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. …
JAPANESE firm Asahi Chemical Industry has announced that it will sue us-based firm General Electricals (GE) for violating its patent on the production of polycarbonate resin. The company said that it would file the claim against General Electricals Spanish unit, GE Plastics, early next year. In May, Asahi Chemical filed …
THE US Army is not all about Stinger missiles and guerrilla warfare. Its Corps of Engineers are about to embark on what has been labelled as the 'the largest environmental restoration project ever' - to spend some us $7.8 billion to restore the Florida Everglades to their lost glory. Their …
FROm next year, us power plants will be forced to test the coal they burn for traces of mercury. The us Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also require a selected number of plants to test their emissions for the heavy metal. This will help EPA decide whether mercury emissions should …
ALASKA is going through a lot of changes. Few months back, global warming caused the region's ice caps to melt and now, the Alaska's marine ecology is being altered. But this time, its not human induced. It seems that killer orca whales have developed an appetite for Alaskan sea otters. …
US SCIENTISTS have used genetic engineering to change the function of a plant enzyme for the first time. The breakthrough paves the way for designer plants that can be used as a source of food, fuel and renewable raw materials. John Shanklin headed a team of biochemists from Brookhaven National …
So your days seem too long and never end? Scientists at US National and Space Administration's (NASA!s) let Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have discovered the real culprit. They have shown that tiny changes in the Earth's rotation match those predicted by the computer- generated models of oceanic circulation. The …
THE Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has never failed to surprise us. A team of us astronomers have recently used it to discover what may be the oldest and farthest galaxies ever seen. This will have a serious impact on the theories on the evolution of the Universe and formation of …
FOR Most of us, an antibiotic is a drug used to fight infections. But very few of us know about the hard work that has gone into making these little pills that boost out immune system and help fight germs and viruses. Antibiotics are essentially very complex molecules. Sir Alexander …
RESEARCHERS in the US have developed an easy, risk-free method to find buried landmines. All you have to do, they say, is fire a special bullet into the ground from a helicopter and the bullet will do the rest. The 'special' bullet emits a radar pulse as it grinds to …
You cannot shake them off. They are better, More effective than bloodhounds and they will be watching every move you make. Researchers in California, USA, have developed Autonomous Observer (AO), a robot that could lead to advanced surveillance systems that follow people wherever they go. Continuous surveillance is not a …
EVEN after 23 years, the Vietnam War continues to invade the lives of the soldiers who waged the war. Only now there is no distinction of race or colour. Both US and Vietnamese soldiers are suffering because of a chemical, Agent Orange, sprayed in Vietnam by the US from 1961 …
US Tobacco companies are finally being made to foot the medical bill of smokers across the country. Forty-six states in the US and cigarette-makers have unanimously agreed on a US $206 billion resolution of tobacco health claims.Christine Gregoire, who led the negotiations for the states, said that the settlement with …
As gray whales face new threats along the Baja Californian coast in the US, their rarer cousins in the Western Pacific are facing greater peril, owing to a consortium of profit-hungry Japanese and western oil companies, in collusion with the Russian government. The Western Pacific's 200 surviving gray whales migrate …
LOST? Not sure where you are? A new and improved version of the Global Positioning System (GPS) can tell you to within a centimetre. The system, in use for several years now, is being adapted to track fast-moving objects and could even lead to television viewers in different countries seeing …
THE Indian industry and scientific community have strongly condemned the US decision to blacklist 40 Indian companies and laboratories along with their 200 subsidiaries. On November 13, the US slapped sanctions on more than 300 Indian and Pakistani government agencies, government-affiliated firms, laboratories and private companies in response to the …
Net goodies for free Internet will emerge as the communications medium of the next century, say the Netgurus. Many of us are used to services like Microsofts Hotmail at http.//-wwwhotmail.com, which provide free e-mail and file storage facilities through a web browser. But now Dixons, the biggest electronic retailer in …
TO SAY that using foetuses destined for abortion as test subjects for gene therapy would create a formidable controversy would be a gross understatement. But that is exactly what French Anderson of the University of Southern California, USA, wants to do. Anderson recently announced that he was seeking approval for …
MEMORIES. Mysteries of the human mind. Though the intricacies of our mind still remain confusing to researchers, they have some idea about how we 'remember'. What and where are some of the basic parameters that help us remember incidents. Controlled experiments, coupled with the experience of pet lovers, tell us …
A VERY simple health intervention has been making waves in the US. Signs in shopping malls outlining the health benefits of using stairs instead of escalator have increased their use significantly. "Simple and inexpensive interventions like these can increase physical activity," conclude researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine …
ALTERNATIVE FUEL: An Indian company, Motor Medics (India) Ltd (MIL) and a Canadian firm, Alternative Fuel Systems (AFS), have signed an agreement to sell and later manufacture systems which convert gasoline-burning vehicles into natural gas vehicles. The system, called the Sparrow Conversion System, will be installed in Maruti vehicles. Under …
