The Punjab Energy Development Agency has released a draft green hydrogen policy aiming to achieve a green hydrogen and ammonia production capacity of 100 kilo tonnes per annum by 2030. The policy proposes extending incentives under the existing “Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022” to new green hydrogen and …
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, …
Private access Two Purdue University students discovered a major flaw in the highly-regarded Kerberos software, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and International Business Machines, US. Steven Lodin and Bryn R Dole claim that a hacker can read confidential mail and masquerade as anauthorised user once he can penetrate …
The world will require 1,330 giga watts of new electric generating capacity in the next 15 years according to Hans Weinrich, head of the Sweden-based Asea Brown Boveri's (ABB) transmission and distribution unit. The new capacity would be distributed around the globe, with 15 per cent in the US, 20 …
COME May and it is din-creating time for frogs. The month heralds the breeding season which lasts till August. At times, noise levels call be so high that it makes one suspect if the frogs are taking part in a competition to test their ability to croak loud and long. …
A DELICATE plant, producing yellow flowers -Calceolaria andina is proving to be the nemesis for a notoriously high-resistant variety of tobacco whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. Two chemicals from the plant, which grows high on the Andean slopes, has been found to be fatal for the B- biotype species of the pest. …
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 …
Two biochemical manufacturing farms, with obviously environmental protection as one of their fortes, have begun testing an alternative to incineration for noxious wastes like paint thinners and jet fuels. ENV America in California, and High Mesa Technologies Inc. of Santa Fe, New Mexico, are the pioneers in using the Free …
The Panay cloudrunner -a rodent- like nocturnal mammal -previously unknown to science, has been discovered in the island of Panay in the central Philippines. The arboreal rodent which has been assigned the scientific name of Crateromys heaneyi, was discovered by local residents. The animal sports a chubby, masked face; small …
MILLIONS of pounds will be spent in the UK over the next three years on a new generation of high-speed radio networks that will provide super- highway services directly in offices and homes. The systems mean that consumers and businesspeople can have access to the Internet and use high-speed digital …
IN 1987, a group of researchers had discovered the intriguing new phenomenon of high temperature superconductivity. The conventional superconductors had a critical temperature (temperature below which the material is superconducting) which was extremely low - typically, about -250'c. However, the new materials, which were mostly very complex crystals like yttriumbarium-copper-oxide …
Farmers in Burkina Faso's central plateau in Sahel, are turning to traditional practices such as building stone lines, pocket-like pits known as Zaiand permeable stone dams. These increase yields by as much as 80 percent in some of the farms by preventing draining of water, increasing its seepage into soil …
The Denakil desert of Eritrea in Africa has turned out to be another exploration site for human fossils. In December last year, a team of Eritrean and Italian scientists led by Ernesto Abbate from the University of Florence in Italy, recovered well- preserved parts of a two-million- year-old human fossil …
IT IS the phosphorus element that holds the key to the oxygen feedback mechanism, according to Philippe Van Cappellen of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Eltery Ingall of the University of Texas at Austin, us. Atmospheric oxygen is mostly produced by the photosynthetic algae floating on the …
ASTRONAUTS on February 26 were hoping to perform the ultimate Indian rope trick - by dangling a ball-shaped satellite from a space shuttle as it swept above the earth. But the experiment failed; the cable linking the space shuttle to the satellite broke. The experiment, which was conducted by astronauts …
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 …
An unique sea-floor observatory to keep a watch on two under-sea volcanoes is in the offing near the coasts ofWashington and Oregon in the US. Part of the National Science Foundation's RIDGE (Ridge Inter- Disciplinary Global Experiments) programme, the observatory will be set up on the ocean floor to monitor …
A new and unique performing art called hand shadowgraphy is being popularised by Amar and Sabyasachi Sen. The art form is enacted by estures candlelight and g come to life as fingers play up against a wall or blank screen. There are only 18 such exponents in the world who …
The Australia-based Scholar Incineration Company, has developed a three-stage incineration process to destroy biomedical waste completely (Vatis Update. Vo15, No 11). The first sta&e; involves burning wastes by a process cailed 'excess air combustion'. The toxic gases thus produced are fed into a second chamber where temperatures exceed 1,000
THE sun's bright rays can play havoc with one's flawless skin. Sun bathing for as short a period as two to three minutes can lead to tissue damag~ and prema- ture aging of the human skin. A te~ of researchers at the University of Michigan, us, headed by Gary Fisher, …
The first mobile telephones in the us were so cheap that they were being distributed free with every purchase of petrol. Now, the purchase of a Burger King whopper earns one a CD-ROM for free. The fast food chain is handing out Disney titles such as The Lion King and …
