinical trials to study the efficacy of an oral diarrhoea vaccine in Bangladesh. The vaccine is being manufactured by the international pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. It has been developed by Baltimore-based John Hopkins University. The vaccine would …
