The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
TO MOST people, mountains conjure a vision of a world of plentiful resources, populated by content and happy people. But this idyllic vision of mountain life is far removed from reality, for life in the mountains is a grim tale of a relentless battle against declining land productivity and ever …
THE TWO years covered in this volume, the latest in the series, were the most momentous in the life of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882). After studies in Edinburgh and Cambridge, Darwin was heading for an ecclesiastical career in the Church of England when he was invited to participate in a …
In the early hours of Moday, Dec 3,1984, a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate (MIC)gas enveloped the hundreds of shanties and huts surrounding a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Later, as the deadly cloud slowly drifted in the cool night air through streets in surrounding sections, sleeping residents awoke, coughing, …
In addition to the large-scale loss of life and continuing health problems experienced by the victims of the Bhopal disaster, a major casualty has been the lack of information. Compared to other major chemical disasters in the world, Bhopal has the dubious distinction of not only being the worst, but …
TAKE A small part of a shoot tip and put it in a test tube. Then add some chemicals that will nurture the tissue and lo and behold, the part grows into a full plant. This may sound like witchcraft, but it is precisely what tissue culture technology is all …
MOST COMPANIES cleared for tissue culture by the Department of Biotechnology have so-called buy-back arrangements whereby the scientific part of the exercise is imported and the growing of plants is done in India. The product, say, flowers, are then exported. Thanks to economic liberalisation, an import licence is no longer …
WITH THE destruction of the natural environment, the genetic diversity of both domesticated crops and their wild relatives is being rapidly eroded. Scientists have realised tissue culture is a powerful tool to conserve biodiversity. Says K P Chandel, joint director of the National Bureau for Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) and …
A STUDY of meteorological records indicates drought has been a recurring problem in Pakistan"s Thar region. When it occurs now, it creates severe shortages of food, fodder and water, but such shortages never occurred during more serious droughts in the past. That"s because these shortages are the result of major …
ASTRA oles, which are fuel-efficient, smokeless stoves, have become popular in rural Karnataka households. Introduced by ASTRA in three Karnataka villages -- Unchige, Pura and Ungra -- the stoves drew such favourable response the state government's department of rural development took on the task of distributing them in 1983. The …
What made you join ASTRA? By the early 1970s, I had reached a plateau in my career. I had been abroad, got my Ph.D. and published many papers in major international scientific journals. Despite having achieved all the normal academic accomplishments, I had no practical experience. A K N Reddy's …
THE MAGIC of tissue culture is in finding the right nutrient medium for a plant organ, tissue or cell to grow. Scientists jealously guard the protocols developed by them. The nutrient mixture induces changes within the growing cell mass, known as a callus. A change in the mixture can induce …
BETWEEN 1986 and 1990, the total consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by industrialised countries dropped from 971,342 tonnes to 636,588 tonnes -- a fall of 34 per cent. The industrialised countries' halon consumption, too, has fallen from 198,609 tonnes to 151,700 tonnes. Meanwhile, the CFC consumption of developing countries, which …
MAJOR differences of opinion have surfaced within the government in Japan over the shipment of weapons-grade plutonium from Europe even as the Japanese freighter Akatsuki Maru continues its 27,000 km-long journey from Cherbourg in France to Japan. This is the first large-scale shipment of commercial plutonium fuel, the opening step …
THE THICK black smoke emanating from Calcutta factory chimneys in the 19th century was considered by many as a sign of prosperity. The Calcutta and Howrah Smoke Nuisances Act passed in 1863 aimed principally at land-based engines and was not very effective, producing no more than six prosecutions in a …
APRIL 1992: The Finnish government decides to slash its development budget from 0.76 per cent of its GNP in 1991 to 0.4 per cent for the period 1991--95. JUNE 1992: In Rio, Finnish foreign minister Paavo Vayrynen says, "We fully share the view that all developed countries should reach the …
Finally, France's former Socialist prime minister Laurent Fabius, secretary of state for health Edmund Herve and social affairs minister Georgina Dufoix are to be tried in a parliamentary court in the AIDS scandal currently rocking the nation. In 1985, when Fabius was prime minister, 1,000 haemophiliacs were given a blood …
ANALYSIS of scientific data reveals that geysers -- the hot springs that intermittently throw up columns of water -- can indicate in advance the arrival of an earthquake (Science, Vol 257 No 5075). Scientists Paul G Silver and Nathalie J Valette-Silver of the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC say variations …
A STUDY has shown community institutions can be an effective way to regulate the use of natural resources. The indigenous knowledge, attitudes and practices of a people have great potential in promoting the management of resources around them. The study by Wendelin Mlenge, project manager for the HASHI project in …
SO FAR it was the Orissa government, or rather its ebullient chief minister, Biju Patnaik, who has been fighting all the verbal battles in defence of the controversial Chilika Aquatic Farms Ltd (CAFL). Tata Steel, one of the two major owners of CAFL, chose to remain silent, even though the …
A STRIKING feature of India's economic development has been its deviation from the stages-of-growth pattern that has characterised almost all developed countries. The growth paradigm has been so pervasive, it is now almost an economic law. Countries start out as being primarily agrarian. As industrialisation progresses, the production and employment …
