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. …
India faces an acute double burden of disease. While nutritional and communicable diseases remain serious, non-communicable diseases are on the rise, says the eighth report of the World Health Organization on the world health situation. India spent slightly more than 3 per cent of its GNP on health in 1988. …
YOUR SALIVA may give a clue to your personality, says James M Dabbs, professor of psychology at Georgia State University in the US. Dabbs is trying to establish whether a relationship exists between the levels of testosterone in saliva samples and human behaviour. Dabbs has collected about 2,500 saliva samples …
The man who developed a test for carcinogenic properties in synthetic chemicals now claims virtually all chemical-related cancer scares of the past two decades have been hysterically exaggerated. Applying his test to natural products -- vegetables, for instance -- Bruce Ames, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University …
A sensitive method was developed for the determination of bromate in bread by capillary gas chromatography with a mass detector (GC/MS). Bromate was extracted with water from bread samples. After centrifugation, the supernatant was filtered and Cl− was removed by an OnGuard‐Ag cartridge column.
THIS YEAR'S Nobel prize -- worth $825,000 -- for physiology and medicine has been awarded jointly to UK's Richard Roberts and USA's Phillip Sharp for their 1977 discovery of "split genes". The discovery took everybody by surprise because till then, the gene had been thought indivisible. The two scientists made …
TOURISM is often in conflict with conservation and, because tourism is often detrimental to natural resources, conservationists view the relationship between the two with a degree of unhappiness. There could, however, be a situation where tourism and conservation are organised so that both benefit from the relationship. This means that …
A CONTROVERSY is raging in the UK about the setting up of windmills in the countryside. Some conservationists contend they spoil the landscape and are uneconomic, while others refute these allegations and say windmills are the cleanest source of energy. The debate heated up when British environment minister John Gummer …
AUDIO compact discs (CDs) were only half the story. Electronic entertainment manufacturers are now getting ready to flood the market with high-resolution video CDs that can be played on an audio CD player by simply attaching an adaptor. They are also planning to launch video recorders that can record digital …
TWO US researchers say the cholera outbreak sweeping Bangladesh has assumed pandemic proportions and is part of a larger outbreak affecting India's eastern coast, reports The Lancet. The researchers say vaccines being developed against other cholera strains are unlikely to be effective against this strain, which originated in the region …
ANAMICA, a computer software developed by scientists at the Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG) in Hyderabad, is poised to revolutionise medical diagnosis and surgery by producing three-dimensional images of the insides of organs such as the brain, heart and even bones. What ANAMICA -- ANURAG's Medical Imaging and …
IF ONE thing is certain in life, it is death. In thinking of death, two things come to mind. First, there is a certain moment at which life ceases. Second, even with the most health-conscious lifestyle, luck in avoiding accidents and freedom from illness, the likelihood of dying increases as …
RESEARCHERS working on ozone depletion are being attacked increasingly by critics who say the fears they have aroused concerning ozone depletion due to release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are all part of a politically motivated sham. One of the first such attacks was made by a Brazilian meteorologist who pointed out …
ASPIRIN -- the world's most popular pain-killer -- if consumed regularly, may reduce the risk of cancer of the digestive system, suggests a study undertaken by Michael J Thun and his team from the American Cancer Society and the Emory University School of Public Health in Atlanta. They found a …
WHEN AIDS first came to Africa, the continent's leaders accused the rich whites of the world of foisting the disease on poor blacks to develop a market for western pharmaceuticals. The Indian government hasn't shown this degree of paranoia, but its requirement that long-staying foreigners be HIV-negative reveals its suspicion …
LIGHTING offers much scope for improving energy efficiency in Pakistan, according to the country's National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON), which says the energy savings potential in lighting exceeds 50 per cent nationwide. Using a World Bank-format for planning, ENERCON is seeking funding to implement a five-year energy efficiency improvement programme …
HUGE DEPOSITS of iron found in different parts of the world has puzzled geologists because oxygen, which is an important constituent of iron ore, was scarce when they were formed about 3.5 to 1.8 billion years ago. Now, F Widell and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Marine …
WITH US unemployment remaining steady at an unhappy 7 per cent, the only consolation that President Bill Clinton had to offer Americans is that the Japanese are finally experiencing the same problem. In an effort to counter the joblessness that is troubling the world's largest economies, Clinton proposed a global …
WHILE CHOOSING a fabric, fingers may be the best judge of a cloth's quality, but they are not reliable in predicting the cloth's behaviour after it is tailored. Now, a mathematical technique called fuzzy-set theory, may enable textiles to be designed according to predetermined attributes related to comfort and performance …
Western scientists set the trends RAGHAVENDRA GADAGKAR TO BEGIN with, we must realise there is a lot that is right with it. Even without considering those Indian scientists working outside the country, a significant number of Indian scientists have individually excelled in their fields of research and are easily comparable …
PARASITIC flies that lay eggs in bumble-bees would not be so smug if they knew that the bees have a way of hitting back. Entomologists say parasitised bumble-bees render their abdomens inhospitable to fly larvae development by staying outdoors in the cold all night. Swiss researchers C B Muller and …
