July 31: The deterioration of motor skills in Parkinson's patients is driven by the decline of dopamine production, but researchers in Japan are making exciting progress on a way to potentially arrest the slide. Following promising experiments on monkeys last year, scientists at Kyoto University are now preparing to begin transplanting reprogrammed stem cells into human brains as part of a first-of-a-kind clinical trial.

When Krishna Lal Shrestha left his village for Kathmandu about 40 years ago, he had just Rs 45 in the pockets of his trousers. He had sold a baby goat for the money, after which he left the village with his wife and child. Today, the same man has assets worth quite a substantial amount of money in Kathmandu. His success wasn’t the result of sheer luck or fortune but the willingness to work hard and live life with the motto, ‘work is worship’.