Cancer-killing power of plants
Reading Time: 2 minutesFour species of Phyllanthus, herbs commonly found throughout the tropics and subtropics, pose great potential as nontoxic breast cancer treatments. While their therapeutic properties have been reported, a team from the University of Malaya recently investigated specifically how the plants’ extracts combat breast cancer. Phyllanthus is a large family of flowering plants with hundreds of […]
What are rhinoceros’ horns made up of?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRhinoceros or rhinos are large, herbivorous mammals that are commonly identified by their horned snouts. The word rhinoceros were derived from Greek words in which ‘rhino’ meant[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] nose and ‘ceros’ meant horn. There are five species and 11 subspecies of rhinos in which some possess two horns while others only have […]
How do bats navigate at night?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEver heard the idiom ‘as blind as a bat’? It is commonly utilised to denote a person with poor eyesight. On the contrary, bats aren’t blind. Most of them can see really well, even in dim light. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]As an example, most fruit eating bats possess large, bulging eyes that aid them […]
How do parrots mimic human speech?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIf you’re wondering why parrots imitate sounds they hear, it’s because they’re social creatures. They feel a need to be able to interact and fit in with those around them. When kept as pets, these birds see their human owners as their family and want to communicate with them. Since a human owner [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” […]
Langkawi rural folk to benefit from seaweed aquaculture project
Reading Time: 2 minutesLANGKAWI: Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation (Bioeconomy Corporation, is implementing Bioeconomy Community Development Programme (BCDP) initiative in Langkawi, with participation from the local community and supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti). The Seaweed Aquaculture Project in Pulau Gasing, Langkawi is part of the Bioeconomy Community Development Programme (BCDP), which is run by […]
Making biological drug with spider silk protein
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS at Karolinska Insti-tutet in Sweden have managed to produce synthetic lung surfactant using DNA sequence derived from spider silk proteins. Surfactant is a drug used to strengthen the lungs of premature babies by reducing the surface tension in their pulmo-nary alveoli (the structures in the lung that allow for respiration) and allowing them to […]