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 …
IMAGiNE being asked questions like, "Have you ever had a period of 2 weeks or mdre when you had trouble failing asleep, staying asleep, waking up too early, or sleeping too much?" : similar set of questions pertaining to feelings of hopelessness, depression and worthlessness of life form the Suicidal …
AGONISING biopsies to detect cancer, which bring as much trauma as the following invasive surgery, might become a nightmare of the past if a technology developed by us-based Matritech Inc receives the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The technology works on the basis of at least one …
What are the primary causes of blindness in the world today? How widespread is the problem? There are 23-45 million blind people in the world. We define blindness differently for those 2 figures: "economic blindness" and "social blindness". Economic blindness would be less than 6/60th vision, which is the top …
THE scientific community is deeply troubled. The 1st ever reported case of aids was not aids at all! That ends the certainty with which they so long had regarded the origin of the disease. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre, New York, claims that the original …
CAN the mind repair and revive a body in the terminal stages of entropy, flying in the face of just about every medical precedent? Peter Hettel was dying irrevocably of cancer of the sinus. He chose to take the road, so far, least taken: he chose to follow the almost …
Deepak Chopra, author of the American bestseller, Quantum Healing, uses the analogy of wave-particle duality in quantum physics to enunciate a theoretical basis of mind-body medicine. Light can behave like a wave A, or a particle B. In Newtonian physics, they are totally different, since waves are nonmaterial and particles …
Traditional Eastern philosophies view mind and body as different manifestations of the same life force. In the West, one of the earliest medical theories held that disease is a result of an imbalance of nonphysical humours. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, originator of the Hippocratic oath, taught that the body …
MEN and women not only think differently -- as Mary Wollestonecraft first said last century -- but also use different parts of their brain to do the same thing, says a group of American researchers. Bennit A Shywitz of the Department of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut, and …
British doctors are investigating the possibility of diagnosing certain illnesses by "smelling" the patient's breath using an electronic "nose". The ScanMaster is extremely sensitive and can detect the presence of the ulcer-forming bacteria Helicobacter pylori in the stomach. The ScanMaster relies on vibrating quartz crystals coated with a thin film …
IN CASE you are one of the lazy bums for whom a spot of physical exercise, pushups or jogging is a big pain, then the recent findings and recommendations of the United States based-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine, should be a cause …
WHO says that dead men tell no tales? They do, but in a tearing hurry: cadavers can't be preserved for too long. But now "The Visible Man" -- a cyberspace cadaver, actually a highly detailed atlas of the human body available over Internet-- has been unveiled by American researchers. The …
THE "liberalised" drug policy announced in September last year by the government came as a blow to the already overburdened consumers. A new Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), issued on January 7, has removed 96 bulk drugs from the ambit of price control. Now that the increase in the prices …
American scientists say that they now know why HIV does not spread through saliva: a protein called SLPI in human saliva acts as a "guard", binding to white blood cells and stopping them from becoming infected (New Scientist, Vol 145, No 1964). Researchers led by Sharon Wahl and Tessie McNeely …
A software programme called Computer Imaging Sperm Selection (CISS) that scientists working with rare animals incarcerated in zoos use to enhance the chances of fertilisation, is now being tested on humans. Recently in London, a woman gave birth to a 4 kg child with the help of this programme. The …
Some cases of mental illness in human beings may have a viral origin, say a group of German researchers. They have found traces of genetic material of a virus -- which makes horses hyperactive -- in the blood cells of people with depression and other mental disorders. The discovery of …
HE HAD jet black hair when he quit the Oval Office 12 years ago, at unnerving variance with the network of age-lines on his face, wattles, dewlaps and all. But even then, his brain had already kicked off into the bottomless abyss of Alzheimer's disease. "I now begin the journey …
Parkinson's disease affects millions of old people. The symptoms include progressive tremor, rigidity of limbs and difficulty in body coordination. The cause of Parkinson's is unknown, the pathology poorly understood. The main physiological change is the depletion of the neurotransmitter -- a chemical that helps transmit nerve impulses -- dopamine. …
Coronary Heart Diseases (CHD) such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and strokes, are the leading cause of death among elderly persons. Eighty per cent of all deaths due to CHD occur in persons over 65. Most common forms of CHD, such as atherosclerosis, are caused by structural and functional …
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a mental disorder resulting from brain degeneration. It affects almost 1 in 10 individuals over the age of 65. The disease is characterised by confusion, personality and behavioural changes, impaired judgement and difficulty in following words and directions. Eventually, it robs its victims of volition. Identified …
WATCHING the Bollywood blockbuster, Deewar, one marvelled at the facial expressions of the angry young man that Amitabh Bachchan portrayed. But in case you failed to detect any emotion on Bachchan's face, or generally cannot identify any human expression, get your grey matter examined: you'll probably find that you have …