IN THIS ISSUE

• 116 In this issue

• 117 Editorial: Scientific publishing in the Third World

• 119 Herbal petrol, milk-sipping idols... what’s next? E. M. Muralidharan

• 119 Need to vitalize, not preserve, India’s culture and environment, S. K. Bhattacharjee

• 121 India’s status after Pokhran-II, T. Jayaraman

• 122 On the way to extinction? The scene in Indian grasses, S. K. Vats, R. D. Singh and P. S. Ahuja

• 124 Reviewing a review, Hari Narain

• 125 Viewing a reviewer, P. M. Bhargava

• 126 Computational chemistry: Much ado about nothing, Rustum Roy

• 128 Stochastic differential equations and applications, Vivek S. Borka

• 129 Biodiversity conservation and impact assessment, P. Balakrishna

• 131 Active tectonics and paleoseismology, Malay Mukul

• 133 Redefined role of mevalonate–isoprenoid pathway in terpenoid biosynthesis in higher plants, Rajesh Luthra, Pratibha M. Luthra and Sushil Kumar

• 136 A novel approach for raising salt-tolerant transgenic plants based on altering stress signalling through Ca⁺⁺/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase calcineurin, Anil Grover

• 137 The debate on the dawn of multicellular life on earth, A. V. Sankaran

• 141 Can free fatty acids in the tiger pheromone act as an individual fingerprint? Mousumi Poddar-Sarkar and R. L. Brahmachary

• 142 The antiepileptic drug sodium valproate affects body weight in Drosophila, Abhay Sharma and Sushil Kumar

• 145 Brassinosteroids and benzylaminopurine increase yield in IR50 indica rice, S. Krishnan, K. Azhakanandam, G. A. I. Ebenezer, N. P. Samson and P. Dayanandan

• 147 In vitro multiplication of Centella asiatica, a medicinal herb from leaf explants, Suchitra Banerjee, Mehar Zehra and Sushil Kumar

• 149 Accelerator development at the Nuclear Science Centre A. Roy

• 154 India’s nuclear capability, her security concerns and the recent tests B. M. Udgaonkar

• 166 New insights into the multiple functions of Sp1, a ubiquitous transcription factor Veena K. Parnaik

• 172 Prospectives of botanical and microbial products as pesticides of tomorrow Jaya Varma and N. K. Dubey

• 179 Mean distance of closest approach of ions in NaCl (aq.) at 25°C calculated from degrees of association using Bjerrum’s theory R. Heyrovská

• 183 Laser cooling and trapping of ions and atoms R. Srinivasan

• 190 Frequency stabilization of diode lasers Santa Chawla

• 200 Ion trapping techniques S. Renuka Prasad, Partha Pratim Datta and A. G. Menon

• 207 Magneto-optical traps for neutral atoms B. N. Jagatap, K. G. Manohar, S. G. Nakhate, A. P. Marathe and S. A. Ahmad

• 213 Temperature measurement of the cold cloud of atoms Hema Ramachandran

• 216 Experiments with a laser-cooled cloud of atoms Vasant Natarajan, Ayan Banerjee and Umakant Rapol

• 222 Mating propensity in Drosophila bipectinata under different sex-ratios and choice situations B. N. Singh and Seema Sisodia

• 225 Susceptibility of Vigna sesquipedalis Koern (Asparagus bean) to an oncogenic strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens S. Ignacimuthu, J. Becker and W. Nagl

• 228 Multiphasic zinc uptake system in mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal roots of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) A. K. Sharma, P. C. Srivastava and B. N. Johri

• 231 Protective mechanism of glucose against streptozotocin-induced free radical generation in pancreatic islets in vivo and in vitro Sandhya L. Sitasawad and Ramesh R. Bhonde

• 233 Disease and stress-induced mortality of corals in Indian reefs and observations on bleaching of corals in the Andamans J. Ravindran, Chandralata Raghukumar and S. Raghukumar

• 237 Copper resistance in Candida guilliermondii strain DS31 Deepa Saxena and Sheela Srivastava

• 240 The meandering Indus channels: Study in a small area by the multibeam swath bathymetry system – Hydrosweep V. N. Kodagali and Pratima Jauhari

• 243 Using global positioning system for orthometric height determination for growth surveys in Ladakh Himalaya Paramesh Banerjee and Satyaprakash

• 247 Wings of Fire: An Autobiography, reviewed by Gangan Prathap

• 248 Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists, reviewed by Subbiah Arunachalam

• 248 Flood Studies in India, reviewed by R. Vaidyanadhan

• 251 Early days of Raman Research Institute – Some personal reflections A. Jayaraman