Tuesday, April 29, 2014

SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: MAY 2014

1 May 2014: Today marks the 50th anniversary of BASIC, the computer language. BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use. BASIC had its start on May 1st, 1964 when its first commands were executed in Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It was the brainchild of Dartmouth mathematicians John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. They wanted to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. Instead of 'log on' and 'log off', this system used the commands 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'. BASIC still remains popular in many dialects and in new languages influenced by BASIC, such as Microsoft's Visual Basic. Link: http://bitsavers.informatik.de

2 May 2014: Mathematicians have found a framework for the celebrated Rogers-Ramanujan identities and their arithmetic properties, solving another long-standing mystery stemming from the work of Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The solution was found by mathematicians at Emory University and the University of Queensland. The Rogers-Ramanujan identities were originally discovered by L J Rogers in 1894. In 1913, Ramanujan sent a letter to British mathematician G H Hardy that included the two identities that Rogers discovered and a third formula that showed these identities are essentially modular functions and that its singular values are algebraic integral units. That result came to be known as the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction and Ramanujan died in 1920 before he could explain the formulas. Link: http://news.emory.edu

3 May 2014: A new study has found that India's shocking rates of suicide are highest in areas with the most debt-ridden farmers who are clinging to tiny smallholdings less than one hectare and trying to grow 'cash crops', such as cotton and coffee, that are highly susceptible to global price fluctuations. This follows on from a recent study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which showed Indian suicide rates to be among the highest in the world with suicide the second leading cause of death among young adults in India. In 2010, 187,000 Indians killed themselves one fifth of all global suicides. Kerala has the highest male suicide rate in India and if Kerala were a country, it would have the highest suicide rate in the world. The study is published in the journal Globalisation and Health. Link: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com

4 May 2014: Researchers from the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany have created Ununseptium, the heaviest element ever created. The new element  has 117 protons in its nucleus, confirming its existance first proved by a joint project between the United States and Russia four years ago, in 2010. The elements beyond the atomic number 104 in the periodic table are called Super Heavy Elements which are to be created in laboratories. The atoms were crafted from Berkelium which was bombarded along with Calcium ions, in order to create the new element. The International Unions of Pure and Applied Physics and Chemistry (IUPAPC) still needs to review the discovery to give the  new element Ununseptium will be getting an official name. The findings is published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Link: http://journals.aps.org

5 May 2014: Despite the fact that the prehistoric large bodied dinosaurs vanished from Earth some 65 million years ago, the new finding led by scientists at Oxford University and the Royal Ontario Museum claims that one dinosaur lineage belonging to Maniraptorans survived and evolved into birds. Animals display huge morphological and ecological diversity. One possible explanation of how this diversity evolved is the 'niche filling' model of adaptive radiation under which evolutionary rates are highest early in the evolution of a group, as lineages diversify to fill disparate ecological niches. The feathered Maniraptoran dinosaurs (including Mesozoic birds) sustained rapid evolution from at least the Middle Jurassic, suggesting that these taxa evaded the effects of niche saturation. The finding was published in PLOS Biology. Link: http://www.plosbiology.org

6 May 2014:125 years ago today, the Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public. It stood as the gateway for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) in honor of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. At the time of its construction, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world. It wasn't until 1930 when New York City’s Chrysler Building rose up to 1,046 feet that the tower lost that title.Because it’s made with wrought-iron, the tower’s metal expands when exposed to the summer sun, causing the structure to change in height as much as 6.75 inches. The Eiffel Tower was only meant to stand for 20 years, but during Second World War, the French government began using it for radio communication. The Eiffel Tower houses scientific laboratories, a theater, newspaper office and a post office. Link: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/en

7 May 2014: The Indian Government's Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has released the first draft of a policy that may nudge the nation into complying with the United Nation's REDD+ program. The program is a collaborative initiative comprised of numerous partner countries from around the world. REDD+ stands for 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation' which was launched in 2008 with the aim of reducing deforestation to help communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods. As estimated, REDD+ could provide for capture of around 1 billion tonnes of additional CO2 over the next 3 decades. The REDD+ program was opened for signature during the 19th UN Conference of Parties on climate change that was held in Warsaw. Link: http://www.un-redd.org

8 May 2014: An international team of researchers have for the first time identified a new Avian Influenza Virus in Adelie penguins from Antarctica. Researchers had taken blood samples from penguins before and detected influenza antibodies, but no one had detected actual live influenza virus in penguins or other birds in Antarctica before. The virus did not cause illness in the penguins but the study shows that avian influenza viruses can get down to Antarctica and be maintained in penguin populations. The samples were collected during January and February 2013 from two locations on the Antarctic Peninsula: Admiralty Bay and Rada Covadonga. The finding was made possible through the laboratory technique called real-time reverse transcription-PCR. The study is published by the American Society for Microbiology journal mbio. Link: http://mbio.asm.org

9 May 2014: Indian biologists  have discovered 14 new species of so-called 'Dancing frogs' belonging to the genus Micrixalus from the Western Ghats mountains in southern India. Researchers say that the tiny acrobatic amphibians earned their name with the unusual kicks they use to attract mates. Only the males dance, it’s actually a unique breeding behaviour called foot-flagging. They stretch, extend and whip their legs out to the side to draw the attention of females who might have trouble hearing mating croaks over the sound of water flowing through perennial hill streams. The new discovery brings the number of known species of Indian 'Dancing Frogs' to 24. There are other 'Dancing Frogs' in Central America and Southeast Asia, but the Indian family, Micrixalidae, evolved separately about 85 million years ago. The study is published in the Ceylon Journal of Science. Link: http://www.sljol.info

10 May, 2014: Ruling against the inventors of Dolly the sheep, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today held that clones, like all other existing organisms, aren’t patent eligible.The decision, which affirmed a final decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, came more than 15 years after Ian Wilmut and the late Keith Campbell, the researchers who created Dolly the sheep at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, first filed a patent application.The scientists have obtained patents on their cloning method. But here, the issue was whether they could make an intellectual property claim over the products of their research, the replica cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. Lawyers for Roslin argued that it should be possible to get a patent on clones because they aren’t exact copies of the originals. The clones, they argued, exist as time-delayed genetic copies. Link: http://news.sciencemag.org

11 May, 2014
: More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel's long-lost remains, lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. The discovery was lead by Barry Clifford, one of America's top underwater archaeological investigators. So far, Mr Clifford's team has carried out purely non-invasive survey work at the site, measuring and photographing it. The site is also an exact match in terms of historical knowledge about the underwater topography. The footprint of the wreck is represented by the pile of ship's ballast. The Santa Maria was built at some stage in the second half of the 15 century in northern Spain's Basque Country. In 1492, Columbus hired the ship and sailed in search of a new western route to Asia. Link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com

12 May, 2014: The world's first airplane completely powered by electricity has successfully taken to the skies for its maiden flight. The small experimental aircraft called E-Fan carried its first flight at an airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France, and could prove to be a key step towards greener, quieter and cheaper air travel.Manufactured by Toulouse-based Airbus, E-Fan measures little more than 19 feet from nose to tail and makes slightly more noise than a hairdryer. Powered by 120 lithium-ion polymer batteries, the plane's first official flight lasted less than 10 minutes, the plane has the capability to fly for around an hour without recharging. The two-seater E-Fan 2.0 will be a fully electric training aircraft, while E-Fan 4.0 will be used for general flight purposes and will be powered by a hybrid system. Airbus Group propose an industrial production facility. Link: http://www.airbus-group.com

13 May, 2014:Chemicals found in a variety of modern products can interfere with human sperm function leading to fertility problems, new research by a German-Danish team has shown. These findings suggests that these common chemicals, known as endocrine disruptors, may contribute to widespread fertility problems that hitherto has not been recognized. The scientists looked at the impact of these chemicals on the CatSper ion channel, a calcium channel controlling sperm motility. They showed that endocrine disruptors, directly open CatSper and, thereby, increase calcium levels in sperm, change their swimming behavior, and trigger the release of digestive enzymes that help sperm to break through the egg coat. Moreover, endocrine disruptors render sperm less sensitive for progesterone and prostaglandins, two important hormones released by cells surrounding the egg. The study is published in EMBO Reports.Link: http://embor.embopress.org

14 May, 2014: Ahmadabad-based Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) is contributing to the heart of the world's biggest Tokamak fusion reactor. The ambitious project, called International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is the biggest scientific collaboration on the planet and is being set up in Cadarache in southern France. India is contributing to building the cryostat and vacuum vessel, which is the heaviest and the largest part of the ITER reactor where the fusion will take place. India is providing 54 segments of the cryostat vessel of the giant reactor. The ITER Agreement was signed by China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.Beginning December 2015, the first of the ITER cryostat's components will arrive on the site from India. The first plasma in the ITER reactor is expected in 2022-25. Link: http://www.ipr.res.in
 

15 May, 2014: Paleontologists in Argentina's remote Patagonia region have discovered fossils of what may be the largest dinosaur ever, amid a vast cache of fossils that could shed light on prehistoric life. The creature is believed to be a new species of Titanosaur, a long-necked, long-tailed sauropod that walked on four legs and lived some 90 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period.Researchers say the plant-eating dinosaur weighed the equivalent of more than 14 African elephants, or about 100 tonnes, and stretched up to 40 meters (130 feet) in length. The previous record holder, also in Argentina, the Argentinosaurus, was estimated to measure 36.6 meters long. A fossilized femur of the Titanosaur was larger than a paleontologist who lay next to it.Paleontologists have found about 60 teeth at the site, 57 of which are from Tyrannotitan carnivores, one of the largest known therapods. Link: http://www.mef.org.ar

16 May, 2014: Four new species have been reported from Western Ghats  by researchers at Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The findings were made at Morjai plateau in the Gaganbawda taluka of the Kolhapur district, Ebbanad village in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu and Periya village in Kasargod district of Kerala. The researchers said new species are separated from their nearest ancestor by a million years of evolutionary process. The species, Piper dravidii was named in honour of Dr Natraj K Dravid, a physician from Satara District. specific description for the other species, Chlorophytum sharmae commemorates Prof A K Sharma, scientist, University of Calcutta. The specific epithet of Brachystelma mahajanii honours, S D Mahajan, Gokhale College. The species, Brachystelma vartakii is named in honour of late Dr V D Vartak, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. The discovery of the new species is published in Kew Bulletin. Link: http://link.springer.com

17 May, 2014: Scientists have found out how to turn pure light into matter for the very first time, after 80 years of trying.The idea was first dreamt up in 1934 by US physicists, Gregory Breit and John Wheeler in the 1930s, but they never expected anybody to be able to physically demonstrate their prediction.But researchers at Imperial College London say they have found a way to convert light into matter by using new equipment in the form of an extremely powerful laser capable of speeding up electrons to just below the speed of light. Researchers say they have found a way to convert light into matter by using new equipment in the form of an extremely powerful laser capable of speeding up electrons to just below the speed of light. Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to that emitted by stars. The research published in Nature Photonics.Link: http://www.nature.com

18 May, 2014: The Rubik's Cube appeared in today's Google Doodle. It was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architect, who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. He fashioned the first cube himself, hand-carving the 'cubelets'. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself. It was licensed to the Ideal Toy Corp in 1980, and since then it has sold more than 350,000 units, making it the biggest-selling toy of all time, and a retro favourite for anyone who was young in the 80s.The cube's six faces are each made up of nine stickered squares, with each row and column being independently manipulable around a central pivot. There are in fact over 43 quintillion permutations of the cube that is, unique distributions of the 54 coloured squares over the six faces. (A quintillion is a 1 with 18 zeros after it, or just under a fifth of a Googol!) Link: http://rubiks.com

19 May, 2014:Batman, the caped superhero created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, has turned 75. In May 1939, the dark knight first appeared in DC Comics' detective comics No 27, where he starred in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.The six-page story was written by Finger and illustrated by Kane. Batman is the secret identity of Bruce Wayne, an American billionaire, industrialist, and philanthropist. It also marked the debut of Bruce Wayne and Commissioner James Gordon.Batman quickly became a popular character after his introduction and some of the biggest names in Hollywood have fought crime in Gotham City wearing the mask of the bat.Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer George Clooney and Christian Bale have previously played Batman in films.Actor Ben Affleck is all set to play Batman in Man of Steel sequel.Link:http://www.dccomics.com

20 May 2014: It was 50 years ago, today that two scientists in the famous Bell Labs in New Jersey, while experimenting with an antenna, discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the first evidence of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. The two were working on a sensitive antenna designed to pick up radio waves from balloon satellites when they came across an inexplicable "hum".  Even after making multiple adjustments, they they couldn't find a place for the sound, which was initially mistaken for distortion from bird droppings. The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation proves that the expansion of the universe was from the huge explosion. It eventually brought Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for supporting the Big Bang Theory. Link: http://www.bell-labs.com
 

21 May, 2014: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the organization's four "Great Observatories" may be closing its doors forever, if funding can't be scrounged up to go the project's way.In April, a NASA advisory panel recommended that the space agency halt all Spitzer-related projects unless the cost of maintaining the telescope - $16.5 million a year - could somehow be reduced. Now, NASA has revealed that, no funding has been identified to support continuing Spitzer operations past 2015. The Spitzer project clearly recognizes that the NASA Astrophysics budget is under severe pressure and that the Senior Review Panel (SRP) faced an extremely difficult task. In 2009, the telescope halted the last of its observations of infrared wavelengths. Even today, the telescope is very important to the scientific community. Link: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu

22 May, 2014: Scientists have warned against a dangerous new trend where patients check on Wikipedia for information on their health conditions, instead of going to a doctor.Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, contains errors in nine out of 10 of its health entries, and should be treated with caution. American scientists compared entries about conditions such as heart disease, lung cancer, depression and diabetes with peer-reviewed medical research. As per Dr Robert Hasty from Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, patients should not use Wikipedia as a primary resource because those articles do not go through the same peer-review process as medical journals. Wikimedia is published in 285 languages and has 30 million articles which anybody can edit. It is the sixth most popular site on the internet and upto 70% of physicians and medical students using it as a reference.Link: http://www.jaoa.org
 

23 May 2014: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will celebrate five years in orbit June 18. LRO was launched from Florida on June 18, 2009 and reached orbit on June 23. In the five years since, LRO has brought the world astounding views of the lunar surface and a plethora of exciting science data. To celebrate the anniversary and LRO's many scientific contributions, NASA invites the public to select a favorite orbiter image of the moon for the cover a special image collection. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the LRO mission presents 'Moon As Art', a collection of images created using LRO data. NASA presents the top five images to the public, to decide which will be the cover of the 'Moon As Art' collection. The finalist images are titled: Starry Night, Linne Crater, Clerke Crater, Diviner North Pole, Tycho Central Peak. Voting is open from today to June 6. Link: http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov

24 May, 2014: Today was a great day for animals in India. After agreeing to ban imported cosmetics that use animal testing earlier this year, India has taken the full plunge and banned animal testing for cosmetics throughout the entire country. According to Humane Society International, India is the first country in South Asia to ban cosmetic testing on animals, so take note other countries India has set the bar for animals pretty high. More than 30 legislators joined together in support of the campaign alongside policy makers and Bollywood celebrities who all wrote letters to the Healthy Ministry urging for the change in policy. And, clearly, it worked. After a test period of 45 days, the ban has officially been finalized and goes into action as of today. The growing success of the “Be Cruely-Free” campaign is influencing change for lab animals, making waves in the world. Link: http://www.hsi.org

25 May, 2014: Researchers at CERN, and several other organizations, are offering cash prizes to citizen scientists who can develop an algorithm to improve analysis of Higgs boson data. The discovery of the Higgs boson, which is responsible for giving all particles their mass, was confirmed on July 4, 2012. A key property of any particle is how often it decays into other particles. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has recently observed a signal of the Higgs boson decaying into two tau particles, but this decay is a small signal buried in background noise. CERN wants this data to be refined using the algorithm. The Higgs boson machine learning challenge will reward the winners with up to $7,000 in cash. Organizations involved in the challenge include Google, The Center for Data Science of Paris-Saclay, and INRIA among others. Link:http://home.web.cern.ch

26 May, 2014: Scientists have for the first time ever solved a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery, kiwi actually once flew. Alsso, Australia can no longer lay claim to the origins of the iconic New Zealand kiwi. University of Adelaide scientists have now confirmed that kiwi's closest relative is not the emu as was previously thought. Instead, the diminutive kiwi is most closely related to the extinct elephant birds of Madagascar. The new study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) correct the previous work by Professor Alan Cooper which had shown the closest living relatives of the kiwi were the Australian emu and cassowary. The flightless birds became large herbivores, but once mammals also got large, about 50 million years ago, no other bird could try that idea again unless they were on a mammal free island, like the Dodo. Link: http://www.adelaide.edu.au

27 May, 2014: Blood from a rare group of children from Tanzania, found to be naturally immune to malaria has now helped scientists take a giant leap in developing a vaccine against the world's deadliest vector borne disease, Malaria. Researchers from the Brown University School of Medicine have found that these children produce an antibody that attacks the malaria-causing parasite. The antibody has been named PfSEA-1. Prof Jake Kurtis from the University screened 1,000 children in Tanzania, who had regular blood samples taken in the first years of their lives. Around 6% of these children were found to have developed a naturally acquired immunity to malaria, despite living in an area where the disease was highly active. PfSEA-1-based vaccines can be a promise against Malaria, which has killed more than 600,000 people in 2012, 90% which is in sub-Saharan Africa. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org

28 May, 2014: The identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly will take part in an unprecedented study of to better understand the effects of prolonged stay in space, spending an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning March 2015. No American has come close to a year; seven months is NASA's maximum for a single human mission. The Russians, on the other hand, are old hands at long-duration spaceflight, claiming title to a record-setting 14-month mission back in 1994-95. Mark Kelly, now 50,  has volunteered to spend an year along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko aged 54.The pair will launch from Kazahkstan aboard a Russian rocket and return via a Russian capsule. NASA want to identify physical challenges that need to be overcome before astronauts venture to Mars and beyond. The project will receive 1.5 million dollars for over three years. Link: http://www.nasa.gov

29 May, 2014:  A new banana species, Musa arunachalensis, was identified from West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India, by botanists from the University of Calicut in Kerala. Musa is a genus native to the Indian, Australian and South East Asian tropics, and of its five subgenera, only two produce edible bananas. The new species belongs to the subgenus Rhodochlamys. In India, wild Musa species are largely distributed in the northeastern states, the Western and Eastern Ghats and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, many regions in northeastern India, have not been explored due to factors such as inaccessibility in dense evergreen forests, civil unrest etc.Recently many species have been reported from neighboring areas such as southern China, Burma and Vietnam, reported from India since Hooker (1892) first reported the genus from the subcontinent. It was described in Phytotaxa. Link: http://www.biotaxa.org


30 May, 2014: Scientists, for the first time sequenced the complete genome of Termite. Termites are major pests of human structures, costing an estimated USD 40 billion in damage and control treatment each year. The sequenced genome is that of Nevada dampwood termite (Zootermopsis nevadensis). Though Nevada dampwood termites do not cause significant damage to buildings, they are closely related to key pests such as the Eastern subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes). Having the termite genome in hand will enable researchers to look for common features expressed across termite species to find control targets effective for all types of termites. The termite genome could also help researchers better understand the symbiosis between termites and bacteria that thrive in their guts, aiding in digestion and defense. The study is published in Nature Communications. Link:http://www.nature.com
 

31 May, 2014: There has been a voice from the scientic community itself, debating the value of killing animals as "voucher specimens" of new or threatened species. The issue is unfolded, a month after four scientists had published a general exhortation to explore nonlethal ways of identifying newly discovered animals. The availability of adequate alternative methods of documentation, including high-resolution photography, audio recording, and nonlethal sampling, provide an opportunity to revisit and reconsider field collection practices and policies. Yet, there is still a strong and widespread impulse to procure specimens of rare of species for scientific purposes. Cultural traditions within a research community can reinforce the collection of voucher specimens even where it is not necessary. The issue is discussed in the journal Science. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org

MOVIE OF THE MONTH: MAY 2014

                                                                             
Director       : Jonathan Glazer
Producer       : James Wilson, Nick Wechsler
Screenplay    : Walter Campbell, Jonathan Glazer
Based on       : Under the Skin by Michel Faber
Camera         : Daniel Landin
Release date  : 4 April 2014
Running time : 108 minutes

Under the Skin is a British-American science fiction film which is an adaptation of Michel Faber's 2000 novel of the same name. In the opening sequence, an alien wearing the human disguise manufactured takes the clothing of an immobilised young woman and proceeds to travel the country in a van, in Scotland.

As she lures her victims into a trap with the promise of sex, she witnesses the accidental drowning of a man and woman. She watches dispassionately, then kills a man who collapses in exhaustion after trying to save them. She takes his body with her, leaving the drowned couple's crying toddler behind.

Eventually the alien begins to sympathise with the humans she hunts. She falls on the streets of Glasgow and many people come to her aid. Soon after she seduces a lonely and sexually inexperienced man who has facial neurofibromatosis disfigurement, but takes pity on him and allows him to escape, fleeing herself as well.

The alien begins to feel more conscious of her human body. She attempts unsuccessfully to eat human food. She is soon after helped by a man who takes her to his home, cooks for her, but as they attempt to make love, she discovers that her human disguise does not include genitalia.

Movie Website: http://undertheskinmovie.com

BOOK OF THE MONTH: MAY 2014

                                                  
Italian journalist and author Andrea di Robilant's new book, Chasing the Rose  is a charming account of his quest to trace a mysterious rose. The book shows why collectors are hot on the scent of roses! Old roses have these extraordinary scents that are just inebriating, but we've lost almost of all those scents.

Since the growth in demand for new hybrids, from say the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, thousands of old varieties have become extinct. Roses with a name, a history, specific scent and specific appearance have disappeared. Only in the 1970s, people began to look for lost species. There were more than 3,000 varieties of Allica roses. Today there are only 300.

It is the story of the roses in general and how Chinese roses revolutionised the staid world of European roses. Chinese roses only arrived in Europe in the second half of the 18th century and they had a huge impact on European roses. They brought remontancy, for one: the ability to flower several times a year. Chinese roses also brought new colours to Europe: red and yellow, most importantly.
 

Four roses in particular revolutionised the staid world of European roses from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries. They are the so-called stud roses: Slater's Crimson China, Parson's Pink China, Parks' Yellow Tea-Scented China and Hume's Blush Tea-Scented China. It was thought the four stud roses were species: they were in fact horticultural varieties, which had been bred by Chinese gardeners many centuries earlier. 

Chinese roses were all shipped to England via the East India Company, and the only roses they had access to were in the nurseries of Canton. The history also includes India, the East India Company buying roses from Chinese nurseries and then bringing them to Calcutta. And there was a lot of trade between England and France, until Napoleon established Continental Blockade in 1806.
 

Review Courtesy: http://www.scmp.com

EVENT OF THE MONTH: MAY 2014

Biotribology embraces a wide range of research topics from artificial joint implants to hair conditioners and soft-tissue friction. Although this is one of the most exciting areas of research in tribology, until now there has not been a single conference dedicated to all aspects of biotribology.

The inaugural ICoBT was organised at Imperial College in 2011 to bring these diverse interests together in one meeting focused solely on biotribology. Our stated aim of bringing together biotribologists from different scientific and engineering disciplines was more than fulfilled. 

The enthusiasm and support expressed by fellow biotribologists has prompted to organise a 2nd International Conference on BioTribology which will be held at the Sheraton in Toronto in 2014.

Website: http://www.biotribologyconference.com


SPECIES OF THE MONTH: MAY 2014


Polo, the country’s only gorilla, listed as one of the world’s critically endangered species, died at the Mysore zoo (Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens) last month. The 41-year old  Gorilla was buried next to his old time friend Wali, a chimpanzee, who had died in the same zoo last year.

Polo was born in 1973, and was taken by Leipzig Zoological Garden in Germany, where he was housed till 1992. Later, he was borrowed by Dublin Zoo in Ireland. Under the recommendation of the European Endangered Species Programme committee, Polo was brought to Mysore in 1995.

Polo was shy natured and an introvert. Polo had another gorilla for company. Sumati was at least five years older than him but the two never mated. After Sumati’s death in 2000, Polo remained a loner and became more reserved.

Repeated attempts by the authorities to find a mate for him failed. The zoo director was however optimistic of a breakthrough with France by the end of the year. However, it was a challenge to convince them that Polo could father a child.


Class        : Mammalia
Order       : Primates
Family     : Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe        : Gorillini
Genus      :
(Western Lowland) Gorilla
Species    : Gorilla gorilla gorilla  

News Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: APRIL 2014

1 April 2014: Today marks the 10th anniversary of Gmail, the email service by Google and to celebrate it, Google is launching a new feature called Shareable Selfie or Shelfie for short. Gmail initially started as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009. Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit, who had already explored the idea of web-based email in the 1990s. Initially the software was available only internally as an email system for Google employees. In 2006, Forbes magazine declared Gmail as the best webmail. It is the most widely used web-based email with over 425 million users worldwide. Link:https://www.gmail.com

2 April 2014: NASA today celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Deep Space Network (DSN). The list of missions the Deep Space Network tracks starts with Surveyor 3, 5 and 6 in 1967 and Surveyor 7 in 1968. Of course there’s Apollo 11 in 1969, which put the first human on the moon. There were also the Mariner missions to Mercury and Venus and Pioneer missions to Jupiter. Today, the Deep Space Network tracks Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini and the Mars exploration rovers, like Mars Odyssey and Mars Express. DSN is also involved in the study of asteroids. The Indian counterpart IDSN (Indian Deep Space Network) is located at Byalalu, a village near Bangalore city in Karnataka. It started functioning on 17 October 2008. Other similar networks include ESTRACK of the European Space Agency and its Soviet and Chinese counterparts. Link:http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov

3 April 2014: Two people in England have developed tuberculosis after contact with a domestic cat, Public Health England has announced. The two human cases are linked to nine cases of Mycobacterium bovis infection in cats in Berkshire and Hampshire last year. Mycobacterium bovis is the bacterium that causes tuberculosis in cattle, known as bovine TB, and other species. Transmission of Mycobacterium bovis from infected animals to humans can occur by breathing in or ingesting bacteria or through unprotected cuts in the skin while handling infected animals or their carcasses. Those working closely with livestock and/or regularly drinking unpasteurised (raw) milk have a greater risk of exposure. The findings of are published in Veterinary Record. Link: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com

4 April 2014: India has successfully launched IRNSS-1B with PSLV-C24.  The lift-off took place from IRO's (Indian Space Research Organisation) spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. IRNSS-1B is India's second regional navigation satellite system. This will be the 26th flight of Polar Satellite Launch V, including Chadrayaan-1, GSAT-12, and Mangalyaan. The satellite was launched into a sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. IRNSS-1B will reduce India's dependence on GPS used by the United States and the Russian GLONASS. The satellite is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India and in the region extending up to 1,500 km. The satellite which is powered by two solar panels and a Lithium-ion battery has a mission life of 10 years. Link: http://www.isro.org

5 April 2014: DNA tests by an international team of scientists has confirmed Indian or Asiatic Lions (Panthera leo persica) have close genetic links with the now extinct Barbary lions (Panthera leo leo). Barbary lions of North Africa, extending from Egypt to Morocco were also called the Atlas lions and had the most spectacular physical features of all lion species.  This means that "reseeding" Indian lions could bring back the extinct species and reintroduce lions into North Africa. Less than 400 Asiatic lions survive at present on the Kathiawar Peninsula of India and the species is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Dr Ross Barnett of Copenhagen University sequenced the DNA from the skulls of two Barbary lions once held in Britain's Tower of London. Link: http://www.biomedcentral.com

6 April 2014: Gravitational measurements by NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggest that there is an underground ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus, leading scientists to conclude it is the most likely place in the solar system for extraterrestrial life to be found. The ocean lies beneath the icy surface of Enceladus at it's south pole.An international team led by Luciano Iess at the Sapienza University in Rome inferred the existence of the ocean based on the measurements made during fly-bys between April 2010 and May 2012, which brought the Cassini spacecraft within 100km of the surface of Enceladus. The first hint that Enceladus might harbour a subterranean ocean came in 2005 when Cassini observed water vapour from Enceladus's south pole. The discovery is reported in the journal Science. Link: http://www.nasa.gov

7 April 2014: Intending to study the stars and other celestial bodies in the space, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is developing Astrosat, a smaller version of Hubble Space Telescope. Astrosat hailed as  India's first dedicated astronomy satellite can view the universe in UV, visible and X rays. Even Hubble does not have this aspect, though by size comparison, it is big. The Ground Command and Control Centre for Astrosat will be located at ISAC, Bangalore, India. Scientists from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) have completed the development of payloads to Astrosat. It’s Soft X-ray Telescope is the most challenging equipment. A payload from RRI (Raman Research Institute) is also under development. Astrosat is likely to be launched sometime next year. Link: http://astrosat.iucaa.in

8 April 2014: The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) is preparing a detailed project report on Kavvai wetland in north Malabar to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) demanding it to be declared as a Ramsar site. CWRDM doing this under the directive from the technical unit of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE). Though CWRDM had submitted a report to MoEF earlier for including the wetland under the Ramsar site, it had decided to prepare fresh report. The move was taken to preserve the wetland system which spread over 32.92 sq km with 25 tiny islands. It is near Payyannur to Nileshwaran which is part of the National Waterway, NW-3, connecting Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram. Link: http://www.cwrdm.org

9 April 2014: Mammals on the Indian subcontinent have shown a remarkable ability to survive large-scale climate and human impacts. 20 out of 21 mammal groups that roamed the Indian subcontinent 200,000 years ago are still present today. The new findings are based on fossil finds in the Billasurgam cave complex in Andrha Pradesh state of India. It is the oldest, well-dated faunal succession for the Indian subcontinent and stretches back from 240,000 to 10,000 years ago. Fossil analysis shows a diverse range of ancient mammals including small to large carnivores, primates, small to large Bovids (cloven-hoofed mammals) and Cervids (deer family), Rhinoceros and Wild Equus (horses, donkeys, zebras etc). The report is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Link: http://www.pnas.org

10 April 2014: According to a recent study, Diclofenac, the veterinary painkiller  has affected  two more vulture species, the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) and red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), whose populations have declined by nearly 80% and 91% respectively in the Indian subcontinent since the mid-1990s. Both species are now globally threatened.Earlier, the Diclofenac was found to be affecting only three species of vultures such as White-backed (Gyps bengalensis) Slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris) and Long-billed Vultures (Gyps indicus). The study was done by researchers from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It is published in the Cambridge Journal, Bird Conservation International. Link: http://dx.doi.org

11 April 2014: Business leader Abdul Awal Mintoo is aspiring to be the ‘first Bangladeshi’ to have his genome sequenced. Mintoo was was thrown to jail because of the alleged corruption charges, during the last Caretaker Government (2006 to 2008). The geneticists of Beijing Genome Institute will reveal his full DNA and Mintoo will travel to China next month to give blood samples. As per Shahnoor Hossain, assistant professor at the Department of Genetic Engineering, Dhaka University, no one from Bangladesh had their sequenced their genome yet. Skilled experts can do the analysis within six months. Personal genomics can be used to predict the chance of hereditary diseases. The entire human genome contains roughly 3 billion base pairs. Link: http://www.multimodebd.com 

12 April 2014: Scientists from University of Fortaleza in
Brazil have genetically modified a goat to produce milk with an enzyme to treat a rare genetic disorder. The goat, named Gluca, is the first of its kind in South America. It has been genetically modified to produce the enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Gaucher’s disease is a rare human genetic condition caused by hereditary deficiency of that enzyme. People with Gaucher’s which can manifest itself with anemia, low blood platelets and an enlarged liver and spleen often are treated with bone marrow transplants but still face pain and often poor health prospects. Gluca was born on 27 March, 2014. In the US, a drug called ATryn (human antithrombin ) is already produced in just this way from the milk of transgenic goats. Link: http://www.unifor.br


13 April 2014: Scientists have said that a big gold piece, found years ago in Venezuela, has now been identified as the world’s largest single crystal of gold. The gold piece, which was discovered in a river in Venezuela, weighs 217.78 grams and is the size of a golf ball. Its worth is estimated to be about Rs.9 crore. As per Miami University geologists, structure or atomic arrangement of gold crystals of this size has never been studied before. To determine the internal structure of the gold lump, the research team used two sophisticated machines: a neutron Single-Crystal Diffraction (SCD) instrument, which determines the atomic arrangement of crystals; and a High-Pressure/Preferred Orientation (or HIPPO) instrument, which measures the crystal structure of crystals in a polycrystalline material. Link:http://miamioh.edu

14 April 2014: Just like humans, organisms that live in the oceans need vitamins to stay healthy, but the sources of these underwater vitamins are not always easy for scientists to identify. Researchers have now shown that B12 vitamins in the ocean are produced by Archaea, a group of single-celled organisms, not only by marine bacteria, as was previously thought. In the early 1990s, researchers discovered that Archaea were present in the ocean, and at the beginning of the 21st century, they found that these organisms were abundant there. This is particularly important when it comes to the growth of phytoplankton, which use photosynthesis to make energy, as plants do, and are the foundation of the ocean food chain. The study was conducted by University of Washington. Link: http://www.washington.edu

15 April 2014: Parts of the world saw a rare celestial event today when the Earth's shadow fell across the Moon, turning it orange. The lunar eclipse unfolded over three hours, when the moon began moving into Earth's shadow. A little more than an hour later, the Moon could be seen eclipsed and bathed in an orange, red or brown glow. Depending on local weather conditions, the eclipse was visible across a swathe of the United States. A small crowd of stargazers who gathered on a roadside north of Los Angeles saw a sliver of still-illuminated moon and a reddish shadow cast across the lunar orb. The eclipse also was visible from Australia, New Zealand and all of the Americas. Precise coloring depends primarily on the amount of volcanic ash and other aerosols floating in the atmosphere. Link: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov

16 April 2014: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented the formation of a small icy object within the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon probably no more than half a mile in diameter. The findings may provide clues to the formation of the Saturn's known moons and give insight into how earth and other planets in our solar system may have formed and migrated away from the sun. Images taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera today, last year show disturbances at the very edge of Saturn's. A ring, the outermost of the planet's large, bright rings. One of these disturbances is an arc about 20% brighter than its surroundings, 1,200 km long and 10 kilometres wide. The object, informally named Peggy, is too small to see in images so far. Link:http://www.nasa.gov

17 April 2014: Fifteen Indian bird species are part of a list of avians which are evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. According to the study, Bengal Florican, Lesser Florican, Great Indian Bustard, Sociable Lapwing and Jerdon's Courser are birds that are under threat due to the destruction of their habitat of grasslands and scrub forests.The survival of Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Siberian Crane and White-bellied Heron greatly depend on the existence of their wetland habitat. Forest Owlet's survival is impossible if its habitat of deciduous forests in central India is destroyed.The study was done by  Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Yale University which has come out with a study of 100 Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species worldwide. Link: http://www.edgeofexistence.org

18 April 2014: Earth's twin - a habitable planet with its own atmosphere and solid surface where liquid water and possibly life can exist has been found outside our solar system. The new planet, dubbed Kepler-186f, was discovered using NASA's Kepler telescope launched in March 2009 to search for a habitable zone, earth-sized planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. Since liquid water is critical to life on earth, many astronomers believe the search for extra-terrestrial life should focus on planets where liquid water occurs. Around 1.11 times the radius of the earth, Kepler-186f is a planet around the star Kepler-186 which has five planets. Kepler-186 is a dwarf star, much smaller and cooler than the Sun. Link: http://www.edgeofexistence.org

19 April 2014: In a chance discovery, astronomers have spotted an 'upside-down' planet in the first ever "self-lensing" binary star system confirmed about 2,600 light-years away. It was fould out by Ethan Kruse, doctoral student working with University of Washington. Kruse made the discovery using data from the Kepler Space Telescope. The binary star system is named KOI-3278. The two stars of KOI-3278 are about 43 million miles apart. KOI-3278 is about 2,600 light-years away in the Lyra constellation, The finding was made through Gravitational lensing, a common tool in astronomy. It has been used to detect planets around distant stars within the Milky Way galaxy, when it is called Microlensing. It is also among the first methods used to confirm Einstein's General theory of Relativity. Link:https://www.sciencemag.org

20 April 2014: Researchers at University of Adelaide have discovered a new mineral in Australia that is unique in structure and composition among the world's 4,000 known mineral species. It has been named 'Putnisite' after two Australian mineralogist Christine Putnis. The mineral was found in a surface outcrop at Lake Cowan, north of Norseman in Western Australia. The new mineral occurs as tiny crystals, no more than 0.5 mm in diameter and is found on a volcanic rock. It appears as dark pink spots on dark green and white rock which, under the microscope, appears as square, cube-like crystals. It combines the elements Strontium, Calcium, Chromium, Sulphur, Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen, a very unusual combination. The finding is published in the Mineralogical Magazine. Link:http://minmag.geoscienceworld.org

21 April 2014: Scientists have found that the first sex determining genes appeared in mammals some 180 million years ago. In humans and other mammals, the difference between sexes depends on one single element of the genome: the Y chromosome. It is present only in males where the two sexual chromosomes are X and Y whereas women have two X chromosomes. A team from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics found that a very long time ago X and Y were identical until the Y started to differentiate from the X in males. It then shrank to such an extent that now it only contains about 20 genes (the X carries more than one thousand genes). The study also shows that the same sex-determining gene named SRY in placentals and marsupials had formed in the common ancestor of both lineages around 180 million years ago.Link:http://www.nature.com  

22 April 2014: The genome of the Tsetse fly (Glossina sp.),a disease-ridden insect that are vectors of the disease popularly known as 'African Sleeping Sickness' (Trypanosomiasis) has been decoded.The Tsetse fly carries the Protozoan parasite called Trypanasoma which puts the lives of an estimated 70 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, at risk. And since the disease also affects livestock, it makes animal husbandry all but impossible in some parts of the region, exacting a severe economic toll. A female Tsetse fly produces only eight to ten offspring her whole life.The genome revealed a protein called ladybird late that orchestrates milk production in the fly, targeting which could be a good strategy for population control. Link:http://www.sciencemag.org

23 April 2014: Today marked the 30th anniversary of the announcement of the discovery of the causative organism for AIDS. It was on April 23, 1984, Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced that Dr. Robert Gallo, then the chief of the National Cancer Institute Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, and his colleagues discovered the causative organism of AIDS. It was a virus that would come to be known as HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the early 1980s, Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, surged into public awareness. But it took until 1981 for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recognize the disease.However, in 2008, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Luc Montagnier and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for their work on the discovery of HIV, Gallo was left unawarded. Link: http://www.ihv.org

24 April 2014: Two researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, have invented a device that can check the over-consumption of electricity.The device, called Dynamic Energy Access Manager (DEAM), can alert consumers that they could exceed the electricity consumption limit.The device can be linked to the meter. During times of electricity deficit, if a household consumes electricity, the device will buzz, alerting the consumer not to use it. The consumer can wait until the green light blinks on the device before using the power-guzzling application.This can save the required energy and a keep a tab on the consumers using electricity recklessly. This will also work as a reminder to the consumers of the limit that they can go up to at a given time.Link:http://www.sharedelectric.com

25 April 2014: WWF-India launched "Save Our Snow Leopards",a campaign today to save the remaining 400-700 snow-leopards in the high altitude Himalayan region. Snow leopards are at the apex of the mountain eco-system and is also an indicator species for the mountain ecosystem.They are poached for their bones and other body parts which are used in traditional Asian medicines. Retaliatory killing of snow leopards is also a major threat faced by the species since they often attack livestock. Snow leopards also face habitat and prey loss with the increase of developmental activities.The snow leopard is found in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Link:http://support.wwfindia.org

26 April 2014: Gerald S. Guralnik, the Brown University physicist who co-authored a paper 50 years ago predicting the existence of the Higgs boson, has died. Guralnik, aged 77 was a member of the Brown University faculty for 47 years. He co-discovered the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson with C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble. While widely considered to have authorerd the most complete of the early papers on the Higgs theory, Guralnik, Hagen and Kibble were controversially not included in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. As part of Physical Review Letters 50th anniversary celebration, the journal recognized this discovery as one of the milestone papers in PRL history. In 2010, Guralnik was awarded The American Physical Society's J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics.Link:http://journals.aps.org

27 April 2014: Dr Stephen Hughes, an Australian scientist from the Queensland University of Technology has forced the Oxford English Dictionary to change its definition of how a siphon works, after he found an error in the entry which had gone unnoticed for 99 years. Siphon is a tube used to convey liquid upwards from a reservoir and then down to a lower level of its own accord. For almost a century, the dictionary incorrectly stated that atmospheric pressure, rather than gravity, is the operating force in a siphon. According to Hughes, the Oxford English Dictionary corrected the error and removed the reference to atmospheric pressure after he pointed it out.The finding is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Link:http://www.nature.com  

28 April 2014: Astronomers have discovered the coldest star of its kind as frosty as Earth's North Pole - just 7.2 light years away. Using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Spitzer Space Telescopes, a Pennsylvania State University astronomer spotted the 'brown dwarf', making it the fourth closest system to our Sun. Brown dwarfs start their lives like stars,but they lack the mass to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight.The new found coldest 'brown dwarf',  named WISE J085510.83-071442.5, has a chilly temperature between minus 48 to minus 13 degrees Celsius. Previous record holders for coldest brown dwarfs were found to be about room temperature. Scientists believe that the new discovery could tell us a lot about planets which have similar cold temperatures.Link:http://www.nasa.gov

29 April 2014: Watergen, an An Israeli company has developed a new and inexpensive technology that produces drinking water from thin air a method that can address the problem of water scarcity in developing countries such as India. Using the technology, a litre of water can be produced for a mere Rs 1.50, as compared to Rs 15 for a litre of bottled water, the company claims. The Atmospheric Water-Generation Units created by Watergen use a 'GENius' heat exchanger to chill air and condense water vapour. The clean air is passed through the heat exchanger system where it gets dehumidified. The water is then removed from the air and collected in a tank inside the unit.The system can produces 250-800 litres of potable water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.Link:http://www.water-gen.com

30 April 2014: Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the Nylon stockings which was for the first time exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair. Initially, Nylon was used for fishing line and toothbrush bristles, but the Dupont Company for the first time introduced stockings made up of Nylon at the World Fair, in Newyork city. When America entered World War II on February 11, 1942, DuPont ceased production of nylon stockings and retooled their factories to produce parachutes, airplane cords, and rope. This led to a mass shortage and creation of a black market for stockings. At the end of the war DuPont announced that the company would return to producing stockings but could not meet demand. This led to a series of disturbances in American stores labeled as the 'Nylon Riots'. Link:http://inventors.about.com