NASA study finds snow melt causes large ocean plant blooms
A NASA funded study has found a decline in winter and spring snow cover over Southwest Asia and the Himalayan mountain range is creating conditions for more widespread blooms of ocean plants in the Arabian Sea. The decrease in snow cover has led to greater differences in both temperature and pressure systems between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Sea. The pressure differences gene...Crisis in African fish supplies looms, experts warn Africa leaders
32% increase of African fish supply needed by 2020 just to maintain consumption levels Calling fisheries critical for nourishing the poor and for helping Africa cope with the health, economic and social devastation of problems like HIV and AIDS, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the WorldFish Center and partners are making an urgent appeal to boost the continent's fish...Harmful Algal Blooms monitored from space in Chile
Chile is currently the world's largest producer of farmed salmon and has a burgeoning mussel culture industry that is supplying a growing world market. However, the country's marine aquaculture sector is vulnerable to Harmful Algal Blooms, which occur when some algae species producing poisons bloom rapidly in water, causing physical or biochemical damage to fish and shellfish. Early detec...Sandia research to focus on early detection of harmful algal blooms
Sandia National Laboratories researchers Todd Lane and Victoria VanderNoot have been awarded a research grant to develop a technology that can successfully detect deadly toxins from harmful algal blooms (HABs). The funding is provided by the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), a partnership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA...World's largest flower evolved from family of much tinier blooms
The plant with the world's largest flower -- typically a full meter across, with a bud the size of a basketball -- evolved from a family of plants whose blossoms are nearly all tiny, botanists write this week in the journal Science. Their genetic analysis of rafflesia reveals that it is closely related to a family that includes poinsettias, the trees that produce natural rubber, castor oil plants...Fear Of Dengue Epidemic Looms Large: Fever Kills Five in Pakistan
Even as the Pakistani government struggles to prevent dengue from taking on epidemic proportions, health officials in Pakistan have confirmed that the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) // has killed at least 5 people, including a woman doctor, and infected around 45 people in the country's biggest city of Karachi. Dengue, commonly known as Congo fever, is spread through the bite...Apprehension looms large over patient record system
The novel patient record system, designed to connect up 50 million patients' records, and the largest in civil projects, seems to be in trouble, according to reports. // The National Audit Office has been asked to check the veracity of reports doing the rounds that the new NHS system might have thrown patients records off gear, creating inconvenience and grave consequences to patients. Th...AIDS shadow looms over Bhilai plant
The Chhattisgarh government's AIDS Control Committee said the BSP, a flagship unit of state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and located 30 km west of Raipur// , has 92 confirmed AIDS patients out of a total of 317 identified in the state. "BSP tops the report with 92 confirmed cases followed by Durg with 55 cases and Rajnandgaon with 46," said R.K. Rajmani, chief of the AIDS Co...Fear of Dengue looms large in China, as Mosquitoes Make Most of Sunshine!
China is susceptible to an outbreak of dengue, also known as bone-breaker's disease, with the average temperature of 28 degrees being conducive for the mosquitoes to breed//. China's Health Ministry has alerted the public about dengue fever, which is a lethal mosquito borne disease that could turn fatal as some strains can spark off internal bleeding and death. The ministry's spokesman...