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. …
for the five lakh people who were exposed to the lethal gas leak in Bhopal in 1984, it has been one battle after another. Now they are fighting perhaps their last battle
A REPORT written by leading pharmacologists claims that about 20 per cent of the drugs prescribed in Germany offer no real clinical benefits. The report says that distinguishing between effec-tive medicines and worthless treatment is particularly difficult in Germany. Of the 50,000 prescription drugs currently in the market, nearly 33,000 …
An electronic nose would sniff whether tea is being spoiled in the drier, tomatoes have lost flavour or mangoes are about to ripen. Researchers at the University of Greenwich and the Natural Resources Institute of Chatham, UK, have developed the device that has sensors for carbon monoxide, ethylene, hydrogen sulphide, …
A LARGE crude carrier and an oil tanker collided, causing an oil spill of about 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes in the Singapore Strait on October 15. Port authorities said that no one was injured in the accident. They also said that the vessel was in no danger of sinking. The …
An electrical technique developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA, would help clean contaminated land. In this process, electric current is employed to heat the soil that leads to evaporating the moisture. Thus, volatile contaminants are removed from soil particles. Contaminated steam is then collected above ground and treated. …
A scientist in the US envisions that owners of tomorrow's electric cars would not only buy electricity for their vehicles but they could also be able to sell it back. Willett Kempton at the University of Delaware, Newark, usa, believes that these cars could replace many power-generating plants. Electric cars …
scientists feel that it is possible to trap solar power in outer space, beam it to the Earth, and convert it into electricity. With the help of latest techniques, they hope that solar energy could be delivered at prices equal to or even lower than ground-based alternatives without big environmental …
AUTOMATIC vending machines for condoms will be available at street corners throughout the country by December. The scheme has been finalised by the Union health ministry as part of its AIDS control programme. The ministry has asked for prototypes of the machine from indigenous manufacturers, which can accommodate different types …
DOCTORS in the US have successfully performed an experiment where a woman has given birth after being implanted with eggs that had been frozen. Up till now, doctors in the US have been able to produce pregnancies from frozen embryos which meant eggs fertilised with sperm and then frozen but …
drug-resistant bacteria have been posing serious threats to human life for long. Now, researchers have developed a genetic engineering technique that helps render such bacteria drug sensitive. A team of researchers led by Sidney Altman at the Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, usa , used plasmids to infiltrate drug resistant …
a coalition of Scottish environmental groups under the banner of the Scottish Wildlife and Countryside Link (swcl) has called for a review of the environmental impacts of marine salmon fishing in Scotland. The main cause for concern is the wide and indiscriminate use of chemicals to control sea lice, parasites …
and environment-friendly logging practices will be drafted by the International Labour Organisation (ilo). The new code will help cut the number of deaths and injuries among the world's three million forestry workers. Experts from 10 leading timber producing countries, including Brazil, Canada and the Czech Republic, Sweden and the us, …
deficiency of iron in the microscopic plant-like organisms that populate the seas - called phytoplankton - may have interfered in the carbon dioxide cycle and contributed to global warming. Scientists are now investigating reversal of this process. Confirmation of this fact will provide answers that may help combat global warming. …
A theory of how the moon was formed is at stake. Robin Canup and her colleagues at the University of Colorado, USA, say if a collision between the Earth and a planet-sized body would have led to formation of the moon, the Earth and moon should have more angular momentum …
Tiny nanotubes (a billionth part of a tube) can be used to make materials with fewer defects compared to their larger counterparts. E W Wong and his colleagues at Harvard University, Cambridge, UK, have explored the strength of nanotubes. They determined mechanical properties of nanorods and carbon nanotubes. It was …
a cluster of galaxies has been found that looks bright in the x -rays region but contains only a single visible galaxy. A team led by M Hattori at the Max-Plank-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, Germany, reports that it is the most distant cluster of galaxies in the x -rays …
a solid lubricant has been developed in Israel that does not lose its lubrication properties even in humid conditions. R Tenne and his colleagues, at the Department of Mechanics and Control, Centre for Technological Education, Holon and Department of Materials and Interfaces and Chemical Services Unit, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, synthesised …
The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a writ petition contending that the Harihar Polyfibre company near Bangalore was discharging untreated effluents into the Tungabharda river and that the villagers in the vicinity using the polluted water should be compensated. Samaja Parivartana Samudaya Sanghatane, a non-profit organisation based in Dharwad had …
Researchers at Colorado State University, USA, believe that they have found an environmentally friendly method of dealing with rootworms that ravage cornfields. The experiment were based on the discovery that rootworm larvae search for the roots of the plant by detecting the carbon dioxide (CO2) that roots emit. Louis B …
