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. …
ALAN GRAY, director of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology's Furzebrook Research Station, and a member of Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), warns that it is impossible to predict how the genetically-engineered crops to resist plant viruses will behave. "Viruses are, in ecological terms, something of a black …
Palahi, a sleepy village in the Kapurthala district of Punjab, has set an example in the use of non-conventional sources of energy. All the gurudwaras, private hospitals, nursing homes and a large number of households have solar water heaters, according to Gurmit Singh of the Community Polytechnic. Palahi and four …
Scientists may soon explain the mys-terious behaviour of some icebergs. They have discovered a submerged "ice foot" extending more than 50 metres (m) out to sea from the wall of a glacier. This could explain why icebergs sometimes suddenly come up to the ocean surface in unexpec-ted places. Researchers suspect …
MUCH evidence in recent years has proved what folk wisdom and traditional medicinal practices had long believed. Our immune, nervous and hormonal systems are all linked. A number of studies with viral and bacterial agents have shown that the degree of infection can be modulated by interactions between these three …
A programmer at Sandia National Laboratories in California has recently patented a machine that can mend holes in the road auto-matically. About the size of a single-decker bus, the Rapid Road Repair Vehicle, as it is called, scans the road using an array of sensors on its bumpers. When it …
natural gas is one of the most promising fuels available to us. It is cleaner than most other fossil fuels and is available in plenty. The only problem is its transportation, which in the absence of pipelines, is virtually impossible. Till such time as pipelines are not laid, we have …
the very first advice that a heart patient is most likely to receive from the doctors and well-wishers is to cut down on salt intake. Public health experts have always maintained that we eat about three to four times more salt than what our bodies need. Close to 80 per …
ever since the first patent for mechanical refrigeration was granted to Jacob Perkins in 1834, the quest for more efficient and faster refrigeration has been on. Lately, the emphasis has also been on making refrigeration less damaging to the environment as the chloroflourocarbon (cfc) gases are harmful to the ozone …
The Centre of Science for Villages (CSV), Wardha, Maharashtra, has developed a microbiogas plant with a battery of 300 litres clay jars, which is known as Ranjan biogas plant. The biogas plant is a large clay pot churned on the potter's wheel that is utilised for storing water during summers. …
Researchers have developed a hybrid pollution sensor in the form of a bioluminescent bacteria placed on a standard microchip. A common bacteria is genetically altered to glow in the presence of certain pollutants. This is placed in a porous polymer on the surface of a chip which contains a photo-detector. …
it was an experiment right out of science fiction: scientists taking different species, extracting their genetic sequences and then combining these to get a new sequence that promises some amazing powers. However, before telling you how they did it, some background information is essential. Evolution, through sexual reproduction, enables new …
Over 16 European nations and 12 international organisations recently joined hands and agreed to cooperate in an attempt to find ways of improving the welfare of laboratory animals, and primates in particular. Under the terms of a "declaration of intent' signed under the auspices of the Council of Europe, they …
DOES a magazine like Down To Earth (DTE) have the right to critique the research of a "prestigious national institution" like the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute? NEERI, which belongs to the massive, government-funded CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) family does not appear to think that way. With …
AWBI : The guidelines suggested by the Animal Welfare Board of India for stray dog population and management control has been approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, according to Lt. Gen. (Retd) A.K.Chatterjee, Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).
A division bench of the Gujarat High Court admitted three writ petitions filed by the Lok Adhikar Sangh and the Centre for Social Justice challenging the decision of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to close all slaughter houses for nine days on account of "Paryusan" beginning from Wednesday.
it's a battle between small fry and the big fish. Fisherfolk from 32 countries have launched a global forum to fight the fishing industry, aquaculture and marine pollution, which have affected their livelihood. Launched at the end of a five-day meet at New Delhi on November 21, the World Forum …
THE relatively new field of ethnoveterinary medicine, which is establishing itself as a serious discipline, has far-reaching implications for the well-being of livestock in the developing world. Ethnoveterinary medicine is the knowledge possessed by non-literate cultures with regard to animal health and disease that is passed on in the form …
