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. …
researchers in England are attempting to herd a flock of ducks with a robot. Researchers from the Silsoe Research Institute and Oxford University Computing Laboratory have chosen ducks in the test because they feel that ducks react quite like sheep, but move very slowly. This means that robots can keep …
dog owners in Taipei will now have to implant microchips in their dogs to help tackle the plague of strays in the city. The city administration has passed a new law that dog owners must put microchips in their dogs as soon as they are three months old. The microchips …
We determined the association between the use of the glycopeptide antibiotic avoparcin as a growth promoter and the occurrence of Enterococcus faecium (VREF) with high-level resistance to vancomycin (MIC ≥ 64 μg ml−1) on poultry and pig farms. The investigations were conducted as retrospective cohort studies, where groups of farms …
A human eye an animal inside a cage or one being chased by a predator appears to be suffering. But a new theory suggests that things may be different from what they appear. For a situation that brings suffering to one animal may not do so in another's case. An …
The number of institutions trying to integrate environmental concerns with economics is still small in India, especially given the size of the country and the diversity of its environmental problems and challenges, but a small beginning has already been made. This volume presents the proceedings of the national environment and …
Water hyacinths, Eichhomia crassipes, are posing a mafor problem for the country. Nearly 80 per cent of the Ugandan shoreline is clogged with these plants, which are killipg animals and vegetation in the Lake Victoria and seriously upsetting local life. At some places the water hyacinth is so thick that …
Known as the country hardest-hit by AIDS, Uganda is slowly gaining all upper hand in its fight against the deadly disease. Recent studies have shown that the spread of AIDS has slowed clown among the country's young adults. The rite of infection among teenagers in the worst-hit parts of the …
After wreaking havoc in Nigeria, spinal meningitis has spread to a dozen other countries close to the Sahara, from Mali and Burkina Faso in the west to Sudan in the east. According to the World Health Organization, at least 6,000 people have died in recent weeks and more than 300 …
Yet another fracas centering around a dam: the Malaysian government is going ahead with its plans to construct the Bakun hydro- electric dam on the island of Borneo. While the Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the benefits of the dam in a seminar held recently on the project, the …
Nearly 100 caged baboons had the fright of their lives when the inundated Olifants river climbed under their cages at a remote reserve in northern South Africa recently. Rescue workers worked night and day to carry the baboons and some other animals like jackals, civets, warthogs and monkeys to the, …
The lions of Serengeti National Park in anzania must be cured of canine distemper. Veterinarians working with the Institute of Zoology in London and the various national parks in the country have resolved to deal with the menace - that has killed almost 1,000 lions since mid-1993 - once and …
GLOBAL conflagarations of the next century might very well be over water, says a World Bank report presented at the 20th session of the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies held recently in Erice, Italy. The report warns that overconsumption of water in the developed nations and its growing scarcity in …
CAN IT: Rotten foodstuff in sealed tin cans will now be a thing of the past. Elbicon, a Belgian company which produces equipment for food processing industries, has developed a new quality control technology which uses laser, infrared or X-ray to detect bone pieces in canned meat, bits of wood …
FINDING itself caught on the wrong foot, the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra reversed its decision to amend the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, calling for a total ban on the slaughter of bullocks. On August 2, it withdrew the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (amendment) Bill, 1995, following waves of protests. …
Animals in industrilized countries both farmers and animals are becoming specialized. Thus dairy farmers keep high milk producing cows. Beef farmers keep specialized beef animals - sheep are specialized in producing meat or wool. Likewise the crops are specialized and crop residues generally discarded or ploughed in. This total market …
SAFE REACTORS: A new model of safer reactors is coming up, announced Framatome of France and Siemens of Germany. The 2 nuclear power reactor suppliers have joined hands to desigrethe new and improved European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) for export and home markets. They have floated a joint venture, Nuclear, …
Pressure mounts in the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for an HIV law. At a United Nations Development Programmeis HIV and Development Regionat Project Workshop held in Colombo in mid-February, the need for more, proactive legal responses to the increasing number of AIDS cases was stressed upon. Among …
ANTI-POLUTION GIZMO: Diesel engines will be spewing less nitric oxide fumes, promise KMH, a Doncaster-based business house, and Leeds University in the UK. They have jointly developed a steam-based anti-pollution device, which they claim is cheaper and requires less maintenance than catalytic converters. The De-NOX device, as it has been …
The magnificent Great Barrier Reef in Australia has again been in news: it has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. A recent comparison of contemporary photographs with pictures taken in 1980 has laid bare this distressing fact to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The …
Helicopters have made mountaineering a less arduous prospect in Nepal, but chopped down the daily earnings of the Sherpas. While tourists can now wing their way up to inaccessible areas, mountaineers can fly out their heavy gears instead of hauling them. "With the helicopters, there is a danger that Sherpas' …
