‘Eureka’ moment for scientists who saw beyond the oil
Reading Time: 6 minutesBY MAHALETCHUMY ARUJANAN SERENDIPITY in research is every scientist’s dream. For Dr Ravigadevi Sambanthamurthi and her co-researchers, it is not just serendipitous research but spontaneous thinking and capturing what missed the attention of many. Ravigadevi and team at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board were the first scientists in the world to make a major discovery […]
Antibiotics discovered that kill bacteria in a new way
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA NEW GROUP of antibiotics with a unique approach to attacking bacteria has been discovered, making it a promising clinical candidate in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. The newly-found corbomycin and the lesser-known complestatin have a never-before-seen way to kill bacteria, which is achieved by blocking the function of the bacterial cell wall. The discovery […]
Newly-developed edible cotton seeds are packed with protein – not poison
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCOTTON is a widely-grown crop and its seeds are full of protein, so you might think they’d be a great source of food. Unfortunately, though, they’re toxic to humans. That said, such is not the case with a newly-developed variety of the plant. Ordinarily, cotton plants (including the seeds) contain a toxic organic compound known […]
Genome of coronavirus sequenced by Pasteur Institute
Reading Time: 2 minutesON Jan 24, 2020, the French Ministry of Health confirmed the first three cases of patients affected by the Wuhan coronavirus. On January 29, 2020, the Institut Pasteur, which is responsible for monitoring respiratory viruses in France, sequenced the whole genome of the coronavirus known as “2019-nCoV,” becoming the first institution in Europe to sequence […]
COVID-19, new name for Coronavirus
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE World Health Organization says the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19. “We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva recently. It comes after the death toll from the virus passed 1,000. Tens of thousands of people […]
Aqueous stream of palm oil processing yields hidden gem
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY JAYASYALINY JAYARAJ KUALA LUMPUR: What has traditionally been ignored in the palm oil milling stream, has turned out to become a blockbuster bioactive supplement – now rolling out from a manufacturing plant in Mexico. The supplement, Palm Fruit Bioactive Complex (PFBc) has now [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] “come to be” because Malaysian scientists […]