ASIA PRESS REVIEW. A very contrasting selection of scientific news in Asia collected in the press and on our site. Bamiyan soon to have a cultural center; a purported cellular treatment for trisomy 21; the care of the mentally ill in China; too polluting banana plantations in Laos and more...
The works of the cultural center in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
Bamiyan, Afghanistan, may never restore its two monumental Buddhas, destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. The experts on the site, including Unesco, are divided between the ideas of total restoration of the statues or the preservation of the traces of destruction as they are. However, work is progressing on the site. The magazine The Art Newspaper announces the opening for the summer of 2018 of a cultural center. Funded by the Afghan government and South Korea, the building will house galleries, performance hall, café and garden. To attract tourists, the Afghan government is calling for the reconstruction of at least one of the statues.
India:stem cell treatment for patients with trisomy 21?
The news should be taken with a grain of salt and that is what the journalist from the British popular science magazine New Scientist does. A private Indian clinic, Nutech Mediworld, claims to have treated 14 people with Down syndrome. The establishment has a storefront in the Indian capital and the recognition of some local politicians. The technique has been patented and would have been proven on a toddler who is now 3 years old. Cell therapy specialist interviewed by New Scientist says news "makes no biological sense" .
Mental health in China
Under Mao, being depressed was synonymous with betrayal of society. And little has changed for alcoholic, depressive, schizophrenic or bipolar patients, according to the British weekly The Economist. Suffering from a mental illness, addiction is still perceived as a danger to society in China. A staggering record:few diagnosed patients, 23,000 psychiatrists in 2014 for the whole country, and a psychiatric institution that looks like a prison. Studies in the medical journals The Lancet and Lancet Psychiatry, noted in 2016 the very poor care of patients in China but also in India, less than 1% of health budgets were allocated to mental illness; by comparison, in France, the figure is 10%.
Chinese banana plantations are no longer welcome in Laos
It seemed like manna from heaven at first. In this border region in northern Laos, banana plantations destined for the Chinese market represented additional income for agricultural workers, but they have since become an ecological plague due to numerous environmental violations. The Cavendish banana, the exogenous variety sold worldwide, requires an arsenal of pesticides. Groundwater is contaminated and the independent news site Radio Free Asia reports the case of the death of an employee as a result of repeated exposure to chemicals. The local authorities have suspended the activity of 18 plantations and are considering the agricultural reconversion of the region in the next two years.
And also:
UFOs on top of the world! The CIA declassifies 12 million pages of documents. Surprise:UFO sightings over the Himalayan mountains of Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal, recorded in February and March 1968.
India. Diabetes induced by chronic exposure to pesticides . The study published by Indian researchers combines the survey of 3000 inhabitants and tests on mice. An article from the Hindu.
Japanese River Ice Jewelry . The New York Times posts the scintillating photos of the chunks of ice that form each winter on the Tokachi River on the northern island of Hokkaido.
Organ donation in Bangladesh. Academics and doctors call for an enlargement of the group of donors at a conference at the University of Dhaka and for a law arranged in this direction. Reported by the Daily Star.
Urban pollution in China. In addition to the pollution generated by human activities, Chinese cities see spring coming with another atmospheric scourge:the catkins of poplars and willows planted in large numbers on the arteries. An article from the New York Times.
Two new victims of bird flu in China. The H7N9 virus has reached a peak of virulence according to the official information site China.org.
Donkey skin and Chinese pharmacopoeia . The African donkey is in turn a victim of poachers and demanding traditional Chinese medicine. The alarm bell was sounded last December by the Robin des Bois association and taken up by the daily newspaper Ouest France. See also the France 24 survey in Burkina Faso.
On our site:
Japan. An unprecedented level of radiation has been detected in Fukushima at reactor 2.
An Asian Hyperloop. South Korea is embarking on the design of a supersonic train capable of traveling at more than 1000 km/h in a low pressure tube.
Exhibition in Cambodia. A stele carrying the oldest "0" that has come down to us.
Bangladesh. A little girl may be affected by the "man-tree" syndrome, epidermodysplasia verruciformis.
VIDEO. The capture of dolphins in Taiji Bay in Japan filmed. A female dolphin tries to save her calf.