The sequencing of the human genome has been heralded as a major milestone in biological science that will, without doubt, provide fundamentally new ways of studying the human condition (Lander et al., 2001; Subramanian et al., 2001a; Venter et al., 2001). Yet, for a substantial portion of the world’s population, the human condition is defined by diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, ...

The deforestation and degradation of tropical forests are taking place at an extremely rapid pace. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the estimated annual rate of tropical deforestation during the 1981-1985 period was 113 846 square kilometers or 0.6% of the 1981 total forested area. The implications of the loss of these forests are staggering (Myers, N., 1989. Deforestat...

For many people, the juxtaposition of the words ‘research’ and ‘priorities’ produces the reaction that these are to some extent imcompatible notions unless defined in rather special and restricted ways. Successful research, it is said, is essentially an activity dependent upon the stimulation of individuals, exposed perhaps quite by chance, to the impact of experience; the outcome being to a la...

Eugene Garfield PhD is u piouccr in the field of information science. He is founder and presiden t oj’the Institute jbr Scientijic Irij&mation (iSI), \rvhich produces a broad spectrum of‘ inf&-mation services and systems. The inventor of ‘Current

One of the more intriguing empirical findings in recent years is evidence that a number of Third World economies experience a positive relationship between military expenditures and overall rates of economic growth. While this result has been found in a number of individual studies, no satisfactory explanation has been put forth -presumably defense expenditures have both positive spin-offs, ten...

The relationship between militarization and state formation in the West has been the subject of considerable scholarship,1 and there is thus some temptation to simply transfer concepts and arguments from that domain to the study of Third World militarization. Yet state formation dynamics in the two contexts were and are quite different, with important implications for the nature of national sec...

Let me first warmly thank UNESCO and ICSU for the invitation extended to me to take the floor at the opening ceremony of this Conference and address it on behalf of the Third World Academy of Sciences, over which I have the honour to preside. I am aware that this distinction is a tribute to the many colleagues of our generation who, in the developing countries, under the pressure of necessity, ...

During the last decade a great deal of scientific research has helped to establish the biological value of human breast milk. Starting with the nutrient and anti-infective properties we have now come to realise that breast milk is a live substance carrying at least two different populations of living cells each with a distinct biological property of its own (Ogra & Ogra, 1978). Furthermore, the...