Praying mantids prey on smaller insects and sometimes the odd frog or lizard. Now, it looks like they’ve added fish to their menu too, for naturalists have observed one catching and eating small ornamental fish in a garden in Bengaluru. Guppy-catcher It was on the evening of March 7 last …
Read More »Daily Archives: November 11, 2018
Groundwater depletion alarming in northwest, central India
Natural recharge during monsoon may not help much if groundwater depletion becomes acute, as rainfall of past years controls current storage With 230 billion metre cube of groundwater drawn out each year for irrigating agriculture lands in India, many parts of the country are experiencing rapid depletion of groundwater. The …
Read More »Is Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary safe for migratory birds?
The pH and salinity of the waters exceeded permissible limits for ecologically sensitive zones The water quality at the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary might be unsafe for avifauna to feed and breed, notes a study that examined different pollution indicators in water. Researchers from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli compared their results …
Read More »AIIMS-led team develops sensitive tests for pulmonary, pleural TB
Sensitivity for pulmonary TB and pleural TB were 94% and 93%, respectively. A highly sensitive diagnostic test for pulmonary TB and pleural TB has been developed by a multi-institutional team led by Jaya Sivaswami Tyagi from the Department of Biotechnology at AIIMS. The diagnostic test makes use of a DNA …
Read More »Remembering the Indians who fought in WWI
In the month or so preceding Remembrance Day, which marks the anniversary of the end of the First World War, red poppy badges are a common sight across Britain. This year, however, some of them come with a difference. Prime Minister Theresa May is among the high profile figures to …
Read More »Opening up the borders to immigrants
Caught in the demographic pincers of a declining birth rate and an ageing population, notoriously immigrant-shy Japan is being forced to open its doors to foreign workers. Its current position on immigration is, at best, tepidly welcoming to highly skilled workers, while sceptical of allowing in job-seekers from lower down …
Read More »Yearning for an artistic renaissance
After a 40-year ride of economic reforms, Shenzhen is now looking for answers to spur an artistic renaissance. “Many questions of creativity have come to the fore,” says Ole Bouman, director of the Sea World Culture and Arts Center, a head-turning icon in the Shekou area of Shenzhen. It was …
Read More »polio vaccine contamination is a worry?
Since April 2016, all oral polio vaccines (OPV) across the world contain only two of the three polio serotypes — Type 1 and Type 3. Type 2 is banned because the wild, disease-causing version of this virus was eradicated globally by 1999, and because OPV itself can cause polio in …
Read More »In Assam, another language flashpoint
The killing of five Bengalis in eastern Assam’s Sadiya on November 1 has led to an uneasy calm in a State divided over language amid a bid by the Central government to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Why the controversy? The Assamese and the Bengali, the two largest linguistic …
Read More »The lowdown on the crisis in Sri Lanka
Late on Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved the Sri Lankan Parliament and called a snap general election for January 5. The announcement came within hours of his party spokesman publicly admitting to lacking a majority in Parliament. Mr. Sirisena’s front was aiming for a majority to push its controversially installed …
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