STUDIES ON LATICIFER DEVELOPMENT IN CALOTROPIS PROCERA AN IMPORTANT PLANT YIELDING HYDROCARBON AND IMPROVEMENT OF ITS GROWTH POTENTIAL Ashwini Kumar and Neetu Vijay Bio-Technology Lab, Department of…

JATROPHA CURCAS: A POTENTIAL PLANT FOR BIO-FUEL Shikha Roy and Ashwini Kumar Bio-Technology Lab Department of Botany University of Rajasthan, Jaipur - 302 004 Energy Plantation Demonstration project…

Wistfully I wish you all a very happy Decapod Day! The Cephalopod Awareness Days have been fun, and I can hardly believe they're coming to an end. Many thanks to Jason of Cephalopodcast for turning…

A company called Yellow Diesel B.V. says they have succeeded in producing biodiesel in a continuous fixed-bed micro plant based on heterogeneous catalysis, which provides pure biodiesel plus a…

Researchers have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, except on a nano scale and the resulting biomaterial could also be used to make optically active…

I need most of my body parts. I figure I have my various meaty chunks for good evolutionary reasons, and far be it from me to sell any, no matter how often that creepy guy shows up at my door with a…

The coolest science conference of the 20th century was, hands down, the 1927 Solvay conference. Occurring during one of the most intense periods in the development of quantum mechanics, and attended…

Basil (Ocimum spp.), belonging to the Lamiaceae family, is a pleasent by smelling perennial shrub which grows in several regions all over the world (AKGÜL 1993; BARIAUX et al. 1992). Basil is one of…

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is aromatic herbs that are used extensively to add a distinctive aroma and flavour to food. The leaves can be used fresh or dried for use as a spice. Essential oils…

"It turns out that any optimal classical decision rule is also some Bayesian rule. In other words, even if the decision maker is not a Bayesian, he will behave as if he were!" Frederick James,…

On this, the second of the International Cephalopod Appreciation Days, we turn our attention to the pearly nautilus, and "other lesser-known extant and extinct cephalopods." My favorite is the…

I don't hate computational biology, but I've got my issues with the way the field is often practiced. Most of my complaints boil down to this: if a computational biologist is not contributing to our…

A recent LiveScience article 'Computers Faster Only for 75 More Years' has indicated that new research conducted by two physicists have placed a speed limit on what's attainable regardless of the…

Carl Brannen is well known to the regulars of this blog. He is an independent researcher and my favourite non-professional theorist, because he gives me the hope that brilliant minds, who were…

I'm sitting at "Beyond the Decade: The Future of International Astronomy", a conference today at the National Academies.  The conference is small (53 people so far) but rich in material,…

When thinking about burial, most people think of caskets or cremation. But there are two options that, while seeming a bit odd at first, could be considered part of the green revolution: "beetleized"…

Everyone knows about being an organ donor - you may even have a little sticker saying it's okay for doctors to remove parts from you in order to save someone else.   Pacemaker donations from…

A narrow focus on carbon dioxide has long focused attention of the political and economic motivations of the European countries behind treaties like the Kyoto protocol rather than the science data…

Can diet make you less likely to develop depression?   A new report from the University of Navarra published in Archives of General Psychiatry. says people who follow 'Mediterranean dietary…

Today begins the Third Annual International Cephalopod Awareness Days! Naturally, since it is the eighth of the month, we are honoring octopods today. This provides the perfect opening for my…