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 …
COCAINE is the single-most abused drug in the us. Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of the Duke University, both in the us, have taken the first step towards, what they claim, a therapeutic cure for addiction of cocaine and other …
SPECIES are to biology what electrons and protons are to physics or what mole- cules are to chemistry. A species is a set of individuals of the same kind, It is the Darwinian process of natural selection that moulds a species. Since natural selection is a mechanism for weeding out …
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 …
ARE science and religion at loggerheads? It seems they are, at least in this case. A professor of bio-ethics and veterinary science at the Birmingham University, David Morton, recently defended his controversial statement that persons in a persistent vegetative state ("s), could replace animals in scientific experiments. Speaking at the …
THE international scientific community is contemplating the passage of a sentence of death: variola, the lethal smallpox virus, may become the first life form to be officially exterminated following a conscious decision of the community. If the World Health Assembly comprising representatives of all United Nations members gives the green …
HAEMOGLOBIN, the blood's red pigment which was until now thought to transport only oxygen to and bring out carbon dioxide from the body's tissues, has now been credited with yet another major function. In a finding that could mean a new look at treating disorders like blood pressure and a …
Medical researchers of the Kimmel Cancer Centre at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, US, have identified a gene linked to three types of cancers and potentially, to other types as well. The gene called fragile histidine triad (FHIT), offers doctors valuable clues in spotting inllerited genetic mutations that can cause …
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 …
NICOTINE is often cursed as the most addictive drug. Recent discovery of an important bio-chemical difference in the brain tissues of smokers suggests another factor - independent of nicotine - by which smoking can become addictive. Researchers in the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Louisiana, us, discovered an enzyme, monoamine oxidase …
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 …
Scientists are now working towards developing efficient vaccines out of 'complements', proteins which safeguard against disease-causing pathogens (New Scientist, Vo1149, No 2014). Douglas Fearon and his team at the University of Cambridge, UK, and immunologists from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, US, are experimenting with the complement protein C3. …
FORTY-ONE year old Tully ofCold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, us, bears an uncommon epithet: the lord of the flies. Sitting for hours together in a dark closet which resounds to the buzzing of hundreds of flies is the way, according to Tully, to unravel~ne of the least understood mysteries …
THE ideal way of curing an inherited disorder would be to adopt gene therapy (correct the genetic defect). Failing that, it would be worth exploring whether the severity of the disorder might be ameliorated by substituting a functional gene product - protein - in place of the dysfunctional product (or …
DEPOSITS of cholesterol left untreated in one's blood vessels could mean death. There is also a chance that if the blood vessel is cleared by angioplasty, it would collapse at the post-operative stage. Angioplasty is a procedure wherein a tube having a balloon at its tip is guided to the …
ALTHOUGH the significance of Tegular exercising in low~ring blood pressure in persons with mild to moderate hyper- tension has been established by earlier studies, its relevance in relieving very severe hypertension has only recently been emphasised. Researchers at the 'Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in Washington in the us conducted studies …
The standard practice of removing small throat tumours using laser is ineffective against the larger ones, so a new procedure using a special drug and light rays can reduce the suffering of patients, if not cure them. The drug called photofrin - manufactured by QLT Phototherapeutics Incorporated of Vancouver in …
Diabetics need not lose sleep over their vulnerability to cardiovascular diseases. The new discovery that vitamin C infusions into the blood- stream avert cardiovascular complications will certainly allay their fears. Certain chemical signals discharged by a diabetic result in blood vessels loosing their ability to constrict and dilate; which causes …
DUTCH researchers recently came to conclude that balloon angioplasty and not laser, is more effective in removing blockages in blood vessels connected to the heart. The finding came after a three-year study comparing the two methods by Dutch researchers. Meanwhile, another study found that the technique could also help combat …
The day may not be far when people with balding pates will have a permanent solution to their problem. Bradford University (UK) researchers have isolated hair cells from balding pates for the first time. (Spectrum, November-December 1995, No 249). The research involves comparing test-tube cultures of cells from balding and …
VISION is one, of the most stunning achievements of evolution. Beginning in our ancestors with a semi-transparent membrane that had let in light, the visual system in higher animals has evolved to an amazing level of sophistication. The first element in the system, the eye, is as close to a …
