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Cover Story

Completing the great gene jigsaw

An epiphanic understanding of gene sequencing at last seems to reveal the tale of life and death

News

Thin ice

A debate on Earth's last virgin territory heats up as multinationals continue to stampede towards the Antarctic

The phase continues

India's time threatens to run out as the ozone phase-out fund goes miserly

Water of contention

Political chicanery has plugged the revision of the US's Clean Water act

Greening up

UNEP goes Earthwide with an environmental agenda

Last puff

With mounting domestic and international pressure, Indian tobacco products may soon go up in smoke

Homing in

CAPART calls for better rural housing and technology in the country

Backfire

A recent move to check vehicular pollution in Delhi hasn't reduced the fumes

Tehri tirade

Interview

'Mass housing is a self-defeating concept'

SUHASINI AYER-GUIGAN is an architect concerned with issues of rural development and habitat. Holding a degree in architecture from the Delhi-based School of Planning and Archite...

Science & Technology

Readymade bridges

A modular bridge kit made of railroad flatcar decks

The company El Nino keeps

Effects similar to those of El Nino have been observed in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans

Crafting pores

A cheap way to prepare films of highly porous solids which have diverse applications

Computer therapy

Laser sight

Memory miracle

Organ piggybank

Genetically engineered pigs could substitute human organ donors

Sharp eye for breast cancer

In some breast cancer cases, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Provides clearer images than X-ray mammography

Phantom of imagination

A simple treatment for imagined pain in an amputated limb

Wrinkles of smoke

Cigarette smoking causes increased risk of developing facial wrinkles

Fungal boon

Relaying remedy

Ulcerous water

Saline succour

Plants of Salicornia species thrive in saline soils and can feed humans, animals and industry

Driving out weeds

A motorised device to uproot weeds

Rubber soles for crops

Scrap tyres buried underground could reduce irrigation costs

Solar sense

Silken feed

Pottety prosperity

Analysis

The essence of being

Is it the soul? Is it the mind? Or is it something outside the confines of the human body? Author most elusive of mental phenomenon of consciousness

That sinking feeling

PLANET Earth would have been an utterly lifeless blob of space debris if it hadn't been for the water that covers 70 per cent of its surface. But for reasons that have to do with both corporate human greed and amazing myopia, the vanguard of "modern" civilisation -- industry -- is almost irredeemably poisoning this most precious of all resources. The damning thing is that all of us know this; but, apathetically, most of us do nothing about it

Special Report

No entry to Dutch plant

Pakistan's environmentalists say no to dumping of obsolete and hazardous technology by the West

Muckraking

Calcutta comes up with the "most efficient and ecologically benign method" of re-using municipal waste and sewage

The Fortnight

Completing the great gene jigsaw

An epiphanic understanding of gene sequencing at last seems to reveal the tale of life and death

Lifegiving venture

Spaced out

MONEYMAKERS

Damning report

Troubled waters

Piscine puzzle

Homeo path

Chinese scrutability

Nuke news

Developing frenzy

Adding life to spice

Looking for torchbearers

Duplicating nature

Damned, eitherway

Plastic Problem

Terror of Mato Grosso

Atlantis

BIO-SENSORS

LIGHTNING ARRESTERS

BATTERING THE ENVIRONMENT

INDIA

CHINA SEES RED

JUDICIARY DOES ITS BIT

FREEDOM FROM FEAR

TIBETAN CHINA

VIETNAM

ADB

SINGAPORE

KENYA

CONGO

BRAZIL

MEXICO CITY

RETURN OF THE RHINO

LABOURING UNDER A BAN

SUMMERTIME WOES

UNITED NATIONS

Leader

Devaluting the Priceless Commodity

Many natural resources are consistently overused and undervalued by modern Indian industry; none more so than water. Factories and manufacturing centres throughout the country have a carte blanche approach to this invaluable commodity -- they consume it, waste it, pollute it...without worrying about the cost. This callous disconcern flourishes only due to our utterly weak water pricing policies.

Terror in the streets

Eco-terrorists are for real. All over the world the establishment derisively uses the term to describe zealous environmental activists and groups on the fringe. For much of May, however, the term could easily apply to the establishment itself -- in this case, the Central government and the government of Delhi, when they let loose with anti-pollution can(n)ons against hapless motorists in the Capital. As is true of any other terrorist outrage, the victims hardly deserved the punishment meted out.

Crosscurrent

Double victims

Latur earthquake victims being given false promises

Loving trees is not enough

Can merely conserving trees save the environment?

Review

Technology's business

Those tiny, unseeable lifeforms that one so puzzled about till a few decades ago are all set to take noticeable strides into our lives in the future...though they aren't exactly in a hurry. Today, fundamental scientific insights from molecular biology are beginning to feed into a string of bio-technological product innovations.

The roots of knowledge

Noted agro-economist N S Jodha had said in one of his papers that "in the search for innovativeness in drought management, public policies have bypassed an important source of insight -- the coping strategies of farmers". This book is a step forward towards understanding the farmers' knowledge, and the actual implementation of policies based on that.

Coal's dark future

IT IS called the black gold, and gold remains valuable for ever. Coal will always retain its value as a source of energy. Yet, the industry has been under pressure from various alternative sources of energy such as oil, nuclear, gas, and so on. Cost of availability has also been one of the major factors in its setback.

Walking over water

Our ancients often undertook a barefoot parikrama (travel down the length) of the Narmada river to cleanse themselves of their sins. Few would do this today. Yet, Royina Grewal, inspired by her childhood association with the river, had set off (in a car) on an arduous journey, documenting the course of this river and its virgin environs before the onslaught of development ravaged it.

Outbreak

THAT nightmarish faction book, The Hot Zone, told the story of the deadly Ebola virus. Now Outbreak tells us an even more horrifying story of a fictional virus, Motaba. Like Ebola, which dissolves the insides of monkeys and humans in a week or 10 days, Motaba also spreads through body fluids. But it is deadlier: it mutates into an airborne virus in a single generation. What's more, the freeloader can sponge on any part of the human body.

Natural man

The exhibition on the theme of Man and Nature at the National Gallery of Modern Art tries on one hand to present a comprehensive picture of the Bengal School -- the 3 Tagores: Rabindranath, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath, Nandlal Bose, Benode Bihari Mukherjee and Ram Kinkar Baij. On the other, it presents a picture of man and nature in interaction.

Grave trade

Dinosours, like Vincent Van Gogh, found few takers in their lifetime. Now removed from the face of the earth...again, like Van Gogh...they are raking in millions.

For the last 2 years, locals in northeastern Thailand are stripping unguarded excavation sites and selling fossilised dinosaur bone as the best cureall since rhino horns. They earn up to $1,000 in a single night -- much more than the locals' average annual income. Much has already been lost, and this loot can mean that complete ruin of the dinosaur graveyards.

Unshaken

The Kobo earthquake in January, which made humpty-dumpties of modern buildings in Japan, still could not shake the unconventional office and residential buildings designed by untutored architect Ando Tadao.

He has now been presented with the Pritkzer Architecture Prize, Versailles.

Earth-ware

Want to invite at home some Amazonian Indians? Go trekking in Alpine forests? Relive Chernobyl's horrors, or orbit the earth aboard a satellite?

The World Wide Fund for Nature and Wildlife (WWF) new software which makes all this possible is called satcom and is packed with information, photos, maps, graphs, annotated diagrams and animated sequences.

Grassroots

Powering people

Proliferating grassroots level activity in Orissa is empowering villagers, taking them closer to a fairytale end to unending tales of poverty and exploitation

Turning a new reef

Once liquour-sodden, the fisherfolk of a Kerala village are replacing destroyed natural reefs with artificial ones

Puppeteers on a chain

Nuclear transparency

Clean fun

Primary issue

Letters

Vile comment

Virtually every line of your editorial "Collaborations Consolidated" on the Jungle Jivan Bachao Yatra (March 31, 1995) can be criticised for either factual inaccuracy or gross distortion. There are even discrepancies between the editorial and the article "Forest March" by Meera Iyer in the same issue. The editorial, for instance, gives the impression that the yatra was dominated by middle-class environmental activists, whereas Iyer's more balanced article indicates that social activists and "most importantly" local people also participated in the yatra.

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