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. …
The World Wide Fund for Nature-Nepal launched a new global conservation campaign on October 1 for the conservation of endangered species, maintenance of viable population of threatened species and to discourage their illegal trade. The
Ageing population will be a serious cause for concern in the coming century according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2020, the number of old people is set to nearly double to around one billion. WHO warned that, "If left unattended now, it may have far-reaching consequences for public …
human assault on the earth's atmosphere continues. Recently, the World Meteorological Organization ( wmo ), a un agency based in Geneva, revealed that the ozone hole measured over the Antarctic during the South Hemisphere spring, is already twice the size of Europe. The hole, first observed in the Antarctic in …
The toll of diseases across the world could be reduced to a great extent by using safe water, hygienic latrines and by washing hands before handling food. Staying healthy is, therefore, easier for the rich than the poor. In poorer communities, the potential for staying healthy is greater if clean …
in the case of most ants, a single fertile queen monopolises reproduction while the workers build the nest, nurse the offspring and forage for food. In some cases the nests built are quite elaborate and offer good protection from various environmental factors such as heat and floods. Sometimes, the nest …
Premature deliveries deprive babies of essential fats that are due to them in their last months in the womb. Called omega-threes, these fats are necessary for a normal development of vision. Eileen Birch and her colleagues at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, Texas, US, inform that all …
The discovery of the cause of a rare hereditary disease that makes sufferers insensitive to pain may lead to the discovery of more effective painkillers. Researchers at the Kumamoto University School of Medicine in Japan examined DNA from four people suffering from CIPA or chronic insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis …
with water-borne diseases on the rise, more and more people have been buying commercial domestic water purifier ( cdwp ) systems. However, a recent study indicates that these filters, instead of diminishing the risks, could actually lead to a greater incidence of diseases, especially diarrhoea. Led by Milind Watve of …
It has come to light that during the past two decades, Bangladesh has imported electrical poles laced with over 14 million kg of toxic arsenic compounds. The poles were imported for the purpose of rural electrification. According to the Rural Electrification Board officials, the poles were treated with chromated copper …
A three-day SAARC meeting from September 23-25 on tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS, spelt out country specific action plan for managing the diseases. The meeting which was held in Kathmandu, revealed that according to the World Health Organization estimates, three million new TB cases emerge every year in the SAARC region …
when the new century rolls in, it will bring in its wake more mental illnesses and deaths and disabilities due to traffic accidents, according to a World Health Organization ( who ) report released recently in Geneva. The report
in 1993 , Manmohan Singh, India’s then finance minister, had proudly proclaimed that the country’s economic growth rate over the last year was around four per cent. India’s minister of state for environment and forests in the same government, Kamal Nath, could have easily pointed out to his ministerial colleague …
To estimate the health costs arising out of air or water pollution, economists calculate the costs of increased mortality (valuing premature deaths resulting from pollution) and increased morbidity (estimating the medical expenses incurred and wages lost due to sickness). Epidemiological studies carried out in cities in developed countries have revealed …
The major environmental costs that have not been calculated by Brandon and Hommann (B&H;) are those arising out of biodiversity loss, pollution due to hazardous wastes and the rapidly rising costs of providing clean water as a result of growing pollution of surface and groundwater sources. No attempt has also …
Delhi, the proud capital of India, is today being blasted by the severest health effects of air pollution amongst the country's cities, according to the Brandon and Hommann (B&H;) study carried out for the World Bank. The study concludes that some 7,500 people die a premature death every year in …
"We need high growth, but not at the cost of the environment or health. We have sufficient laws to ensure a cleaner industrial development. But do the entrusted agencies do their jobs? Industry says its purpose is creation of wealth; environmental damage depletes this wealth. What we need is an …
it is showdown time once again in Europe as uk channelises efforts towards reneging its promise of culling more than 125,000 cattle heads, touted as the only measure to reduce the risk of spreading the mad cow disease. Seeking another eu review on the whole beef episode, it has at …
Ever seen a chicken transform itself into a duck? The discovery of resear chers at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College, both in the US, seems to have done that. On injecting a mutant gene for bone morphogenetic protein (BMP, a growth factor involved in …
How do some species of bacteria and a species of algae manage to survive in the inhospitable salty waters of the Dead Sea? Researchers in Israel and USA have got an answer for at least one such bacterium, Haloarcula marismortui . Since a high concentration of salts pull water molecules …
in many species, the sex of an individual is determined by the chromosomal constitution of the cells in that individual. For example, in humans, both males and females have 23 pairs of chromosomes; 22 of these are the same and are called autosomes. In females, the 23rd pair consists of …
