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, using needles thinner than human hair, have injected mosquitoes with an aJtered virus that blocked the insects' ability to transmit dengue fever, a major killer i&the; tropics, "We don't know how practical this is," said Ken Olson, a researcher at the Oregon State University, US, "But we have shown …
AIDS research received a new impetus with the discovery of a protein that helps the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) enter the immune system cells, teeing off a deadly cycle of destruction (Down To Earth, Vo15, No 2). The primary target of the HIV virus is a receptor molecule, CD-4, which …
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) has detected Water inthe planetary nebula NGC7027. The ISO is ideally suited for observations, since it is outside the earth's atmosphere, which acts a major absorber of infrared radiations. Thus a major advance has been made in solving the "missing oxygen problem". The amount of …
THE study of Neandertal bones discovered in the Vindija Cave, Croatia, in the '70s has provided important clues about the lives of these hunter-gatherers, who occupied this cave some 50,000 years ago. The first Neandertal fossils were named after Neaderthal or Neander Valley in Germany, where they were discovered in …
LACK of proper knowledge about poisoning and the use of antidotes leads to a number of deaths in the sub-continent. Now the first National Poisons Information Centre has been set up at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The Centre will function round-the-clock and give immediate tips …
ALEX Muller and Georg Bednorz of the International Business Machines had reported observing superconductivity at 35 Kelvin in 1986. This report caused a stir in the scientific community, because the phenomenon of super- conductivity had hitherto, only been observed at much lower temperatures. Since then, over 100 high temperature superconductivity …
In a country frequently besieged by floods and storms, there are reportedly severallakh people suffering from five diseases like tuberculosis (TB), goitre, filaria, kalazar, and leprosy in eight northern districts of Bangladesh. A joint survey conducted by the Dhaka University and the World Health Organization found that 2,80,000 people have …
It has come off. Finally, the much awaited and much debated food-for-oil deal was agreed upon between Iraq and the UN recently. While the accord will take some burden off the Iraqi people, it will also help the UK and the US to agree to total lifting of sanctions, which …
The debate over the magic qualities of vitaminCseems to be ending in its favour. Mark Levine of the National Institute of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda in the US, conducted a study and found that 200 milligrams a day of vitamin C appears to be an ideal daily amount. This …
IF FEAR of tooth decay is what stops you from having starchy food, it will soon be relegated to the past. A revolution in the field of dentistry is on the anvil. Soon, we may even be able to eliminate tooth decay by just biting into a fruit. A remarkable …
Scientists at the University of Virginia, USA, have found that circadian clocks in vertebrates arose 450 million years ago. The circadian clock is the brain's light-sensitive timepiece which regulates hormone and sleep cycles. The components of the clock being soft tissues, they do not fossilise; so scientists devised an interesting …
THE discovery of certain rocks in the Swiss Alps is proving to be an earth-shattering news for geologists the world over, as it holds the promise of shaking the basic tenets of the subject. Found high in the mountains of southern Switzerland, near the Italian border, these rocks are thought …
Slow, creeping movements of the earth might actually precede earthquakes, according to Clifford H Thurber, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin, US. Monitoring these creep events in the San Andreasfaultin California for some time now, Thurber contends that these may prove useful in providing short-termwarning (of about four months) …
The problems of the world's cities are likely to occupy centrestage at the second UN conference on human settlements in Istanbul, Turkey, this June. Some analysts, however, doubt whether urban issues should assume such an important role at the summit. "For whom are we building cities?" questions Sujit Chowdhury, chairperson …
SEVERAL thousand hectares of forests were destroyed in big wildfires that raged across southwest us in the beginning of May. A raging blaze which broke out in the 1,16-million-ha Tonto forest in Arizona, was brought under control after hundreds of firefighters battled it out for more than a week. The …
X-ray astronomers have reported a bizarre X-ray emitter in the direction of our galactic centre. C Kouveliotou and colleagues have seen this object in the intensity records of the large area detectors of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on the orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The odd thing about …
RESEARCHERS have been trying to evolve a refrigerator that would cut down on power consumption and at the same time prevent the depletion of earth's ozone layer. Now, scientists from the Russian Institute of Light Alloys (VILS) in Moscow have successfully tested a new refrigerating unit that neither uses an …
CARBON is a remarkable element; not only is it the basis of life as we know it, it also has an amazing diversity in its inorganic form. From coal to graphite to diamond and carbon-60, the variety in its structure and properties is unmatched. Diamond is the hardest substance known …
Hypertension and anaemia are the new buzzwords in health circles in Bhutan. For the first time, under the health systems research programme, the two ailments which primarily affects pregnant women, will be the focus of thorough research after they were identified to be the most common prevalent illnesses in the …
IN AN apparent move at safeguarding its citizens, the French government began handing out iodine pills to some 400,000 people living near nuclear plants in the last week of April. The act was more significant in the wake of the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26. …
