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globalbriefs
News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.
Feathered Friends Food Shortages Guide Behavior
Global Glamour Natural Beauty Aids from India
The health and beauty aisle at Indian grocery stores includes several natu- ral products in wide use among In- dian women. Here are some popular ones available in America. Henna: Women mix powder from the henna plant with water to use as a natural hair dye and condi- tioner.
Coconut oil: Indian women regu- larly massage a natural oil into their scalp before washing to keep their hair healthy and prevent the scalp from drying out and itching. “Coconut oil helps to grow hair long,” advises Bibya Malik, owner of Bibya Hair Design, a salon chain in Chicago. “It is probably the most widely used hair oil in the Indian subcontinent; amla oil, jasmine oil and other herbal oils are used, as well.” Rosewater: Most often used as
a skin toner, some women also like to spray rosewater on their face as a refresher. Rosewater has a long his- tory as a fragrance and as a flavoring in dessert recipes. Ubtan: This mixture of turmeric,
gram (chickpea) flour and herbs is combined with milk or water as a beauty treatment. Indian brides scrub their skin with it in the days prior to their wedding.
Source: Bibya Hair Design, research by Bushra Bajwa
A new report published in American Naturalist by a pair of ecologists, W. Alice Boyle and Courtney J. Conway, at the University of Arizona, in Tuc- son, has determined that the primary pressure prompting short-distance bird migrations comes from seasonal food scarcity, not their amount of eating or living in non-forested environments, as was previously thought. “It’s not just whether they eat insects, fruit or nectar, or where they eat them; it matters how reliable that food source is from day-to-day,” says Boyle. A universal assumption has been that short-distance migration is an evolution- ary steppingstone to longer trips. The team’s work contradicts that idea by showing that the two are inherently different. They also found that species that forage in flocks are less likely to migrate. “If a bird is faced with food scarcity, is has two op- tions,” Boyle notes. “It can either forage with other birds or migrate.”
Oil Alternative Bio-Breakthrough Can Reduce Fossil Fuel Use
Researchers at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, attest they have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydro- gen in a method that can be performed using any source of biomass. “Our new process could help end our de- pendence on fossil fuels,” projects Y. H. Percival Zhang,
the associate professor of biological systems engineering who is spearheading the initiative. This environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen utilizes renewable natural resources, releases almost zero greenhouse gases and doesn’t require costly heavy metals. Most hydrogen for commercial use is produced from natural gas, which is
expensive to manufacture and generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas car- bon dioxide. “It really doesn’t make sense to use non-renewable natural resources to produce hydrogen,” says Zhang. “We think this discovery is a game-changer in the world of alternative energy.”
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natural awakenings September 2013 13
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