Feature Article

IT IS standard practice in most Indian hospitals to recommend a physical regime consisting of yoga and gentle exercises to patients undergoing cancer treatment. There has been an understanding that yoga improves physical function and emotional wellbeing as chemotherapy—the commonly used treatment for cancer—causes fatigue and weakens the immune system. But it is only in the last few years that empirical evidence in favour of yoga’s relaxation impact has been mounting.

REMOVAL of organic toxins from groundwater requires chemical additives, which are expensive and environmentally hazardous. Now researchers at the University of Kentucky in the UK have developed a novel technique to break down such contaminants. The new purification system uses two highly porous membranes to generate purifying hydroxyl radicals.

MOSQUITOES rely on chemical cues such as smell of human breath, sweat and skin to get to a potential prey. This olfactory pathway has spawned several research papers. The latest comes from scientists led by Anandasankar Ray from the University of California, USA. They have discovered chemicals which can prevent mosquitoes from seeking a blood-meal. Mated female mosquitoes seek human blood before laying eggs. This blood meal is essential for the development of mosquito offsprings.

CUMIN or jeera, extensively used in Indian cuisine, is known to possess antiparasitic and antimicrobial properties. It is also used to cure fever and as a painkiller.

RESEARCH suggests that habitat loss, thought to be a major threat to amphibians across the world, might in some cases be protecting them from a deadly fungus.

IN WHAT can pave the way for obesity treatment, scientists have decoded a key mechanism through which insulin controls a part of brain that manages body’s energy balance. They have shown how insulin in the satiety centre of the brain—known as the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)—can lead to obesity. VMH controls our appetite and energy expenditure.

Former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi, recovering from a historic drubbing in the recent assembly polls, might find solace in the superlative his home constituency earned during the election. Kilvelur assembly constituency in Nagapattinam district has recorded the highest turnout of women voters in the state—95.57 per cent. This is also the highest among the four states and a union territory that went to polls this year.

The people of Chepdu village in Pindar valley treasure the fair held every June in memory of an army man from the region who was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra. This year, however, his widow Bimla Joshi has cancelled it. She cannot accept Rs 3 lakh that the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) offered for arrangements. The public sector undertaking plans to build a 252-MW hydel project and a dam on the river Pindar in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.

Achanta, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, hit the headlines in 1967 with a record rice yield in the kharif or monsoon crop season. It was the time of the Green Revolution. N Subba Rao, a farmer from the village, harvested three tonnes of paddy from just one kilogramme of seeds. Other farmers followed suit and the village became a model for intensified rice farming.