SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2012

1 September 2012: NASA announced another mission to Mars which has been designated as InSight.Slated for launch in 20I6, InSight will deploy instruments on the surface of Mars to study whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid.According to NASA, such a study will help scientists to develop a deeper understanding as to how terrestrial planets form and evolve.The French space agency, Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales will lead an international consortium which will build an instrument for InSight to measure seismic waves travelling through the planet's interior. The German Aerospace Centre will contribute a sub- surface heat probe to measure the interior heat.Link:http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov.

2 September 2012:Good news for the World Coconut Day today: Coconut oil has been found to be a "natural antibiotic" that combats tooth decay.The team from Ireland's Athlone Institute of Technology tested coconut oil against strains of Streptococcus bacteria which are common inhabitants of the mouth. They found that enzyme-modified coconut oil strongly inhibited the growth of most strains of Streptococcus bacteria, including Streptococcus mutans, which an acid-producing bacterium and a major cause of tooth decay.The researchers suggest that coconut oil has potential  in the oral healthcare industry.Scientists were attending the Society for General Microbiology's conference at the University of Warwick.Link:http://www.sgm.ac.uk

3 September 2012: The Indian scientific community has got a chance today to express its displeasure at "boson" being spelt in lower case while "Higgs" (after British physicist Peter Higgs) is spelt in the upper case.The word "boson" is derived from the surname of Satyendra Nath Bose, who did path-breaking work on quantum mechanics along with Albert Einstein in the early 1920s using mathematics to describe the behavioural pattern of bosons.The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkatta is taking up this case with Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the chief of European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) chief who is on a two-day visit to Kolkata to address an international science conference today.Link:http://www.saha.ac.in

4 September 2012:Pranab Mukherjee,President of India, flaged off a solar-powered passenger car developed by the Delhi Technological University. Described as 'India's most efficient passenger solar car', it will represent India at the Sasol Solar Challenge to be held in South Africa between September 15-29, 2012.Solar cars from across the world will participate in this Solar Challenge which will cover 4,200km along the coastline of South Africa. The Solar Car is code named 'Solaris' and is one of the most innovative projects of the Delhi Technological University(earlier called the Delhi College of Engineering).After flag off, Solaris ran through Rajpath and then circled India Gate to pay tributes to the martyrs of the nation.Link:http://www.solarchallenge.co.za

  

5 September 2012:Voyager 1, the NASA space probe carrying the "sounds of earth" to the distant stars in search of alien civilizations has turned 35 today.Voyager's Golden Record has a collection of images and sounds from Earth, including greetings in 54 languages. Voyager was the idea of the celebrated science writer Carl Sagan. Voyager 1was on September 5, 1977. It is currently more than 17 billion kilometers from the sun in the heliosheath, the region where the solar wind slows down.It is unknown when the probe will actually exit our system for the interstellar medium. Scientists believe that by now, it would have already left the heliosphere.

Link:http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

6 September 2012:Most of a person’s genetic risk for common diseases such as diabetes, asthma and hardening of the arteries appears to lie in the shadowy part of the human genome once disparaged as “junk DNA.” This is among the key insights of a nine-year project to study the 97 percent of the human genome that’s not, strictly speaking, made up of genes. The "Encyclopedia of DNA Elements Project", nicknamed Encode, is the most comprehensive effort to make sense of the totality of the 3 billion nucleotides of human genome.The project’s chief discovery is the identification of about 4 million sites involved in regulating gene activity.The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Link:http://www.genome.gov

7 September 2012:In order to protect the endangered Narcondam Hornbill (Aceros narcondami), which is estimated to number less than 350, and its only habitat, the Environment Ministry has refused to clear the Ministry of Defence project to install a surveillance RADAR along the coastline in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The decision was based on the standing committee report by the National Board of Wildlife. The Narcondam Hornbill, is listed as an endemic species in Schedule 1 of Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also lists the Narcondam Hornbill as an endangered species.Link:http://www.iucnredlist.org

8 September 2012:Scientists at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute have successfully sequenced the genome of Plasmodium vivax that causes the most common form of malaria.The discovery raises concerns that mutations to resist existing medications making global eradication efforts even more difficult. The researchers, including Cleveland-based David Serre and Peter Zimmerman, Didier Menard and Arsene Ratsimbasoa (Madagascar National Malaria Control Program) are the first to sequence the genome of Plasmodium vivax.The study is published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.Link:http://www.plosntds.org

9 September 2012:India's space programme witnessed a historic milestone on today with the launch of two foreign satellites which was Indian Space Research Organisation's 100th mission.The launch used the indigeous PSLV C-21 that carried the the French satellite SPOT-6 and Japanese satellite PROITERES from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The mission was without any Indian satellite.SPOT-6 is the biggest and heaviest commercial lift so far since India forayed into commercial satellite launch services since 2007 when the Italian satellite Agile was put in orbit by PSLV.From the time of the first Indian satellite Aryabhatta's launch on April 19, 1975, it has been a successful odyssey for ISRO.Link:http://www.isro.org

10 September 2012:A new conservation tool – the Red List of Ecosystems was debuted today at the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature)World Conservation Congress at Jeju Island in South Korea, to identify entire ecosystems that are Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered based on an agreed, internationally accepted set of criteria for risk assessment.An ecosystem is an area of land and/or water and the diverse species living there that interact together.The Red List of Ecosystems is prepared by IUCN which also prepares the Red List of Endangered Species.Coverage of all of Earth’s all ecosystems is planned for 2025.

Link:http://www.iucnworldconservationcongress.org

11 September 2012:Bihar state is likely to get a Dolphin Research Centre in Patna University enabling a detailed study of the endangered Gangetic Dolphins.There are only about 2,500 dolphins in the Ganga basin, according to a 2006 survey, of which 60 % are found exclusively in Bihar. The mammals are found at the confluence of Ganga and Saryu rivers at Doriganj in Saran district and the confluence of Ganga and Kosi at Kursela in Katihar districts.Bihar will observe October 5 as the National Dolphin Day with a view to create mass awareness and educating people about the necessity of the conservation of the mammals.The Central government had declared dolphin a national aquatic animal on October 5, 2009.Link:http://www.biodiversityofindia.org

12 September 2012:Tourists have been crowding the Ebbanad and Bikku Pathi Mund villages, close to Ooty in the Nilgiris to watch the blooms of Neelakurinjis.Normally, Neelakurinjis (Strobilanthes kunthiana) blossom across vast tracts of the southern Western Ghats. This time, however, only two hills in the Nilgiris have been fortunate to witness the blooms.Neelakurinji that blossoms gregariously only once in 12 years, grows only at an altitude of 1,500 metre and is considered the flagship species of the Shola ecosystem.As the plant is endangered and endemic to the southern Western Ghats, there is a proposal for listing the plant in Schedule 6 of the Wildlife Act.Link:http://kurinji.in

13 September 2012: Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) Chair for Sustainable Development announces admissions for its six online programmes - Appreciation Programme on Sustainability Science (APSS), Leadership Programme on Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development (LPNSSD), Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Wetlands (APSMW), Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Ganga (APSMG), Leadership Programme on Himalayan Ecosystems (LPHECO) and Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Biodiversity (APSMBIO). Last date to apply is September 25,2012.Link:http://www.ignouonline.ac.in

14 September 2012:Probably the oldest color films in existence have been discovered by the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. Believed to date from 1901-02, the test film was made by the cinematographer and inventor Edward Raymond Turner (1873-1903) who worked for the American color photography pioneer Frederick Eugene Ives. Turner and his financial backer Frederick Marshal Lee patented Turner’s color movie process in 1899.After Turner’s death, the Anglo-American documentary pioneer Charles Urban sponsored George Albert Smith to perfect the process.It was marketed by Urban as Kinemacolour from 1909 and became cinema's first commercially successful color process. Link:http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

15 September 2012: The IUCN World Conservation Congress concluded in Juju, Soth Korea with the adoption of what is called the Jeju Declaration.The conference included four Indian species to a list of the '100 most threatened' species in the world, titled Priceless or Worthless.The species include the Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps)-one of the heaviest flying birds, Gooty Tarantula (Poecilotheria metallica)-a poisonous spider, Northern River Terrapin (Batagur buska)-an endangered turtle and White Bellied Heron (Ardea insignis).The list was compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Zological Society of London.Link:https://cmsdata.iucn.org

16 September 2012:Indian scientists decoded the genetic makeup of the soil-inhabiting bacterium Mycobacterium indicus pranii. It will give scientists an insight into the evolutionary history of the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis and leprosy.This is the first time that an Indian team has decoded the complete genome of a bacterium without the support of foreign scientists.Scientists from the University of Delhi South Campus, the University of Hyderabad, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research were involved in the decoding.Mycobacterium indicus pranii has been named after India (indicus) and senior scientist Dr Gursaran Pran Talwar (pranii).Link:http://www.isogem.org

17 September 2012:Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata, and University of Calcutta, have found a cocktail of three herbal compounds, which can effectively neutralise the poison of Indian banded Krait (Bungarus fasciatus).The active ingredient is from Indian Sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus Indicus). It can negate the fatal effects of a chemical known as Phospholipase A2, which is one of the major components of Cobra, Krait and Russell’s viper venom.The herbal compounds were found to be superior to the commercial anti-venom for all these snake poisons.The findings are reported in Indian Journal of Medical Research.Link:http://www.researchgate.net

18 September 2012:Pre-project work on the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) will be completed by this year.The Rs-1,356 crore underground Neutrino Observatory is one of the world's biggest pure science research projects coming up in Bodi Hills, about 110 km west of Madurai.Environment and pollution control board clearances have been obtained for 40 acres in Pottipuram village where the project is coming up. Excavation of a two-km tunnel in the hills for establishment of the observatory would commence after that.The nodal centre for the observatory will be constructed in Vadapalanji village near Madurai Kamaraj University.Link:http://www.imsc.res.in

19 September 2012:Scientists from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), the Institute of Haematology and Transfusion Medicine, Kolkata, and Piramal Life Sciences, Mumbai have found that a molecule derived from Betel leaf may be beneficial to patients suffering from the most common form of Leukaemia in adults in India, called Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML).CML is principally an adult disease with a yearly incidence of one in 100,000 in India.According to the study, the alcoholic extract of Betel leaves causes the cancerous cells to undergo a self-destructive process called apoptosis.The research is published in Frontiers in Bioscience.Link:http://www.frontbiosci.org

20 September 2012:International Astronomical Union (IAU) has endorsed the definition of the Astronomical Unit (AU), a measurement used to calculate the distance between stars and planets.The AU - based on the distance between Earth and the sun - has long been in use by astronomers, and the decision by the International Astronomical Union simply removes a tiny three-metre margin of error.Until now, the value in metres of AU was determined experimentally.Officially, the AU is 149,597,870,700 metres (149,597,870.7 kilometres) exactly.The ruling was approved at the IAU's general assembly in Beijing from August 20-31.Link: http://www.iau.org

21 September 2012:The 22nd Ig Nobel awards, organised by the humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research,  were awarded at Harvard University. Craig Bennett, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was awarded this year's neuroscience prize with colleagues who decided to test out Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners on dead fish. Anita Eerland, of the Open University in the Netherlands, won the prize Ig Nobel for Psychology for the discovery that people will be getting a wrong idea about the height of the Eiffel Tower if they were leaning one way.The full list of the awardees can be found in the Improbable Research website.Link:http://www.improbable.com

22 September 2012:A human-like robot (Humanoid), Baxter has been unveiled in the US.Baxter is with ‘common sense’ and can designed to work safely alongside human co-workers on factory production lines.It could apply common sense, adapt to its environment and be trained in less than 30 minutes to complete specific tasks. To teach Baxter a new job, a human guides its arms to simulate the desired task, and presses a button to program the pattern.Baxter is priced at $ 22,000 and will go on sale in October.Currently factory robots tend to work separately to humans, often in cages. According to the International Federation of Robotics there are 1.1 million working robots in the world. Link:http://www.rethinkrobotics.com

23 September 2012:According to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), India's second moon mission will depend on Russia's decision. For Chandrayaan-2, Russia has to provide the lander. India will build the lunar orbiter and rover.The Chandrayaan-2 is planned for 2014 with India's indigenously built heavier rocket- GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle).ISRO will also build two more communication satellites - GSAT 15 and GSAT 16 - to augment its transponder (transmitters that receive and send signals) capacity. It has planned 58 missions (25 rockets-PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mark III and 33 satellites) during the 12th Plan Period (2012-2017).Link:http://www.isro.org

24 September 2012:House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) declared as 'State bird' of Delhi.The new status of the bird would help in the conservation of this Sparrow species, the number of which are dwindling. An environment-friendly campaign called the "Rise for the Sparrows" was also announced for conserving the species.The Delhi government will consider incorporation of the monitoring of the common bird in the school curriculum to make aware the students about conservation of House Sparow and other birds.The resources created through the "Rise for the Sparrows" initiative will be useful to teachers, parents, students, organisations, policy makers.Link:http://www.iucnredlist.org

25 September 2012:An international team of researchers sequenced the genome of the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas). It is the first mollusk whose genome has been fully sequenced. The information will shed light on the biology and evolution of one of the planet's largest phyla of animals, (Phylum Mollusca) with more than 100,000 species.Analysis of the Pacific oyster's genes will help biologists understand how mollusks form shells, a kind of artificial "bioceramics." The Pacific oyster genome has about 800 million pairs of DNA nucleotides, compared with 3 billion in the human genome.The initial analysis of the oyster genome is published in the journal Nature.Link:http://www.nature.com

26 September 2012:Eight people have died due to Scrub Typhus at a hospital in Shimla, the disease caused by infected mites. Scrub typhus or Bush typhus is a form of Typhus caused by the intracellular parasite Orientia tsutsugamushi, a gram-negative α-proteobacterium of family Rickettsiaceae. Although the disease is similar in presentation to other forms of typhus, its pathogen is not anymore included in genus Rickettsia with the typhus bacteria proper, but in Orientia. The disease is thus frequently classified separately from the other Typhi.Other than the 8 dead, 117 tested positive for the disease in Himachal Pradesh.Maximum deaths have been reported from Bilaspur district.Link:http://www.japi.org

27 September 2012:Eleven scientists were conferred with the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for 2011: Mahan MJ of the Ramkrishna Mission University and Palash Sarkar of Indian Statistical Institute (Mathematical sciences),KN Balaji of Indian Institute of Science (Medical Sciences), Amit Prakash Sharma of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Ranjan Sankaranarayanan of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (Biological Sciences),Sirshendu De of IIT-Kharagpur and Upadrasta Ramamurty of the Indian Institute of Science (Engineering Sciences).The full list of awardees in all the categories can be found in the CSIR website.Link:http://www.csir.res.in

28 September 2012:Discovery Science, India’s only 24-hour science channel announced the launch of its Hindi-language feed. Coinciding with the Hindi-language feed launch, Discovery Science has announced five ground breaking series.Prophets of Science Fiction will present the stories of the strange lives of the visionaries and reveal the secrets of their uncanny ability to see the future; Dark Matters will expose some of history’s most bizarre experiments; Alien Encounters will explore how alien life might communicate with Earth.Additionally, Discovery Science will feature a special line-up titled SPACE WEEK from October 1 -7, every day at 8 pm.Link:http://science.discovery.com 

29 September 2012:India’s advanced communication satellite GSAT-10 was successfully launched early today on board Ariane-5 ECA rocket from European Space Agency's primary launch site French Guiana on the North Atlantic coast of South America. GSAT-10 is the heaviest satellite (3,400 kg)built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).It was ISRO’s 101st space mission.GSAT-10, with a design life of 15 years is expected to be operational by November and has a navigation payload GAGAN (GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation) that would provide accuracy of seven metres to be used by Airports Authority of India.This is the second satellite with GAGAN payload after GSAT-8, launched in May 2011.Link:http://www.isro.org

30 September 2012:Japanese scientists claimed that they created the element 113, one of the missing items on the periodic table of elements.Element 113 is with113 protons and 165 neutrons.To create element 113, the scientists lead by Kosuke Morita of the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science in Saitama, Japan, had to collide Zinc nuclei into a very thin layer of Bismuth.The first synthetic element was created in 1940, and so far 20 different elements have been made. All of the elements, with the exception of element 113, have been created by scientists in America, Russia or Germany.This will be Japan’s first element on the periodic table.Link:http://www.riken.go.jp