Press releases

IDRC President David Malone discussed reasons and remedies for rising food prices in India during his Millennium Lecture, “The Political Economy of Food Security,” at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai, India.

UNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia (USM) hosted the first Regional Conference on Materials (RCM) in Penang recently.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Prehistoric sex, The missing asteroid mystery, Melding brain and machine, Unexpected prion link in Alzheimer’s disease, Atlantic seesaw, Friction on a small scale and Giant sand dune formation explained

The Director General (DG) of Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Tan Sri Dr Sulaiman Mahbob, accompanied by his wife and a delegation of EPU staff including Puspanita members, paid an official visit to the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) on 15 February 2009.

Recent examples of IDRC-supported research and its impact can be found in this two-CD set. IDRC has worked with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies.

Body-friendly nanomaterials; Childhood abuse permanently modifies stress genes; A human hand in Indonesian fires; HIV sweetly slips by; Jump-starting cancer-gene discovery; Imaging colour centres on the nanoscale; Aerosols and underlying clouds lead to warming; THz phase modulator and How your genes can make you fat

University Science Malaysia (USM)’s researchers have discovered a bird species, which is reportedly rare not only in Malaysia, but also Asia.

The Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, with support from Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has launched in February 2009 a small grants competition program to tackle bio-innovation and its social and policy implications for poverty alleviation in the Asian Region.

TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, and the OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) announce a new Joint Research Grants programme for young scientists living and working in OIC countries.

For many centuries, the rural communities have developed their own, locality-specific knowledge or culture and practices regarding agriculture, natural resource management, health and also education, and this is believed to be part of their survival strategies.

Scientists have discovered magnetic nanoparticles that, unlike most materials, shrink when they are heated

Cellular proteins assist plant cells to ensure their offspring inherit the capacity to support themselves

Muons are obscure particles that only appear naturally on Earth when high-energy cosmic rays collide with the upper atmosphere. So why do RIKEN scientists travel all the way from Japan to study muons on a remote hill in England?

The project aims to clarify the mechanism of information processing in shogi players’ intuitive thinking, and thereby shed light on rapid perception and decision-making in the human brain.

In Nature China this week - A national study shows that cigarette smoking remains a major risk factor for mortality in China

Summaries of newsworthy papers include MRI: The big picture; Climate: Carbon storage in African forests; Neuroscience: We know what you’re thinking; Molecular pathway for neuronal cull and Self-assembled ‘daisies’

(IAS Center General Office at Waseda University) Islamic civilization has spread throughout the world over the centuries; from the East to the West, from Southeast Asia, passing through the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and extending through to Western Africa.

As the proverb says, too much water drowned the miller. Mothers’ too much care can break children’s sense of independence. For example, birth is a kind of antagonism if it is regarded as escape from protection inside the body, and weaning means an end of the protection named “mother’s milk.”

It was a banner Nobel year for Japan last year. It was an exceptional feat that Japanese both captured the Nobel Prize for Physics, and we also shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The Nobel Prize, of course, is not awarded to a nation, but rather to individuals in honour of their remarkable contributions to society.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Erasing fearful memories, Lighting up brain maps, Relicts of martian ice?, Common variants that regulate blood pressure, Nitrous oxide hot spots and Once a boggy plant, always a boggy plant?

The product, known as Contactless Active Integrated RFID System (CAIRFID) is capable of identifying data at a distance of between 30 to 45 meters. The capacity of CAIRFID which has touched 2.45 GHz, is also the first product in the world to incorporate Zigbee technology.

A standard measurement of resistance, the quantum Hall effect, changes dramatically at the edge of a sample

On December 15, 2008, 150 people gathered at RIKEN’s Wako campus for the RIKEN-Nishina Memorial Symposium on ‘Charging Molecules: Fundamental Chemical Physics and Analytical Applications.’

Two RIKEN researchers have developed a switch to control the formation and separation of DNA duplexes that may have implications in many biological processes, such as gene regulation.

A team of scientists in Japan has demonstrated the possibility of switching the magnetization of a thin magnetic film with a non-conventional and innovative method, achieving a considerable step forward in magnetic data storage and the field known as spintronics.

At Sri Lanka’s largest agricultural market a large projection screen overlooks 12 acres of stalls brimming with produce. Traders at the Dambulla market consult the screen to receive up-to-the-minute pricing information on produce being sold in the market.

Cananda's IDRC in partnership with CIGI has helped build a pioneering research network on poverty and inequality in China

Researchers in China have used lentiviruses to reprogram adult rat fibroblasts and bone marrow cells into induced pluripotent stem cells

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Going ape, Blood cell ‘birth’ caught on camera, Petite press breaks the mould and Gene influences stem cell fate, Should scientists study ‘race’ and IQ?

The 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran; Valentine's Day, Mate Selection Theory and College Students and the “Scientific Study of Love”; The Hollywood Oscars and “The Demise of the System Known as Film Studios”; World Agricultural Forum; End of U.N. Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste