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. …
The new regulations proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Air Act have kicked up a storm. Although few of its earlier targets have been achieved, the agency has 1@roposed even more difficult regulations. EPA itself predicts that the cost of new regulations will fhr exceed …
The first lawsuit seeking damages for injury suffered through passive smoking in flight cabins began recently in Florida, USA. The case was filed by Norma Broin, a former airline stewardess, who is suffering from lung cancer. A non-smoker herself, she has blamed her illness on her exposure to secondhand smoke …
Environmental pollution is responsible for a significant share of violent crime and antisocial behaviour, according to an analysis by Roger Masters of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He says metals in, drinki, disrupt the neuro social, economic and psychological factors cannot fully explain why some counties in the US have only …
HOLLYWOOD and its stars, Silicon Valley and its software giants, miles of sunny beaches and their sunbathers - these are the images California normally evokes in people. But the state means much more than that. For the cognoscenti, it means water and its viable use; it means the Hollywood hit …
Water is California's lifeblood. Owens Valley in eastern California was once a prosperous farming community that thrived next to a river flowing in Central Valley. When state and federal agencies bought the water rights in the Valley during the Great Depression, the water was diverted to Los Angeles (LA). Without …
More than a quarter of California's agricultural land is irrigated. When the state had reeled under a prolonged drought in 1987-92, innovative concepts like water trading and water banking were interduced to counter it. Infrastructure for storing arid transporting water was expanded earlier in the century. This major diversion of …
Water trade In California involved various mechanisms to help encourage efficient use Water trading within each district was encouraged through two main mechanisms. One was the buy-back scheme. Every farmer paid a set fee for his or her water rights. The district would buy back surplus Water from farmers and …
A survey of 10,076 households conducted by the NPD Group Inc in the US found that computers switched on at homes sit idle for 54 per cent of the time. The Sierra Club, a group of environmentalists, has estimated that a computer running for more than three hours a day …
PASSIVE Smoking almost doubles the risk of heart attack in women, says a study published by the American Heart Association. The findings provide strong evidence in support of the hotly-debated claim that secondhand smoke poses a major health risk. The study suggests that there are as many as 60,000 deaths …
HUMANITY is facing the threat of dangerous viral diseases from a hitherto unsuspected quarter - sewage tanks of aircrafts. According to a survey sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, out of 40 samples of sewage tested from international flights …
Ordinary cold remedies and other productscontaining decongestants can lead to strokes in otherwise healthy people, according to Eric Raps, director of Pennsylvania Medical Center's division of stroke and neurointensive care, Philad lphia. Raps is of the opinion that cians should warn habitual and long-term users of decongestants as they have …
A common antibiotic may be as effective as oestrogen in preventing devastating bone loss caused by osteoporosis, suggests a new study conducted in the US. Minocycline, a derivative of tetracycline, not only appears to forestall bone loss but also develop bone density. The study, by C T Liang of the …
OVER the last 16 years, AIDS has become the most important challenge for medical scientists. It has already destroyed or is in the process of decimating the immune systems of over 8 million people the world over. Close to half of them have perished due to opportunistic infections such as …
Spyplancs, small enough to fit into a palm, may take off within three years. Microflyers, as they are called, will have a wingspan of about 15 cin and would weigh less than 100 gin. The planes are being developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, US, who …
A lawsuit filed in the US district court in San Francisco has accused three pharmaceutical firms -Boots Co of UK, BASF AG of Germany and its US subsidiary Knoll Pharmaceuticals -of covering up a report questioning the effectiveness of a thyroid drug. The lawsuit alleges that the drug companies concealed …
Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US, have discovered a star in the constellation Ophiuchus, which is on a collision course with the Oort Cloud, a region on the outskirts of the solar system containing billions of comets. If it hits the cloud, the star will send …
GADOLINIUM is one of the more obscure rare-earth elements. But it has a strange property that could prove useful: when put into a magnetic field, it heats up; when demagnetised, it cools down. Researchers at the Iowa State University in the us are using this effect to create a new …
A high-speed camera that allows aircraft to take pictures through cloud, smoke and water has been unveiled in the US. The camera was originally designed to photograph nuclear weapons tests under water. But now that nuclear testing has stopped, researchers are applying this technology to spot sea mines and for …
SCIENTISTS in the US have isolated a gene that controls the biological clock in mice. With this, they have moved closer to understanding the cause of a host of human ailments, 'from jet lag to sleep disorders related to aging, to manic depressive illness. Joseph S Takahashi and colleagues from …
The number of new products marketed in the US as'environmentally friendy declined in 1996, according to the analysis of data available with Marketing Intelligence Service, a New York-based company. The firm tracks products labelled with some kind of green claim , such as biodegradable, ozone-friendly, pesticide free, or recycled, but …
