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| Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) has proclaimed 2011 as the Year of the Turtle. Link: http://www.parcplace.org/yearoftheturtle.htm |
1 March 2011: The Government will establish The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) jointly by the Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology. A site in Bodi West Hills near T. Pudukottai village of Theni district, Tamilnadu has been identified as a suitable location. The project includes construction of a world-class underground laboratory under a rock cover of 1200 metre from all directions. The primary goal of INO is to study neutrino properties. Link: http://www.imsc.res.in/~ino/
2 March 2011: Earth is worth £3,000 trillion, according to an astrophysicist who claims to have created a formula to calculate the value of a planet. The astrophysicist, Greg Laughlin from University of California , came up with the figure by calculating the sum of the planet’s age, size, temperature, mass and other vital statistics. Laughlin invented the equation, which he used to evaluate the discoveries made by US space agency NASA’s £600 million Kepler spacecraft. Link: http://www.ucolick.org/~laugh/
3 March 2011: Robonaut 2 has become the first humanoid robot ever to reach space. It was transported to the International Space Station via the Space Shuttle Discovery. The Robobaut is a dextrous robot designed by General Motors and NASA engineers and is on its first mission. Robonaut, or R2, does not have a specific job aboard the station and will perform maintenance and service tasks. The robot has 38 computer processors. Link: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp
4 March 2011: India has applied to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) at Geneva in Switzerland for associate membership. This was stated by CERN official Rudiger Voss who said if India is granted associate membership, Indian researchers would be eligible for jobs at the CERN. At present, CERN has 20 member-States. Currently, researchers of institutes that collaborate with the CERN can only be deputed there for short periods of time. Link: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/
5 March 2011: Paleontologists believe that at least seven species of Dinosaurs lived in the tiny town called Balasinor of Raiyoli Taluk in Gujarat making Raiyoli the third largest hatchery in the world. In 2003 they also discovered a new species here named Rajasaurus narmandensis, meaning "theprincely reptile from the Narmada". The site was discovered accidentally in 1981 when geologists were conducting a mineral survey of the area. Link: http://www.dinohunters.com/History/Rajasaurus.htm
6 March 2011: The number of spots on the Sun's surface varies periodically, going through successive maxima and minima in roughly 11 year solar cycles. Now a team of scientists led by Assistant Professor Dibyendu Nandy from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, has developed a model which may explain why some solar cycles are worse than others. The study is reported in the journal Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7336/full/nature09786.html
7 March 2011: The Great Indian Bustard has recently been declared as Critically Endangered by the BirdLife International, a global alliance of conservation organisations, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Environmentalists and experts say that this upgradation of category of the Great Indian Bustard will give priority to its conservation and protection. At present, the bustard population in six states, including Maharashtra, is just 300.Link: http://www.birdlife.org/ , http://www.iucn.org/
8 March 2011: Discovery ended its career as the world's most flown spaceship Wednesday, returning from orbit for the last time and taking off in a new direction as a museum piece in Smithsonian Institution.Even after shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis make their final voyages in the coming months, Discovery will still hold the all-time record with 39 missions, 148 million miles, 5,830 orbits of Earth, and 365 days spent in space. . Link: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/discovery.html, http://www.si.edu/
9 March 2011: Eminent astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar will be the recipient of the prestigious 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award for 2010. The award - instituted in 1997 by the Maharashtra government to recognise the highly distinguished achievements of eminent persons from the state, representing different walks of life - carries cash Rs 5 lakh, a shawl and shriphal (traditional coconut) and a citation. He has received several awards including Padma Bhushan in 1965, at the young age of 26. Link: http://maharashtra.gov.in/
10 March 2011: Richard Hoover, a NASA scientist reports detecting tiny fossilised bacteria on three meteorites, and maintains these microscopic life forms are not native to Earth. If confirmed, this research would suggest life in the universe is widespread and life on Earth may have come from elsewhere in the solar system. The study is published in the Journal of Cosmology, is considered so controversial as the journal's editor seeks other scientific comment on this. Link: http://journalofcosmology.com/
11 March 2011: James Elliot, an astronomer who used light from distant stars to study planetary objects throughout the solar system, leading to his discovery of the rings of Uranus, died on March 3 at his home in Wellesley, Mass. He was 67. In 1977, using a telescope in an airplane, Dr. Elliot led a team of Cornell University scientists to observe the planet Uranus when it passed between Earth and a star, recording the first evidence of Uranus’s rings. Link: http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/elliot_james.html h
12 March 2011: India successfully test-fired its homegrown nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles Prithvi-II and its naval version Dhanush from different locations off the Orissa coast, on a day Pakistan too tested its nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile. The Prithvi-II was fired from complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore district. Pakistan too successfully test-fired the Hatf-II (Abdali) short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile. Link: http://www.mod.nic.in/
13 March 2011: The devastating tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 was "completely unrelated" to the approaching "supermoon," according to U.S. Geological Survey. The supermoon will occur on March 19, when the moon is at or near its point of closest orbit and is also full. However, a very small correlation exists between full or new moons and seismic activity, because the stronger-than-usual tidal forces caused by the alignment of the sun and moon puts added stress on tectonic plates. Link: http://www.usgs.gov/
14 March 2011: The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan on March 11 has shortened the length Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed. A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Link: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
15 March 2011: The Royal British Mint has released a 50 pence coin to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Wildlife Fund. Centered around the charity’s iconic panda logo at the heart of the design, is a dolphin, gorilla, rhino, polar bear and butterfly. Other symbols featured on the coin include a car, a wind turbine, coffee bean, and a human footprint to represent man’s impact in the world. The reverse design was created by award winning graphic artist Matthew Dent. Link: http://www.royalmint.com/
16 March 2011: A whale shark was satellite-tagged for the first time in India, as part of research to understand behavior, ecological preferences and migration of this species. The satellite tag was installed by a team of researchers under the Whale Shark Conservation Project. Since its inception in 2008, the Whale Shark Conservation Project has been working with the support of the fishing communities, involving them in the conservation of this largest fish in the world. Link: http://www.whalesharkproject.org/
17 March 2011: Scientists at the Norwich Research Park in the United Kingdom have successfully sequenced the genome of a novel strain of Clostridium botulinum that can produce a deadly neurotoxin and could be used as biological terrorism weapon. The strain produces an unusual botulinum neurotoxin called type A5 neurotoxin, News-Medical.net reports. By sequencing the complete genome, the researchers hope to be able to manage any possible threat that the new strain poses. Link: http://www.nrp.org.uk/
18 March 2011: Researchers are trying to sequence the complete genome of the world's largest fish, the Whale Shark. Researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Aquarium are working to create a complete library of Whale Shark DNA, sequencing the genomes of the aquarium's captive sharks, which come from Taiwan, and comparing them with wild whale sharks in Mexico. The genome sequencing project will take months to complete. Link: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ , http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html
19 March 2011: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher that started regular operations last year, could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backwards in time.If the collider succeeds in producing the Higgs boson, some scientists predict that it will create a second particle, called the Higgs singlet. According to Weiler and Chui Man Ho's theory, these singlets can move either forward or backward in time and reappear in the future or in the past. Link: http://public.web.cern.ch/
20 March 2011: For more conservation measures and research on common bird species and urban biodiversity, March 20 will be celebrated and marked as World House Sparrow Day. The marking of the day is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society, in collaboration with the Bombay Natural History Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (U.S.), Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France), Avon Wildlife Trust (U.K.) and numerous other organisations. Link: http://www.natureforever.org/
21 March 2011: For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury. NASA's spacecraft called Messenger successfully veered into a pinpoint orbit after a 6 1/2-year trip and 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) and tricky maneuvering to fend off the gravitational pull of the sun. It is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited, in addition to the Earth and the moon. Link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/
22 March 2011: A new species of a Rugged Darkling Beetle that thrives in an arid region of the Chihuahuan Desert is being named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt on the 100th anniversary of a speech he gave at Tempe Normal School, now Arizona State University. The new species of beetle, Stenomorpha roosevelti was discovered and named by Aaron Smith, an authority on darkling beetles and a postdoctoral research associate at Arizona State University. Link: http://species.asu.edu
23 March 2011: Scientists at
24 March 2011: The fossilised remains of the world's largest known rabbit, Nuralagus rex have been found off the coast of Spain. The animal, which lived three to five million years ago and was six times the size of most rabbits today, has been dubbed the "Minorcan King of the Rabbits", since it was found on the small Mediterranean
25 March 2011: Japanese scientists have found measurable concentrations of iodine-131 and caesium-137 radiation in seawater near the crippled
26 March 2011: A new species of seabird has been recognized in Puerto Montt, Chilea. It is a new species of Storm Petrel, the first new species of seabird in 55 years. The announcement was made at a recent ceremony held by the San Diego Bird Festival. Thousands of Storm Petrels are found along the Chilean coast but scientists missed this new species. Storm petrels, 22 species in all, are called "the ballerinas of the sea" as they seem to dance on water with their webbed-feet. Link: http://www.sandiegoaudubon.org/
27 March 2011: When city lights go off during "Earth Hour" today, the Amateur Astronomers Association Delhi will set up telescopes at India Gate on today evening for the public to view celestial wonders such as planet Saturn. They will also raise awareness about minimizing light pollution in the city so that Delhiites get a chance to appreciate the night sky. "Earth Hour" is an annual international event started in 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature to raise awareness about climate change. Link: http://www.earthhour.org/
28 March 2011: NASA says the unmanned spacecraft Stardust will burn off all its remaining fuel in a single burst today, and then its transmitter will be shut off and the spacecraft left to drift. Stadust will transmit information about its fuel usage as the burn happens. Since it was first launched in February 1999, Stardust has traveled more than 5.5 billion kilometers. It has flown past an asteroid and two comets, and has returned comet particles to Earth in a sample capsule. Link: http://www.stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/
29 March 2011: India's latest tiger census shows an increase in the numbers of it. The census counted at least 1,706 tigers in forests across the country, about 300 more than four years ago. The census included 70 tigers in the eastern Indian Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, which had not been counted in the last census in 2007. The 2007 census had shown 1,411 tigers, a sharp fall in the population from about 3,600 five years earlier.A century ago, about 100,000 tigers roamed India's forests. Link: http://projecttiger.nic.in/
30 March 2011: Scientists have created the world’s first artificial leaf that can turn sunlight and water into energy. A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that the artificial leaf from Silicon, electronics and various catalysts which spur chemical reactions within the device, can use sunlight to break water into Hydrogen and Oxygen which can then be used to create electricity in a separate fuel cell. The findings were presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. Link: http://web.mit.edu/
31 March 2011: Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests today launched Black Carbon Research Initiative National Carbonaceous Aerosols Programme (NCAP). It is a joint initiative and Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Indian Space Research Space Organisation and Department of Science and Technology are working together. The National Institute of Glaciology has been set up in Dehradun already related to this. Link: http://envfor.nic.in/
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