SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2011

Source: http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/logo.shtml

                                                                         
1 January 2011: Scientists say they've compiled the most comprehensive list of land plant species ever published. The list was drawn up by researchers at Kew Gardens in London and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Kew's final list carries more than 1 million scientific names, of which 300,000 are accepted names for plant species.Another 480,000 are additional names, or synonyms, for those species.Another 480,000 are additional names for those species. Link: http://www.theplantlist.org/

2 January 2011: India's second oldest nuclear research reactor CIRUS supplied by Canada in 1954 was shut down permanently at midnight tonight in line with its commitment made under its civil nuclear deal with the US. CIRUS (Canada India Reactor Utility Services), refurbished in 2003, has been shut down permanently by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre as per commitment under Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement. Link: http://www.barc.ernet.in/

3 January 2011: National Institute of Virology has confirmed India’s first cases of the deadly Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) from Sanand, near Ahmedabad. CCHF is a viral haemorrhagic fever of the nairovirus group. Symptoms include high fever and a drop in platelet count. The first victim was a woman, Amina Momin, of Kolat village near Sanand town. The disease is endemic in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia but it is its first in India before. Link: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs208/en/

4 January 2011: To enhance self reliance in warship production capabilities, the foundation stone of the National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Shipbuilding (NIRDESH) will be laid today in Calicut, Kerala. The Government of Kerala has agreed to provide more than 40 acres of land for this  institute. NIRDESH will be an autonomous body under the Department of  Defence Production and registered under the Registration of Societies Act 1860. Link: http://mod.nic.in/aboutus/welcome.html

5 January 2011: A promising anti-cancer drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is likely to be commercially launched soon. The drug, 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2-DG) had been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India. The technology has already been transferred to a Hyderabad-based laboratory. The drug acts by altering the glucose mechanism of the body and denying sustenance to cancer cells that feed on glucose. Link: http://www.drdo.gov.in/

6 January 2011: The Mankombu Rice Research Station (RRS) which functions under the aegis of the Kerala Agricultural University, has developed a new rice variety Prathyasha-a short-duration variety that can be harvested after 100-105 days. It is the 21st variety developed by RRS. Pratyasha promises better taste than Jyothi and Uma varieties and has higher content of Iron and Zinc. The yield, however is slightly less, offering five to 5.5 tonnes a hectare. Link: http://www.kau.edu/rrsmoncompu.htm

7 January 2011: The Bombay Stock Exchange has introduced index-based circuit breaker system for the March quarter, whereby among others, trading in Sensex scrips would be halted if the 30-share benchmark gains 4,100 points in a single day. The circuit breaker brings about a coordinated trading halt in all equity and equity derivative markets nationwide. The system is applicable at three stages of the index movement either way at 10 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent. Link: http://www.bseindia.com/8 January 2011: Scientists at the University of Guelph have developed genetically modified pigs that could be among the first to be approved for human consumption.The project approved by Canadian government  is called Enviropig. The pigs created  contain genes from mice and E.coli bacteria and are can digest phosphates which means the pigs are cheaper to feed and less polluting. Supporters claim the animal could help in the battle to feed the ever-growing human population. Link: http://www.uoguelph.ca/enviropig/




9 January 2011: A group of 54 engineering students from the SRM University, Chennai  has designed a 10-kg nano satellite to monitor Greenhouse Gases that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch in April. The students have been working on the project 'SRMSAT' since 2008. A grating spectrometer is employed for monitoring earth-based sources and sinks of anthropogenic and natural sources of GHG. Link: http://www.srmuniv.ac.in/

10 January 2011: A joint team of Indian and Australian scientists is studying molecular changes in Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, a species commonly found along the entire Antarctic coast, triggered by global warming. The experts are also looking at the larger issue of whether climate change drives evolution. Australian team is collaborating with Siva Swaminathan, who leads the Indian side, under the aegis of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund. Link: https://grants.innovation.gov.au/AISRF/Pages/Home.aspx

11 January 2011: The Colombo zoo in Sri Lanka is gifting five of its Green Anacondas to the  Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens in Mysore. None of the zoological parks in India has this snake species which is among the deadliest and longest snakes in the world, stretching to an average of more than 5 metres or 17 feet and weighing about 100 kg. The Anacondas that Mysore zoo will get are young ones, two males and three females, measuring five to seven feet. Link: http://www.cza.nic.in/

12 January 2011: Google in partnership with the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), the LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American launched its first ever Global Science Fair for young people. Finalists win a 25,000 scholarship, and the winner gets a 50,000 dollar scholarship plus a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions. One finalist will be selected from each of three age groups: 13-14, 15-15, and 17-18. Link: http://www.google.com/events/sciencefair/

13 January 2011: NASA's Kepler telescope has found the smallest planet outside our solar system. One side of the planet is about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet is called Kepler 10-b after the telescope that found it. NASA scientist Natalie Batalha said the planet is about 1.4 times the size of Earth and has a mass about 4.5 times our planet's. Astronomers have found other planets outside our solar system that are closer in mass to Earth, but none this small in width. Link: http://kepler.nasa.gov/

14 January 2011: India’s third permanent station in Antarctica, Bharati, would be up and running next year Bharati will have an accompanying earth station to receive satellite images and transmitting them back to India in real time. It is coming up at the Larsemann Hills on the eastern coast of Antarctica. The earth station would be of great advantage because currently many satellite data are received at  Svalbard in Norway’s Arctic region, from where they are sent to Antactica. Link: http://ncaor.nic.in/

15 January 2011: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia is celebrating its tenth birthday this week. The site was founded on Jan. 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales, after he failed at launching a traditional online encyclopedia called Newpedia. The popular reference site is available in more than 250 languages and features around 26 million entries. Now Wikipedia is opening an office in India, which will be the site's first branch outside of the U.S. In China, access to Wikipedia is limited. Link: http://www.wikipedia.org/

16 January 2011: Scientists from cambridge University and Edinburgh University have developed the first genetically modified "Super Chicken" resistant to bird flu. The genetically modified chickens possess an extra RNA gene that does not allow the flu virus to replicate in the chickens' systems. The RNA gene does not protect the "super" chickens from getting avian flu but it does stop the disease from spreading if the chicken dies. Link: http://www.ed.ac.uk/home
17 January 2011: Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, has claimed that the Woolly Mammoth, extinct for 5,000 years, could be reborn with the help of cloning technology.The nuclei can be inserted into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as the surrogate mother for the Mammoth. Iritani said he estimates that another two years will be needed before the elephant can be impregnated, followed by the approximately 600-day gestation period. Link: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

18 January 2011: With the proposed commissioning of a 50-Mw tidal power project off the coast of Gujarat in 2013, India is ready to place it which will be first of its kind in Asia as well. The project is undertaken by  London-based marine energy developer Atlantis Resources Corporation, along with Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd. Late last year, Atlantis became the turbine supplier to the largest planned marine power project in the world, MeyGen, in Scotland. Link: http://www.atlantisresourcescorporation.com/

19 January 2011: India experienced its hottest year on record in 2010, the Indian Meteorological Department said ,blaming the rise in temperatures on global warming. India's mean annual temperature during 2010 was 0.93 degrees Celsius higher than the long term (1961-1990) average, according to the Annual Climate Summary of India during 2010. The study also said that that the 2001-2010 decade was the warmest since the records started. Link: http://www.imd.gov.in/

20 January 2011: The year 2010 ranked as the warmest year on record, together with 2005 and 1998, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Data received by the WMO show no statistically significant difference between global temperatures in 2010, 2005 and 1998. In 2010, global average temperature was 0.53°C (0.95°F) above the 1961-90 mean. This value is 0.01°C (0.02°F) above the nominal temperature in 2005, and 0.02°C (0.05°F) above 1998. Link: http://www.wmo.int

21 January 2011: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has released the largest digital color image of the sky ever made, and its free to all. The image has been put together over the last decade from millions of 2.8-megapixel images, thus creating a color image of more than a trillion pixels. This enormous image has formed the basis for new surveys of the Universe using the SDSS telescope. The project by the telescope started taking data in 2009 and will continue until 2014. Link: http://www.sdss3.org/

22 January 2011: NASA's newest Earth-observing research mission is nearing launch. The Glory mission will improve our understanding of how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate. Glory also will extend a legacy of long-term solar measurements needed to address the current climate change. Glory is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Feb. 23. It will join a fleet called the Afternoon Constellation or "A-train" of satellites. Link: http://www.nasa.gov/

22 January 2011: Scientists at Galapagos National Park are still hoping to mate the near century-old giant tortoise from the Galapagos, even though efforts over the past two decades have failed. They are providing two new female partners for George, who is believed to be the last living member of the Geochelone abigdoni species. The Galapagos island chain, about 1,000 kms off Ecuador's coast, is home to unique animal species that inspired Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution. Link: http://www.galapagospark.org/

23 January 2011: Israel's agricultural produce companies nurtured 65 new species of Pepper in 2010. Some of the new species will be reach our plates in the coming year, while others will be presented in a major agricultural exhibition in the Arava region on Tu B'Shvat. According to the Yair Experimental Station in the Arava, the new species are of high quality, are immune to viruses including the Yellow Pepper with vitamins and Red Pepper resembling a tomato. Link: http://www.arava.co.il

24 January 2011: The World Organisation for Animal Health declared 2011 as World Veterinary Year. The official opening ceremony of the year was held today in France. It is in recognition of the 250th anniversary of  veterinary education marked by the foundation of the world’s first veterinary school in Lyon, France, in 1761, shortly followed by the Alfort veterinary school, near Paris, in 1764, both of them at the initiative of French veterinarian Claude Bourgelat. Link: http://www.vet2011.org/

25 January 2011: Today, scientists will meet at the Royal Society in London to define Kilogram  in terms of the fundamental constants of nature, rather than a physical object. The kilogram is still defined as the mass of a cylinder of platinum-iridium stored at the Imternational Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris, as the International Prototype. Measurements over the past century have shown that the international prototype has lost around 50 micrograms. Link: http://www.bipm.org/en/home/

26 January 2011: Scientists have released a draft sequence of the Orangutan genome, revealing intriguing clues to the evolution of great apes and humans.The sequenced genome is that of a female Sumatran Orangutan named Susie. Of the great apes, the Orangutan is the most genetically distant from humans. Details of the research are outlined in the journal Nature. Link: http://www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu/project-species-p-Orangutan.hgsc?pageLocation=Orangutan

27 January 2011: Railways has inaugurated India's first green station at Manwal on the Jammu-Udhampur rail route. With the tiny station facing frequent power cuts, it has been a provided a supply of solar power. Link:http://www.nr.railnet.gov.in/
The state electric supply is a standby source, which can be used in case of any failure of solar system.  Additional Solar panels for increasing backup for power supply and complete platform lighting are planned to be provided for further improvement in the system.
28 January 2011: The NASA remembered the deadly explosion of the space shuttle Challenger 25 years ago today. The shuttle broke up just after launch on January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board. The day is also used to honour three astronauts killed in a fire aboard Apollo I on January 27, 1967 and the seven crew members killed when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003. Link: http://history.nasa.gov/sts51l.html

29 January 2011: Mangrol, a small fishing town situated along Gujarat coast, now has Whale Shark as its mascot. The announcement was made during the Whale Shark Day celebrations, marking the culmination of six years of successful Save the Whale Shark campaign. The whale shark, Rhincodon typus is the largest fish on earth, growing to over 12 metres or 40 feet in length. This solitary, slow-swimming, gentle giant, classified as a vulnerable species, but is no killer. Link: http://gujenvfor.gswan.gov.in/

30 January 2011: The new photo recognition software for Android mobiles, Goggles, can help solve the Sudoku puzzle. Just hold the numerical puzzle up to the camera on your mobile. Goggles will then recognize the numbers already in the puzzle and calculate the missing values. Goggles, now in version 1.3, is also capable of giving assitance other number games. Recognition of bar codes has also gotten better, reported Google in its blog. Link: http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/

31 January 2011: Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking. It further challenges claims made in a 2007 report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the glaciers would be gone by 2035. The new study report is published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Link: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1068.html

MOVIE OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2011

NEVER LET ME GO

                                      
Director        : Mark Romanek
Screenplay    : Alex Garland
Based on       : Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Music            : Rachel Portman
Camera         : Adam Kimmel
Running time: 103 minutes
Language      : English

What exactly does it mean to be human? This question could not be more applicable to today's time. In America we are constantly debating the ethical implications of difficult issues such as abortion, stem-cell use and cloning.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro deals with the last of these controversial subjects — cloning. The story is told through the eyes of Kathy H, a 31-year-old woman who is reminiscing on her days as a student at a boarding school in modern-day England called Hailsham.

Kathy's story is shrouded in mystery as she tells about her earlier life at Hailsham spent with her friends, Ruth and Tommy. The students at Hailsham experience life in a relatively normal fashion, playing sports, gossiping and developing crushes on boys, but they are constantly reminded of the fact that they are “special.”

After Kathy and her friends leave Hailsham, they embark on a life that is without the security and constraints of the boarding school, and they struggle to come to terms with their purpose in life as “donors,” human beings who are brought into the world for the sole purpose of donating their organs.

Kathy eventually becomes a “carer,” which is someone whose sole job is to take care of the “donors,” and leaves her friends. After several years, she reunites with Tommy and becomes his carer, and they set out together to find answers to all of the mysteries surrounding the existence of Hailsham and themselves.

Never Let Me Go is an absorbing, thoughtful and profoundly sad book that poses a lot of questions concerning the nature of human worth. One of the characters in the book that attempts to rally for the civil rights of clones poignantly describes the lot of Kathy and those like her by saying, “For a long time, you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think about you. And if they did, they tried to convince themselves you weren't really like us. That you were less than human, so it didn't matter.”

Though a fictional character in a fictional book said this, it can be easily applied to a number of modern issues (immigration, abortion, sex-trafficking and even cloning). This makes Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go incredibly relevant to life in the 21st Century and well worth reading.


Review Courtesy:  Janna Gentry, English junior
Link     : http://www.oudaily.com/news/2010/dec/09/book-review-never-let-me-go-highlights-issues-rele/
Details  : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Let_Me_Go_(2010_film, http://www.foxsearchlight.com/neverletmego/

BOOK OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2011

                                                                
Title        : The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain:
                  A Neurologist's Search
                  for the God Experience
Author    : Kevin Nelson
Pages      : 336
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Price       : $ 26.95
ISBN       : 10:0525951881

If Buddha had been in an MRI machine and not under the Bodhi tree when he attained enlightenment, what would we have seen on the monitor? Dr. Kevin Nelson offers an answer to that question that is beyond whatany scientist has previously encountered on the borderlands of consciousness. In his cutting-edge research, Nelson has discovered that spiritual experiences take place in one of the most primitive areas of the brain. In this eloquent, inspired, and reverent book, he relates the moving stories of patients and research subjects, brain scan analysis, evolutionary biology, and beautiful examples of transcendence from literature to reveal the machinery in our heads that enables us to perceive miracles-whether you are an atheist, Buddhist, or the most devout Catholic.

The patients and people Nelson discuss have had an extremely diverse set of spiritual experiences, from arguing with the devil sitting at the foot of their hospital bed to seeing the universe synchronize around the bouncing of the ball in a pinball machine. However, the bizarre experiences don't make the people seem like freaks; they seem strangely very much like us, in surprising ways. Ultimately Nelson makes clear that spiritual experiences are not the exception in human life, but rather an inescapable and precious part of every one of us.

In our most sublime moments, reaching the spiritual is sometimes within our grasp. Many varieties of spiritual experience can be realized, each sharing the quality of touching the divine. And the passions, so crucial to these brief but hallowed occasions, sweep a vast domain: elation, reverence, inspiration, grace, mercy, acceptance, joy, relief, awe, fear, love, forgiveness and power-are just a few. Although these sentiments are vital to what is an extraordinary event, by themselves they are not uniquely spiritual. These feelings most often find expression, perhaps more faintly, when we are removed from the spiritual during our ordinary everyday lives. Previously we found that even the dramatic out-of-body experience does not always possess a spiritual essence.

Yet there exists one variety of spiritual experience that is made supreme by the fact that it is always and exclusively spiritual. W. T. Stace at Princeton elaborated on the mystical nature and identified that the core feeling of oneness could be expressed in two forms. The extrovertive mystical experience, looks out-ward to the world through the physical senses and finds unity. On the other hand, the introvertive mystical experience turns inward, shuttering out the senses and transcending into a "pure" consciousness.

Some psychologists believe that these experiences were universal to humans. In other words there are no Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist mystical experiences. Instead there are Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist interpretations of mystical experience. And why can't there be pre-historical interpretations too? The trail leading us to the mystical essence within our brain begins with ancient rituals, and eventually brings us on a path cleared by the latest neuroscience technology that points to our primal brain.

Today neuroscience uses hallucinogens like mescal, psilocybin, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as probes, with the precision of a molecular scalpel, to identify brain regions and processes essential to mystical experience. And just what are these things in the brain? One of the most crucial is the neurochemical serotonin, known to most people for its role in depression. Serotonin is the foundation of a great neurochemical system important not only for depression but for many other brain functions including fear, memory and the regulation of consciousness itself.

Mystical oneness expresses its transforming power through a special quality of serotonin neurochemistry, specifically the serotonin-2a portion. If we chemically block serotonin-2a in the brain we also block the mystical effect of psilocybin. The limbic system is where our emotional brain resides; be they spiritual or be they ordinary emotions. And if parts of the limbic system containing serotonin-2a nerves are surgically removed, so too is the mystical effect of LSD.

Someone can rightly ask: Are mystical experiences authentic when they are brought on by intentionally manipulating serotonin-2a neurochemistry? Absolutely according to James, who made clear that it is "By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots"-as he said for all spiritual experiences. Using modern psychological tools like Hood's mystical scale, we know that psilocybin causes mystical experiences indistinguishable from spontaneous ones like Reed's. Frank's life altering experience was brought out by psilocybin.

Fear, the primal survival emotion and the prime limbic emotion, often accompanies mystical experience. Reed felt terror with his extrovertive mystical experience. Frank felt a similar terror when he became "a point of consciousness", because soon he found himself being pulled into a "center of being" that brought "...a great fear that I would be lost if I reached the heart of this unbearably bright light." If serotonin-2a is directly engaged, as with psilocybin, then some form of fear typically results. But even though the fear can be terrorizing, the experience is usually overshadowed by the power of sensing mystical oneness.

So it should not be surprising to find that fear and mystical experience are intertwined in the limbic system through the workings of serotonin-2a. For example, the medial prefrontal brain is a limbic area that governs the visceral response to things that frighten us. Serotoin-2a may help this area regulate our brain's survival "fight-or-flight" response. Mystical experience is inextricably bound to our primal brain down to the molecular level. If we were to know what each brain molecule does during these experiences, would the mystery of spirituality live on? We can't escape from this question as it stands before us. So lets next explore the mystery, and see if we can find out what it means to have a spiritual doorway in the brain.

Kevin Nelson, M.D. has over three decades of experience examining the processes of spiritual sensation, in the last 26 years as a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky. In University of Kentucky he  practiced clinical neurology and neurophysiology for more than 25 years, and published in scientific journals that include Muscle and Nerve, Neurology, and the New England Journal of Medicine. "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain" was released December 30th, 2010. If you wish to confidentially share your spiritual experience, Dr. Nelson can be contacted by email: kevin@thespiritualdoorway.org.

More information can be obtained at thespiritualdoorway.org.

Review Text Courtesy: http://booksellers.penguin.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780525951889,00.html, http://www.amazon.com/
                                               http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-spiritual-doorway-in-the-brain/201011/the-supreme-spiritual-experience

EVENT OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2011

INTERNATIONAL YEAR CHEMISTRY 2011

Launching Ceremony

Date: Jan 27 - Jan 28, 2011

Venue: UNESCO Head Quarters, Place de Fontenoy, Paris, France.

                                                                                  
The Official International Launch Ceremony for International Year of Chemistry 2011 will take place at UNESCO World Headquarters in Paris on 27-28 January 2011, under the aegis of the UN, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), and the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry).


The International Year of Chemistry presents a unique opportunity to promote, celebrate, and advance Chemistry in all of its beneficial aspects. The influence of IYC 2011 will extend long after the program of events for the year has ended. The year 2011 itself will be the point from which the Chemists of the world can refocus sustainable world environments in which we all must live together. IUPAC and UNESCO eagerly anticipate working with you to reach this important goal.

In December 2008, the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution proclaiming 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011). Ethiopia, supported by many other countries, submitted the UN resolution after a bid endorsed in August 2007 by the IUPAC Council, drawing attention to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014. The resolution underscores that national and international activities carried out during 2011 should emphasize the importance of Chemistry for sustainable development in all aspects of human life.


The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have been placed at the helm of this global event. They strongly believe that it is time to celebrate the achievements of Chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. For this purpose a wide range of IYC 2011 events are planned, all focusing on achieving four key goals:

Increase public appreciation of Chemistry in meeting world needs.

Encourage an interest in Chemistry among young people.

Generate enthusiasm for the creative future of Chemistry.

Celebrate the achievements of Marie Curie and the contributions of women to Chemistry.

The agenda for this exciting cornerstone activity includes an international seminar, an exhibition, and other related social and cultural events. Attendance is by invitation only.You may ask for information from the Federation Francaise pour les sciences de la Chimie (FFC) Secretariat using the following contact: Pascale Bridou Buffet - FFC - Maison de la Chimie. e-mail: IYC2011@ffc-asso.fr

Source: http://www.chemistry2011.org/


The launch of the International Year of Forests 2011 will be held at UNFF Secretariat UNHQ, New York on January 24 - 4 February 2011. Website: http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/





 

SPECIES OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2011

NEW BUTTERFLY SPECIES FROM INDIA



Silvery Meadow Blue Butterfly. Image source: http://ninjawebproxy.com/



Common Name: SILVERY MEADOW BLUE
Phylum             : Arthropoda
Class                : Insecta
Order               : Lepidoptera
Super-family     : Papilionoidea
Family              : Lycaenidae
Sub-family        : Polyommatinae
Tribe                : Polyommatini
Genus              : Polyommatus
Species            : Polyommatus florience

Scientists at the High Altitude Regional Centre of Zoological Survey of India have discovered a rare species of butterfly known as Silvery Meadow Blue in Paangi Valley of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, 515km from Shimla. The butterfly species, earlier reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been reported for the first time in India by a scientific team led by Avtar Kaur Sidhu, head of the ZSI centre, in surveys conducted between 2007 and 2009.

The Silvery Meadow Blue was among 36 species of butterflies the scientists observed during the survey of the valley. “The Silvery Meadow Blue has been reported for the very first time in India,” said Sidhu. “We found 36 species of butterflies in Pangi out of which three to four species are rare and have been listed under the Wildlife Protection Act,” said Sidhu, who had spotted the Silvery Meadow Blue in July 2008 and July 2009.

The Silvery Meadow Blue (Polyommatus florience) butterflies are found in areas 3,000 metres above sea level. It likes meadows and areas outside forests and can be found during the month of July when the high altitude areas experience a late-flowering season.

A leading entomologist who specialises in butterflies said the Silvery Meadow Blue appears to belong to a family of temperate-zone butterflies found in low temperature regions such as central Asia. The discovery of this rare butterfly in Himachal Pradesh also suggests that a host plant specific to this species is also found here, said Krishnappa Chandrashekara, a senior entomologist at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

“All butterflies are very specific about the plants that their larvae feed on. The host plant for this species is likely to be growing across this high altitude region.” Chandrashekara said it is possible that the rare butterfly always existed in India’s northernmost regions, and hadn’t been observed earlier. But if it is a new arrival, he said, it would be scientifically interesting.

“In a warming climate, we would expect temperate zone butterflies to move from lower latitudes to higher latitudes, instead we would be seeing this species moving slightly southward,” he said. The Pangi valley of Himachal Pradesh is home to 36 species of butterflies out of which about half are oriental and half are Palearctic fauna.

“Besides the Silvery Meadow Blue, we have also reported Walnut Blue (which destroys walnut leaves), Black Vein Fritillary, Chequered Blue,Whiteline Hair Streak, Violet Meadow Blue, Common Meadow Blue, Large Green Underwing, Dusky Green Under Wing and Tawny Meadow Brown butterfly species from the valley,” Sidhu said. Silvery Meadow Blue is incidental pollinator.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101222/jsp/frontpage/story_13332988.jsp

                                                  

BOOK OF DECEMBER

                                                                           
Title         : Of Thee I Sing:
             A Letter to My Daughters
Author     : Barack Obama
Publisher : Knopf Books
Pages       : 40
Price        : $26
ISBN        : 978-0375835278

On sale for about a week, “Of Thee I Sing,” President Obama’s children’s picture book, an ode to 13 inspirational Americans written as a letter to his daughters, Malia and Sasha, is already on the best-seller lists in the world.

"Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters" is a tribute to 13 groundbreaking Americans, from the first president, George Washington, to baseball great Jackie Robinson to artist Georgia O'Keeffe. It will be released Nov. 16 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, which will officially announce the new work Tuesday. Knopf declined to identify the other 10 subjects.

Obama is not the first president to write for young people. Jimmy Carter's "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer" was published in 1995, more than a decade after he left office. More in line with Obama's effort, Theodore Roosevelt collaborated with Henry Cabot Lodge on "Hero Tales from American History," released in 1895, before Roosevelt was president.

Obama's book is illustrated by Loren Long, whose many credits include Watty Piper's classic "The Little Engine That Could," Randall de Seve's "Toy Boat" and Madonna's "Mr. Peabody's Apples." Long wrote and illustrated the children's stories "Otis" and "Drummer Boy." His cover design for "Of Thee I Sing" is a sunny impression of presidential daughters Sasha and Malia Obama walking their dog, Bo, along a grassy field.

Obama's 40-page book will have a first printing of 500,000 copies and a list price of $17.99. Both of Obama's previous works, the memoir "Dreams From My Father" and the policy book "The Audacity of Hope," are million sellers published by Crown, a division of Random House Inc.

While Mr. Obama may be the first sitting president to publish a children’s book, other White House occupants have made their own contributions to children’s literature.Long before she was secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy,” a compilation of letters to the first pets of the Clinton administration.

While children’s books are generally safe territory, politically speaking, Mr. Obama attracted criticism from the right for his inclusion of Sitting Bull as one of 13 “groundbreaking Americans” honored in the book. A headline on Fox Nation, a Fox News online conservative forum, read, “Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Defeated U.S. General.”

Doug Wead, a former Bush family adviser and the author of “All the Presidents’ Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America’s First Families,” said in an e-mail that he wondered how Mr. Obama had managed to find time to write the book.

As for a possible motivation Mr. Obama might have had for writing it, Mr. Wead suggested, “He is wanting to build the dreams of young ladies.”

Review Text Courtesy: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com, http://abcnews.go.com
Link: http://my.barackobama.com

EVENT OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER 2010

UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico

(29 November to 10 December 2010)

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. It encompasses the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), as well as the thirty-third sessions of both the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), and the fifteenth session of the AWG-KP and thirteenth session of the AWG-LCA. But some who attended the meetings, sponsored by the United Nations, expressed muted hope that small steps could be made on a decades-long journey to reduce the planetary threat of rising global temperatures.

The United States entered the talks in a weak position because of a lack of action on domestic climate and energy legislation and continuing disputes with China and other major developing nations over verification of emissions reductions. The United Nations negotiating process itself is on the line, with many saying that the 190-nation talks cannot survive another debacle like that at Copenhagen last December.

This year’s talks come at a low point for global climate diplomacy. Last year, more than 100 heads of state gathered with hopes of fashioning a binding treaty to address global warming. A year later, midlevel envoys are trickling into a Mexican resort with hopes, at best, of averting disaster.

Last year, President Obama had large majorities in Congress and hopes of passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Next year, he faces a new Congress much more dubious about the reality of climate change and considerably more hostile to international efforts to deal with it. Still, leaders expressed belief that the United Nations remained the best, if not the only, place to address a problem that will require a global solution.

“We’re not going to solve the whole problem this year, but we can lock in bigger and better agreements every year,” said Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who took over this year as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that convenes the talks. “Multilateral negotiations such as this one involve not just solving an environmental problem but actually involve the transformation of economic patterns and the economic structure we have lived with for decades.”

The annual climate change conference combines the technical complexity of arms control negotiations with the leaden pace of global trade talks. It attracts thousands of journalists, environmental campaigners and corporate executives, each looking for a story or selling a product. The actual negotiations tend to take place behind closed doors, where progress is measured in verb tenses and punctuation changes. And nothing of significance seems to happen until the 11th hour of the final day.

This year’s conference opened with the same set of issues that the participants left on the table when the meeting in Copenhagen broke up a year ago and the same flawed document — the Copenhagen Accord — before them. At the end of the chaotic talks in Copenhagen, participants failed to adopt the accord, a nonbinding statement of good intentions, but only “took note” of the three-page document. About half the participating countries have since agreed to “associate” themselves with the accord.

But even if all the promised emissions reductions in the accord were achieved, the world would still fall short of the action needed to meet the goal of keeping global average temperatures within two degrees Celsius of preindustrial times. Despite a year of preliminary meetings, delegates remain far apart on the two biggest questions: how much and how quickly nations will reduce their emissions of climate-altering gases and what sort of international monitoring can be established to ensure that countries are meeting their targets. No one expects that the gaps on those issues will be significantly closed over the next two weeks in Cancún.

There has, however, been some progress on the other four major points of discussion at the talks. Those involve slowing the destruction of forests, sharing technology to produce energy in less-destructive ways, helping poorer countries adapt to the inevitable changes to the climate and building a multibillion-dollar fund to further these goals. The goal at Cancún, according to negotiators and observers, would be a “balanced package” of progress on each of those issues and an agreement by the wealthier countries to make good on their promise to come up with $30 billion in short-term financing to help developing nations adjust to global climate disruption.

Jonathan Pershing, the deputy United States climate envoy, said Monday in Cancún that while preliminary talks this year had been hung up by disputes over substance and procedure, “We are optimistic we can work through many, if not all of these.” He also said that the United States and China had made progress on some issues dividing them and that the United States was prepared to contribute $1.7 billion to the short-term adaptation fund, most of it new money appropriated by Congress.

What remains really difficult, and what most likely will not be resolved at Cancún, is the fate of the 13-year-old Kyoto Protocol, the global warming agreement largely set to expire at the end of 2012. The protocol — never accepted by the United States — sets different requirements for developed and developing countries. It has been used as a cudgel by large developing countries like China, India and Brazil to demand more emissions reductions by the United States and other advanced economies as a price for their own participation in any global climate regime.

China has passed the United States as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse pollutants and has voluntarily taken large strides toward slowing the growth of its emissions. But it refuses to be bound to an international agreement that does not require larger, verifiable reductions from the United States and other wealthy countries. The United States is demanding that the protocol’s distinctions among countries be scrapped and that all nations move forward together to attack the problem of global climate change. Until that fundamental dispute is resolved, the prospects for progress are slim.

“Success here will mean finally discarding Kyoto and beginning the process of requiring major developing countries to cut emissions along with developed countries,” said Paul W. Bledsoe of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, who is in Cancún and has followed climate deliberations for years. “Both substantive and political progress demand that the Kyoto stalking horse be let loose.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
Link   : http://unfccc.int/2860.php

SPECIES OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER

 Paris japonica : Plant with the Longest Genome

                                                        
Kingdom       : Plantae

Division        : Angiosperms
Sub-Division : Monocots
Order            : Liliales
Family          : Melanthiaceae
Genus           : Paris
Species         : Paris japonica

Scientists at Kew’s Jodrell Laboratory have discovered that Paris japonica, a striking rare native plant of Japan, has the largest genome of them all – bigger than the human genome and even larger than the previous record holder - the marbled lungfish. The results are published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

The diversity of genome sizes (the amount of DNA) in plants and animals has fascinated - but at the same time puzzled - scientists since this variation was first detected in the early 20th century. How and why such diversity evolved are important unanswered questions, as we know that this phenomenon has biological and ecological consequences affecting the distribution and persistence of biodiversity.

There is a staggering diversity of genome sizes. The smallest genome so far reported (0.0023 picogram (pg) of DNA) is found in a parasite (Encephalitozoon intestinalis) of humans and other mammals. The human genome, at 3.0 pg, is 1,300 times larger than this, but this pales into insignificance compared to those found in some animals and plants.

Among animals, some amphibians have enormous genomes, but the largest recorded so far is that of the marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) with 132.83 pg(3) . Among plants, the record holder for 34 years was a species of fritillary (Fritillaria assyriaca). However earlier this year a Dutch group knocked the fritillary off the top spot when they found that a natural hybrid of trillium (Trillium × hagae), related to herb paris, had a genome just 4% larger than the fritillary (132.50 pg).

This was widely thought to be approaching the maximum size that a genome could reach, until this summer when a team of Kew scientists discovered that the genome of another close relative of herb paris, Paris japonica from Japan, is a staggering 15% bigger than the genome of either the trillium or the fish at a whopping 152.23 pg.

Ilia Leitch, Research Scientist in the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew says “We were astounded when we discovered that this small stunning plant had such a large genome — it’s so large that when stretched out it would be taller than Big Ben.

“Some people may wonder what the consequences are of such a large genome and whether it really matters if one organism has more DNA than another. The answer to this is a resounding “yes, it does”, and the consequences operate at all levels from the cell up to the whole organism and beyond. In plants, research has demonstrated that those with large genomes are at greater risk of extinction, are less adapted to living in polluted soils and are less able to tolerate extreme environmental conditions – all highly relevant in today’s changing world.”

Another example of the significance and importance of genome size in both animals and plants is the fact that the more DNA there is in a genome, the longer it takes for a cell to copy all its DNA and divide. The knock-on effect of this is that it can take longer for an organism with a larger genome to complete its life cycle than one with a small genome. It is no coincidence that many plants living in deserts which must grow quickly after it rains have small genomes enabling them to grow rapidly. In contrast, species with large genomes grow much more slowly and are excluded from such habitats.

Genome size is also positively correlated with nuclear size (the more DNA you have the more space you need for it), and, in many cases, also with cell size which can have knock-on consequences at the whole organism level.

Link: http://www.kew.org/news/kew-scientists-discover-largest-genome.htm

SCIENCE OF DECEMBER 2010

UN/S "peacekeepers" torturing a Somali child over fire.

In 2009, Wikileaks released over 600 United Nations investigative reports.

 Now on US documents, facing "Criminal Offence" by Pentagon.

December 1: India’s first science expedition has reached the South Pole, with five scientists, two vehicle mechanics, and a doctor driving 10 days across 2,350km of icy and crevassed terrain where temperatures at one point dropped to minus 64°C. The team had set out on November 13 from Maitri, India’s scientific outpost in Antarctica, riding on Arctic trucks that have specialised spiked tyres and high clearance to negotiate the rugged and crevasse-infested terrain.

December 2: Scientists have discovered an arsenic eating bacterium, which opens up new areas of exploration for extraterrestrial life.A report published today in the journal Science claims it's the first microorganism found that can sustain life using a 'toxic' chemical. The researchers of the US Geological Survey, isolated a bacterium strain called GFAJ-1, a member of the Halomonadaceae family of Proteobacteria which uses arsenic instead of Phosphorus.

December 3: A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai. A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003. China already has the world's longest high-speed rail network, and it plans to cover 8,125 miles (13,000 kilometers) by 2012 and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

December 4: Neutron bomb inventor Samuel T. Cohen, who designed the tactical nuclear weapon intended to kill people but do minimal damage to structures, has died. Cohen worked for the RAND Corporation and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory when he developed the small neutron bomb in 1958, which used tiny particles that could zip through tanks, walls or buildings with minimal damage but kill humans, usually by attacking their central nervous system. It also minimized long-term nuclear contamination.

December 5: India will soon phase out the Cirus research reactor, the 40-MW power unit supplied by Canada in the mid-50s with heavy water from the US to the state-run Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Trombay near Mumbai. Plutonium from Cirus (Canada India Research US) was used in India's first nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan May 18, 1974. The country's largest indigenous nuclear reactor, Dhruva, also located at BARC, generates weapons-grade plutonium-bearing spent fuel.

December 6: Haryana state would host the world's first Global Centre for Nuclear Energy partnership. The global centre would be at village Kheri Jassaur, near Bahadurgarh, in district Jhajjar. The centre would be set up with the assistance of France, Russia and United States for research and development of secure and proliferation resistant reactor systems. The Centre would also host short-term training courses for international nuclear experts in the field of nuclear security.

December 7: United Nations Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP resident representative Patrice Coeur-Bizot handed over certificates to the Forest Department for their achievements in planting trees under various schemes. The acknowledgement comes as part of the ‘One Billion Tree Campaign’ of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).The UNEP acknowledged the efforts of the Forest Department in providing strong support to such programmes aimed at combating the ill-effects of global warming.

December 8: A brand-new bacterial species has been found aboard the RMS Titanic, 3.8 km below the ocean surface, which is contributing to its deterioration. The new bacterium has been named Halomonas titanicae by the scientists from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada and the University of Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain. The researchers, who report their findings in the latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology published on 8 December.

December 9: Akatsuki, the Japanese probe to Venus failed to reach orbit and was captured by the sun's gravitational pull in a setback to Japan's shoestring space program, which will have to wait another six years to try again. The probe would have been the first that Japan had put in orbit around another planet. Japan launched a failed mission to Mars in 1998 that was plagued by technical glitches and finally abandoned in 2003. Akatsuki was designed to monitor volcanic activity on Venus.

December 10: Scientists may need to rewrite the text books following the discovery of a carbon-rich exoplanet. Reporting in the journal Nature, Dr Nikku Madhusudhan and colleagues from Princeton University, say the planet WASP-12B has an atmosphere with equal parts carbon and oxygen. Madhusudhan says the planet's atmosphere is abundant in carbon monoxide, and has considerably more methane and less water than would be expected for a planet of this temperature in our solar system.

December 11: A team of researchers in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) has created the tiniest battery in the world. The rechargeable, lithium-based battery is developed by a team led by researcher Jianyu Huang. The discovery has paved way for the development of smaller and more efficient batteries in future. The battery comprises of a three millimeters long lithium cobalt cathode, a single tin oxide nanowire anode and an ionic liquid electrolyte.

December 12: Scientists at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, have used stem cell technology to create mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species and even help same-sex couples have their own genetic children one day. According to the study published Wednesday in the journal Biology of Reproduction, scientists were able to manipulate cells from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line.

December 13: The UN conference on Climate in Mexico has reached an agreement. The agreement comprises a "Green Climate Fund," reaffirms a goal of raising $100bn (£63bn) in aid by 2020 and has measures to protect tropical forests and new ways to share new clean energy technologies. The Mexico deal does not include a commitment to extend Kyoto beyond 2012. Kyoto obliges almost 40 developed nations to cut emissions until 2012. Website: http://unfccc.int/2860.php

December 14: Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the of the world's worst nuclear disastert that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago. Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe. Related health problems still persist. A few private firms now offer tours to the restricted area, but the government says those tours are illegal and their safety is not guaranteed.

December 15: A research scholar at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, V.N. Linshy has found that foraminifera, a kind of single cell microorganism, is capable of detecting even minute amounts of toxic pollutants in the sea. She has been honoured by the Indian Science Congress, the country’s apex scientific body, with the best young environmental scientist for 2010-11 for her work. Foraminifera organisms can detect even micro gram quantities of mercury and cadmium, major pollutants of oceans across the world.

December 16: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a point at the edge of the solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. The event signifies that after 33 years on the go, the spacecraft is about to reach interstellar space. Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena California say the spacecraft is now some 17.4 billion kilometres from the Sun. Launched on September 5th, 1977, Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock and entered the heliosheath in December 2004.

December 17: The environment ministry Tuesday launched a web portal to provide information about the vast biodiversity of the country. The Indian Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) has been developed by the Foundation and Ecology Security, Gujarat. The interactive portal uses open-source interface and will help the users to contribute data to the portal that would be periodically reviewed by experts. Website: http://www.bisindia.org/

December 18: Scientists have identified amino acids, a fundamental building block of life, in a meteorite where none were expected. The meteorite formed when two asteroids collided. Finding aminoacids from this type of meteorite suggests that there is more than one way to make amino acids in space, which increases the chance for finding life elsewhere in the Universe. Previously, scientists had found amino acids in samples of Comet Wild 2 from NASA's Stardust mission, and in various carbon-rich meteorites.

December 19: Internet search engine Google has developed a new browser that can map out the entire human body. The hi-tech 3D application, called 'Google Body Browser', has been hailed as a breakthrough in the study of anatomy that could revolutionise people's understanding of the human body and fast-track medical research. The gadget, yet to be officially released, lets you explore the human body in much the same way you can navigate the world on Google Earth.

December 20: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the launch of the GSLV-FO6 with India’s latest communication satellite scheduled for today, has been postponed due to a minor leak in one of the valves of the Russian cryogenic stage. The revised schedule for the launch would be firmed up after ascertaining the cause of the leak, remedial actions and due verifications. However, according to ISRO, other major changes in the launch vehicle had been incorporated in GSLV-FO6.

December 21: The United Nations decided to constitute an ultimate scientific authority on biodiversity to help protect ecosystems and stem the planet's dramatic loss of animal and plant life.Modelled on the UN's climate change panel (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), will harness the expertise of thousands of scientists worldwide. The idea nudged closer to reality in October at a meeting in Nagoya, Japan of the UN Convention on Biodiversity.

December 22: A prototype solar device devised by researchers in the US and Switzerland mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel. The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported. It has been suggested that the device mimics plants, which also use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to create energy as part of the process of photosynthesis. Details are published in the journal Science.

December 23: Scientists recently announced the discovery of a  new species of Pitcher plant in central Palawan and said they would name it after the late Filipino botanist Leonardo Co.The new species, believed by its discoverers to be the only one of its kind in the world, is distinguished by its unusual dark strains and enlarged traps, according to the latest post in the scientists.The scientists said it was a sad irony that this black Pitcher plant was found so soon after Leonardo Co died.

December 24: Scientists at the High Altitude Regional Centre of Zoological Survey of India have discovered a rare species of butterfly known as Silvery Meadow Blue (Polyommatus florience)  in Paangi Valley of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. The Silvery Meadow Blue butterflies are found in areas 3,000 metres above sea level. It likes meadows and areas outside forests and can be found during the month of July when the high altitude areas experience a late-flowering season.

December 25: The rocket carrying an Indian communication satellite exploded just after liftoff  in the second launch failure for India's space agency this year.The rocket exploding in smoke and fire just after it launched from the Sriharikota space center in Andhra Pradesh state. It was carrying a GSAT-5P communication satellite into orbit. The vehicle developed an error 47 seconds after liftoff and lost command according to
Indian Space Research Organization.
 
December 26: Union environment launched a project to create a genetic garden of halophytes, the first of its kind in the country, in Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district today. The garden will initially house over 45 species found along the coast including Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The idea behind the creation of the botanical garden is to explore the venues for commercial exploitation of halophytes, or saline-resistant species of plants, which would ensure livelihood for the coastal inhabitants.

December 27: Scientists in Russia said they had discovered a mysterious new human species that has never encountered before. These creatures are living with the ancestors of modern humans 30 thousand years ago. These ancient humans lived on earth in the last Ice Age, when modern humans began to develop stone tools, jewelry and the arts. This discovery followed another controversial discovery of new species of tiny Hobbit in Indonesia in 2004, they also walked upright on two legs.

December 28: A paper published this week in the journal PLoS Biology shows that African elephants are in fact two species that diverged millions of years ago. Modern savanna, or bush, elephants weigh about twice as much as their forest-dwelling cousins and have significantly different body shapes, with the savanna breed standing nearly 3 feet taller than the forest elephants. Scientists say that distinct species of savanna-dwellers and forest-dwellers diverged millions of years ago.


December 29: An international consortium of scientists has claimed to have successfully sequenced the genome of the wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca). According to the scientists, the 14-chromosome woodland strawberry has one of the smallest genomes of approximately 240 million base pairs. The consortium comprised of 75 researchers from 38 institutions. The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics,will help strawberry breeders to develop disease resistance and improve fruit quality.

December 30: Giving alternative treatments such as homeopathic remedies to children may have deadly side effects in rare instances, a new analysis says. Australian researchers monitored suspected side effects from alternative medicines like herbal treatments, vitamin supplements or naturopathic pills. They found 39 reports of side effects including four deaths.The study was published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, a specialiozed publication of the medical journal BMJ.

December 31: The Earth and the diversity of life it harbors continues to surprise us. This year, researchers found some truly astounding creatures that had been unknown to science even through centuries of exploration.While some of these newfound species were found in remote, others were hiding in seemingly plain sight. Here are some of  the new species found in 2010  http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/new-species-discovered-2010-0900/. Also on http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/dec/25/new-species-discovered-2010.


 

BOOK OF NOVEMBER

                                                                            

Title      :The Climate Fix:

           What Scientists and Politicians

                 Won't Tell You About      

                 Global Warming  

Author    : Roger Pielke      

Publisher : Basic Books
Pages      : 288

Price        : $26   

ISBN     : 9780465020522

Why has the world been unable to address global warming? The world's response to climate change is deeply flawed. This book is where we begin to get it back on track. Science policy expert Roger Pielke says it's not the fault of those who reject the Kyoto Protocol, but those who support it, and the magical thinking that the agreement represents. In his latest book, The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won’t Tell You About Global Warming, Pielke offers a “commonsense approach” to climate policy.

The relationship between humans and the earth system that we inhabit is two-way - humans affect the planet and the earth system processes affect us. This symbiosis is characterised by empirical complexities and uncertainties, the most intense of which is the global climate change debate in recent years. These debates are often characterised by a considerable amount of heat, but unfortunately too little light. Roger Pielke, recommends we should first comprehend why the current approach is failing and then consider better alternatives.


We are invited to read a widely publicized article in the Journal of Climate titled “Why Hasn’t Earth Warmed as Much as Expected?” written by top-notch atmospheric scientists (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/19/brookhaven-national-laboratory-why-hasnt-earth-warmed-as-much-as-expected/). The article is premised on the conclusion that the Earth hasn’t warmed as much as expected, and asks why. One possible answer to the “Global-warming time-bomb” is that the prognostic models are too large, a second possible answer is that anthropogenic haze could be offsetting the enhanced greenhouse effect.


Both of those answers are in fact allowed by IPCC-endorsed science, as is the possibility that the net anthropogenic effect has actually been close to zero, and thus global temperature change observed in the last century was largely a natural fluctuation, driven by mechanisms unappreciated back in 1982. All this uncertainty about what has been happening in the past century contributes to uncertainty about what will happen in the next, and, as Pielke points out, research in the coming decade is likely to reveal more uncertainly, not less.


In carefully crafted chapters that rely heavily on widely acknowledged truths, he examines everything from carbon dioxide emissions to the recent climategate controversy. From Kyoto to Copenhagen, Gore to George W. Bush to Obama, he addresses the changing political winds, the myths used to justify political will. For revealing the treacherous field of Climate Politics Pielke deserves much praise. Copious endnotes and sourcing material included.


While tearing down the venomous politics that have surrounded the debates, Pielke calls for an alternative to the various wishful proposals, typified by the Kyoto Protocol, that hold essentially that ordering climate change to go away will make it go away. The conventional wisdom on how to deal with climate change has failed us, Pielke argues, and it's time to change course. Pielke provides a comprehensive exploration of the problem and its resolution - such as investing to create a more carbon-efficient economy and cost-efficient carbon-capture technologies.


According to Pielke, the Climate policies must be made compatible with economic growth as a precondition for their success, he writes, and because the world will need more energy in the future, an oblique approach supporting causes, such as developing affordable alternative energy sources rather than consequences. Pielke's focus on adaptation to climate change opens up the possibility for effective action that places human dignity and democratic ideals at the center of climate policies.


With the goal of advancing the discussion on climate change and contributing to the ongoing national debates in Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia, India, China, and other developed and developing countries, "The Climate Fix" offers something new to the climate-change discussion - a common sense perspective. A thought-provoking yet pragmatic discussion of the interaction between science and politics, "The Climate Fix" proposes a means for digging ourselves out of this climate-change mess that we have created.


Review Text Courtesy:http://www.amazon.com/, http://sppiblog.org/, http://www.changinghands.com/, http://www.powells.com/, http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/