The newsroom, what’s the inside story?
Reading Time: 4 minutesParticipants at journalism workshop get first hand account of the goings-on in the newsroom and how news is gathered and reported. The workshop was hosted by Mabic and The Petri Dish. BANDAR SUNWAY: A workshop on journalism, to a group of science graduates, aspiring to be science communicators, came as an eye-opener to the […]
New cassava varieties to ease hunger
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY WAHINYA HENRY RESEARCHERS say the Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa Plus (VIRCA Plus) disease resistant and nutritionally-enhanced varieties are expected to improve the livelihoods and health status of Kenyans and in Africa. Cassava mosaic disease (CMD), first reported in Tanzania in 1994, and the cassava brown streak (CBSD) have posed major constraints in making […]
Monash Malaysia bags 2 golds, 4 silvers at ITEX 17
Reading Time: 5 minutesMONASH UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA (Monash Malaysia) research teams were awarded two gold medals and four silver medals at the International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX) 2017. Monash Malaysia was also awarded the Best Booth Design Silver Award. Organised by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), the event was held at the Kuala Lumpur […]
Movie review: ‘Food Evolution’
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY KEVIN FOLTA LAST year a Pew Research poll gauged public sentiment toward genetic engineering of food crops (familiarly, ‘GMO’). The results showed that while the public is consumed with fear and suspicion, scientists view the technology as safe and effective. This divide may be due to the deep presence of non-scientific websites, books and […]
Astana expo hosts global dialogue on energy
Reading Time: 2 minutesASTANA, Khazakhstan: Expo 2017 with the theme “Energy for the Future” has brought together over 115 countries and organisations to generate a global dialogue on the need to make a transition to green energy, tackle climate change and conserve natural resources while promoting societal progress. Malaysia for the first time participated in the Expo with […]
Ramping up Malaysian entrepreneurs to go a notch higher
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY SAMIRA RASUL A special dialogue session was hosted by the Research Management & Innovation Complex, University of Malaya recently. The speaker, Rekha Pai Kamath, is a well-recognised name in the area of mentoring emerging entrepreneurs with more than 15 years of experience, working in the Silicone Valley of the United States. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ […]
Why is blood red?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA small paper cut in the finger and we can see red blood oozing out. A common assumption is that the presence of haemoglobin causes the red colour of blood. However, the real reason is the shape of porphyrin that determines the redness of blood. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] Porphyrin is a ring of […]
How GM crops can help us to feed a fast-growing world
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY STUART THOMPSON The United Nations forecasts global population to rise to more than nine billion people by 2050. Climate change may mean that the crops we depend on now may no longer be suited to the areas where they are currently cultivated and may increasingly be threatened by droughts, floods and the spread of plant […]
Abuse of antibiotics takes us one big circle to square one
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY SADEQUR RAHMAN The story of the discovery of penicillin is enchanting. An overworked microbiologist goes on holiday, opens plates with bacteria growing on them, a spore (or seed) landing on the plates and then the observation on return from the holiday that the mould growing from the spore could kill bacteria. The purification and […]
Who discovered the existence of galaxies other than our Milky Way?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN the early 1900s, astronomers were debating the makeup of spiral nebulae — cloudy, spiral-shaped objects found throughout the night sky. Were they gas clouds located within our Milky Way galaxy, or were they vast groups of stars located far beyond our galaxy? [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] In 1919, American astronomer Edwin Hubble tackled […]