Nobel in Physics for men who defined time

Next time when you look at your wrist watch to check time, take a moment to thank David Wineland and Serge Haroche. They are the people who have made it possible to measure time very accurately through their groundbreaking work in the field of quantum physics.

Biodiversity meet: Parties disagree on resource mobilisation

The Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, that began discussions on strategies for mobilising resources to fund biodiversity conservation on Monday, could not arrive at a conclusion on the second day of the conference on at Hyderabad. The parties have now decided to form a contact group to separately deliberate on the issue of fixing individual financial targets for the countries and a reporting mechanism.

India has approved ratification of Nagoya Protocol

The Central government has approved the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol  on October 4. This was stated by Jayanthi Natarajan, India's environment minister, at the eleventh Conference of the Parties (CoP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which started in Hyderabad on Monday.

Stem cell breakthrough gets Nobel in medicine

The Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2012 has been jointly conferred upon British scientist John B Gurdon and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka for their breakthrough work on stem cells. Stem cells are cells that are endowed with the ability of self-renewal and pluripotency (the ability to differentiate to any cell type), properties that have brought them to the forefront of clinical research.

Biodiversity meet begins; India takes over presidency of CBD

Indian laws adequate for ensuring biosafety, says MoEF special secretary

India is not considering formulating a new legislation for dealing with biosafety issues. This was stated by M F Farooqui, special secretary to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). He was talking to media persons at Hyderabad on the concluding day of the meeting of the parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CoP-MoP 6). We feel the existing laws are adequate to deal with biosafety issues. We are not thinking of any new legislation," he said.

Biosafety conference urges for ratification of protocol on liability and redress for damage caused by GMOs

SC bans transportation of illegally mined ore from Goa

The Supreme Court of India banned transportation of illegally mined iron and manganese ore from Goa on Friday, and asked the state as well as the Central government to continue with the ban on mining in the state  till further notice.

Mahan coal block gets clearance

Odisha authorises second and subsequent renewal of mine leases

The Odisha government has passed a resolution authorising second and subsequent renewal of mining leases of private companies. Such renewals are generally not issued by state governments unless the projects are accepted as being in the interest of mineral development by the Indian Bureau of mines (IBM) at the Centre.