To save the planet, first save elephants
Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse
Scientists
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Gadgil moots online environment database
Chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) Madhav Gadgil has mooted a participatory movement using Web technologies to create an online database on the state of the environment in India. In a message delivered in absentia at the inaugural session of the Kerala Vikasana Sangamam held here on Tuesday, to mark the 50{+t}{+h}anniversary of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, he said the pilot project could be implemented in Kerala with interested citizens working in tandem with a consortium of scientists to create an easily accessible database on biodiversity and environmental resources.
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Kerala should develop an environment data: Gadgil
The architect of Western Ghats Expert Ecology Panel (WGEEP) report, Madhav Gadgil, on Tuesday said Kerala needs to take a lead in developing publicly accessible information on India's environment. He
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Climate Talks Begin Amid CO2 Concerns
The latest round of UN sponsored climate talks kicked off in Bonn on Monday amid mounting concerns of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The Bonn round of talks follows fresh data released by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego that carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is set to remain extremely high -- at 400 parts per million, which is considerably higher than 350 ppm limit suggested by scientists to ensure that the earth’s temperature doesn’t increase by more than 2 degrees.
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First vaccine to fight gut bacteria in autistic kids
London: The world’s first vaccine to help control symptoms of autism has been developed. The vaccine was created by Canada’s University of Guelph researchers for gut bacteria common in autistic children which will help control symptoms of autism. More than 90% of children with autism spectrum disorders suffer from chronic and severe gastrointestinal symptoms of which 75% suffer from diarrhea. The scientists have now developed a carbohydrate-based vaccine against the gut bacteria Clostridium bolteae which is known to play a role in gastrointestinal disorders.
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H1N1 infection rate stays at 10% in April
The infection rate of swine flu continues to hover around 10%, scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) here said on Thursday. This means, of the total suspected H1N1 patients, 10-15% are testing positive. Since January, 76 of the 345 swine flu patients in the state have succumbed to the infection, making for a mortality rate of 22%. Pune city has reported 172 cases and 22 deaths so far this year — a mortality rate of 12%. Among the 76 casualties, the highest, 59, have occurred in March and April alone.
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Central Rice Research Institute comes up with 6 new high-yielding rice varieties
CUTTACK: Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), the premier rice research centre in the country, has developed six new high-yielding varieties of rice. The new varieties of rice, yet to be christened,
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Climate scientists struggle to explain warming slowdown
Scientists are struggling to explain a slowdown in climate change that has exposed gaps in their understanding and defies a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. Often focused on century-long trends, most climate models failed to predict that the temperature rise would slow, starting around 2000. Scientists are now intent on figuring out the causes and determining whether the respite will be brief or a more lasting phenomenon.
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UK lab that cloned Dolly grows pig with new GM tech
Scientists from the laboratory which created Dolly the cloned sheep have now produced a disease-resistant piglet using a new technique which is simpler than cloning, paving way for genetically modified meat. The piglet, called “Pig 26”, is the first animal to be created via “gene editing”. It was born four months ago at Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, where Dolly the cloned sheep was created in 1996.
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Lab-grown kidney delivers results
Experts Say Process A Success In Rats, Raises Hope For Renal Failure Patients London: A kidney grown in a lab has been successfully transplanted following which it started to produce urine. Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) bioengineered rat kidneys which later successfully produced urine both in a laboratory apparatus and after being transplanted into living animals.
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J-K getting warmer as mercury rising by 0.5°C each decade
Feeling the heat A study was carried out by Scientists of Jammu’s Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology to find decadal temperature trends across different zones of the state The focus was to study the rise in temperature over a 10-year period for 30 years. The average high in summer and winter temperature could be 1.2°C to 1.5°C, which is not a good sign for the Himalayan region, says the study