BIOTECHNOLOGY

The country’s first gene bank for orchids opened at Hengbung of Senapati district today to conserve orchids in the country. T. Ramasami, the secretary of the science and technology ministry, opened the Centre for Orchid Gene Conservation of the eastern Himalayan region at the complex of Krishi Vigyan Kendra run by an NGO, Foundation for Environment and Economic Development Services (FEEDS), nearly 55km from Imphal.  The centre is set up across 250 hectares of hilly land and includes an ultra-modern laboratory, an orchidarium and a field gene bank.  Initially, it plans to collect all the orchids found in the eastern Himalayan region and then all the orchids found in India.  Funded by the Union science and technology ministry, the main purpose of the centre is to conserve orchids and encourage households to cultivate orchids and also provide facilities for research.  India has 1,600 recorded varieties of orchids having ornamental and medicinal value.  O...

Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of the banana, an important crop in developing countries that provides a fruit widely enjoyed the world over and is a staple food in some of the poorest parts of the globe. The draft sequence provided “a crucial stepping-stone for genetic improvement of banana,” observed Angélique D’Hont, a French agricultural research scientist, and colleagues from a number of other countries in a paper that is being published this week in the scientific journal  Nature . The sequence represented, they said, “a major advance in the quest to unravel the complex genetics of this vital crop, whose breeding is particularly challenging.” Pests and diseases were an “imminent danger” for global banana production. Having access to the entire gene repertoire of the plant held the key to identifying those responsible for disease resistance as well as ones for other important traits such as fruit quality, they added. The completion of the genome seq...

A process originally developed for algae harvesting shows promise as a solution for treating flowback water from hydraulic fracturing operations. Los Angeles-based technology company OriginOil has developed products to enable the industrial scale harvesting of algae into renewable crude oil that is compatible with the current worldwide petroleum refining infrastructure. In recent third party testing, OriginOil's Solids Out of Solution System--powered by its Single Step Extraction technology, a solids separation and dewatering process--removed 98 percent of hydrocarbons from a sample of West Texas oil well flowback water in the first stage alone. The flowback water was tested in the lab – OriginOil is now getting out into the field to run commercial programs. "We have only tested our process on frac flowback from oil wells and have yet to test on frac fluid from gas wells," said OriginOil CEO Riggs Eckelberry, but said he believes OriginOil's technology can he...

The researchers say tapioca and sweet potato are rich in starch and can produce ethanol through fermentation. SWEET tea-time treats may soon find their way into your car’s petrol tank — a research team from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman’s (Utar) Faculty of Engineering and Science is studying the use of cassava, better known as tapioca, and sweet potato in the production of biofuels. “Rising global crude oil prices has prompted the search for alternative energy sources to reduce the reliance on crude oil, and this has opened up a lot of opportunities worldwide,” says Dr Low Chong Yu, who leads the research team comprising students Lim Syly, Koh Cin Cong and Voon Meng Seap. Dr Low says unlike fossil fuels which are depleting, biofuels are renewable energy sources, which can not only reduce air pollution and greenhouse effects caused by burning of fossil fuels, but also enable sustainable development that provides employment and improves economy. Dr Low adds that the dev...

Some of the Fellowship Details in INDIA

It is notified for information of all concerned that the SLET Commission, Assam will hold the SET (State Eligibility Test) to examine eligibility for appointment of Lecturer in Colleges and Universities on 09-09-12 in the centres located at the Universities of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, and at Sikkim Govt. College for Sikkim State. For this the following schedule has been fixed: Date of issue of application form : From 27-04-12 to 10-07-12 Last date of receipt of fees and forms: 25-07-12 Date of Test : 09-09-12 And for other information : http://www.sletne.org/

Photo :  Chikilidae with a clutch of eggs and newly hatched young ones. At the centre eggs which are ready to hatch. (Right) Chikilidae with eggs. Scientists have discovered a new family of limbless amphibians from northeast India with their ancient lineage traced to eastern and western parts of Africa, a relationship preserved from the time the southern continents broke up more than 150 million years ago. Kerala-born Delhi University scientist S.D. Biju and co-researchers from India and Europe have reported their discovery in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. They have named the new family as Chikilidae and the new genus as Chikila, deriving the name from the Northeast Indian tribal language of Garo. Until this discovery, there were only nine known families of legless amphibians, also called caecilians, found across the wet tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, parts of East and West Africa, the Seychelles and northe...