World Osteoporosis Day - 20 October 

To know more about this disease see : International Osteoporosis Foundation

Vitamin D deficiency behind 'silent disease'

 Vitamin D helps in absorption of calcium. So deficiency of vitamin D causes calcium deficiency leading to osteoporosis which make the bones of the body brittle. The intake of Vit. D will help in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and consuming a rich balanced diet is enough to ward off this disease.

 

Open Access Week October 22 - 28,

Read more at : http://www.openaccessweek.org/

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition(SPARC) is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change. Its pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communication models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries.
SPARC and the World Bank Announce  – “Set the Default to Open Access”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 102 times to 199 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2011.This year  Nobel Prize was awarded jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent"

Full report about the prize is available on The Nobel Prize 

‘Doctors often ask for needless tests’

Dr. Kameshwar Prasad, head of the clinical epidemiology unit at AIIMS said unnecessary diagnostic tests and surgical procedures not just put additional financial burden but also affect the patient's recovery. "We are also proposing that evidence-based treatment methodologies should be emphasized in medical schools," he said.

Excerpts from TOI
 

 

 

India’s global research output is just 3.5%: Study

 A recent finding of the study on India's research output and collaboration conducted by Thomson Reuters states that the country had just 3.5% of global research output in 2010. The report which was recently submitted to the department of science and technology has discipline wise data on India’s abysmally low research output.
India's share of world research output in clinical medicine was a meagre 1.9% in 2010, 0.5% in psychiatry, 1.4% in neurosciences, 1.8% in immunology, 2.1% in molecular biology and just 3.5% in environmental research.
The report says that -
 India has been the sleeping giant of Asia. Research in the university sector, stagnant for at least two decades, is now accelerating but it will be a long haul to restore India as an Asian knowledge hub. Indian higher education is faced with powerful dilemmas and difficult choices - public/private, access/equity, uncertain regulation, different teaching standards and contested research quality,"

India has a long and distinguished history as a country of knowledge, learning and innovation. In the recent past, however, it has failed to realize its undoubted potential as a home for world class research. 

I liked one of the comment by the reader :
Until research in India is freed from political and bureaucratic control there is little chance of India gaining her rightful place in the world of academic research.

Excerpts from: India Education Reviews.com