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. …
a dangerous bacterium that can pose serious threats to human life has developed resistance to antibiotics. The bacteria, called staphylococcus, can drain through intravenous lines or get into surgical wounds and destroy skin and bones, poison blood and lead to other complications. Earlier, penicillin, an antibiotic, was able to prevent …
researchers have found a gene that may help combat cancer and degenerative diseases linked to ageing. The gene has been cloned by two teams of researchers separately - one led by Thomas Cech, a biochemist at the University of Colorado and the other by Robert Weinberg, a biochemist at the …
font class="UCASE"> the relationship between emotions and susceptibility to a disease was establi-shed a long ago. Now a study conducted by Esther H Sternberg of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, usa, explains the process of communication between neural and immune systems ( Nature medicine , Vol 3, No …
a wingless spacecraft, the x -38 is being developed at National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( nasa ), usa, that would work as a rescue vehicle for a space station. The spacecraft can fly back to the Earth from space and land like an aircraft on a runway. Engineers at …
After a journey of 10 months and about 700 million km, the US spacecraft Mars Global Surveyor successfully eased into a wide orbit of Mars about 300 km over the north pole of the planet in the early hours of September 12. The craft will map the planet's surface for …
> a refrigeration system based on sound energy is being developed by Luc Mongeau and colleagues at Purdue University in Indiana, usa . The cooling device is a long, hollow tube with a large cavity, called a Helmholtz resonator, at one end and an acoustic driver such as a loudspeaker …
the us has been conducting experiments for the past two years on pregnant women infected with hiv in Africa, Thailand and the Dominican Republic. These women were given drugs that can prevent transmission of the deadly aids virus to their babies. Some of them received dummy pills only. The studies …
when a 16-year-old boy was treated for bubonic plague in Madagascar two years ago, the scientific community was unaware of what was in store. Some French researchers have recently published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine . They say the strain of Yersinia pestis , the bacterium …
The legal battle is over and R A Mashlekar, of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ( csir ), is playing to the gallery by blowing smoke from the barrel of his guns. The applause is also overwhelming and from an international audience. The Indian media is all agog …
with the death of Carl Sagan, a philosopher-astronomer, in December 1996, the world has lost a great person who popularised science. The impact that Sagan had on the us and on the rest of the world is evident from the fact that his book Cosmos is an all-time bestseller. In …
The UK government has been making efforts to get the European Union to ban a self-cooling drink can that uses HFC134a, one of the most powerful human-made greenhouse gases. The aerosol can be packed inside a drinks can. The liquid inside is released into the air when a button at …
a settlement in Florida has pressed panic buttons for the tobacco industry worldover. Setting a precedent, the government of Florida signed a us $11.3 billion settlement with us cigarette manufacturers to recover costs of medical treatment for curing ailments caused due to smoking. The cigarette companies, apart from promising to …
there is no clear definition of a good soil nor is there an index to measure the quality of such soil. Researchers in the us now claim that fractal geometry may provide an answer. The structure of soil, which is made up of soil grains and air spaces, determines how …
whales might be suffering hearing loss due to noise generated by engines of tourist boats, ships, and large tankers, according to Peter M Scheifele, a bioacoustic researcher at the University of Connecticut, usa . Whale-watching has become a popular tourist attraction across the world. Tourists are taken in boats to …
according to a study by the Environmental Working Group in the us, drinking water of about 4.3 million Americans during the last year had concentrations of pesticides exceeding the new federal standards. The study revealed that the people in the rural areas, particularly the midwestern corn belt, were being served …
THERE is euphoria at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the New Delhi-based government institute, over the decision by the us Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) to withdraw its patent no 5401504 for the use of turmeric powder as a wound-healing agent on August 13. The move …
Women suffering from severe morning sickness (nausea) may run an increased risk of breast cancer. A study conducted by Leslie Bernstein and her colleagues at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, USA, seems to support this theory. The researchers studied the medical records of nearly 450 women who …
a drug is being developed that would help repair damaged nerves in patients with Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. Two groups of researchers, one led by Guilford at Johns Hopkins University and another led by Bruce Gold at Oregon Health Sciences University, discovered the drug several years …
The Pathfinder mission sprung a surprise towards end August when the roving vehicle revealed at least two different kinds of rocks on the planet. Neither resembles the Earth's volcanic rocks or meteorites presumed to originate in Mars. These findings have confused scientists, waiting for moredata on the rocks. They are …
the Achilles heel of optical fibre transmission has always been electronic switches that act as speed breakers to the flow of information. But Sergey Frolov and Valy Vardney of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, have now developed optical switches that would enable data transmission at a high speed …
