2 September 2014: In an attempt to conserve several coral species at one place and to boost tourism in the state, the country's first 'Coral garden' will be set up at Mithapur coastal region of Devbhoomi-Dwarka district in Gujarat. Wildlife Trust of India and Tata Chemicals Limited have signed a agreement to set up the first of its kind coral garden. The project will be funded by the Gujarat forest department. The 'Mithapur Coral Garden' will be one of its kind and it will house nearly all coral species found in Gulf of Kutch. Just as in a terrestrial botanical park or garden, the reef will be separated into various sections, based on accessibility. The tidal pools are primarily targeted for the Coral garden. Each pool will contain a variety of corals, and with special emphasis for specific species. It would be useful not only for tourism and education, but also for restoration of the reef. Link:http://www.wti.org.in
3 September 2014: In search of an answer to how dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, Indian-American scientist Sankar Chatterjee will visit India in the spring of 2015 to continue research on the Shiva Crater Hypothesis. Along with the Shiva crater, the Chicxulub crater of Mexico has been linked to the extinction of dinosaurs. The Shiva crater is a geologic structure, which is hypothesized to be a 500 km in diameter impact structure, which is named after the Supreme Indian God, Siva. It consists of the Bombay High and Surat Depression. They lie beneath the Indian continental shelf and the Indian Ocean west of Mumbai. It is estimated that the crater was made by an asteroid. At that time, India was located over the Réunion hotspot of the Indian Ocean. However, other Earth scientists remain unconvinced that 'Shiva Crater' is indeed an impact crater. Link: https://gsa.confex.com
4 September 2014: Researchers have found that certain types of bacteria like Ancylobacter aquaticus could help dispose off hazardous nuclear waste. Working on soil samples from a highly alkaline industrial site in the Peak District in the UK, they discovered that these specialist ‘extremophile’ bacteria could survive in an environment with radioactive waste. One such product produced by the bacteria linked to these activities, Isosaccharinic Acid (ISA), causes much concern as it can react with a wide range of radionuclides, unstable and toxic elements that are formed during the production of nuclear power and make up the radioactive component of nuclear waste. If the ISA binds to radionuclides, such as Uranium, then the radionuclides will become far more likely to flow out of the underground vaults to surface environments, where they could enter food chain. The findings are published in the ISME journal. Link:Link: http://www.nature.com
5 September 2014: Scientists have discovered mushroom-shaped alien-like creatures dredged from the depths of the sea strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. The two species were called Dendrogramma, after researchers found that they could not be categorised in any existing phylum, large families of living things. They are made up of an outer skin and inner stomach separated by a thick layer of jelly-like substance, and were caught at depths of 400-1,000 meters off the eastern area of the Bass Strait during a 1986 cruise. New mushroom-shaped animals from the deep sea have been discovered which could not be placed in any recognised group of animals. The team is now expected to look for other examples of the mushroom-like animals.The species have now been named Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides. The new discovery is published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. Link: http://www.plosone.org
6 September 2014: An almost-complete skeleton of a woolly mammoth, complete with tusks, is being offered up in a rare auction. The specimen, which is an incredible 3.5 metres high and 5.5 metres long, is expected to attract bidders from both museums and private collectors. As per Rupert van Der Werff, director of Summers Place Auctions it could fetch up to $409,000. The woolly mammoth on sale is thought to be a male who would have weighed over six tonnes when it roamed Earth 10,000 years ago. Japanese scientists are working on a project to clone the genetic material from Mammoth to the egg from an elephant which will act as the surrogate mother. Mammoth gets its name from the Russian ‘mammut’, meaning earth mole, because it was believed they lived underground and died on contact with light, remaining always half-buried. Link: http://www.summersplaceauctions.com
7 September 2014:Earth's tectonic plates are moving faster now than at any point in the last 2 billion years, according to a new study. Plate tectonics is driven by the formation and destruction of oceanic crust. This crust forms where plates move apart, allowing hot, light magma to rise from the mantle below and solidify. The planet's inner heat which powers plate tectonics is ebbing away as Earth ages, and this was expected to slow plate motion. A research last year by at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues measured elements concentrated by tectonic action in 3,200 rocks from around the world, and concluded that plate motion has been slowing for 1.2 billion years. The average rate of continental collisions, and the average speed with which the continents change latitude, has doubled over the last 2 billion years, the study found. Link: http://www.newscientist.com
8 September 2014: Claimed to be the first of its kind initiative in the country, the State Biodiversity Board of Kerala plans to prepare a Marine Biodiversity Map of the state’s coastline to create a databank of marine ecosystems and traditional knowledge of the fisher folk community. Rich marine flora and fauna, fish habitats and traditional knowledge of fishermen community of each coastal region are planned to be identified and recorded as part of the initiative. A 20 km coastal stretch between Valiyathura and nearby Puthukurichy has already been completed in the first phase. In the initial phase, around 50 ecologically sensitive natural coral reefs and habitat of various rare underwater marine species had been identified in Valiyathura-Puthukurichy stretch. As part of the project, details about all traditional fishing techniques, fishing gear and hooks will be collected. Link: http://keralabiodiversity.org
9 September 2014: A new study reveal that India tops the list of countries with the highest estimated number of adult TB cases associated with diabetes. India has the world's highest diabetes patients and is also referred to as the world's TB capital. New estimates produced reveal that the top 10 countries with the highest estimated number of adult TB cases associated with diabetes are India (302000), China (156000), South Africa (70 000), Indonesia (48000), Pakistan (43000), Bangladesh (36000), Philippines (29000), Russia (23000), Myanmar (21000) and Congo (19000). TB control is being undermined by the growing number diabetes patients, which is expected to reach an astounding 592 million worldwide by 2035. The study indicates that 15% of adult TB cases worldwide are already attributable to diabetes. The study is published in Lancet. Link: http://www.who.int
10 September 2014: Today marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, a technique that has transformed forensic science and resolved questions of identity and kinship. In 1984, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys stumbled on a method for distinguishing individuals based on their DNA which is now used worldwide by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals by their respective DNA profiles. Although 99.9% of human DNA sequences are the same in every person, enough of the DNA is different enough to make it possible to distinguish one individual from another. Jeffreys's DNA fingerprinting methods were commercialised in 1987 but before then, his laboratory was the only facility carrying out DNA fingerprinting in the world. The technique was first used in an immigration case involving a British boy whose family was from Ghana.Link: http://www2.le.ac.uk
11 September 2014: NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has finally reached the Red Planet's Mount Sharp, a Mount-Rainier-size mountain at the centre of the vast Gale Crater and the rover mission's long-term prime destination. After two years and nearly nine km of driving, Curiosity arrived at the base of Mount Sharp. Curiosity's trek up the mountain will begin with an examination of the mountain's lower slopes.The rover is starting this process at an entry point near an outcrop called Pahrump Hills rather than continuing on to the previously-planned, further entry point known as Murray Buttes. Curiosity currently is positioned at the base of the mountain along a pale, distinctive geological feature called the Murray Formation. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project continues to use Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes on Mars. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
12 September 2014: A group of scientists from Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) has confirmed the discovery of a new species of Myrtle in the Western Ghats. They have named the species Syzygium sahyadricum. It grows in the shola forests of Anamalai and Palani hills. This is not the first time that botanists chanced upon the species. British botanist J S Gamble, who did extensive research on the flora of Madras Presidency Region, did come across it, but mistook it for Syzygium spathulatum, a species endemic to Sri Lanka. The scientists there compared their specimen with Syzygium collections in other herbaria like Madras Herbarium, Rapinat Herbarium in Thiruchirapalli, Calicut University Herbarium and Botanical Survey of India Herbarium in Pune. There were similar specimens, but those were labelled as Syzygium Caryophyllatum or Syzygium Spathulatum. Link: http://biotaxa.org
13 September 2014: An international team of researchers released the sequenced genome of coffee, saying it could help improve the flavor of one of the world's most popular beverages. The team sequenced the genome of a type of coffee plant known as Coffea canephora, which makes up some 30 percent of the world's coffee production. The other leading kind is Coffee arabica, with a less acidic taste and lower caffeine than Coffee canephora. The genome could lead to more rigorous crops by allowing scientists to develop breeds with better quality and resistance to drought and disease. The plants can be vulnerable to leaf rust, a pest that is currently affecting about half the plants in Central America, in the worst outbreak since 1976. Researchers found that coffee also has a large collection of enzymes, known as N-methyltransferases, that are involved in making caffeine. Link: http://coffee-genome.org
14 September 2014: The world's first super massive dinosaur, Dreadnoughtus schrani even larger than seven Tyrannosaurus Rex put together, has been discovered. With a 37-foot neck and weighing around 65 tonnes, the 85 feet high Dreadnoughtus schrani has now been confirmed as the largest dinosaur to ever walk the earth. Dreadnoughtus means 'fearing nothing'. It is the biggest land animal for which lived approximately 77 million years ago in a temperate forest at the southern tip of South America. Because all previously discovered super-massive dinosaurs are known only from relatively fragmentary remains, Dreadnoughtus offers an unprecedented window into the anatomy and biomechanics of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The new dinosaur belongs to a group of large plant eaters which had a lifelong instinct to eat, known as titanosaurs. Link: http://coffee-genome.org
15 September 2014: The first tigress in India to be translocated to the wild after being hand-bred was found dead of an infection caused by its radio collar at the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. T4 had earlier being showcased as the biggest success story of a big-cat breeding experiment. Hand-reared after being rescued when two weeks old from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, T4 was released in Panna in 2009. T4 and her two siblings were orphaned when their mother was killed at Kanha. T4's translocation and breeding at Panna had created a new chapter in tiger conservation history. In 2009, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) had criticized a 'wildlife intelligence report' that claimed radio-collaring had caused the deaths of tigers. The report had said radio-collaring hampered natural movement, caused neck infections and was used by poachers to track tigers. Link: http://www.panthera.org
16 September 2014: Members of a tribal community of Arunachal Pradesh, who traditionally hunted the hornbill but have now turned protectors of the birds, will be coming to the city for a three-day hornbill festival organized by a city-based non-governmental organization (NGO) from today. The birds' distinctive casque-growths on the upper mandible of the bill-is one of the reasons why the hornbill was so prized and hunted by Nishi tribals. Arunachal Pradesh is home to five species of hornbills including the globally endangered Rufous-necked hornbill and the official state bird the Great hornbill. Apart from an interaction with the Nishis, the first day of the festival will feature an address by ornithologist Satish Pande on the global conservation status of hornbills. There will be presentations on the hornbills found in the Western Ghats and in Andaman and Nicobar.Link: http://arunachalpradesh.nic.in
17 September 2014: A healthy British volunteer is all set to become the first person to receive a potential new vaccine for the Ebola virus. Safety trials of the experimental drug at University of Oxford target the Zaire species of Ebola, one of the strains circulating in West Africa which has killed 53% of the people it has infected. The vaccine has been co-developed by the US National Institutes of Health and British drug company GSK and uses a single benign Ebola virus protein to generate an immune response. Oxford University's Jenner Institute is starting the clinical safety tests of the vaccine. The Jenner Institute team, led by Professor Adrian Hill, has been funded with a £2.8 million grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development. Pre-clinical research indicated that it provides promising protection in non-human primates. Link: http://www.ox.ac.uk
18 September 2014: America's power plants are among the leading global sources of carbon emission than the entire economies of Russia, India, Japan or any other nation put together besides China. In 2012, US power plants produced more than 6% of global warming emissions worldwide, more than any other industrialised nation except China and the US as a whole. The 50 dirtiest US power plants produced 30 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2012, the same as the entire economy of South Korea, the world's seventh-largest carbon emitter. The 100 dirtiest US power plants produced 19 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions, the same as Germany, the 6th largest carbon emitter. Three per cent of the total global CO2 emissions, which is more than the nearly 6% of the total global carbon dioxide emission by the whole of India. Link: http://environmentamericacenter.org
19 September 2014: Scientists have discovered the fossil of a giant water-living dinosaur. The 50-foot predator named Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, was already known to scientists from a long-ago fossil discovery, but most of those bones were destroyed in Germany during World War II. German paleontologist Ernst Stromer first discovered Spinosaurus bones in Egypt in 1912. The bones went back to Europe, but in 1944, most were destroyed in the bombing of Munich in World War II. Spinosaurus was lost. Now, 70 years later, a new skeleton found in Morocco reveals that Spinosaurus had a long neck, strong clawed forearms, powerful jaws and the dense bones of a penguin. It propelled itself in water with flat feet that were probably webbed. Spinosaurus, which grew some 9 feet longer than Tyrannosaurus rex. The study is published in the journal Science. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org
20 September 2014: Scientists have for the first time properly observed a theoretical cousin of the Higgs boson, one that inspired the decades-long hunt for the elusive particle. The Higgs field is credited with giving other particles mass by slowing their movement through the vacuum of space. The particle, which was first proposed in the 1960s, finally appeared at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, in 2012. Near -273 degrees Celsius, vibrations are set up in the superconducting material that slow down pairs of photons travelling through, making light act as though it has mass. This effect is closely linked to the idea of the Higgs. Those vibrations are the mathematical equivalent of Higgs particles, according to Ryo Shimano at the University of Tokyo, who made the new discovery. The idea was borrowed from the behaviour of photons in superconductors. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org
21 September 2014: The Earth’s protective ozone layer is well on track to recovery in the next few decades thanks to concerted international action against ozone depleting substances.
According to the assessment, carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), without the Montreal Protocol and associated agreements atmospheric levels of ozone depleting substances could have increased tenfold by 2050. There have in fact been decreases in atmospheric abundance of gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, which are used in refrigerators, spray cans, insulation foam and fire suppression. The full report will be issued in early 2015. The Montreal Protocol, which was adopted with the aim of reducing ozone depleting substances, has been successful in reducing these emissions by more than 90 per cent. Link: http://ozone.unep.org
22 September 2014: NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has successfully entered Mars' orbit. About four billion years ago, scientists believe that a young Mars was blanketed with a thick layer of air that kept it warmer than it is today. The air subsequently thinned, leaving the surface dry and cold. Maven's eight instruments will take stock of Mars upper atmosphere and catalog the solar wind particles bombarding the planet. That will allow the scientists to determine not only the rate at which the atmosphere is disappearing but also how it is disappearing. By studying ions or small electrically charged particles, in and above the red planet's tenuous atmosphere, the solar wind ion analyzer will help answer why Mars has gradually lost much of its atmosphere. MAVEN was launched on November 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
23 September 2014: Japanese construction firm Obayashi is planning to construct an elevator by 2050, which can reach up to 96,000km into space. The company said that the project is feasible with advancements in the field of carbon nanotechnology. If successful, the proposed elevator is expected to transform space travel, and use robotic cars equipped with magnetic linear motors to ferry cargo and humans to a new space station. Japanese universities have been working to tackle problems associated with the elevator. A team at Kanagawa University has been working on ascend and brake concept of robotic cars at varying altitudes. The elevator may also enable launching small rockets from stations, eliminating the need for huge amounts of fuel, as well as getting powe from the sun. Link: http://www.obayashi.co.jp
24 September 2014: Scripting space history, India on Wednesday successfully placed its Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) in orbit around the red planet in its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three nations. The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft kept its tryst with the red planet after the hibernating main 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) and eight thrusters on board were ignited for 24-minutes from 7.17am that slowed its benumbing speed to be smoothly captured into the Martian orbit. The Rs 450 crore Mangalyaan is the cheapest inter-planetary mission that, and a tenth of Nasa's Mars mission Maven. The first Chinese Mars mission, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011. In 1998, the Japanese mission was lost. However, Mangalyaan has its share of critics, as an extravagant indulgence for a country where one-third of the population have no access to electricity.Link: http://www.isro.org
25 September 2014: The Kerala government has announced post-doctoral fellowships in space technology to mark the success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission. The 'Mangalyaan fellowships' would be instituted through the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) to promote novel applications of space technology in the development domain. Initially, 10 fellowships would be offered in four sectors, agriculture, education, skill development and health to encourage young researchers to come up with applications of space technology in these areas. The grant, which will be of up to Rs 30,000, would be provided to selected candidates for two years. The proposal was approved by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is also president of KSCSTE, soon after India created space history yesterday by successfully placing Mangalyaan in orbit around the Mars. Link: http://www.kscste.kerala.gov.in
26 September 2014: World Land Trust is an international conservation charity, has decided to fund the purchase of land as part of the path breaking project to create the Chilkiya-Kota elephant corridor in Uttarakhand. The corridor will permanently connect Corbett Tiger Reserve and Ramnagar forest division which is home to the highest density of tigers in the world. In 2005, World Land Trust published a book called ‘Right of Passage’ which comprehensively mapped out 88 elephant corridors throughout India which they deemed to be critical for the survival of the Asian Elephant in India. These Elephant Corridors, if protected, will safeguard a network of forest corridors that will enable Indian Elephants and other animals, such as tigers, to move safely between protected areas, avoiding human-wildlife conflict. World Land Trust is an international charity which aims to protect all biological life.
Link: http://www.kscste.kerala.gov.in
27 September 2014: A landscape-based conservation programme to extend the conservation of Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) outside the Eravikulam National Park is being formulated in the State for the long-term survival of the species. The Forest Department has sought suggestions from conservationists for drawing up a five-year plan for the species. The conservation programme that is proposed intend to identify, assess, and map suitable Nilgiri tahr habitats, both in protected areas and non-protected areas, which require attention. There are many unexplored tahr habitats in the State and many of the calving areas are located outside the protected areas even in Eravikulam. Though Nilgiri tahr historically has a much wider distribution in the southern Western Ghats, the present geographical range does not exceed 400 km north-south from the Nilgiri Hills to the Kanyakumari Hills. Link: http://nilgiritahrinfo.info
28 September 2014: Sri Lanka and much of the Indian Ocean region are vulnerable to as large or even larger tsunamis than the 2004 magnitude 9.2 Sumatra earthquake, a new study has warned.
The study on the frequency of past giant earthquakes in the Indian Ocean region shows that Sri Lanka, and much of the Indian Ocean, is affected by large tsunamis at highly variable intervals, from a few hundred to more than one thousand years.The findings suggest that the accumulation of stress in the region could generate even larger tsunamis than the one that resulted from the 2004 magnitude-9.2 Sumatra earthquake. Researchers from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka collected and analysed 22 sediment cores from Karagan Lagoon, to expand the historical record of giant earthquakes along the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone. Link: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu
29 September 2014: The CERN laboratory is celebrating its 60th anniversary today with a host of symposia, meetings, plays, films, concerts and other events being held at the lab and at member states across Europe. CERN will mark its official birthday on 29 September 1954, which was the date when the CERN convention was ratified by its first 12 member states and the European Organization for Nuclear Research was officially established. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which helped to confirm existence of the Higgs boson with extraordinary precision, François Englert and Peter Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics. In February 2013, LHC was turned off for a major maintenance and upgrade programme following a successful three-year run operating at 7 TeV. By 2015 the upgraded LHC should have enhanced capabilities that will allow it to approach a new high-energy frontier.
Link: http://cern60.web.cern.ch/en
30 September 2014: As per London Zoological Society, the global loss of species is even worse than previously thought. The report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results. Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%. Populations of freshwater species have suffered an even worse fall of 76%. It catalogues areas of severe impact, in Ghana, the lion population in one reserve is down 90% in 40 years. Globally, habitat loss and hunting have reduced tigers from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,000. The index tracking more than 10,000 vertebrate species populations from 1970 to 2010, reveals a continued decline in these populations. The report compiled in conjunction with WWF, also says that humans are cutting down trees more quickly than they can re-grow. Link: http://cern60.web.cern.ch/en
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