Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Haripriya Patel Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 24/03/2025. The matter related to the dumping yard at Baliapanda which is situated 50-100 meter away from Puri sea beach and a few km away from Puri …
David Smith, a British chemical physicist, and Patrick Spanel, a Prague-based physicist, have developed a device that can diagnose ailments from the smell of compounds found in the breath of the afflicted. The device, known as selected ion flow tube (SIFT), was demonstrated at a recent meeting of the American …
Breathalysers for diagnosing the cause of a sore throat or serious diseases such as asthma and diabetes will soon revolutionise medicine, predict researchers from Imperial College, London. These devices will look out for chemicals in the breath of patients that are associated with certain infections or illnesses. Respiratory specialist Peter …
despite the developments that have helped doctors understand and fortify the human cardiovascular system, medical science is still groping about blindly when it comes to one very crucial question: how to assess whether an individual will develop heart problems or not? But then predicting the future is never easy, and …
tampering with genes in human sperm and eggs is outlawed, as any unforeseen side effects would be passed on to future generations. However, us health officials are worried that the human repro-ductive cells may have accidentally been contaminated during gene therapy trials. Therapeutic genes are usually shuttled into the body …
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will provide an assistance of US $ 4.4 crore for phasing out the use of 137 tonne of cholorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The ministry of environment and forests and the UNDP have recently signed an agreement in this regard. Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the UNDP …
every expectant mother is given a mandatory ultrasound scan of her womb, the resulting image from which often looks more like a sandstorm than a growing baby. Although images obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (mri) and x-rays are much sharper, doctors still prefer good, old ultrasound to the these methods. …
even when computers are increasingly being used as major diagnostic tools, the role of physicians has not diminished. Computers are especially helpful in cases when complex analytical procedures have to be performed with small samples. But physicians are still required to diagnose, analyse results in conjunction with clinical symptoms and …
a simple 15-minute screening test for people suffering from headache has been devised by scientists at the Cincinnati Headache Institute, Ohio University, usa. The procedure would help doctors know the exact location of pain, the severity of pain and whether other factors such as stress, are contributing to it. This …
• DENGUE DETECTION KIT: Casil Health Products Ltd, Ahmedabad in colla-boration with Pan Bio Pty Ltd, Australia has developed a rapid detection kit for the dreaded dengue fever . The detection kit confirms the presence of the dengue flave virus in only five minutes without the aid of any other …
power deal: USA-based Enron Corporation has won a bid to build a US $500-million gas pipeline and power plant in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. Enron is among the first to benefit from the concessions made by the Brazilian government to companies that will produce electricity in the energy-starved …
several diagnostic dilemmas can be resolved in a matter of minutes by means of an exquisitely sensitive testing device developed by Australian researchers. Bruce Cornell and his team at the Cooperative Research Centre for Molecular Engineering and Technology at the University of Sidney have come up with Biosensor, a prototype …
Australian chemists have developed a simple test kit, which could help prevent millions of Africans from being poisoned by the cyanide that occurs naturally in cassava, their staple food. The test involves mixing 100 mg of cassava with 0.5 ml of water. The mixture is then placed on paper containing …
mammography, a low energy x-ray suitable for soft tissues is considered by oncologists as the best method available for early detection of breast cancers. But a lot of conflicting reports are appearing about the use of this diagnostic test. Two diametrically opposite views have been taken by the major agencies …
V SREERAJ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM A team of researchers, including C R Santoshkumar, consultant haematologist at the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), has been recently awarded a us patent for inventing a method for the determination of oxidised sulfuhydrl amino acids (osaa) in biological fluids like serum and cerebrospinal fluid. The other …
The revolution in microelectronics that created cellular phones and palmtop computers now allows doctors to take their healing equipments out of the hospital and on to the road. A US-based firm Nonin has developed fully functional electro cardiogram machines, no bigger than a box of chocolates, pocket-sized blood-sample analysers and …
Cytocell, a biotech firm from Oxfordshire, UK, has developed a simple, safe and reliable test that uses foetal blood cells that leak through the placenta into the mother's circulation, to detect genetic abnormalities. The technique may eventually replace amniocentesis, which presents a one-in-200 chance of a miscarriage. But the test …
x-rays have been put to enormous use in medical imaging since Roentgen first obtained a picture of the bones in his hand, almost a hundred years ago. But in the last few years, several new tools like magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ), computer aided tomography ( cat ) and …
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the first home screening test for the HIV virus, submitted recently to it by Elliot J Millenson, founder of University Hospital Laboratory of Bethesda, US. A person using the kit would draw blood from a finger, put it on a special laboratory paper …
HAEMOGLOBIN, the ubiquitous component of red blood cells (RBC), known to be a transporter of gases - ferrying oxygen from the lungs to tissues and carbon dioxide (c02) on the return journey - has been found to distribute a third gas on its rounds through the body. This gas is …
THE battle to conquer this killer disease is on. Scientists work relentlessly to devise better ways of diagnosing and eliminating deadly tumours. Recently, two groups of researchers, working separately, made yet another breakthrough in this direction, reports New Scientist, Vol 148, No 1998. Two techniques were developed - one for …
