May 1: Scientists have published the first genome sequence from an amphibian. Xenopus tropicalis, the western clawed frog, joins the list of sequenced organisms that includes chicken, horse, rat, yeast, platypus, and human being. It has about 20,000 genes - about the same as a human - and scientists say it sheds new light on genetic evolution. Conservationists say analysing the genes could lead to new ways of combating threats such as the often fatal fungal disease chytridiomycosis. The study ublished in the journal Science was led from the US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, California.
May 2: For the first time in the history of Kumbh Mela, scientists used satellite data to arrive at an authentic figure of pilgrims taking dip in the Ganges at Haridwar -- which was 1.66 crore on April 14.On the request of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, a team of 12 scientists of ISRO and state space centre took the help of satellite to count the number of pilgrims, an official statement said. According to the report, 1.66 crore pilgrims took bath in the river on the day of fourth and last royal bath on April 14, 2010.
May 3: An international team of researchers are embarking on what has been described as the most ambitious tornado study in history. An array of instruments will be deployed across the US Great Plains, where violent twisters are more common than anywhere else on the planet. It is hoped that the data gathered will improve tornado warnings and forecasts. The study, Vortex2, which uses uses a range of enhanced mobile radars and other weather-sensing equipment will continue until the middle of June.
May 4: The blood of the extinct woolly mammoth has been brought back to life using ancient DNA from the bones of specimens found in Siberia. In Nature Genetics, an international team of researchers show how it used modern bacteria to recreate the main blood protein, haemoglobin. Analysis of the recreated haemoglobin has also answered the riddle of how the giant mammoth was able to survive the harsh Arctic conditions, says the study's co-author Professor Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.
May 5: Hawking warned humanity against contacting aliens, in a new documentary made by the Discovery channel. According to Hawking, if human beings tried to contact aliens, they could invade us and take away our most important resources. “If they (aliens) wanted to use our solar system, for some super project, our complaints would be like an ant colony protesting the laying of a parking lot,”he said .Hawking has also said that though most extraterrestrial life could be only in the form of small animals, but there could also be “nomads, looking to conquer and colonize” other planets.
May 6: This year marks 25 years since the publication of a paper confirming the existence of an ozone 'hole' above Antarctica, which soon led to an international treaty banning the use of certain chemicals. Jonathan Shanklin head of meteorology and ozone monitoring at the British Antarctic Survey was one of the authors of the paper published in the science journal Nature, today 25 years ago. The ozone layer, which resides in the lower layers of the stratosphere prevents dangerous amounts of ultraviolet light reaching the Earth's surface.
May 7: A new species of frog has been found near Anaimudi, the highest peak in south India, in Western Ghats. Named Raorchestes resplendens, the species is morphologically dissimilar to any other known family of the frog. The species was found by a team of scientists from Delhi University, led by Sathyabhama Das Biju, associate professor, School of Environmental Studies, at Eravikulam National Park in Idukki district of Kerala. This frog is known to live only in the Anaimudi summit.
May 8: Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study. The draft Neanderthal sequence contains DNA extracted from the bones of three different Neanderthals found at Vindija Cave in Croatia. The latest research strongly supports the Out of Africa theory, but it falsifies the most conservative version of events. The team also identified more than 70 gene changes that were unique to modern humans. These genes are implicated in physiology, the development of the brain, skin and bone. The study is published in the journal Science.
May 9: Equipped with an electric propulsion system, the rocket, known as Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), is being developed to one day transport astronauts to Mars in 39 to 45 days- a fraction of the six to nine months the trip would take with conventional chemical rockets. The rocket is developed by Houston-based Ad Astra Rocket Company. This plasma rocket technology is currently being assessed by a NASA study team.
May 10: Cameras being installed high in the Nepal Himalayas will help settle the issue of whether and how fast glaciers in the high mountain region are retreating — or advancing. In April, the Nepal government gave the green signal for the extreme ice survey (EIS) that uses time-lapse imagery. Projections by the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2007 report that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by the year 2035 were later challenged as lacking scientific basis.
May 11: Kerala government has started an ambitious programme to protect 'sacred groves', small patches of forests in and around villages, which have rich flora and fauna. The groves, traditionally protected by the local community as the abode of Gods and Goddesses, are called 'Sarpakavu' or 'Kavus,' where idols of snakes and Durga are worshipped. The government's plan, with financial assistance of the Centre, also stems from the rapid urbanisation and high population growth rate, which are posing a threat to these 'Kavus'.
May 12: The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is getting progressively more serious, with the amount of leaked oil growing by 5,000 barrels (200,000 gallons) or more every day. In the three weeks since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, about 100,000 barrels have been spilled. Tar balls and oiled-up birds are already washing up on the Louisiana shore - and the volume of leaked oil is projected to surpass the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill sometime next month.
May 13: A site at Cerro Armazones in Chile has been chosen for a new Super telescope (European Extremely Large Telescope) being planned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The telescope will be sensitive enough to detect reflected light from Jupiter-like and potentially Earth-like planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. It will even be able to detect water and organic molecules in gas clouds around stars, thus providing clues as to which planets may become habitable in the future.
May 14: Researchers have located chemical remains of the oldest known bird from fossils recovered 150 years ago, a new study claims. The discovery of the Archaeopteryx feathers appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "They include fossilised fragments of actual feathers containing phosphorous and sulfur, elements that compose modern bird feathers," write researchers led by geochemist Dr Roy Wogelius of the University of Manchester.
May 15: An international team, led by Manchester University, has discovered that volatile elements - most likely to include water - were present during the violent process of the Earth's birth between 30 and 100 million years after the solar system was created -- a minute period in geological terms. According to the researchers, the findings mean that comets and asteroids were unlikely to have brought the bulk of volatile elements to Earth -- as commonly thought.
May 16: US scientists have created a molecular robot made out of DNA that walks like a spider along a track made out of the chemical code for life. The achievement, reported in the journal Nature, is a further step in nanoscale experiments that, one day, may lead to robot armies to clean arteries and fix damaged tissues. The robot is just four nanometres, four billionths of a metre, in diameter.The beast moves along a track comprising stitched-together strands of DNA that is essentially a pre-programmed course, in the same way that industrial robots move along an assembly line.
May 17: Ever wondered why that whiff of cats makes mice scared? Well, it's the chemical signal from the predators which sparks fear in rodents, say scientists. A new study by the Scripps Research Institute has found the mice are able to detect a specific chemical compound secreted by many predators and it's this ability which makes them behave fearfully, the journal Cell reported. In the study, the scientists investigated the fearful response that mice were known to have to odours emitted by predators.
May 18: Scientists in Spain say they have cloned a fighting bull for the first time. The calf, called Got was born in the Valencia Veterinary Research Foundation. Project Leader, Vicente Torrent said, he hopes that Got would have the same fierce traits as his "father", Vasito. Got was given birth by a Frisian cow at a ranch in Palencia province in northen Spain. The calf weighted 24.7kg (53lb). Got was created using a technique known as nuclear transfer, the same that was used in 1996 to clone Dolly, the sheep.
May 20: European researchers have deposited a "digital genome" in a secret bunker deep in the Swiss Alps, to help future generations read data stored using defunct technology. The sealed box containing the key to unpick defunct digital formats will be locked away for the next quarter of a century behind a 3.5-tonne door strong enough to resist nuclear attack at the data storage facility, known as the Swiss Fort Knox. The "digital genome" is the culmination of the four-year "Planets" project to preserve the world's digital assets as hardware and software.
May 21: NASA has developed a Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite that can create satellite images of areas ravaged by heavy rainfall in India, caused by the tropical cyclone Laila.TRMM, apart from measuring rainfall intensity from space, can also give idea about the height of a thunderstorm that is generating the rainfall within the tropical cyclone.On May 20, TRMM flew over Laila after it made landfall in India and captured an image of its rainfall rates. That resulting rainfall was of about 2 inches per hour.
May 22: A team f scientists led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute in California has succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell. The researchers constructed a bacterium's DNA artificially and then transplanted it into a host cell. The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
May 22: A team f scientists led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute in California has succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell. The researchers constructed a bacterium's DNA artificially and then transplanted it into a host cell. The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
May 23: Finally the 3G finally comes to India (when some countries now working to switch to 4G high speed networks) but still it is a great news for all Indian mobile subscribers that we are now taking another step towards the next gen high speed internet access on mobile phones. With this user will be able to use speech and data services at higher data rates. In India, however the users have to wait till September to January next year (depending upon service provider and region) to access this service.
May 24: An international team, led by the University of New South Wales in Australia, has identified a new species in the branch of the human family tree, and named the species Homo gautengensis, which is said to be the earliest recognised species of Homo. Homo gautengensis seems to have been a more specialised omnivore adapted to life on solid ground, whereas the more ape-like A. africanus, had longer arms and other adaptations for climbing trees.The findings are to be published in the ‘Journal of Comparative Human Biology’.
May 25: India unveiled the indigenously built Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) with a successful flight demo of its first prototype in Bangalore for the armed forces. Designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the 5-tonne class LCH puts India in the select club of a few advanced countries that have a similar copter in the world. As a derivative of HAL's flagship product Dhruv, the agile LCH boasts of excellent manoeuverability, air-to-air armament for air defence role, anti-armour capability and operation during day/night under all weather conditions.
May 26: A recent study showing climate change is unlikely to cause an increase in the spread of malaria has been criticised by one of Australia's leading tropical disease experts. Appearing in the latest issue of Nature, the study casts doubt on the widely held view that climate change will see a surge in the tropical disease around the world. The researchers from the University of Oxford found that since 1900, the incidence of malaria has been on the decline, despite a warming of the planet during that time. Lead author Dr Pete Gething says it is important when thinking about the effects of climate on the future of diseases.
May 27: NASA has ended Phoenix operations after repeat attempts to contact the spacecraft met with only silence and a new photo revealed “severe ice damage” to the solar panels that formerly powered the craft.Initially, it was supposed to operate for three months after its May 2008 landing on the Red Planet. It lasted another two months after this before finally shutting down in the cold, Martian winter. Some hoped it could be resurrected after sunlight again began hitting its solar panels. However, it has not come back to life and new images show that build up of carbon-dioxide ice may have snapped off the solar panels.
May 28: The number of endangered bird species in the country has risen to 154 from 149 two years ago, a recent study has said. A joint study by BirdLife International and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) attributes the rapid decline in the bird population to habitat destruction.Great Slaty Woodpecker has deteriorated from 'Least Concern' to 'Vulnerable' while that of Rufous-backed Bunting has fallen from 'Vulnerable' to 'Endangered'. Supposedly common species in India like Nilgiri Blue Robin and White-bellied Blue Robin have been included in the 'Endangered' category.
May 29: Hartwig Hausdorf, a German academic, believes that the reason Voyager 2, an unmanned probe that has been in space since 1977, is sending strange messages that are confusing scientists, is because it has been taken over by extraterrestrial life. Since its launch, Voyager 2 has been sending streams of data back to Earth for study by scientists, but on April 22, 2010, that stream of information suddenly changed. However as per NASA, it was a compurte problem and it has been fully revived after fixing it.
May 30: A group of US paleontologists unearthed a new species of dinosaurs standing some six feet tall and weighing up to 4.5 tonnes, with the longest horns of all. The 72-million-year-old herbivore, now named Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna, has two large horns above its eyes measuring up to an impressive four feet (1.22 meters) long -- the largest of any other species. Scientists uncovered the fossil at the Cerro del Pueblo Formation in Coahuila, Mexico.
31 May: A British researcher has allowed a chip in his arm to become infected with a computer virus, marking himself as the first human to be contaminated with such viruses. Mark Gasson, a scientist in the University of Reading's School of Systems Engineering, has contaminated a high-end radio frequency identification (RFID) computer chip implanted in his left hand with computer viruses. This act aims to point out the risks involved with the increasing use of sophisticated implantable medical device technology.
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