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 …
THALASSAEMIA patients have reason to rejoice. Dominic Ciavatta and his colleagues at the University of Alabama, us, have managed to generate thalassaernic mice which can help in finding genetic methods for treatment of the disease in humans (Proceedings of the us National Academy ofSciences, Vol 92, 1995). Haemoglobin, responsible for …
GLIAL cells constitute 25 per cent of the brain of a fly, 65 per cent of that of a rat and 90 per cent of that of a human being. Yet, their functions have remained shrouded in mystery. F W Pfrieger and B A Barres Of USA'S Stanford University School …
DESPITE their oxygen deficiency, which should cause them to die or should stunt their growth, turnours often continue to thrive. Why is this so? Recent work by T G Graeber and colleagues of the Stanford University School of Medicine in the us suggests that the absence of an all-purpose protein …
A NEW route used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to sneak into the body has been tracked by scientists. A series of studies on rhesus monkeys has suggested that the virus that causes AIDS can infect individuals through the mouth, and this includes even those persons who do not …
Researchers, using needles thinner than human hair, have injected mosquitoes with an aJtered virus that blocked the insects' ability to transmit dengue fever, a major killer i&the; tropics, "We don't know how practical this is," said Ken Olson, a researcher at the Oregon State University, US, "But we have shown …
AIDS research received a new impetus with the discovery of a protein that helps the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) enter the immune system cells, teeing off a deadly cycle of destruction (Down To Earth, Vo15, No 2). The primary target of the HIV virus is a receptor molecule, CD-4, which …
CANCER patients at a hospital in Edinburgh are being treated with a drug that gums up the molecular :ccelerator pedals' on the surface of tumour cells. Blocking these sites could halt the growth of tumour cells, so that they wither and die. The drug is designed to treat small-celllung cancer, …
FEELING poorly? You might get to know what is wrong deep inside you by swallowing a snake- a robotic snake, that is -designed to wind its way through your intestines and photograph any abnormality there by its miniature video cameras. If it is a robot that slithers or wriggles or …
A two-drug therapy that promises to cure stomach ulcers and prevent their recurrence has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Under the newly approved regimen, patients will take the existing ulcer drug Prilosec in conjunction with an antibiotic called Biaxin for 14 days, then continue to take …
FOR women, pregnancy is a time of joy. But it is also a time when otherwise young healthy women develop some serious medical problems. However, women nurturing life in their wombs can escape one such complication by just taking a simple precaution of adding calcium in their diet. Nurturing the …
IF FEAR of tooth decay is what stops you from having starchy food, it will soon be relegated to the past. A revolution in the field of dentistry is on the anvil. Soon, we may even be able to eliminate tooth decay by just biting into a fruit. A remarkable …
Crippled Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) could be useful in gene therapy, says Inder Verma, a gene therapy specialist at the Salk Institute in California, USA. Retroviruses, the family to which HIV belongs, are good vehicles for delivering therapeutic genes into cells of patients with genetic disorders. But while retroviruses cannot …
A bacterial colony was recently discovered 4,500 ft below the earth's surface, surviving apparently on only rock and water. The cluster was found in an aquifer near the river Columbia (close to the Hanford nuclear facility), in the state of Washington, US, by microbiologist Todd Stevens and geochemist James McKinley, …
Researchers contend that a large number of women undergo masectomy (removal of breast) unneces- sarily, when a tiny tumour is detected. Called ductal carcinoma, this cancer is contained in the milk ducts in the breast. Sometimes they are so small that they go unnoticed till breast x- ray is conducted. …
WITH the fallout of the mad cow disease in Britain, attention has been drawn to its human counterpart - Crc utzfeldt- Jakob disease (CM). Reported simultaneously in 1921 by two independent scientists, Hans G Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob, the disease affects the brain. Normally the disease strikes those who are …
A NEW find by a team of researchers from the Duke University Medical Center, us, may hold a lot of promise in finding a suitable antidote to Huntington's disease. This genetic neurodegenerative condition that strikes in the middle age causes involuntary muscular movements and, at an advanced stage, dementia. Three …
DRUG development may not take as long as it once did. A new method of 'combinatorial chemistry' is being tested at a laboratory of Pharmacopeia Inc in Princeton, New Jersey, us. To rapidly screen scores of chemicals against diseases, combinatorial chemistry employs computers, robots and biotechnology research information to come …
A sugar-based pill has been lauded as the most promising candidate for a male contraceptive. In fertilisation, the sperm penetrates a sugary coating around the egg with the help of an enzyme called N-acetyl-beta- D-hexoaminidase (HEX). After several computer-aided drug design programmes, Joseph Hall, a biochemist from North Carolina University, …
Researchers from the Harvard Medical School and Brigham Women's Hospital, Massachusetts, US, have found an unlikely scapegoat for all the lazybones found dozing at work: Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. In a study published in the February issue of Nature, the researchers reported that normal indoor …
THERE is less risk of developing coronary Heart diseases if vou lead the traditional Indian lifestyle oIf good food, joint farmly, morning players and good education. This was the message delivered at the end of a four year comparative study undertaken by IvIonilek Hospital and Research Centre (MHRC), Jaipur. The …
