Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated January 21, 2024 in the matter of ‘News item titled “Feeling anxious? Toxic air could be to blame” appearing in Times of India dated 10.10.2023’. NGT had directed CPCB to file a …
A recent study of yellow baboons suggests that environmental stress leads to infertility in them. In a season when food is scarce, conception rates are likely to halve. Scientists could correlate the environmental stress to low levels of progesterone in these primates. The study strongly suggests that reducing stress levels …
Scientists attending the recent Annual Congress of European Society of Cardiology in Birmingham, UK, believe that the Chlamydia pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori bacteria can cause heart attacks. People with coronary artery disease were observed having high levels of antibodies to these bacteria in their blood. The inflammation caused by the …
• India achieved another milestone in nuclear research when Kamini , the mini nuclear reactor using uranium 233 as fuel, attained criticality last month. With this, India became the only country in the world to use uranium 233, derived from thorium, as a fuel in a nuclear mode. • In …
a team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas have taken the first, albeit small steps towards making the impossible a reality. Yes, a man may be able to father a child even in his 100th year or …
an unusual controversy has enveloped the whole of Europe. The issue in question is the decision of the uk government to abide by the law and destroy some 3,000 frozen embryos. A 1990 British law lays down that frozen embryos, which are used in in vitro fertilisation must be destroyed …
A sample of fluid taken from the womb can reveal a lot about the health of the unborn baby. This test called amniocentesis is ordinarily given between the 15th and 18th weeks of pregnancy and is used to detect genetic problems and birth defects in the foetus. Researchers at the …
THIS mouse, was born in the Jackson laboratory at Bar Harbor, Maine, us. Its birth marked the culmination of years of research by developmental biologist John Eppig and his research assistant Marilyn O'Brien. The actual process of raising the creature took three weeks, which is the normal period of gestation …
A RECENT study has revealed that after a period of heavy nuclear testing, a large number of babies with Down's syndrome were born in FyIde area of Lancashire in the UK. it also showed that a fire at the nearby Windscale (now Sellafield) nuclear power station in 1957 preceded a …
Caught in the debate over that thin boundary line between life and void is a promising Indian birth control vaccine. The National Institute of Immunology's (nii) unique vaccine "immunises" women against human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) hormone, which is produced by the cluster of cells that develops from a fertilised egg, …
If an abnormality shows up in an ultrasound scan of a foetus, the image can now be transmitted to experts hundreds of kilometres away through a special fibre optic cable and their opinion received - all within a matter of minutes (Spectrum, No 245). The new technology is being tried …
The First Lady of the US, Hillary Clinton, officially launched a 'Safe Home Delivey Kit' during her visit to a Kathmandu clinic in Nepal on March 31. Developed after 2 years of intensive research, the kit has been produced by Maternal and Child Health Products, a local company. Of 700,000 …
SUCCOUR came from Rome. For the "pro-lifers" in the US -- as the members of the anti-abortion camp style themselves -- the 11th encyclical of Pope John Paul II, a 189-page pronunciation of papal wrath against abortion and euthanasia -- came at a moment when the battle for the fate …
Two squirts of Krazy Glue may soon be all it takes to prevent pregnancies. Gregory Berkey, radiologist at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, administered small quantities of methylcyano-acrylate (MCA), into the fallopian tubes of 17 rabbits, blocking the tubes and preventing all rabbit pregnancies even 6 months after …
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 …
"Women who were deemed witches and killed in medieval Europe were actually healers and midwives," says Janet Chawla, a researcher who has examined rituals performed by traditional Indian midwives. "Women were debarred from the study of medicine and a rising male medical profession, in collusion with the Church, participated in …
DAIS, those traditional Indian midwives both respected and feared as carriers of natal wisdom, deliver 67 per cent of the babies born in the country. They apply traditional skills derived from the ancient science of Ayurveda. The dai treats childbirth as a natural -- as against a scientifically-mediated -- process …
AFTER designer clothes and designer food, will designer babies be next? Are you a black who wants a white baby or a 65-year-old woman who wants to conceive? No problem, except that of ethics. Made-to-order babies are now possible with the rapid development of assisted reproductive technologies (See box). Till …
CANADA'S Royal Commission on Reproductive Technology has recommended a ban on sex determination tests. It has been stated that Indian Canadians and other South Asians visit ultrasound clinics for prenatal testing to have only male children. According to the Commission's report, sex selection "reinforces the idea of a child's sex …
DREAMS are often the crucibles of new ideas. Remember Kekule dreaming up the ringed benzene structure. Margie Profet, too, had one such dream in 1988. She dreamt that menstrual bleeding was a broom that swept away sperm-borne offending microbes from the uterus. Now she has made her dream public, contesting …
