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. …
ABORTED foetuses are the new tools to cure blindness. Researchers transplanted light-sensitive cells from the eyes of aborted foetuses into the eyes of blind adults, enabling them to see partially. Though the experiments have not restored complete vision, its preliminary success have buoyed hopes about future endeavours. The adults who …
UNDER the initiative of the us-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (cgiar), a new global agricultural research system involving greater coordination with farmers and indigenous communities in the developing world has been agreed to. Said Ismail Serageldin, chairperson, cgiar, "The era of research which produces technological innovation without reference …
With the world getting more and more integrated, economically and technologically, the economic sovereignty of nations is getting eroded and new multilateral rules are emerging. Particularly so in the field of trade and environment, and efforts are being made to develop similar rules in other areas like investment, wages and …
new forays into the much-heard-of link between smoking and cancer has established beyond doubt that there is a definite and clear relationship between the two. Researchers from the University of Texas and Beckman Research Institute, California, working on the p53 gene, which is known to prevent proliferation of cells leading …
crew members on the American space shuttle Columbia may have been at a loss when a tethered satellite broke free and drifted away. But for Robert J Charlson, an atmospheric scientist with the University of Washington, Seattle, the aborted mission was a blessing in disguise. The astronauts now had the …
The growing global menace of drug resistant germs compounding the problem of infectious disease control has been traced to economy measures in hospitals. Jerome Schentag, University of Buffalo, New York told the American Society of Microbiology that in view of the high cost of antibiotics, physicians prescribe only a few …
According to a research in the US, women suffering from depression are at serious risk of bone fractures in later life. A team at the National Institutes of Health near Washington DC studied 24 women with a history of depression and found that 10 had a bone density so low …
Ganymede, the Jovian moon, has two planet-like features which were discovered last year: a magnetic field and the trace of an atmosphere. New data from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals that it might have a third planetary feature, an aurora at the poles. Doyle Hall and his colleagues of the …
People will soon be buying CD-quality music by downloading it over a phone line, courtesy American company AT&T;, which has applied to patent an administrative set-up that will ensure that publishers and musicians still receive royalties. The
pattern formation in nature is an almost universal phenomenon, be it biological, like patterns on animals or geological, like striations in rock formations. Though the physical interactions leading to development of patterns may differ, the evolution and dynamics of patterns could be provided an universal mathematical description. Paul Umbanhowar and …
US haemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from contaminated blood-clotting products have decided to accept a tentative US $650 million class action settlement of the lawsuit brought against the companies involved in the issue. Nearly 6,500 haemophiliacs have decided to join the settlement plan, of whom about 800 had earlier …
A new navigation system that uses voice-recognition technology is now available in the US. Developed by Amerigon of Monrovia, California, the Interactive Voice System(IVS) is not speaker dependent, so you do not have to train the programme to respond to your voice. You simply spell out one word in the …
altered soyabeans from the us have raked up frenzied protests in both Switzerland and Germany. This has followed Europe's insistence that us segregate its genetically-engineered soyabean exports from the conventional crop. Europe is due for its first shipment of genetically engineered soyabeans developed by us chemicals group, Monsanto, by the …
it is a whole new twist to the very concept of geochemistry. And what are propelling the changes in outlook are millions of tiny microbes working quietly behind the scenes, literally, to effect mighty changes in the earth's interior. These microbes, hitherto neglected as subjects for study, have shot into …
By measuring the thickness of forest canopies, scientists get a fair idea about the species of animals and plants present therein. Earlier, ecologists took canopy measurements from the ground using a visual procedure called the MacArthur-Horn method. Researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, US, have hit upon an …
science has taken a knocking. Thrifty funds and a messy peer review structure, among others, have served to forecast a gloomy future for science in the coming millennium, according to a group of us and uk scientists who met in Washington recently. "The crisis of funding is real. Science has …
there are already numerous drugs which aid in controlling cancer or even curing it if detected in the early stages. But the drugs, as observed in so many cases, are user specific and their effects vary from person to person depending on factors like the sensitivity of a person, the …
