2 May 2014: Mathematicians have found a framework for the celebrated Rogers-Ramanujan identities and their arithmetic properties, solving another long-standing mystery stemming from the work of Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The solution was found by mathematicians at Emory University and the University of Queensland. The Rogers-Ramanujan identities were originally discovered by L J Rogers in 1894. In 1913, Ramanujan sent a letter to British mathematician G H Hardy that included the two identities that Rogers discovered and a third formula that showed these identities are essentially modular functions and that its singular values are algebraic integral units. That result came to be known as the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction and Ramanujan died in 1920 before he could explain the formulas. Link: http://news.emory.edu
3 May 2014: A new study has found that India's shocking rates of suicide are highest in areas with the most debt-ridden farmers who are clinging to tiny smallholdings less than one hectare and trying to grow 'cash crops', such as cotton and coffee, that are highly susceptible to global price fluctuations. This follows on from a recent study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which showed Indian suicide rates to be among the highest in the world with suicide the second leading cause of death among young adults in India. In 2010, 187,000 Indians killed themselves one fifth of all global suicides. Kerala has the highest male suicide rate in India and if Kerala were a country, it would have the highest suicide rate in the world. The study is published in the journal Globalisation and Health. Link: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com
4 May 2014: Researchers from the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany have created Ununseptium, the heaviest element ever created. The new element has 117 protons in its nucleus, confirming its existance first proved by a joint project between the United States and Russia four years ago, in 2010. The elements beyond the atomic number 104 in the periodic table are called Super Heavy Elements which are to be created in laboratories. The atoms were crafted from Berkelium which was bombarded along with Calcium ions, in order to create the new element. The International Unions of Pure and Applied Physics and Chemistry (IUPAPC) still needs to review the discovery to give the new element Ununseptium will be getting an official name. The findings is published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Link: http://journals.aps.org
5 May 2014: Despite the fact that the prehistoric large bodied dinosaurs vanished from Earth some 65 million years ago, the new finding led by scientists at Oxford University and the Royal Ontario Museum claims that one dinosaur lineage belonging to Maniraptorans survived and evolved into birds. Animals display huge morphological and ecological diversity. One possible explanation of how this diversity evolved is the 'niche filling' model of adaptive radiation under which evolutionary rates are highest early in the evolution of a group, as lineages diversify to fill disparate ecological niches. The feathered Maniraptoran dinosaurs (including Mesozoic birds) sustained rapid evolution from at least the Middle Jurassic, suggesting that these taxa evaded the effects of niche saturation. The finding was published in PLOS Biology. Link: http://www.plosbiology.org
6 May 2014:125 years ago today, the Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public. It stood as the gateway for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) in honor of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. At the time of its construction, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world. It wasn't until 1930 when New York City’s Chrysler Building rose up to 1,046 feet that the tower lost that title.Because it’s made with wrought-iron, the tower’s metal expands when exposed to the summer sun, causing the structure to change in height as much as 6.75 inches. The Eiffel Tower was only meant to stand for 20 years, but during Second World War, the French government began using it for radio communication. The Eiffel Tower houses scientific laboratories, a theater, newspaper office and a post office. Link: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/en
7 May 2014: The Indian Government's Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has released the first draft of a policy that may nudge the nation into complying with the United Nation's REDD+ program. The program is a collaborative initiative comprised of numerous partner countries from around the world. REDD+ stands for 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation' which was launched in 2008 with the aim of reducing deforestation to help communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods. As estimated, REDD+ could provide for capture of around 1 billion tonnes of additional CO2 over the next 3 decades. The REDD+ program was opened for signature during the 19th UN Conference of Parties on climate change that was held in Warsaw. Link: http://www.un-redd.org
9 May 2014: Indian biologists have discovered 14 new species of so-called 'Dancing frogs' belonging to the genus Micrixalus from the Western Ghats mountains in southern India. Researchers say that the tiny acrobatic amphibians earned their name with the unusual kicks they use to attract mates. Only the males dance, it’s actually a unique breeding behaviour called foot-flagging. They stretch, extend and whip their legs out to the side to draw the attention of females who might have trouble hearing mating croaks over the sound of water flowing through perennial hill streams. The new discovery brings the number of known species of Indian 'Dancing Frogs' to 24. There are other 'Dancing Frogs' in Central America and Southeast Asia, but the Indian family, Micrixalidae, evolved separately about 85 million years ago. The study is published in the Ceylon Journal of Science. Link: http://www.sljol.info
11 May, 2014: More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel's long-lost remains, lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. The discovery was lead by Barry Clifford, one of America's top underwater archaeological investigators. So far, Mr Clifford's team has carried out purely non-invasive survey work at the site, measuring and photographing it. The site is also an exact match in terms of historical knowledge about the underwater topography. The footprint of the wreck is represented by the pile of ship's ballast. The Santa Maria was built at some stage in the second half of the 15 century in northern Spain's Basque Country. In 1492, Columbus hired the ship and sailed in search of a new western route to Asia. Link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com
12 May, 2014: The world's first airplane completely powered by electricity has successfully taken to the skies for its maiden flight. The small experimental aircraft called E-Fan carried its first flight at an airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France, and could prove to be a key step towards greener, quieter and cheaper air travel.Manufactured by Toulouse-based Airbus, E-Fan measures little more than 19 feet from nose to tail and makes slightly more noise than a hairdryer. Powered by 120 lithium-ion polymer batteries, the plane's first official flight lasted less than 10 minutes, the plane has the capability to fly for around an hour without recharging. The two-seater E-Fan 2.0 will be a fully electric training aircraft, while E-Fan 4.0 will be used for general flight purposes and will be powered by a hybrid system. Airbus Group propose an industrial production facility. Link: http://www.airbus-group.com
13 May, 2014:Chemicals found in a variety of modern products can interfere with human sperm function leading to fertility problems, new research by a German-Danish team has shown. These findings suggests that these common chemicals, known as endocrine disruptors, may contribute to widespread fertility problems that hitherto has not been recognized. The scientists looked at the impact of these chemicals on the CatSper ion channel, a calcium channel controlling sperm motility. They showed that endocrine disruptors, directly open CatSper and, thereby, increase calcium levels in sperm, change their swimming behavior, and trigger the release of digestive enzymes that help sperm to break through the egg coat. Moreover, endocrine disruptors render sperm less sensitive for progesterone and prostaglandins, two important hormones released by cells surrounding the egg. The study is published in EMBO Reports.Link: http://embor.embopress.org
14 May, 2014: Ahmadabad-based Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) is contributing to the heart of the world's biggest Tokamak fusion reactor. The ambitious project, called International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is the biggest scientific collaboration on the planet and is being set up in Cadarache in southern France. India is contributing to building the cryostat and vacuum vessel, which is the heaviest and the largest part of the ITER reactor where the fusion will take place. India is providing 54 segments of the cryostat vessel of the giant reactor. The ITER Agreement was signed by China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.Beginning December 2015, the first of the ITER cryostat's components will arrive on the site from India. The first plasma in the ITER reactor is expected in 2022-25. Link: http://www.ipr.res.in
15 May, 2014: Paleontologists in Argentina's remote Patagonia region have discovered fossils of what may be the largest dinosaur ever, amid a vast cache of fossils that could shed light on prehistoric life. The creature is believed to be a new species of Titanosaur, a long-necked, long-tailed sauropod that walked on four legs and lived some 90 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period.Researchers say the plant-eating dinosaur weighed the equivalent of more than 14 African elephants, or about 100 tonnes, and stretched up to 40 meters (130 feet) in length. The previous record holder, also in Argentina, the Argentinosaurus, was estimated to measure 36.6 meters long. A fossilized femur of the Titanosaur was larger than a paleontologist who lay next to it.Paleontologists have found about 60 teeth at the site, 57 of which are from Tyrannotitan carnivores, one of the largest known therapods. Link: http://www.mef.org.ar
16 May, 2014: Four new species have been reported from Western Ghats by researchers at Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The findings were made at Morjai plateau in the Gaganbawda taluka of the Kolhapur district, Ebbanad village in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu and Periya village in Kasargod district of Kerala. The researchers said new species are separated from their nearest ancestor by a million years of evolutionary process. The species, Piper dravidii was named in honour of Dr Natraj K Dravid, a physician from Satara District. specific description for the other species, Chlorophytum sharmae commemorates Prof A K Sharma, scientist, University of Calcutta. The specific epithet of Brachystelma mahajanii honours, S D Mahajan, Gokhale College. The species, Brachystelma vartakii is named in honour of late Dr V D Vartak, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. The discovery of the new species is published in Kew Bulletin. Link: http://link.springer.com
17 May, 2014: Scientists have found out how to turn pure light into matter for the very first time, after 80 years of trying.The idea was first dreamt up in 1934 by US physicists, Gregory Breit and John Wheeler in the 1930s, but they never expected anybody to be able to physically demonstrate their prediction.But researchers at Imperial College London say they have found a way to convert light into matter by using new equipment in the form of an extremely powerful laser capable of speeding up electrons to just below the speed of light. Researchers say they have found a way to convert light into matter by using new equipment in the form of an extremely powerful laser capable of speeding up electrons to just below the speed of light. Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to that emitted by stars. The research published in Nature Photonics.Link: http://www.nature.com
18 May, 2014: The Rubik's Cube appeared in today's Google Doodle. It was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architect, who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. He fashioned the first cube himself, hand-carving the 'cubelets'. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself. It was licensed to the Ideal Toy Corp in 1980, and since then it has sold more than 350,000 units, making it the biggest-selling toy of all time, and a retro favourite for anyone who was young in the 80s.The cube's six faces are each made up of nine stickered squares, with each row and column being independently manipulable around a central pivot. There are in fact over 43 quintillion permutations of the cube that is, unique distributions of the 54 coloured squares over the six faces. (A quintillion is a 1 with 18 zeros after it, or just under a fifth of a Googol!) Link: http://rubiks.com
19 May, 2014:Batman, the caped superhero created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, has turned 75. In May 1939, the dark knight first appeared in DC Comics' detective comics No 27, where he starred in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.The six-page story was written by Finger and illustrated by Kane. Batman is the secret identity of Bruce Wayne, an American billionaire, industrialist, and philanthropist. It also marked the debut of Bruce Wayne and Commissioner James Gordon.Batman quickly became a popular character after his introduction and some of the biggest names in Hollywood have fought crime in Gotham City wearing the mask of the bat.Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer George Clooney and Christian Bale have previously played Batman in films.Actor Ben Affleck is all set to play Batman in Man of Steel sequel.Link:http://www.dccomics.com
20 May 2014: It was 50 years ago, today that two scientists in the famous Bell Labs in New Jersey, while experimenting with an antenna, discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the first evidence of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. The two were working on a sensitive antenna designed to pick up radio waves from balloon satellites when they came across an inexplicable "hum". Even after making multiple adjustments, they they couldn't find a place for the sound, which was initially mistaken for distortion from bird droppings. The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation proves that the expansion of the universe was from the huge explosion. It eventually brought Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for supporting the Big Bang Theory. Link: http://www.bell-labs.com
21 May, 2014: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the organization's four "Great Observatories" may be closing its doors forever, if funding can't be scrounged up to go the project's way.In April, a NASA advisory panel recommended that the space agency halt all Spitzer-related projects unless the cost of maintaining the telescope - $16.5 million a year - could somehow be reduced. Now, NASA has revealed that, no funding has been identified to support continuing Spitzer operations past 2015. The Spitzer project clearly recognizes that the NASA Astrophysics budget is under severe pressure and that the Senior Review Panel (SRP) faced an extremely difficult task. In 2009, the telescope halted the last of its observations of infrared wavelengths. Even today, the telescope is very important to the scientific community. Link: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
22 May, 2014: Scientists have warned against a dangerous new trend where patients check on Wikipedia for information on their health conditions, instead of going to a doctor.Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, contains errors in nine out of 10 of its health entries, and should be treated with caution. American scientists compared entries about conditions such as heart disease, lung cancer, depression and diabetes with peer-reviewed medical research. As per Dr Robert Hasty from Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, patients should not use Wikipedia as a primary resource because those articles do not go through the same peer-review process as medical journals. Wikimedia is published in 285 languages and has 30 million articles which anybody can edit. It is the sixth most popular site on the internet and upto 70% of physicians and medical students using it as a reference.Link: http://www.jaoa.org
23 May 2014: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will celebrate five years in orbit June 18. LRO was launched from Florida on June 18, 2009 and reached orbit on June 23. In the five years since, LRO has brought the world astounding views of the lunar surface and a plethora of exciting science data. To celebrate the anniversary and LRO's many scientific contributions, NASA invites the public to select a favorite orbiter image of the moon for the cover a special image collection. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the LRO mission presents 'Moon As Art', a collection of images created using LRO data. NASA presents the top five images to the public, to decide which will be the cover of the 'Moon As Art' collection. The finalist images are titled: Starry Night, Linne Crater, Clerke Crater, Diviner North Pole, Tycho Central Peak. Voting is open from today to June 6. Link: http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov
24 May, 2014: Today was a great day for animals in India. After agreeing to ban imported cosmetics that use animal testing earlier this year, India has taken the full plunge and banned animal testing for cosmetics throughout the entire country. According to Humane Society International, India is the first country in South Asia to ban cosmetic testing on animals, so take note other countries India has set the bar for animals pretty high. More than 30 legislators joined together in support of the campaign alongside policy makers and Bollywood celebrities who all wrote letters to the Healthy Ministry urging for the change in policy. And, clearly, it worked. After a test period of 45 days, the ban has officially been finalized and goes into action as of today. The growing success of the “Be Cruely-Free” campaign is influencing change for lab animals, making waves in the world. Link: http://www.hsi.org
25 May, 2014: Researchers at CERN, and several other organizations, are offering cash prizes to citizen scientists who can develop an algorithm to improve analysis of Higgs boson data. The discovery of the Higgs boson, which is responsible for giving all particles their mass, was confirmed on July 4, 2012. A key property of any particle is how often it decays into other particles. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has recently observed a signal of the Higgs boson decaying into two tau particles, but this decay is a small signal buried in background noise. CERN wants this data to be refined using the algorithm. The Higgs boson machine learning challenge will reward the winners with up to $7,000 in cash. Organizations involved in the challenge include Google, The Center for Data Science of Paris-Saclay, and INRIA among others. Link:http://home.web.cern.ch
26 May, 2014: Scientists have for the first time ever solved a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery, kiwi actually once flew. Alsso, Australia can no longer lay claim to the origins of the iconic New Zealand kiwi. University of Adelaide scientists have now confirmed that kiwi's closest relative is not the emu as was previously thought. Instead, the diminutive kiwi is most closely related to the extinct elephant birds of Madagascar. The new study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) correct the previous work by Professor Alan Cooper which had shown the closest living relatives of the kiwi were the Australian emu and cassowary. The flightless birds became large herbivores, but once mammals also got large, about 50 million years ago, no other bird could try that idea again unless they were on a mammal free island, like the Dodo. Link: http://www.adelaide.edu.au
27 May, 2014: Blood from a rare group of children from Tanzania, found to be naturally immune to malaria has now helped scientists take a giant leap in developing a vaccine against the world's deadliest vector borne disease, Malaria. Researchers from the Brown University School of Medicine have found that these children produce an antibody that attacks the malaria-causing parasite. The antibody has been named PfSEA-1. Prof Jake Kurtis from the University screened 1,000 children in Tanzania, who had regular blood samples taken in the first years of their lives. Around 6% of these children were found to have developed a naturally acquired immunity to malaria, despite living in an area where the disease was highly active. PfSEA-1-based vaccines can be a promise against Malaria, which has killed more than 600,000 people in 2012, 90% which is in sub-Saharan Africa. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org
28 May, 2014: The identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly will take part in an unprecedented study of to better understand the effects of prolonged stay in space, spending an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning March 2015. No American has come close to a year; seven months is NASA's maximum for a single human mission. The Russians, on the other hand, are old hands at long-duration spaceflight, claiming title to a record-setting 14-month mission back in 1994-95. Mark Kelly, now 50, has volunteered to spend an year along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko aged 54.The pair will launch from Kazahkstan aboard a Russian rocket and return via a Russian capsule. NASA want to identify physical challenges that need to be overcome before astronauts venture to Mars and beyond. The project will receive 1.5 million dollars for over three years. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
29 May, 2014: A new banana species, Musa arunachalensis, was identified from West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India, by botanists from the University of Calicut in Kerala. Musa is a genus native to the Indian, Australian and South East Asian tropics, and of its five subgenera, only two produce edible bananas. The new species belongs to the subgenus Rhodochlamys. In India, wild Musa species are largely distributed in the northeastern states, the Western and Eastern Ghats and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, many regions in northeastern India, have not been explored due to factors such as inaccessibility in dense evergreen forests, civil unrest etc.Recently many species have been reported from neighboring areas such as southern China, Burma and Vietnam, reported from India since Hooker (1892) first reported the genus from the subcontinent. It was described in Phytotaxa. Link: http://www.biotaxa.org
30 May, 2014: Scientists, for the first time sequenced the complete genome of Termite. Termites are major pests of human structures, costing an estimated USD 40 billion in damage and control treatment each year. The sequenced genome is that of Nevada dampwood termite (Zootermopsis nevadensis). Though Nevada dampwood termites do not cause significant damage to buildings, they are closely related to key pests such as the Eastern subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes). Having the termite genome in hand will enable researchers to look for common features expressed across termite species to find control targets effective for all types of termites. The termite genome could also help researchers better understand the symbiosis between termites and bacteria that thrive in their guts, aiding in digestion and defense. The study is published in Nature Communications. Link:http://www.nature.com
31 May, 2014: There has been a voice from the scientic community itself, debating the value of killing animals as "voucher specimens" of new or threatened species. The issue is unfolded, a month after four scientists had published a general exhortation to explore nonlethal ways of identifying newly discovered animals. The availability of adequate alternative methods of documentation, including high-resolution photography, audio recording, and nonlethal sampling, provide an opportunity to revisit and reconsider field collection practices and policies. Yet, there is still a strong and widespread impulse to procure specimens of rare of species for scientific purposes. Cultural traditions within a research community can reinforce the collection of voucher specimens even where it is not necessary. The issue is discussed in the journal Science. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org
