Feature Article

Mission to reduce chances of glacial lake's outburst fails to achieve target. The Thorthormi glacial lake in northern Bhutan is considered the country's likeliest climate-induced disaster. The lake, perched at a height of more than 4,400 metres, is swelling because of melting ice, and is in danger of bursting its wall. Efforts by the Bhutanese government to lower the lake's water level is yet to eliminate the risk of a disaster, which may sweep away communities living in the upper catchment of the Pho Chu river, fed by the glacier.

EU Aviation Directive will be binding; airlines' operations cost to increase. Starting January 1 in the new year, all flights operating in the European Union will be subjected to carbon emission limits. The regulations will also apply to aircraft flying in and out of the 27-nation bloc. This follows the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the European Union, ruling in the affirmative that the aviation industry shall be subjected to a cap on its carbon emissions.

Animal physiology, ecology and evolution are affected by temperature and it is expected that community structure will be strongly influenced by global warming. This is particularly relevant in the tropics, where organisms are already living close to their upper temperature limits and hence are highly vulnerable to rising temperature. Here we present data on upper temperature limits of 34 tropical marine ectotherm species from seven phyla living in intertidal and subtidal habitats.

As is apparent in many fields of science and medicine, the new biology, and particularly new high-throughput genetic sequencing and transcriptomic and epigenetic technologies, are radically altering our understanding and views of science. In this article, we make the case that while mostly ignored thus far in the vaccine field, these changes will revolutionize vaccinology from development to manufacture to administration.

The Karnataka High Court has ruled that all urban development projects must comply with the state's Town and Country Planning Act. The Act requires public consultations be carried before implementation of any project. The decision came while hearing a petition against transfer of land to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation.

India has the second largest population, one of fastest growing economies and is ranked third in greenhouse gas emissions by fossil-fuel burning in the world. However, there has been little monitoring of atmospheric CO2 concentration over India to date. Here we reanalyse pioneering atmospheric CO2 observations at Cape Rama, India (CRI) during the period from February 1993 to October 2002, using three forward transport models to simulate atmospheric CO2 and separate tracers of terrestrial and oceanic fluxes, and fossil-fuel emissions.

Creativity or out-of-the-box thinking is evenly distributed in all societies in the world. On that count rural India should be a major source of creative minds that has remained untapped. Due to our city-centric policies, it may take decades before modern science and technology (S&T) reaches rural India. Meanwhile the Moving Academy of Medicine and Biomedicine, Pune has developed a module to nurture talent in the villages. The module essentially consists of a base laboratory and villagelevel hub of modern S&T with extensive innovative outreach programmes for village schools.

The Indian economy has been growing at 8% during the last decade. The service sector has contributed immensely to this growth and continues to grab a large share of the gross domestic product (GDP). However, the agricultural sector is still the biggest employer in India and supports the livelihood of more than half the population. Given the dependence of such a large proportion of Indians on the four-month monsoon season – the storage, conservation and protection of water is of paramount importance for the economy as well as health of the nation.