1 November 2013: Plans to create two vast ocean sanctuaries in Antarctica to protect the pristine wilderness failed for a third time, because of Russia and China blocking the bids. The proposals for two huge Marine Protected Areas were on the table at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in Hobart, which brought together 24 countries and the European Union. The US-New Zealand bid for a sanctuary in the Ross Sea, the deep bay in the Antarctic Ocean, had been considered the best hope, with its no-fish zone to be 1.25 million square kilometres.The second proposal called for a 1.6 million square kilometre protected zone off East Antarctica, on the Indian Ocean side. Their creation would make the largest marine protection areas in the world. Antarctica's wilderness is home to 16,000 known species, including whales, penguins and unique species of fish.Link: http://www.ccamlr.org
2 November 2013: Bangladesh makes a controversial turn to begin the construction of a large coal-fired power plant, threatening the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. First conceived in 2010, the Rampal power plant is a partnership between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and India's state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which will share fifty-fifty ownership of the plant, as well as the electricity it produces. Opponents say that the 1,320 megawatt project could devastate the Sundarbans, Bangladesh's largest forest and the nation's last stronghold of the Bengal tiger. Sundarbans is home to at least 330 plant species, 315 bird species, 210 fish species, 49 mammal species, and 59 species of reptiles. Many of the species are endangered, including the Ganges river dolphin and the Bengal tiger. Link: http://www.bpdb.gov
3 November 2013: Scientists have embarked on a project to identify unknown or lesser known oil seeds as new sources of oil for edible and non-edible applications. The project 'Development of sustainable processes for edible oils with health benefits from traditional and newer resources' aims to develop sustainable processes for edible oils and look for health benefits from traditional and new resources. The project presently remains with Centre for Lipid Research at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. Under the project, lesser-known oils seeds found across forests in the country are being screened. Also, it will work on development of greener technologies for the extraction of oils and nutraceuticals. India produces as much as 8.5 million tons of edible oils. However, due to short suppl, India imported 10.2 million metric tones, last year.Link: http://www.iictindia.org
4 November 2013: Scientists from the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, investigating Arafat's death submitted the results to representatives of his widow, Suha Arafat, as well as representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA). As per Swiss scientists, who tested samples taken from Arafat's corpse showed "unexpected high activity" of Polonium-210, 18 times than normal, which "moderately" supported a theory that he was poisoned to death with radioactive Polonium. Many Palestinian officials believe that Israel poisoned Arafat. Arafat died in a French military hospital on November 11, 2004. A subsequent murder investigation in August 2012, by French prosecutors, on Arafat's belongings revealed traces of Polonium-210. The Israeli regime has denied any involvement. Link: http://www.chuv.ch
5 November 2013: Solar Impulse-the solar powered airplane will make New Delhi and Varanasi its landing and departing destinations during its round the world mission in 2015. Solar Impulse, having wingspan of a 747 aircraft, is constructed in such a way that its thousands of solar panels across its wings can harness power from the sun during the day and its lithium-polymer batteries can store that energy for overnight trips.There by it could demonstrate the capabilities of clean technology and renewable energy. The move comes at a time when the governments across the world are looking for alternatives of fossil fuel to not only fight the menace of climate change by drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions but also to pull themselves out of the vicious trap of oil economy. The around the world mission flights will take place from beginning of March to end of the summer 2015. Link: http://www.solarimpulse.com
6 November 2013: India successfully launched its first mission to Mars 'Mangalyaan' (Mars Orbiter Mission- MOM) on board PSLV C25 at 2.38 pm from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. It was the 25th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV). The rocket injected the satellite into Earth's orbit over South America, which was captured by ISRO's sea-borne terminals on board Shipping Corporation of India's vessels SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna in the South Pacific Ocean. 'Mangalyaan' is equipped with five instruments, the Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS). 'Mangalyaan' is expected to reach the Red Planet's orbit by September 24, 2014, making India the fourth country to do so.Link: http://www.isro.org
7 November 2013: Today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace.Wallace’s place in history comes as the co-discoverer of evolution with Charles Darwin. He discovered what is now known as the Wallace Line that separates the placental mammals of Southeast Asia from the marsupial mammals of Australia. Wallace survived his ship burning in the middle of the Atlantic to escape in a small boat. He spent four years in the Amazon and made it back to England, half alive. But he did not quit but sailed to Southeast Asia to explore the fauna and flora of 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago.Wallace has over 800 species named after him while Darwin has a mere 120. He made five voyages to the Indonesian archipelago just to collect birds of paradise specimens. His book, 'The Malay Archipelago' is in print for more than 140 years.Link:http://wallacefund.info
8 November 2013: The Olympic symbol entered open space for the very first time, the two cosmonauts carrying the Olympic torch, though unlit, during a spacewalk today, in a historic showcasing of Russia hosting the Sochi Winter Olympic Games that is scheduled to be on 7-23 February 2014. It was cosmonaut Oleg Kotov who made a 'spacewalk' outside the International Space Station (ISS) with the Olymoic torch held ceremonially in his gloved hand. Safety precautions meant the torch remained unlit while in space.Torches also left the planet aboard US space shuttle voyages ahead of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and the 2000 event in Sydney, but it was the first time an Olympic torch was taken out for a spacewalk. Russia has already sent the Olympic torch to the North Pole aboard a ship. It will soon visit the bottom of Baikal, the world's deepest freshwater lake. Link: http://www.sochi2014.com
9 November 2013: NASA has released a new photograph of Saturn described as "perhaps the most unusual image ever taken in the history of the space programme". Taken four months ago from the Cassini spacecraft, the image, actually a mosaic of images, shows Saturn eclipsing the sun, with Mars, Venus and Earth all appearing as tiny dots besides the second largest planet in the solar system. The photograph is partly a tribute to the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990. As the craft prepared to leave the solar system US astronomer Carl Sagan requested that it take a "last look back", photographing the Earth as a "fraction of a dot" in the vastness of space. Dr Carolyn Porco, who was instrumental in capturing the original Pale Blue Dot image, referred to the photograph as "acknowledges our coming of age as planetary explorers".Link: http://www.nasa.gov
10 November 2013: The Infosys Science Prize Foundation announced the winners for Infosys Science Prize 2013, in fields of Humanities, Engineering and Computer science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. The winners for this year include V. Ramgopal Rao from IIT Bombay for Engineering and Computer Science, Nayanjot Lahiri from Delhi University for Humanities-Archaeology, Ayesha Kidwai from Jawaharlal Nehru University for Humanities- Linguistics, Rajesh Gokhale from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for Life Sciences, Rahul Pandharipande from Eidgenossische Technische Hochschul Zurich for Mathematical Sciences, Shiraz Minwalla from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research for physical sciences and Aninhalli Vasavi from Nehru Memorial Museum and Library for social sciences.Link:http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com
11 November 2013: India has declared itself free from Notifiable Avian Influenza (H5N1), commonly called 'Bird flu', and notified the same to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). India notified outbreak of Avian Influenza (H5N1) at Poultry Production Unit, College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Anjora, Durg and Government Poultry Farm, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh on August 5, 2013. According to a Ministry of Agriculture release, the control measures adopted in the outbreak were stamping out of entire poultry population including destruction of eggs, feed, litters and other infected materials in the radius of 1 k.m. around the outbreak location, restriction on movement of poultry and subsequently issuing of the Post Operation Surveillance Plan (POSP). Even though India is free from bird flu, surveillance will be continued. Link: http://www.oie.int
12 November 2013: The year 2013 is likely to be among the top 10 warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. The first nine months, January to September, tied with 2003 as the seventh warmest such period on record, with a global land and ocean surface temperature of about 0.48 degree Celsius above the 1961-1990 average. El Nino/La Nina is a major driver of our climate and the hottest years on record, 2010 and 1998, both had El Nino events. The year 2013 is currently on course to be among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to WMO. WMO's statement confirms that global sea level reached a new record high. Sea level has been rising at an average rate of about 3.2 millimetres per year (mm/yr), since altimeter measurements began in 1993. In Asia, Japan had its hottest summer on record. Link: http://www.wmo.int
13 November 2013: The mountains of the Western Ghats are the second most important shelter in the world for threatened species, according to a new study by scientists from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The study has listed the ghats and Anamalai Sanctuary at number 32 on the irreplaceability index. (The ghats have already been listed as a critical biodiversity hotspot and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.). The study has calculated the "irreplaceability" of various bio-diversity hotspots using data that covers 1,73,000 protected zones and the assessment of 21,500 species which are on the red list of threatened species put out by the IUCN. The researchers identified 78 sites comprising 137 protected areas in 34 countries. Some of the protected areas, including Ecuador's Galápagos Islands are already recognized by UNESCO. Link: http://www.iucn.org
14 November 2013: World's oldest animal, Ming the Mollusc, is dead. It was killed during analysis of its age by experts from Bangor University. Findings reveal that the animal was born in 1499, making it 507 years old. Ming was discovered by the same scientists from North Atlantic, off the coast of Iceland, in 2006. A mollusc’s shell grows a layer every summer when the water is warmer and food plentiful. So by counting the number of rings visible on the inner side of the shell, its age can be calculated. Earlier, it was believed that Ming was 400 years old, and so it was named after the Ming dynasty thought to be ruling China at the time of its birth. However, the news findings mean that mollusc was born seven years after Columbus discovered America. Marine biologist Doris Abele says that the ability to live for centuries could be due to slow metabolism.Link: http://www.werh.org
15 November 2013: Controversial issue of handling of substances like Hydro-Chloro Fluoro Carbon (HCFC) and Chloro Fluoro Carbons (CFC), the climate-damaging gases, remained unresolved in near future as both India and the US stuck to their respective positions today at Warsaw, which hosted the 19th Conference of Parties relating to UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). As per Montreal Protocol, Ozone-depleting substances like HCFCs CFCs are to be phased out. Though HFC is not an Ozone-depleting gas, it contributes to global warming and consequently its phase-out comes under the Kyoto Protocol. India, however insists that the issue must be kept out of the Montreal Protocol as HFC is not an Ozone-depleting gas. India wants this issue to be within the UNFCCC for "accounting and reporting of emissions" -a crucial clause that works in favour of developing countries. Link: http://unfccc.int
16 November 2013: Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao (CNR Rao), India's highly regarded scientist, has been conferred Bharat Ratna, the highest Civilian Award in India. He is the fourth scientist to be conferred with Bharat Ratna. The other scientists honoured with Bharat Ratna include: Nobel Laureate and physicist CV Raman (1954); Civil engineer and Diwan of Mysore Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955) and most recently APJ Abdul Kalam (1997). Basically a Structural Chemist, CNR Rao currently serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Rao has honorary doctorates from 60 universities from around the world. Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La2CuO4 which have profound applications in the fields of high temperature superconductivity. Rao was conferred Padma Shri in 1974 and Padma Vibhushan in 1985. Link: http://www.jncasr.ac.in
17 November 2013: The Sun is set to "flip upside down" within weeks as its magnetic field reverses polarity.The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years. The polarity change is built up throughout the eleven year cycle through areas of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots which gradually move towards the poles, eroding the existing polarity. Eventually, the magnetic field rebounds with the opposite polarity. One of the most noticeable effect on Earth will be a boost in the occurrence, range and visibility of auroras - the Northern Lights. The swap will cause intergalactic weather fronts such as geomagnetic storms, which can interfere with satellites and cause radio blackouts. The impact of this will be widespread well beyond Pluto, even to Voyager, NASA's probes positioned near the edge of interstellar space. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
18 November 2013: NASA successfully launched its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) to Mars which is an orbiter like India’s ‘Mangalyaan’. It has now begun its 10-month journey towards Mars and it is expected to reach the Red Planet on 22 September 2014, two days before ‘Mangalyaan’ will be reaching there. The probe is different from past NASA missions because it focuses on the never-before-studied upper atmosphere. MAVEN has 8 instruments of which the one called NGIMS (Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer) can analyse the isotopes of Carbon, that forms part of the Methane. If it having a biological source, it will be having Carbon-14 as isotope, and if it is from non-biological sources, it will be having Carbon-13 as isotope. Mangalyaan and MAVEN will be complimenting all the data their instruments would be collecting. Link:http://www.nasa.gov
19 November 2013: Frederick Sanger, the British biochemist who twice won the Nobel Prize, has died at the age of 95. Dr Sanger is considered the "father of genomics" after pioneering methods to work out the exact sequence of the building blocks of DNA. Dr Sanger also developed techniques to determine the structure of proteins. He was the only Briton to win two Nobel Prizes and the only scientist to have been awarded the prize for Chemistry twice. The first came in 1958 for developing techniques to work out the chemical structure of proteins. Dr Sanger's group produced the first whole genome sequence. He was awarded his second Nobel Prize in 1980 for developing "Sanger sequencing" - a technique which is still used today. He was awarded one of Britain's highest honours, the Order of Merit, in 1986, but he declined it as he did not want to be called a "Sir". Link: http://www.nobelprize.org
20 November 2013: Today marked the 15 year anniversary that nations united to build the most advanced space laboratory every created, the International Space Station (ISS). In November 1998, an autonomous Russian Proton rocket took up the first module of the space station, Zarya. This module, also known as the Functional Cargo Block, provided electrical power, storage, propulsion and guidance to the space station.The ISS now weighs around 900,000 pounds and is about the size of a six-bedroom house. The ISS is a milestone in both technology and international collaboration. The international participation includes the Japanese space agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) and NASA. Over 69 countries have put research on the space station. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
21 November 2013: Today marked the 50th anniversary of India launching its first rocket, the American-built rocket Nike-Apache which happened on November 21,1963. It is considered as the first step in India's Space Programme. The launch was from the Thuma, a village in the district of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The launch facility was prepared by shifting several fishermen families from Thumba to an adjacent coastal stretch with the then Catholic Bishop playing a vital role in persuading the villagers.The launch site later became TERLS- Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station which in turn became Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). Department of Atomic Energy was entrusted with the task of conducting space research in August 1961. In 1962, a National Space Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Sarabhai which lead to the launch. Link: http://www.vssc.gov.in
22 November 2013: In a ceremony held at the White House today, American President Barack Obama prosthumously awarded the 'Medal of Freedom' for Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, for her role in "keeping America at the forefront of space exploration" and inspiring young girls "to become scientifically literate and to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math." The Medal was accepted by Tam O'Shaughnessy, Ride's partner and the chairwoman of Sally Ride Science, the company Ride founded in 2001. Sally Ride died July 23, 2012. She was 61. She made her first of two space shuttle missions in 1983. Sally Ride is only the ninth astronaut to be awarded the Medal of Freedom, joining the ranks of Mercury astronaut John Glenn, first moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and Apollo 13 commander James Lovell. Link: https://sallyridescience.com
23 November 2013: Tianhe-2 (meaning milky way), developed by China's National University of Defence Technology, retained the title of the world's fastest computer is capable of 33,863 trillion calculations per second and it was made in China. Tianhe-2 's power is almost double the score achieved by the second most powerful machine: the American Titan supercomputer, which clocked 17.59 petaflop/s. Tianhe-2 has a performance of 33.86 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second). In comparison, India's fastest computer has a speed of 7.19 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second). The computer at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (Pune) has been declared the 44th fastest machine in the world, capable of 719 trillion calculations per second. The list of the world's fastest supercomputer is compiled every two years by the University of Mannheim, using a test known as the Linpack benchmark. Link: http://www.top500.org
24 November 2013: Scientists have discovered the world's most aggressive HIV strain.There are over 60 different epidemic strains of HIV and geographic regions are often dominated by one or two of these. If a person becomes infected with two different strains, they can fuse to form recombined strain.The new strain is found to be the most dangerous has been found in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The new virus strain was first reported by Joakim Esbjornsson from the University of Oxford. An estimated 4.9 million people were living with HIV in Asia-Pacific in 2012. Twelve countries account for more than 90% of people living with HIV such as India, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. New HIV infections have increased 2.6 times in Indonesia and Pakistan. Link: http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se
25 November 2013: A research group at Bonn University and international collaborators have found that early modern humans inherited an 'immune gene' from Neanderthals that greatly improved our immune systems. The researchers discovered a novel receptor, which allows the immune system of modern humans to recognise dangerous invaders, subsequently eliciting an immune response. The blueprint for this advantageous structure was in addition identified in the genome of Neanderthals, hinting at its origin. The receptor provided these early humans with immunity against local diseases. According to the researchers, the presence of this receptor in Europeans but its absence in early men suggests that it was inherited from Neanderthals. A fourth receptor, abbreviated as HLA-DRaDPb, also has been found.The study was published in Journal of Biological Chemistry. Link: http://www.jbc.org
26 November 2013: A proposal for changing the generic name name of 'Miss Kerala' from Puntius denisonii to Sahyadria denisonii has been made by Rajheev Raghavan et al in a recent taxonomic update. The new genus name ‘Sahyadri’ is the vernacular name for the Western Ghats mountain ranges. 'Miss Kerala' has got a more popular name in the scientific world: the Denison's barb. The specialty of this is that it is endemic to the Achenkovil and Chaliyar rivers in Kerala. They are found in four locations Cheenkannipuzha (a major tributary of Velapattanam River), the Achankovil river, the Chaliyar river and near Mundakayam town. A similar fish, Sahyadria chalakkudiensis also is enlisted as ‘Endangered’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.The proposal for name change is proposed in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. Link: http://www.threatenedtaxa.org
27 November 2013: In what could be their most revolutionary project to date, researchers at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) are set to begin an experiment to determine if antigravity exists. According to some theories, antimatter may generate a gravitational field that repels anything around it rather than attracting it in the way that normal matter does. Antimatter is like the mirror image of matter, with many of its key properties reversed. Now, the CERN researchers are want to find out whether that includes the gravitational properties. For this, the researchers have created a magnetic trap in a specially designed experiment called ALPHA (Anti-hydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) where atoms of antihydrogen can be held almost stationary in a powerful magnetic field. Link: http://alpha.web.cern.ch
28 November 2013: Comet ISON passed just 1.2 million km from the surface of the sun today. According to NASA, material from the comet appeared on the other side of the Sun, despite not having been seen in observations during its closest approach. Astronomers who used conventional solar telescopes couldnt witness the real plight of the comet. At closest approach, the comet was moving faster than 350 km per second through the sun's atmosphere. At that distance, it reached 2,760 degrees Celsius, hot enough to vaporize not just ices in comet's body, but the rocks as well. Comet ISON also known as C/2012 S1 was discovered by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok on 21 September 2012. The discovery was made by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) and hence the name ISON. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
29 November 2013: A smartphone app designed to give early warning of earthquakes could be ready as early as next year, according to scientists who participated in the World Science Forum at Rio de Janeiro. To do this, the app captures initial energy from the tremor, the so-called P wave or Primary wave, which rarely itself causes damage. The technology uses algorithms to detect rapidly when a quake is starting and determine its strength and location and when it is likely to reach its zenith and alert residents in potentially affected areas.The smartphone app is capable of providing an alert between a few seconds and one minute before a tremor hits, depending on where an individual using it is in relation to the epicenter. The app is based on a technology prepared by Professor Richard Allen, director of the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. Link: http://seismo.berkeley.edu
30 November 2013: NASA is planning to grow plants and vegetables on the Moon. As per NASA, it will be the first ISRU (in situ resource utilization) demonstration. It will also be the first attempt to germinate plants on another world.The seeds will be housed inside a specially made Lunar Plant Growth Chamber, that will carry enough air for 10 days.The initiative is being driven by the Lunar Plant Growth Habitat team. The mission is due to launch in 2015 as part of the Moon Express lander, a commercial project to land on the Moon. Natural sunlight will be used to germinate the plants inside the chamber and the seeds would grow on pieces of filter paper laden with nutrients. The plants selected include Turnip (Brassica rapa), Basil (Ocimum basilicum) and Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale Cress). Link: http://www.nasa.gov
Director: Ruairí Robinson
Screenplay: Clive Dawson
Camera: Robbie Ryan
Release date: 6 December 2013 (US)
Running time: 98 minutes
Country: Ireland, United Kingdom
The Last Days on Mars is based on the short story "The Animators" by Sydney J. Bounds. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
The story goes like this: A research crew of eight inhabiting the Tantalus Base outpost on Mars are 19 hours from the completion of a six month mission and a rendezvous with the lander Aurora, which will return them to their main orbiting craft.
Scientist Marko Petrovic has found samples that may point to life on the planet called 'Martian biological agents'. They are now fast, aggressive, and zombie-like with blackened skin and no trace of their original personalities.
The bulk of the movie's middle section is taken up with fights and escapes from the zombie beings through the habitat modules of the Martian base.
Title : Dying Planet:
Mars in Science and the Imagination
Author : Robert Markley
Pages : 456
Price : $ 24.01
ISBN : 0822336383
Publishers : Duke University Press
For more than a century, Mars has been at the center of debates about humanity’s place in the cosmos. Focusing on perceptions of the red planet in scientific works and science fiction, Dying Planet analyzes the ways Mars has served as a screen onto which humankind has projected both its hopes for the future and its fears of ecological devastation on Earth. Robert Markley draws on planetary astronomy, the history and cultural study of science, science fiction, literary and cultural criticism, ecology, and astrobiology to offer a cross-disciplinary investigation of the cultural and scientific dynamics that have kept Mars on front pages since the 1800s.
Markley interweaves chapters on science and science fiction, enabling him to illuminate each arena and to explore the ways their concerns overlap and influence one another. He tracks all the major scientific developments, from observations through primitive telescopes in the seventeenth century to data returned by the rovers that landed on Mars in 2004.
Markley describes how major science fiction writers, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Judith Merril, responded to new theories and new controversies. He also considers representations of Mars in film, on the radio, and in the popular press. In its comprehensive study of both science and science fiction, Dying Planet reveals how changing conceptions of Mars have had crucial consequences for understanding ecology on Earth.
Dying Planet is an impressive achievement—its historical scope, disciplinary range, and exhaustive research are stunning. It begins with an examination of Mars within sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomy, and concludes with NASA’s plans to launch a mission to the planet in 2011. The bulk of the book, however, focuses on scientific and literary texts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The book is extensively researched, engaging theoretical quandaries within recent science studies scholarship, while analyzing centuries of scientific debates, interviews with scientists and writers, and a multitude of science fiction novels.
Most of the book is organized chronologically, pairing chapters on science and science fiction within different historical periods.
Interestingly, this structure is consonant with one of the central ideas of the book that of the 'limits of analogy'. As centuries of speculative science and scientifically oriented fiction sought to understand Mars through analogies with Earth and vice versa, they met with the material and epistemological limits inherent within the structure of analogy.
Robert Markley is Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of a number of books, including Fallen Languages: Crises of Representation in Newtonian England, 1660–1740. He is a coauthor of the DVD-ROM Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Encounters with Mars and the editor of the book Virtual Realities and Their Discontents.
Review Courtesy: http://www.dukeupress.edu
http://muse.jhu.edu
Time: 2.38 pm
Mangalyaan ('Mars craft' in Hindi) , the Indian mission to the Red Planet, also called Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched successfully, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the eastern coastal island of Shriharikota. The mission is the first by ISRO to aim to reach the Red Planet. No other space agency has been fully successful with first attempts at similar programs.
The ambitious project aims to search the Martian atmosphere for methane, which is crucial to life on Earth. The satellite will carry out science experiments and surface imaging studies on the Red Planet. The probe, which weighs 1,350 kilograms (3,000 pound), was to be catapulted towards Mars after a series of short burns to raise its orbit.
The Mangalyaan vehicle must travel 780 million kilometers (485 million miles) over more than 300 days to reach an orbit around the planet September 2014. There, it will be assisted by NASA's MAVEN-mission which is also on the way to the Red Planet.
Source: http://www.isro.org
Back to Nest, After a Long Way!
Class : Aves
Order : Charadriiformes
Family : Glareolidae
Genus : Rhinoptilus
Species: Rhinoptilus bitorquatus
The Jerdon’s Courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a plover-like species which had been considered to be extinct for more than 80 years until it was rediscovered in the 1980s inhabiting a tiny area of land in the Andhra Pradesh region of Southern India. Its breeding habits are a mystery and its nest and eggs have never been found by ornithologists.
The only egg known to exist of one of the world’s most critically endangered birds has been discovered. Aberdeen University announced that the egg is coming from the nest of a Jerdon’s Courser has been found in a a century-old collection housed in a drawer at the institution’s Zoology museum. The egg was part of a small collection put together by Ernest Meaton, a veterinary surgeon working at the Kolar Gold Fields to the east of Bangalore, probably in 1917.
The identification was only confirmed after DNA was extracted from dried up membrane very gently scraped from the inside of the egg. It was found to match DNA taken from the toe of a 140-year-old Jerdon’s Courser skin from Natural History Museum, Tring.
Source: http://www.abdn.ac.uk
1 October 2013: By October-end, Comet ISON is expected to be visible through the telescope through out India, and by November-end or first week of December, even to the naked eye, when the comet will be at its peak.Comet ISON, also called C/ 2012 S1, was discovered by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) telescope, and hence named ISON. Presently, the comet ISON is about 10 in magnitude, and in the area of Leo. By the end of this month, it will be a good telescopic object and will continue to get better each morning as it brightens and climbs higher in the sky. Comets are dusty balls of ice and generally originate from the Kuiper belt, a region of icy small bodies beyond Neptune. The observations of the comet's progress so far will help in building a perspective in the evolution of solar system. Link: http://hubblesite.org
2 October 2013: Government of India will be setting up the world's largest solar power project, having a total generation capacity of 4,000 MW, in Rajasthan. The ultra mega green solar power project, whose idea has been mooted by the Heavy Industries Ministry, would be set up close to Sambhar Lake, the 23,000 acres area of which falls into Sambhar Salts Ltd, a subsidiary of central enterprise Hindustan Salts Ltd. Once fully implemented, the project would generate 6,000 million units of electricity annually. The first phase would be implemented through a joint venture company, whose stakeholders would be Bharat Heavy Electricals, Solar Energy Corporation, Power Grid Corporation, SJVN, SSL and Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd (REIL).The ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission aims to have about 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 2022. Link: http://www.mnre.gov.in
3 October 2013: A Korean research team led by Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) reported, for the first time, the development of a novel strategy for microbial gasoline production through metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli (E. coli). Gasoline, the petroleum-derived product that is most widely used as a fuel for transportation, is a mixture of hydrocarbons, additives, and blending agents. The hydrocarbons, called alkanes, consist only of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Researchers engineered the fatty acid metabolism to provide the fatty acid derivatives that are shorter than normal intracellular fatty acid metabolites, and introduced a novel synthetic pathway for the bio-synthesis of short-chain alkanes, resulting in bio-gasoline. The study was published in the journal Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com
4 October 2013: India launched its first indigenous vaccine to protect children from Japanese encephalitis. JENVAC is the first vaccine to be manufactured in the public-private partnership mode between the Indian Council of Medical Research and Bharat Biotech. Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne viral infection. The disease was first recognized in India in 1955. The virus strain for this vaccine was isolated in Kolar, Karnataka, during the early 1980s and characterized by the National Institute of Virology at Pune. The strains were transferred to Bharat Biotech for further vaccine development.The results proved that JENVAC can be administered as a single dose during epidemics for mass vaccination campaigns and also as a two-dose schedule during routine immunisation as part of the National immunization programme. Until now, the country has been importing the vaccine from China. Link: http://www.bharatbiotech.com
5 October 2013: NASA’s next Mars orbiter, MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) will be blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 18th next month. It is designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. One of the stated mission goals is to possibly determine what caused atmospheric Martian water to be lost to space over time and the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space, providing answers about Martian climate evolution. By measuring the rate with which the atmosphere is currently escaping to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved over time. MAVEN is expected to reach Mars in 2014. By then, Curiosity rover will guide MAVEN's measurements. MAVEN's measurements will also help to analyse current methane formation in Mars. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
6 October 2013: Satellite-based advanced technology called Geographic Information System (GIS) will be used to monitor mustard crop in various parts of India. Mustard crop is the first major oilseed crop in India being selected for this purpose. Geographic Information System (GIS) will gather information through satellite and act as a third eye to provide information on spatial distribution of mustard crop, production and estimates, weather forecasting and market price fluctuations. It will be implemented in the major mustard producing states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. In India, mustard is the third largest produced oilseed after soybean and groundnut. Mustard seed is the second largest produced oilseed in the world and is the third leading source of edible oil after palm and soy oils. Link: http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca
7 October 2013: A trio of scientists have won the Nobel Medicine Prize 2013 for plotting how cells transfer vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals to other cells, giving insight into diseases such as Alzheimer's, Autism and Diabetes. Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman, and German-born Thomas Suedhof, separately mapped out one of the body's critical networks in which tiny bubbles known as vesicles enable cells to secrete chemicals such as insulin into the surrounding environment. Their research on how cells transport material around sheds light on how insulin, which controls blood sugar levels, is made and released into the blood at the right place at the right time. Diabetes and some brain disorders have been attributed at least in part to defects in the vesicle transport systems. Nobel Prize on Medicine is the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. Link: http://www.nobelprize.org
8 October 2013: Britain's Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium have won the Nobel Prize for physics for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson that explains how elementary matter attained the mass. Without the Higgs mechanism all particles would travel at the speed of light and atoms would not exist. Half a century after the original prediction, Higgs boson was finally detected in 2012 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The Higgs boson was theoretically essential for the existance of the Standard Model of physics that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. Higgs' and Englert's work shows how elementary particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible field (Higgs Field) and the more they interact, the heavier they become. The particle associated with the field is the Higgs boson. Link: http://www.nobelprize.org
9 October 2013: Martin Karplus of Harvard University, Michael Levitt of Stanford University and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California shared this years this year's Nobel prize in chemistry for developing a way for researchers to simulate chemical reactions in computers. During the 1970s they built computer programs that could accurately simulate lightning-fast chemical reactions and give scientists insights into how atoms and molecules interact with each other in the real world. Over subsequent decades their work has been used among countless other things, to examine the chemical reactions that enable proteins to work in the body's cells, how catalysts clean car exhausts and to design better drugs. This prize highlights the increasing role that theoretical and computational chemistry are playing in science, with the combined approach of both classical and quantum physics. Link: http://www.nobelprize.org
10 October 2013: The government shutdown in Washington has forced US bases in Antarctica into "caretaker" mode and the suspension of research efforts. Under caretaker status, the USAP will be staffed at a minimal level to ensure human safety and preserve government property, including the three primary research stations, ships and associated research facilities.Funds to provide logistical support for the US Antarctic Program (USAP) has dried up early next week and contractors have been ordered to scale back operations. The US has three Antarctic bases studying topics ranging from climate change to penguin populations. It is believed that non-essential personnel will be transported to the USAP's support base in Christchurch, New Zealand, while the funding freeze continues. The shutdown would however disrupt fieldwork essential for gathering scientific data. Link: http://www.nsf.gov
11 October 2013: Juno, the Nasa spacecraft bound for Jupiter will swing by Earth to get the boost it needs to arrive at the giant gas planet in 2016. Using Earth as a gravitational slingshot is a common trick since there isn't a rocket that's powerful enough to catapult a spacecraft directly to the outer solar system. Launched in 2011, the Juno spacecraft zipped past the orbit of Mars and fired its engines to put it on course for a momentum-gathering flyby of Earth. During the manoeuvre, Juno will briefly pass into Earth's shadow and emerge over India's east coast. At closest approach, Juno will fly within 350 563 kilometres of the Earth's surface, passing over the ocean off the coast of South Africa shortly before 12.30pm (local time). The rendezvous was designed to bump Juno's speed from 125,500 kmph relative to the sun to 140,000kmph enough power to cruise beyond the asteroid belt toward its destination. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
12 October 2013: World Health Organization (WHO) approved a vaccine that protects children from Japanese encephalitis (JE), a deadly brain infection that has claimed several hundreds of lives in the last six years. The live, attenuated JE vaccine, known as SA 14-14-2, manufactured in China in partnership with global health organization PATH, will make the vaccine more affordable since it paves the way for international funding. WHO pre-qualification is a critical step in expanding access to this lifesaving vaccine. The decision allows United Nations' procurement agencies to purchase the vaccine and serves as an endorsement of quality for countries interested in adopting it. During the first year of the immunization campaigns in 2006, more than nine million children in India were protected from JE. Children who survive JE are often left with severe neurological damage. Link: http://www.who.int
13 October 2013: If global temperatures rise by four to five degrees, a major portion of the city of Cochin in Kerala will be under the sea, warn experts. The study was conducted as part of the project, Asian Cities Adapt - Impacts of Climate Change in Target Cities in India and the Philippines, cordinated by European Secretariat of International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). A large area of the city will go under the Arabian Sea if global temperature will rise by 4-5 degree celsius. However, this represents a worst-case-scenario if global greenhouse gas emissions go unchecked and no mitigation and adaptation steps are taken.The project was intended to identify the impacts of climate change in four Indian cities, Kochi, Madurai, Vishakapatanam, and Howrah as well as four cities in the Philippines. The project was launched in February 2010 and will conclude by November. Link: http://www.iclei.org
14 October 2013: Global warming is expected to increase the severity of droughts and floods due to El Niño in the tropical Pacific, new research has found.During El Niño, the ocean surface temperature in the eastern Pacific warms and this leads to droughts in the western tropical Pacific and floods in the eastern part. This in turn has an impact on agriculture, economic activity and even human health. Power and colleagues looked at the latest generation of world climate models and found that climate change is expected to intensify El Niño's effects. While ENSO is a phenomenon centred in the tropical Pacific, it affects the weather in other parts of the world via a series of atmospheric "chain reactions", which the latest research does not cover. Dr Scott Power, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, and colleagues, report their findings today in the journal Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com
15 October 2013: Today is Ada Lovelace Day, the day dedicated to the memory of Ada Lovelace who in 1842, wrote the first computer program. Ada Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Because of this, she is often described as the world's first computer programmer. It was only in 1953, over one hundred years after her death, Ada's notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine were republished. But even now, women software developers earn 80% of what men with the same jobs earn. Just 18% of computer science degrees are awarded to women, which was 37% in 1985. Less than 5% of computer IT start-ups are founded by women. Link: http://findingada.com
16 October 2013: Scientists at the California Department of Public Health have discovered a new type of botox, the protein by the soil bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is believed to be the “deadliest substance known to man” and have withheld the DNA sequence because an antidote is not known. It is the first time the scientific community has made such a move to withhold such information but security concerns have dictated that they do so. Just 2 billionths of a gram, or inhaling 13 billionths of a gram, of Botulinum can kill an adult. Botulinum blocks the release of acetylcholine, the chemical secreted by nerves that makes muscles work. Victims are treated with antibodies that are produced artificially and react with the seven families of Botulinum, named A to G, discovered so far. Now discovered is the eighth toxin, type H, which has no antitoxins developed so far. Link: http://www.cdph.ca.gov
17 October 2013: The fossilised skull of Homo erectus that died nearly two million years ago has forced scientists to rethink the story of early human evolution. Anthropologists unearthed the skull at a site in Dmanisi, a small town in southern Georgia, where other remains of human ancestors, have been found. Experts believe the skull is the only intact skull ever found of a human ancestor that lived in the early Pleistocene, when our predecessors first walked out of Africa. The remains at Dmanisi are thought to be early forms of Homo erectus, the first of our relatives to have body proportions like a modern human. The species arose in Africa around 1.8 million years ago and may have been the first to harness fire and cook food. The Dmanisi fossils show that Homo erectus migrated as far as Asia soon after arising in Africa. The fossil is described in the latest issue of Science. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org
18 October 2013: Research by Professor Bryan Sykes, a geneticist from the University of Oxford, has found a genetic link between Yeti, the fabled apelike creature said to inhabit the upper ranges of the Himalayas, and ancient Polar Bear. Professor Sykes conducted DNA tests on hairs from two unidentified animals, one found in the western Himalayan region of Ladakh, in northern India, and the other from Bhutan.The results were then compared with other animals’ genomes stored on a database of all published DNA sequences. Professor Sykes found a 100 per cent match with a sample from an ancient polar bear jawbone found in Svalbard, Norway. Professor Sykes believes that the animals are hybrids, crosses between polar bears and brown bears. Because the newly identified samples are from creatures which are recently alive, he thinks the hybrids are still living in Himalayas. Link: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk
19 October 2013: A new study that decoded the DNA sequence of the Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis ) has concluded that the fruit has many genetic similarities between its 39,040 genes and other plant species, including potatoes and tomatoes. Kiwifruit originated from the mountains and ranges of southwestern China and was not really known to the world until the early 20th century, when farmers in New Zealand discovered the fruit and began breeding it as a commercial crop. The study also has unveiled two major evolutionary events that occurred millions of years ago in the kiwifruit genome. The kiwifruit has long been called ‘the king of fruits’ because of its remarkably high vitamin C content and balanced nutritional composition of minerals, dietary fiber and other health-benefits. The study conducted by a team scientists from Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell, was published in Nature Communications. Link: http://www.nature.com
20 October 2013: Fossilised dinosaur bones and eggs have been discovered from the Salbardi area, in eastern Maharashtra. The discoveries have been made after nearly six years of efforts by a team led by A.K.Srivastava and his doctorate student R.S.Mankar, both from the Department of Geology, SGB Amravati University. The remains were found in the sedimentary rocks, geologically known as 'Lameta Formation' deposited during the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) period. During that period, a species of dinosaur, Titanosaurus colberti inhabited the region and laid eggs. However, this is not the first dinosaur remains found in India and earlier. There have been discoveries from Nagpur, Chandrapur, and now Amravati in the state. Besides, more finds have been made in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh and Kheda district of Gujarat. The discovery is published in the journal Current Science. Link: http://www.currentscience.ac.in
21 October 2013: National Institute of Agro-biological Sciences, a Japan-based research institute, has selected the butterfly park situated at the foothills of the Western Ghats in Thumburmuzhi near Chalakudy river, to conduct a detailed study on the butterflies in India.The park is home to over 180 species of colourful winged insects. The butterfly garden spread over 10 acres of land near the Athirapilly waterfall, is attracting hundreds of butterfly enthusiasts every day by providing a panoramic view of the lush green cover of the rain forest situated on either sides of the falls and garden. Earlier, scientists had spotted Papilio Buddha and Moonlight butterfly, which are endangered species, in the park. Selecting the Thumburmuzhi butterfly garden as a research station may attract more attention from butterfly enthusiasts around the world and other research institutes.Link: http://www.nias.affrc.go.jp
22 October 2013: Udayan Rao Pawar, a 14-year-old Indian boy, has bagged this year's 'Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award'. He shot the fresh water crocodile (Gharial) in Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh with hatchlings on its head. The awards are one of the most prestigious competitions in world photography, held annually by Natural History Museum and BBC 'Wildlife Magazine' in London. This year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year is South African artist Gred du Toit, who won over the judges with his photograph of an African elephant from Botswana.Images for the contest, now in its 49th year, are submitted anonymously by professional and amateur photographers alike.They are selected for their creativity, artistry and technical complexity and must be submitted as a raw file with no manipulations.The 2013 winners beat 43,000 entries submitted from 96 countries. Link: http://www.nhm.ac.uk
23 October 2013: Large-scale, deep re-sequencing of 115 cucumbers worldwide has led to the creation of a genomic variation map for the vegetable that includes 3.6 million variants. In 2009, cucumbers became the seventh plant to have its genome sequence published, and in addition to being an agricultural product, it also serves as a model system for both sex determination and plant vascular biology.The authors, who hail from the Genome Centre of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), could detect a total of more than 3.3 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or DNA sequence variations occurring when a lone nucleotide in the genome differs between members, over 330,000 small insertions and deletions (indels) and nearly 600 presence-absence variations (PAVs). The study was published in Nature Genetics. Link: http://www.nature.com
24 October 2013: Scientists have now found the world's first vegetarian Piranha. Strictly herbivorous, this kind of Piranha inhabits the rocky rapids of the Amazon where its main source of food like aquatic herbs (Riverweed family) is found. The find is among 441 new species of animals and plants discovered over the past four years in the Amazon rainforest. Discovered by a diverse number of scientists and compiled for the first time by WWF, the new species add up to at an astounding 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds and 1 mammal. The study was led by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in South Holland, Netherlands. It is said that almost all trees in the Amazon have now got a scientific name. This will be a very valuable information for further research. But the bad news is, the 11,000 species known made up only 0.12% of tree cover. Link: https://science.naturalis.nl
25 October 2013: Astronomers have taken a new look at the coldest known object in the Universe-the 'Boomerang Nebula'. Using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope, they observed this strange object located 5000 light years away. The temperature of Boomerang is an incredible minus 272 degrees Celsius (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit , the lowest in the whole known Universe. It is lower than the natural background temperature of space as exhibited by the cosmic microwave background radiation, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.The researchers were able to take the temperature of the gas in the nebula by seeing how it absorbed the cosmic microwave background radiation, which has a very uniform temperature of minus 270.2 degrees Celsius (minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit). Link: http://www.almaobservatory.org
26 October 2013: A scientific team led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that bioinformatically optimised HIV vaccine antigens may help design a global HIV vaccine. Based on studies conducted in monkeys, the researchers demonstrated for the first time that mosaic HIV vaccine antigens can afford partial protection in rhesus monkeys against challenges with a stringent simian-human immunodeficiency virus. These mosaic vaccine antigens have been developed for optimal immunologic coverage of global HIV diversity.Although most animals immunised with the mosaic HIV vaccine became infected by the end of the study, the researchers observed an 87 to 90 per cent reduction in monkeys' probability of becoming infected. The monkeys also mounted cellular immune responses to the virus. The study was published in the journal Cell. Link: http://www.bidmc.org
27 October 2013: The satellite, Gravity Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) launched by European Space Agency to monitor Earth’s gravity field since 2009, ran out of fuel today and eventually crash, with little risk to humans, according to the Space Agency. The pressure in the orbiter’s tank is expected to drop to zero, but the engine will likely stop working before then. About 40 to 50 fragments with a combined mass of 250 kg are projected to hit our planet within weeks. Not yet known is when and where the fragments will impact over the ocean or on land. GOCE was launched into orbit in March 2009 at an altitude of 260 km. It has stayed due to its unusual aerodynamic shape and an ion propulsion system. When it runs out fuel completely, the satellite will start losing altitude and would become eventually de-orbit. Most of the spacecraft will break up at an altitude of about 80 km. Link: http://www.esa.int
28 October 2013: Chinese researchers have developed a vaccine for H7N9 bird flu virus. This is the first influenza vaccine ever developed by Chinese scientists. The vaccine has provided important technical support to battle the new flu strain, making contribution to the H7N9 flu virus epidemic control all over the world. The vaccine has been jointly developed by the First Affiliated Hospital under the School of Medicine of the Zhejiang University, Hong Kong University, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Food and Drug Control, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. China reported the world's first human case for H7N9 bird flu infection in March. A total of 136 people were confirmed to have been infected with H7N9 bird flu virus, of which 45 died, representing a fatality rate of about 33 per cent. Link: http://www.who.int
29 October 2013: As the countdown to India's maiden Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) begins, India hopes to become the fourth nation in the world to reach Mars. The following Indian scientists contributed to Mangalyaan mission: K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman ISRO, Secretary in Department of Space. S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Member Launch Authorisation Board. M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Mars Orbiter Mission. A.S. Kiran Kumar, Director, Satellite Application Centre. M.Y.S.Prasad, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Chairman, Launch Authorisation Board. S.K. Shivakumar, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre.P. Kunhikrishnan, Project Director, PSLV programme, S. Arunan, Project Director, Mars Orbiter Mission, B. Jayakumar, Associate Project Director, PSLV Project. M.S.Pannirselvam, Chief General Manager, Range Operation Director at Sriharikota. Link: http://www.isro.org
30 October 2013: Today marks the 75th anniversary broadcast to celebrate one of the most significant events in the history of radio - the 1938 broadcast of Orson Welles famous radio adaptation of the 1898 science fiction classic 'The War of the Worlds', originally written by H.G. Wells. The now famous Orson Welles radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds was performed as a Halloween episode of the American radio drama anthology series, by the Mercury theatre of the air, and broadcast by CBS from Madison Avenue in New York City on October 30, 1938, the night before Halloween. To increase its realism, the first two thirds of the hour long play was presented as a rolling radio news broadcast. Despite clear identification at the start of the broadcast, anyone tuning in after the program commenced, heard what to many sounded like an actual alien invasion was underway. Link: http://www.mercurytheatre.info
31 October 2013: India's ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), 'Mangaalyan' will be launched on November 5 from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The correct time of lift-off is 14:36 hrs IST on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The powerful XL version of the Indian Space Research Organisation's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) would be used for the Rs.450 crore mission. 'Mangalyaan' will carry compact science experiment instruments, totalling a mass of 15 kg. There will be five instruments to seek whether there is methane, considered a precursor chemical for life, on the red planet. After leaving the earth's orbit, 'Mangalyaan' will cruise in deep space for about ten months using its own propulsion system and will reach Martian transfer trajectory in September 2014, to enter into an elliptical orbit around Mars.Link: http://www.isro.org
