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
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