The much-awaited provisional results of Census 2011 bring the news that the child sex ratio (0-6 years) has declined further from 927 to 914 girls for every 1,000 boys, due to a widening of the circle of daughter aversion, especially across western and central India. But in all the monitoring …
A village in Andhra Pradesh has become the epicentre of an eight-month-long fight against a power plant in neighbouring Kakarapalli. Following two deaths in police firing on February 28, people from 29 villages near the plant site thronged Vadditandra village in Srikakulam district to show support and mourn the deaths. …
On February 26, as night fell on the tranquil Gahirmatha beach in Odisha, thousands of Olive Ridley turtles crawled in. Using their rear flippers, they dug pits in the soft beach sand and started laying eggs, more than 100 at a time. Then they skilfully covered the nests with sand …
Once-parched and barren Barmer is turning over a new leaf. About five years ago, Poona Ram, 45, shifted from this desert district of Rajasthan to Gujarat in search of work. He was unable to support his family at a place that could not give him employment. But Poona Ram returned. …
ON FEBRUARY 13, the sun unleashed a massive solar flare. Three more followed on March 7, 9 and 19. Flares originate from sunspots—areas on the sun’s surface that have high magnetic activity. These flares and other activities of the sun throw ionised gases or plasma towards the earth. The plasma …
AT A time when the world is pushing for organic farming, the US is advocating the no-till method. Tilling, a process that turns soil inside out, helps develop a good seed bed while destroying weeds, insects and microbes. Organic farming requires land to be tilled to control weeds and pests …
AN EARTHQUAKE measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale recently shook Japan, causing a massive tsunami. Changes in groundwater electrical conductivity and soil radon gas can help predict an earthquake in quake-prone regions, according to a team of geologists in India. Earlier studies by Japanese scientists have shown that prior to …
MIGRATORY birds are becoming vulnerable to shifts in seasons. Climate change is modifying the time of seasons. Early arrival of spring at breeding sites is making it harder for the migratory birds to attract mates or find food. Scientists warn this ecological mismatch can reduce bird populations. The ecological mismatch …
A mango that resembles an apple or smells like grapefruit. A mango that shrinks, but does not rot. But for the conservation initiative of a farmer in Karnataka’s Mandya district, such fruits would have been part of folklore. “These trees bear Tipu Sultan’s mangoes,” says Syed Ghani Khan of Kirgaval …
Herman Rosa Chavez counts every day that he has been in office. It’s a point El Salvador’s soft-spoken Minister of Environment and Natural Resources makes in all his conversations, underscoring the urgency with which he views his tasks, both in the domestic and international sphere. “For us climate change is …
Imagine being able to access a book anywhere in the world. And not just books but documents, treaties and papers on any subject, in any language, in any corner of the world—all at the click of the mouse. That may be the ultimate fantasy of the bibliophile, the scholar, the …
When you see the traditional maize of Mexico for the first time you are stunned. It is a cornucopia of unimagined colours and lustre: blue black, purple, translucent beige, pearly white, some deep burgundy, sun-kissed yellow or crushed mulberry, and countless other combinations. Many of the variegated corn varieties appear …
For many of us city-born-and-bred folks, thrills at night are restricted to sitting on a couch and watching the idiot box. For those of us who have the gumption to step out of our comfort zones and venture out for occasional night walks, a whole new world beckons. Recently, I …
In 1948, a young mathematician published a paper in an obscure technical journal. For Claude Shanon, the mathematician in question, communication was purely a matter of sending a message composed of what he called bits over a noisy channel so that someone else could recover it. Whether the message was …
According to the cables released by Wikileaks, an official of the International Atomic Energy Agency told Japan’s nuclear officials in 2008 that its safety rules were out of date and strong earthquakes would pose a “serious problem” for nuclear power stations. The Japanese government pledged to upgrade safety at all …
Remains of 138 Indigenous people from the Torres Strait Islands in Australia will be repatriated from London’s Natural History Museum. British explorers collected them during 19th century. “They are somebody’s ancestors, but they are also a source of great knowledge,” says the museum’s director of science, Richard Lane. “By understanding …
En chemin elle rencontre (On the way, she met), a collection of comic strip stories tackling the issue of violence against women edited by Marie Moinard, director of the small publishing company Des ronds dans l’O, was officially launched with Amnesty International France on International Women’s Day. Its title is …
Facebook-inspired protests in Azerbaijan are turning into a cat-andmouse game. On March 14, the police blocked access to the university in the country’s capital Baku, but there were no protesters. This, after a protest day on March 11—called by Facebook users—never materialised because key leaders were arrested. Uzeyir Mammadli, an …
A town in northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old Spanish currency, the peseta, alongside the euro to give the local economy a lift. Shopkeepers in Mugardos want anyone with forgotten stashes of the old cash at home to come and spend it. More than 60 shops in the …
Scientists have pieced together remains of Xray equipment dating shortly after the discovery of the rays in 1895. Researchers from the same Dutch town where the system was originally built used it to produce striking images that belie its simplicity and age. The team said the images required a radiation …
