Intense movement

Science and Technology - Briefs

Astrophysics Star-eating monsters

Novel ways

Henry David Thoreau’s memoirs of the two years spent in one-room wooden cabin, Walden, is regarded as a classic of American literature. Partly a manifesto for Thoreau’s belief in the rightness of living close to nature, Walden also gave him the reputation of being America’s first environmentalist. Some of his unpublished writings are helping scientists learn about climate change.

Slow death

Science and Technology - Briefs

Technology Got a bright idea

Science and Technology - Briefs

Health Sciences Assault by medicines

The hockey-stick curve

There has been a rapid increase of co2 concentrations in the atmosphere over the past 250 years: from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 379 ppm. All greenhouse gases add up to the equivalent of 430 ppm of co2. That this increase has had a warming effect because of heat energy trapped in the atmosphere is clear when one compares the well known hockey-stick graph of emissions with corresponding global temperature change.

Brain wash

Barely a day after the conclusion of the Durban meet on climate change, former Australian prime minister John Howard lent his support to a book which argues the theory that human-induced global warming is a scam.

Dwarfed by climate change

IF YOU thought climate change causes only sea level rise and intensifies natural disasters, think again. Several species of plants and animals are getting smaller over generations due to rising global temperatures and shifting weather patterns, according to a compilation of fossil records and studies by scientists of National University of Singapore. Though humans are not growing shorter, the trend could profoundly affect food security in years ahead, they warn.

Science and Technology - Briefs

HEALTH Chemical alert Occupational exposure to a chemical used in dry-cleaning solutions and to degrease car parts raises the risk of Parkinson’s disease six-fold. Scientists linked Trichloroethylene to the brain disorder after studying 99 sets of twins. One in each pair was a sufferer of the illness, which can cause limb tremors. The US Environmental Protection Agency says the chemical is a carcinogen. Annals of Neurology, November 14 (online) HEALTH SCIENCES Skip a beat with sweet fizz