Is it really hotter now than any time in 100,000 years?

Earth is currently on course to reach temperatures of roughly 3°C  above preindustrial levels by the end of the century

Restoring a century-old building in Chandannagar helps raise awareness about heritage management

The Registry Building constructed in 1875 served as the register office as well as the first French courthouse

The next invasion of insect pests will be discovered via social media

The proliferation of smart phones means many people have an encyclopedia of knowledge, a high-resolution digital camera and GPS in their pockets

Issues which history forgot

GREEN HISTORY OF THE WORLD Clive Ponting Publisher: Penguin, Harmondsworth Price: £6.99

Return our forests

S C Tripura, a Congress party member of  the Tripura legislative assembly, talks to  Nitin Sethi about the consequences of  …

Colour of desire

Book>> A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield, HarperCollins, New York 2006

Press for profit

Book>> The book in the renaissance • by Andrew Pettegree • Yale university press • US $40

From the blurbs

Green lore

Environment has been intrinsic to our oral traditions much before we developed writing. But it is only in the past decade or two that …

Science and Technology - Briefs

Coal mining threatens Meghalaya caves

DNA analysis reveals how ancient nomads who disappeared from Europe 1,000 years ago lived

Avar societies meticulously preserved an ancestral memory

The wisdom of the unlettered

Coal a human history

Turkish pollen deposited on lake bed helps track climate history

Historic Iran cemetry at risk

Stub cut short

Bytes

Sense of self

Biometry’s colonial roots  

A megafauna bias in India’s carnivore research is hampering the country’s conservations efforts

For many smaller and less charismatic carnivores like the fishing cat, even basic ecological data like distribution range remains unclarified

When Pollution Meant Punishment

As early as the 13th century, restrictions were put on the burning of coal as a precaution against the health hazards of air pollution

Exploring Mekong expedition

Book>> Mad About The Mekong by John Keay, Exploration and Empire in Southeast Asia Harper Collins London 2005

Archaeology helps to unlearn too

Archaeology is the science that studies the remains of past cultures by investigating and analysing the objects people leave behind. It is a …

Annihilation of caste and copyright claims

Ambedkar’s works have been published widely and yet pose a copyright conundrum

High on weed

A study traces the trajectory of Lantana in the country