Calcutta will have 49,000 cases of AIDs by 1999
AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate in Calcutta and by 1999 there may be a staggering 49,000 people infected by the virus in the eastern metropolis. This alarming projection has been made by a team of scientists from the Indian Statistical Institute, Baranagar, Calcutta.
Dolly method used for new fertility technique
Scientists have come up with another possible way of helping women overcome infertility: they took the gene of an infertile woman and injected them into a donor egg from a fertile woman. Relying on a technique similar to the one used to clone Dolly the sheep, the approach would, in …
Rajasthan cracks down on cataract
Ophthalmologists in the service of the Rajasthan Government have been warned of disciplinary action if they fail to meet the stipulated targets of cataract operations. The Minister of State for Health, Mr. Rajendra Rathore, has already instructed the District Collectors of six districts to terminate the services of managers of …
Poplar power
Cleaning up polluted industrial sites may not require billion-rupee government programmes. Instead, scientists suggest, plant a poplar tree. Laboratory-designed hybrids of the fast-growing tree have been found to act like 100- foot straws that suck contamination from soil and ground water. This natural cleanup is inexpensive but takes several years …
Flowing gold
Water is set to flow from farmers in California's Imperial Valley to the fast-growing population of parched San Diego County, south of Los Angeles. The valley's Imperial Irrigation District-its water authority-has agreed to sell each year 200,000 acre feet of surplus water from the Colorado river to neighbouring San Diego …
Reinventing diesel
At the recent Paris Motor Show car makers vied with each other to show small, economical cars. The tiny Volkswagen Lupo is billed as the world's first three-litre car. It is the first car capable of travelling 100 kilometres on three litres of fuel, or about 90 miles to the …
New batteries required
For all its modern looks and aerodynamic curves, the General Motors EV1-one of the most advanced electric cars in the world-is powered by 19th century technology. Its lead acid power pack is little different from those that powered the electric vehicles of 100 years ago, when electric cars outnumbered petrol-driven …
Research on HIV vaccine should be given priority
Kalam : Research on a vaccine for preventing HIV infection should be given priority defence scientist and secretary, departmen of defence research and development, A P J Abdul Kalam said on Friday while inaugurating the third international AIIMSONIANS conference at the All India Institute of Medical Scienices. Acknowledging that AIDS …
Genes between human eggs transfered
US doctors have for the first time transferred genes from an infertile woman's egg into another egg and fertilised it with sperm to create an embryo, a 'Washington Post' report said citing a researcher's presentation at a medical conference.
Metro to stop air pollution deaths
Gupta : If the metro rail system is not developed fast, deaths due to air pollution in Delhi will reach alarming proportions, warned the Delhi transport minister Rajendra Gupta on Friday. Speaking at the workshop on "Emerging Trends in Mass Rapid Transit System," the transport minsiter said that by developing …
AIDS may kill half South African youth
The virus that causes AIDS is spreading so fast in South Africa that half the country's youth may not reach adulthood. Thabo Mbeki, deputy president, said in a broadcast to the nation. Each day about 1,500 South Africans are infected with HIV and more than 3m people in a population …
Methane-eating bacteria may ease global warming
Scientists have discovered a methane-munching bacterium that could play a major role in fighting global warming by preventing the greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere.A team of international researchers identified the organism in the acidic peat bogs of Western Siberia. The partly decayed, moisture-absorbing plant matter turns methane into energy …
Need to protect traditional medicines highlighted
National legislations to protect traditional wisdom in medicines which is being pirated without sharing its benefits, formation of an international task force to discuss the mechanism of protection on patents and cross country dissemination of traditional knowledge have been so far highlighted at the ongoing Asian Regional Seminar on Intellectual …
Storm-tossed Iguanas hint at how a species can spread
Fifteen iguanas on a tangle of waterlogged trees, tossed into the Caribbean Sea by a Hurricane, have apparently drifted 320 kilometres from Guadeloupe to Anguilla and into biological history, scientists say. Their report, published in the journal Nature, excited scientists, who have been arguing since early this century about whether …
No special law for herbal medicines
The Patents Act Amendment Bill is unlikely to have any special provisions regarding "traditional medicine." The government is also not in favour of any such provisions. It feels that there is no mileage to be gained by trying to put pressure on the developed countries to accommodate traditional medicines by …
Alarm stops mistakes in operations
Hospitals could soon be equipped with a device that sounds an alarm if a surgeon gets close to cutting a nerve. The alarm has been developed to prevent accidents that can result in patients suffering a loss of feeling or even losing the the use of some muscles. The British …
SC seeks report on Almatti by October 26
A division bench of the Supreme court headed by Chief Justice M M Punchhi on Thursday asked the director of National institute of hydrology, Roorkie, S K Seth to submit by October 26 a detailed report along with pictorial evidence to show the status of construction work at the Almatti …
Orbis concludes novel 'plan programme' in city
Orbis, an international NGO dedicated to fighting avoidable blindness, today concluded its novel, week-long 'plan' programme in the capital. Over 200 eye specialists from the Capital and the northern region participated in surgeries and workshops in a fully equipped DC-10 aircraft which flew in with volunteers from Canadian and U.S. …
Study on second-hand smoke
A 10-year study has found that adults exposed to second-hand smoke at home and in the workplace have a slightly higher risk of lung cancer, but it found no increased risk to children of smokers.Cancer experts say the study, done across Europe, indicates that passive smoking is a definite, although …
