Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
BLOOD donors are usually looked upon as altruists. But what most people, including the donors themselves, do not know is that by donating blood they are only prolonging their lives. Finnish researchers claim that they have discovered striking evidence that blood donors are far less likely to succumb to heart …
TO SAY that using foetuses destined for abortion as test subjects for gene therapy would create a formidable controversy would be a gross understatement. But that is exactly what French Anderson of the University of Southern California, USA, wants to do. Anderson recently announced that he was seeking approval for …
A VERY simple health intervention has been making waves in the US. Signs in shopping malls outlining the health benefits of using stairs instead of escalator have increased their use significantly. "Simple and inexpensive interventions like these can increase physical activity," conclude researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine …
CHANGES in diet could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease, says a new study. Boosting the intake of vitamin B12 and folate could help you keep this dreaded neurological disorder at bay. An Oxford University-based team of international experts began the Optima project in 1988 to study ageing and …
A CAT scanner developed at the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is allowing geneticists to watch the effects of a genetic mutation on the organs of a living animal. Called the MicroCAT, the scanner produces images at 10 times the resolution available with conventional CAT scanners. It uses X-ray …
When the one-way valves in the veins of the leg malfunction, the resulting build-up of blood can lead to painful swelling, better known as varicose veins. Usually, leg bandages are prescribed which often lead to allergies, apart from making patients uncomfortable. Recently, doctors in India discov- ered that medicinal leeches …
A breakthrough which could revolutionise the practice of neurosurgery has been achieved. Now certain life-threatening tumour lodged deep inside the brain can be accessed through nasal endoscopy. The technique was improvised by Vijay Sheel Kumar and his team at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi. The tumour is accessed through the …
CHIROPRACTIC is a system of treatment where the backbone is treated mainly by manipulations. The treatment does not prescribe drugs or chemicals. It has almost no appeal among pharmaceuticals. And its effectiveness and safety has been questioned more often than not by cynics, other medical professionals and even the public. …
The next generation of anti-AIDS drugs could be based on a chemical extracted from green coffee beans, US researchers claim. Edward Robinson and his colleagues from the University of California made extracts from over 60 plants routinely used by medicine men of the Kallawaya tribes in Bolivia. They discovered that …
BETWEEN our eyes, something always smells. Right, it is the nose. And till now, the nose has always taken the rear seat when it came to radical medical breakthroughs. But now, those with a nose for innovation have found a novel use for... well, the nose, US researchers say very …
WHAT caused the influenza pandemic of 1918 and early 1919 in which 20 million to 40 million people died worldwide and why did so many die in the islands of Spitsbergen, situated in the high Artic between mainland Norway and Greenland? The answer to these questions may lie in the …
PHYSICIST Richard Seed, 69, a Ph D from Harvard University who had claimed that he will clone human beings, has said that he will first clone himself because of the possible medical risks attached to the process. He said his wife will carry the embryo which will be created by …
A RADICAL form of "face off surgery, being used at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, aims to rid patients of recurring nasopharyngeal cancer, a deadly cancerous tumour which forms in the centre of the head behind the nose and found mostly in southern China. To cut out the tumour, …
ONE DAY it may be possible to stave off the damage caused by heart attacks by using cells from the muscles in patients' arms and legs. Scientists have successfully performed this operation in rabbits, and hope to start human trials within the next 18 months. During a heart attack, heart …
Yeast and roundworms may give research into birth defects a boost. An enzyme needed to make healthy reproductive cells turns out to be the same in both, and probably helps prevent birth defects in humans as well. Before human sperm and eggs are formed, the chromosomes in the parental cell …
BRITISH doctors have discovered new cases of a sleeping disease which swept the world in the 1920s but was thought - till now - to have died out equally mysteriously. Encephalitis Lethargica affected five million people and killed over a million. Thousands were left in a seemingly- permanent and bizarre …
GIVE it another decade, and the robot will gather enough medical knowledge in its microchips to perform complex surgeries on human patients. And the process, according to doctors and scientists, has already begun. Over a decade ago, medical experts developed something called laparoscopic surgery - in which instruments arc inserted …
twenty years ago, the world received a major jolt when reports about the existence of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) virus was confirmed. It has spread so fiercely over the years that it now rivals history's deadliest epidemics
The world's 12,000 top researchers believe that HIV-infected mothers can protect their babies from the killer virus. Recent studies reveal that if the infected mother is administered the anti-HIV drug, AZT, and gives birth by caesarean, chances of the virus transfer to a baby is virtually eliminated. The studies are …
Accidents in the operating theatre can now be reduced significantly, thanks to a new, cordless portable vacuum cleaner developed at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, that removes fluids easily and efficiently. At present, most surgeons use suction tubes from central vacuum systems mounted on the wall to remove blood, saline …
