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. …
manufactured products often contain unnecessary and undesirable chemicals which are generated during the production process. These chemicals are potential polluters of the environment. Ideally, it should be possible to modify the manufacturing process so as to be able to remove such unwanted substances without endangering the quality and essential properties …
what has been a traditional practice of farming could actually be detrimental to the world's tropical forests, according to a report prepared by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (cgiar). The report, which was released in the first week of August, draws attention to slash-and-burn, a practice followed by …
There is reason for hope for fair skin individuals worrying about UV radiations triggering sporadic basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. Researchers at the Stanford University, Palo Alto and the University of California, both in the US have identified mutations in the patched gene as a …
problems of environmental degradation can be ironed out, literally! Christopher Nagel and his team at the Molten Metal Technology in Waltham, Massachusetts, along with Robert Bach, a chemist at the Wayne State University, have arrived at the conclusion that molten iron could do the trick of recycling everything from toxic …
depression in humankind could, in all possibility, be due to a virus, a similar strain of which has been found to cause the same illness in animals too. Known as the Borna virus, it was recovered from two patients in Germany and in one patient in the us . Researcher …
the first global analysis of satellite data by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( nasa ) has revealed an interesting finding. Collating 15 years of data, scientists have come to the conclusion that harmful radiation from the sun has been hitting major population centres across the world in increasing …
An American engineer, excited by his soldier son's account of enduring Iraqi Scud missile attacks during the Gulf Crisis has put together a smart handheld gadget that can provide an accurate warning of hazards such as an incoming missile
next winter, a new material promises to keep you warm when standing in freezing rain but cool when running around. Gateway Technologies in Colorado, us , has developed Outlast, a lightweight fabric that can adapt to changes in both body and environmental temperatures. The fabric keeps the wearer warm when …
Addictive NetA new survey in the US hints at a conclusion many of us may have already drawn: some people spend away too much time on the Internet. They may be addictive. In an online survey conducted by a University of Buffalo doctoral student, 17 per cent of the respondents …
The British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome has got itself entangled in another suit ( Down To Earth , Vol 5, No 6). This time, the fight is against Emory University of Atlanta, US, over the patent on its AIDS drug, Epivir, also known as 3TC. The drug had been patented …
One would that if more than 1,000 scientists belonging to various countries and working for 10 years, pointed out the grave danger posed by increasing carbon emissions to the climate as well as the global economy, world leaders would take notice and initiate restorative action. Instead, they choose to either …
Ionising radiation can be used to destroy pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyles (PCBs) and heavy metals from water. The radiation treatment is being developed at the US government's National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the University of Maryland in College Park. In the case of a PCB …
The world's largest seller of pharmaceuticals, Glaxo Wellcome of UK, lost the latest round of a protracted legal battle in the US. A North Carolina court ruling on July 5 gave the green signal to Novopharm, the Canadian drugs company, to retail a generic version of Zantac when Glaxo's patent …
Has the fear about a stolen future really hit us legislators? Till the end of May, the debate over what is surely the most controversial book of the year (The Stolen Future, by Theo Colborn and others) had been acrimonious. The book had said that pesticides and persistent organic compounds …
