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. …
IT looked like 2 successive success stories for the animal rights activists in Britain. But now the script has turned sketchy. Their struggle against export of livestock to France and the Netherlands won the first round when they successfully blocked shipments of lambs and calves from the West Sussex port …
PLANETS in our solar system share a mysterious mathematical relationship. If you take the sequence 0, 3, 6, 12, add 4 to each number and divide by 10, you arrive at a ratio repeated in other systems -- the distances of particular planets from the Sun: distance of Earth from …
Researchers associated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in 12 countries have embarked on a project that aims to develop new varieties of food crops that will be better at absorbing critical minerals directly from the soil. Says Howarth E Bouis, director, CGIAR Micronutrients Project, "This is …
THIS decade is witness to the emergence of several issues regarding nutrition, health and environment. Nutrition in the Nineties attempts to compile articles about major issues regarding nutrition. Increased food production will lead to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition; ironically, this surfeit of food could have a negative impact …
The UK-based NEC Corporation and Ezaki Glico, a Japanese confectionary company, claim to have mastered the art of controlling and altering the catalytic properties of enzymes. For instance, the structure of neopullunase, a sugar producing enzyme found in starch, can be made to produce 30 per cent more sugar than …
THE universe is bloated almost beyond measure but about 90 per cent of its bulk is invisible. Intrigued cosmologists have postulated several theories about the missing folds of mass, but so far not one has as much as poked its nose out. Now, scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory …
Temperature changes affect the susceptibility of the aged to death from coronary artery disease, brain infarctioh (blood clot) and cerebra4 haemorrhage, suggests a I I -year study by Thai @cientists (Lancet Vol 345, No 8946). Researchers led by WenHarn Pan ofthe Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Academia Sinica, Taipei, found …
The Japanese computer giant, Toshiba Corporation, will now ensure a drastic reduction of paperwork in corporate offices. It has devised a system increasing the flexibility of networked computers. The new Wireless Desk Area system allows portable computers to form wireless communication networks. The equipment consists of communications software, with either …
While scientists have long known that all mammalian embryos have the basic female attributes -- uterus, fallopian tube and vagina -- what triggers some of them to change their sexual identity 30-45 days following conception was a mystery. Now scientists know how. Michael Weiss and his colleagues at the University …
European scientists claim that a new generation of artificial limbs that are controlled by the brain and similar to a "natural" extension of the body may soon become a reality. Says Paolo Dario, head of a consortium of research institutions from 4 European countries called INTER, "Our goal is to …
Daimler-Benz, the epitome of swank cars, is now all set to enter the world of multimedia ventures, announced Edzard Reuter, the group's chairperson. Currently, Daimler-Benz is holding "exploratory" talks with the country's largest media conglomerates to work out a viable deal. The company is also preparing to launch a range …
DOES environmental exposure to lead affect the intelligence of children? Yes, according to a fresh interpretation of over 20 studies on the issue, which rules that at age 5 or more, a doubling of body lead is associated with a loss of 1-2 IQ (intelligence quotient) points. But children below …
Those who crave for the comfort of a cotton shirt but hate ironing out its kinkiness can now look forward to wrinkleless cotton. Agracetus Inc, a US biotech company, is about to test cotton from a plant genetically customised to produce a creasefree cotton fibre (Science, Vol 266, No 5192). …
A DEBATE is raging in the us about the "Gulf War Syndrome" -- a mysterious illness that has scientists completely at sea. An extensive range of unexplained health problems has surfaced among soldiers who fought in the 1991 Gulf War, as well as in their families. Reports are coming in …
Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences has become the country's first hospital to launch a new technique to detect artherosclerosis -- a disease of the blood vessels caused by cholesterol deposition within the arteries. Called the Intra Vascular Ultra Sound (IVUS), the new technique is currently being demonstrated by …
TAKE some silk cotton. Add a dash of the bacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum. Keep aside for a few days. Sieve and dry. This, in essence, is the recipe for a new environment-friendly method of paper manufacture that scientists at the A M M Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre (MCRC) in Madras have …
An Indian scientist has produced a rice hybrid tolerant to saline conditions using a tissue culture-based method known as the "embryo rescue technique" (Current Science, Vol 67, Nos 9 and 10). K K Jena of Osmania University, Hyderabad, crossed high-yielding varieties of rice -- which are extremely sensitive to saline …
GATT seems to have done a lot of good to Glaxo. Consequent to changes in us patent laws, the company's patent for its renowned anti-ulcer drug Zantac has won an extension up to July 25, 1997. That gives an 18-month reprieve -- and nearly $5 billion in additional sales -- …
There is more to pigs than pork. Researchers at Purdue University in the US have cannibalised discarded swine to reconstruct damaged human arteries, veins, ligaments and tendons. Stephen F Badylak and his colleagues first sterilise the middle layer of a pig's small intestine, and then mould it into sheets and …
Now in the US if a passenger lights up during a flight, the purser may sue the manufacturer for "health problems" caused by passive smoking. The ruling, passed by a Miami judge, has triggered off a fracas between the anti-smoking lobby and tobacco firms. The Miami suit tests whether tobacco …
