WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
Genome sequencing of Methanococcus jannaschii, at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, US, has confirmed that this ancient-Iooking microorganism is not really a bacterium, but belongs to the phylogenetic family, Archaea (Science, VoI 271, No 5252). Methanococcus jannaschii lives near hot sea vents in temperatures close to …
THREE times in this century, chemists have designed and manufactured artificial molecules that have launched whole new industries: nylon, polyethylene and plexiglass. Donald Tomalia, chemist and former employee of Dow Chemicals Inc, has claimed that he might have just come up with a fourth one. Tomalia's creation is 'dendrimer', the …
An unknown disease that has claimed nearly 250 lives so far, has spread terror in the districts of western Nepal, specifically in Bajura and Accham. Efforts to trace the cause and identify the disease which has been raging for the past two months, have come to naught. The symptoms seem …
IT HAS long been an enduring enigma as to how a foetus, genetically very much a 'foreign' entity, is tolerated by the mother's immune system through the months of her pregnancy. At the molecular level it is rather puzzling that the foetus manages to retain a foothold even though many …
"Mad cows aside, why cat meat at all?" is the question being posed by some today. The disease has managed to reopen the familiar debate on the advantages and the wisdom of adopting vegetarianism. Mad cows seem to have instilled a fear in some flesh - eaters regarding the possible …
THE South Pacific region will now be out of bounds for countries wanting to conduct nuclear tests. At long last France, the UK and the us (with Russia and China) finally affixed their signatures, on March 25, to the I I -year old Treaty of Rarotongo, which seeks to ban …
Ronald Crystal of the Conell Medical Center in New York, US, is leading a research which aims at putting the cardiac surgeons out of business. Crystal's therapy relies on the ability of the common-cold virus to make foreign proteins when fitted with relevant genes and this is used to generate …
Rheumatoid arthritis, painful bone disorder in the joints, can be prevented, say researchers from the Kings College, and the Guys Hospital, both in London, by oral intakes of collagen two, a proteinaceous natural substance widely found in the joint tissues of vertebrates. Apart from arthritis, several other auto-immune diseases like …
As every available nook and corner on an already burdened earth sells for sky-rocketing prices, the raging issue of crowded cities,with,popu- lation tearing at its seams, once again takes centre stage. What have the cities of today the world over have to offer to its citizens? Squalor, diseases, scarcity of …
NEUTRON stars are among the most interesting candidates for observation in the universe. These are super-dense bodies, left behind after the occurence of a supernova explosion which results in the death of an extremely massive star. Some neutron stars can accrete (combine) material from other stars and thereby turn into …
Scientists from the Universities of Udine and Padova in Italy, and the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia, have observed a rather interesting habit among the European variety of toads called Bufo bufo and South American cane toads: they prefer the use of their right forelimbs. When …
NORWEGIAN hunters have just been given a bonanza - they have been bestowed the right by the wildlife authorities to kill more lynx (wild cats) than ever before. Citing the need for keeping the sheep and reindeer population in check, the Norwegian wildlife authorities say that the lynx population needs …
A major success is on the anvil for scientists at the University of London, which could mean an end to the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Michael WilsoQ and his colleagues have been testing a number of light sensitive compounds that kill bacteria immediately when activated for a few …
BY DISMISSING the irritable attitude of a patient as that of a bad case, a doctor may actually be overlooking a serious underlying malady. Depression, experts recently warned, often goes undiagnosed and untreated while the patient is treated for some evident disease. It may be manifested or masked by other …
The halo that surrounded it is slowly coming apart. Dubbed as the final solution for all that ailed humans, genetic engineering, or the manipulation of genetic material so as to alter the genes and hence the organism concerned, is today the target of wide-ranging criticism. The recent revelation which exposed …
THE animal kingdom is inhabited by some species which exist in groups or packs, and these groups are led and dominated upon by individual male or female members. It had been believed for long that animals which are subjugated are the most stressed and suffer from various problems like miscarriages …
Like ants and termites, bees too are known to follow a fixed path whenever they are on the move. Entomologists S A Cameron and J B Whitfield studied the Bombus tranversalis species of humble bee in the Amazonian rainforests. Worker bees - in order to obtain material to build a …
IT SEEMS to be a jinxed programme for the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA) in the us. While its first effort to deploy a satellite in space as part of the Tethered Satellite System - a joint us-Italian venture - ended unsuccessfully after the tether got jammed, this time, …
"Give kids more sugar and see them bounce off the wall", is what parents may think of sugar consumption causing hyperactivity in children. But, there is no evidence to prove this widely held belief (Journal of the American Medical Association, VoI274,No20). Sugar does not affect the behaviour or cognitive performance …
Horrifying details about the health ministry's negligence and connivance in spreading the Hiv among nearly 2,000 haemophiliacs in the country, have come to light after more than a decade. The revelations came after Naoto Kan, Japan's health and welfare minister and also . an AIDS-issues activist, ordered a probe. Kan …
