AIDS can be contained in just five years: Scientist

AIDS that kills 2.1 million people every year globally can be contained within just five years by testing everybody in high-risk regions and providing immediate treatment for those found to be HIV positive, a leading scientist has claimed.

According to Dr Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (Sacema), once the testing is done, an aggressive treatment programme would not only save millions of lives but would also prevent transmission ofHIV that affects over 33 million people worldwide annually.

But, Dr Williams said, the universal therapy with anti-retroviral drugs could prove to be the most promising way of controlling a disease. It also has the potential to halve tuberculosis infections associated with HIV and AIDS.

“It would be enough to stop transmission and make most people effectively not infectious to others,” Dr Williams, a former WHO epidemiologist who still advises the United Nations body, was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.

“The question is can we use anti-retroviral drugs not only to keep people alive but also to stop transmission? I believe that we can,” Dr Williams said.

“I believe that if we use them effectively we could stop transmission within five years.”

“Treating people with ART within one year of becoming infected would reduce transmission by about ten times, each person with HIVwould infect, on average, less than one other person, and the epidemic would die out.”

Corals reef in danger of being wiped off the face of the Earth

If reports are anything to go by, then coral reefs are in danger of being wiped off the face of the Earth, all due to global warming. 

Corals get most of their energy from microscopic algae that live in their tissue. These algae are colourful and are what gives corals their vivid hue. 

When environmental factors go out of the range that corals are used to (such as warming water), the symbiosis between the coral and the algae breaks down and corals effectively expel the algae and turn white. 

The coral is then deprived of its source of energy, and dies. 

According to NSERC-funded researcher Dr. Simon Donner, an assistant professor in the department of geography at the University of British Columbia, mass coral bleaching events were thought to be extremely rare as far back as 30 years ago. 

“Even if we froze emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That’s enough to make bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide,” he said. 

Given the hundreds of millions of people living in the tropics who depend on coral reefs for food, income, tourism and shoreline protection, the loss of reefs is a serious issue.
“Obviously, there’s an aesthetic concern because people see Finding Nemo and they’re worried about what’s going to happen to the world’s coral reefs, but the key thing is that there are hundreds of millions of people who depend on them for their livelihood,” said Dr. Donner. 

However, the outlook isn’t completely bleak. 
Dr. Donner said that no one is predicting that coral reefs will go extinct; they will continue to survive, but only in certain habitats, such as shaded areas. 
The reality is a general loss of coral cover and a breakdown of the physical structure of reefs. 

In order to see what the future of reefs might be, Dr. Donner is pursuing fieldwork in the central equatorial Pacific, because the islands and reefs in that area are affected by repeated El Nino events.

Because of this, they’ve experienced higher year-to-year temperature variability than other areas on the planet. 
Dr. Donner is studying the corals in these areas to understand how the reefs are biologically different, and how that has allowed them to persist through warm water events that would kill coral in other areas of the planet. 
“It’s a natural model for the future,” he said.

Scientist discovers Himalayan wildcat haven

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CAUGHT UNAWARES: A more commonly seen leopard captured on remote camera.
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A little-known rainforest in north-east India could be home to the world’s largest number of wildcat species, with no less than seven species photo-documented by a wildlife biologist at the end of her two-year survey.

Kashmira Kakati’s camera-trap shots reveal that the wildcats share a relatively small, 500 sq.km. patch of rainforest in the Jeypore-Dehing lowlands in Assam, which includes the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

Among the cats are the elusive and rare clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa), the marbled cat ( Pardofelis marmorata) and the Asian golden cat ( Catopuma temminckii), besides the relatively more widely distributed tiger ( Panthera tigris), the leopard ( Panthera pardus), the leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis), and the jungle cat ( Felis chaus).

“To discover what is, most likely, the maximum number of wild cat species sharing a single area gives us a mere glimpse of what species the Jeypore-Dehing forests hold,” says Jim Sanderson, biologist, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Cat Specialist Group. “That such a place still exists will attract naturalists and scientists alike to make even more discoveries, but only if the Jeypore-Dehing forests receive the protection they so clearly deserve.”

The discovery comes in the backdrop of growing concern among environmentalists over deforestation, poaching, crude oil and coal extraction and mega hydro-electric projects that threaten the ecology of the eastern Himalayas. However, new wildlife species continue to be discovered in this part of the eastern Himalayas — listed as a “biodiversity hotspot” — comprising Bhutan, parts of northeast India and Nepal.

Twelve other carnivore species were also recorded in the Kakati survey, among them the endangered dhole (Asiatic Wild Dog), the Malayan sun bear, binturong, mongoose, otter and civets. And among the 45 mammals documented are six species of primates, deer, porcupine, wild pig and rodents, which are prey for the rainforest carnivores. The discovery is significant in that it points to the importance of protecting less-known patches of wilderness in the country that hold tremendous biodiversity, says Ravi Chellam of the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program. “It also places enormous emphasis on the need for more structured research.”

Sarala Khaling, regional coordinator of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) in the eastern Himalayas, says: “It is now time for extractive industries operating in and around the area to [begin] partnering with conservation organisations and local communities to preserve the area’s incredible biodiversity.”

Dr. Kakati’s research was supported by the Assam Forest Department and funded by the CEPF, the Wildlife Conservation Society–India Program and the Rufford Small Grants Foundation, United Kingdom.

Quote of the Day

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.”

- AB’s Blog

India’s 38th tiger reserve opens. :) It would be known as the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.

Feb 21, 2010

Tigers at the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala. Photo: N.A. Naseer

PALAKKAD (Kerala): India’s 38th tiger reserve and Kerala’s second was Friday declared open by environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh. It would be known as the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. 

There has been a sharp decline in the number of tigers in India, with only 1,411 of them left, according to official estimates. 

The tiger reserve was known as the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary when it was set up in 1973 in a 285-sq-km protected area in Chittur area of Palakkad. 

Another 358 sq km of forests were added, and the tiger reserve now has an area of 643 sq km. 

It has a rich diversity of animal life. It also has a variety of trees, including teak, neem, sandalwood and rosewood. 

Kerala’s first tiger reserve — Periyar Tiger Reserve — is situated in Thekkadi in Idukki district.

For More info –>> Http://www.SaveOurTigers.Com

‘Fuel cocktail’ to increase bio-diesel yields

21st Feb 2010

Nursery of Jatropha, which is used to extract Biodiesel. File Photo: M. Srinath.

Chemists at UC (University of California) Davis have developed a new process that enable oilseed crops such as safflower to be made into a fuel cocktail that could increase yields of bio-diesel by up to 24 per cent.The method converts both plant oils and carbohydrates into bio-diesel in a single process, and should also improve the performance characteristics of bio-diesel, especially in cold weather.

“Conventional bio-diesel production extracts plant oils and then converts them into fatty acid esters that can be used to power engines,” said Mark Mascal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and co-author of the paper with postdoctoral researcher Edward Nikitin. That leaves behind the carbohydrate portion of the plant – the sugars, starches, and cellulose that make up stems, leaves, seed husks and other structures.

The new process converts those carbohydrates into chemicals called levulinic acid esters – at the same time and in the same vessel that the oils are converted to fatty acid esters – resulting in a fuel cocktail that performs better at low temperatures than conventional bio-diesel.

The fuel cocktail has a similar boiling range to conventional bio-diesel, but is thinner; it becomes waxy at a lower temperature. Performance at low temperatures is a significant problem with B100 (conventional bio-diesel), Mascal said.

“Our hope is that this blend of levulinate esters and bio-diesel would perform better over a wider range of temperatures than bio-diesel,” Mascal said.

“Levulinate esters are nontoxic and are used as food additives,” he said.

“Costs of the new process may be somewhat higher than for conventional bio-diesel production, but should be offset by improved fuel yields and performance,” he added.

Keywords: bio-diesel, safflower, research, fuel

Working towards feeding the world’s poor

21 FEB 2010

President of the World Food Prize Foundation Kenneth M. Quinn.

Inspiring people to focus on finding solutions to feed the world’s poor is no easy undertaking. But former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, is the three time winner of the American Foreign Service Award for Constructive Dissent, and no stranger to standing up for what he believes in.

“Never before has there been such a need for concerted cooperative action across national lines,” he told The Hindu at the conclusion of a three-day international conference on biodiversity at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation on Wednesday.

Comparing the impact of climate change on world food supply to the coming of a tornado, he stressed the lessons of the WFPF’s founder Norman Borlaug – that valuing and conserving the rich earth’s biological genetic diversity would provide agriculturalists with the answers to the conundrum of how to adapt to a warmer world.

It is a passion borne not just of having met and worked with the inspirational father of the Green Revolution, but from his experience in South-East Asia. Mekong, Vietnam, his first diplomatic posting, wasn’t the champagne and aperitif posting that he’d imagined made up the Foreign Service. Instead it led him to road building and rice-growing.

“Miracle rice”

“I learned the lesson of my life,” he said, recalling how he watched “miracle rice” or IR8 double crop yield mean more household income for villagers, better fed children, and a reduction in violence.

“Just imagine the situation here in India and Pakistan, without the miracle rice and the Green Revolution,” he said. “It took both countries from heading towards mass starvation and provided food that left people, in aggregate, well off for more than a generation.” Endorsing Dr. Borlaug’s position that the best way to make agricultural research thrive is by working with small farmers, the 2010 Borlaug Dialogue symposium in Des Moines, Iowa in October will be dedicated to farmers and their role in producing and preserving ecological resources. Representatives from over 60 countries are expected to attend. The World Food Prize, established in 1986, is the foremost international award recognising individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. There have been six Indian laureates.

Keywords: Kenneth M. Quinn, FAO, World Food Prize Foundation, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Norman Borlaug, Green Revolution