1 March 2015: R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who is facing sexual
harassment charges, resigned from the prestigious Prime Minister’s Council on
Climate Change today. Pachauri, who is 71 now, stepped down from his post as
chairman of IPCC following
accusations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a 29-year-old female
employee from his organization, the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in
New Delhi. After sexual harassment charges were levelled against the
environmentalist last week, Pachauri first went on a leave from TERI and then
quit. Later, Pachauri wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informing him
of his decision to resign. Pachauri’s resignation
from the IPCC comes at a crucial time as the panel tries for a
Climate Change Summit in Paris in December 2015. Link: http://www.ipcc.ch
2 March 2015: Veteran ornithologist and conservationist Lavkumar Khachar passed away in Rajkot. He was 84. Khachar was closely associated with Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS) for a long time in a variety of ways and capacities. He was a life member of BNHS. He was awarded the prestigious Salim Ali-Loke Wan Tho Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Ornithology. This Award was in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of conservation of birds and their habitats. He had also closely worked with Salim Ali. He was the founder of Hingolgarh Nature Conservation Education Programme in the remote regions of Gujarat. He has written many seminal research papers on the birdlife of India. He worked closely with several other conservation organizations including WWF-India and Centre for Environment Education. Link: http://himalayanhikes.com
3 March 2015: NASA has confirmed the presence of methane on Mars after careful analysis of the data collected by the Curiosity rover over a period of 605 Martian days. This finding lends additional credence to the notion that life may have existed on Mars at some point. It had been suspected for over a decade that methane may exist on Mars, and Curiosity began finding evidence of methane as it commenced its exploration. Methane’s presence is life-indicative as Methaneis usually created by living organisms. Current estimates for the longevity of methane existing on Red Planet have it lasting for about 300 years in the atmosphere once created. NASA’s efforts will be supplemented by a partnership mission called the Trace Gas Orbiter with European and Russian Space Agencies. This can detect methane on a much larger scale than accomplished so far. Link: http://www.esa.int
4 March 2015: The green forest cover that was existing in the high altitude Northern Hemisphere in the 1750s is no more seen today and the impact is visible in Indian monsoon getting affected. As per Indian Institute of Sciences, in the 1750s, only about 7% of the global land area was under agriculture but it has gone up to one-third of global forest was cut for living and agriculture now. The researchers used a climate model to investigate the effects of large-scale deforestation activities. Since the deforestation reduced rains in the monsoon regions of the northern hemisphere, India was affected the most. The global deforestation resulted in 18% reduction in its summer monsoon rains. But the deforestation also led to an increase in rains over the southern hemisphere. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Link: http://www.pnas.org
5 March 2015:NASA's spacecraft
Dawn is approaching the protoplanet Ceres. Using its ion propulsion system,
Dawn will enter orbit around Ceres, in the coming three days.
As scientists receive better views of Ceres over the next 16 months, they hope
to gain a deeper understanding of its origin and evolution. Ceres is the
largest of the asteroids in the asteroid belt which lies between Mars and
Jupiter. It is about 950 kms wide and is thought to be composed of rocks and
ice. Scientists believe that it was born about 4.57 billion years ago when the
Solar System was itself in the process of forming. Dawn visited the giant
asteroid Vesta from 2011 to 2012, delivering more than 30,000 images and measurements, and providing insights about its
composition and geological history. Vesta has an average diameter of 525
kilometers. Vesta and Ceres are the two most massive bodies in the asteroid
belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. Link: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov
6 March 2015: India’s first ever Web Observatory was launched recently at International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bangalore. Bangalore was the 6th one in that series where apart from Web Science Trust, University of Southampton and some other leading global web science laboratories came forward to make things happen. It has been launched by Prof. S. Sadagopan (Director, IIT-B) & Prof. Dame Wendy Hall (Executive Director of Web Science Institute, University of Southampton), jointly organized by IIIT and British High Commission in India. A web observatory is a system that collects necessary data and link from the web to provide a distributed analytical platform. IIIT-B will be such a first node in India to collect and distribute related data for economic advancement. India’s First Web Observatory will also open up a new careers. Link: http://www.iiitb.ac.in
7 March, 2015: Ancient Mars was likely to have possessed a primitive ocean that held more water than the Earth's Arctic Ocean, according to NASA. Perhaps about 4.3 billion years ago, Mars would have had enough water to cover the entire surface in a liquid layer about 450 feet deep. In all, the red planet's early ocean would have contained 20 million cubic kilometres of water, but since then, 87 percent of that water has been lost to space. By comparing the ratio of ‘heavy water’ containing deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, with regular water, scientists believed that Mars must have lost a volume of water 6.5 times larger than the amount trapped in the present polar caps. An early ocean on Mars containing the lost water would have covered 19 percent of the planet's surface, in the Northern Plains. The findings are published in the journal Science. Link:http://www.sciencemag.org
8 March 2015: The world's first human head transplant could take place within the next two years, according to an Italian surgeon who claims to have developed a technique for the radical surgery. Sergio Canavero, from the Turin Advanced Neuro-modulation Group in Italy, who first proposed the idea in 2013, has published a summary of the technique he believes will allow doctors to transplant a head onto a new body. The technique involves cooling the recipient's head and the donor body to extend the time their cells can survive without oxygen. The major blood vessels will be linked using tiny tubes, before the spinal cords are cut. The project will be announcedat the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in Maryland, in June. The technique is published in Surgical Neurology International.Link:http://www.surgicalneurologyint.com
9 March, 2015: When the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), in 1946, there was no mention of the women who worked on programming the computer. Now, the story of the ‘ENIAC Six’ is being told in a new documentary, ‘The Computers’. The 20-minute film includes details of the programming work performed by Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.As a Harvard undergraduate studying computer science in 1986, the film’s co-producer and co-writer, Kathy Kleiman, discovered the names of the six women. Kleiman was told that the women were models, but he learned that the women were mathematicians who programmed ENIAC to perform computations for the U.S. Army during World War II. Link:http://eniacprogrammers.org
10 March, 2015:NASA scientists celebrated a big achievement today morning when MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) successfully completed 1000 orbits around the red planet, where it has been circling from past few months to study upper atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN started its venture on November 18, 2013 and successfully entered the Martian orbit on September 5, 2014. Since then it has been orbiting Mars’s upper atmosphere with 6,500 kilometers being the farthest point while 130 kilometers being the closest point to the Martian surface. The prime objective of MAVEN is to observe the Mars atmosphere and give an insight into how the transition from moist and warm planet to dry and cold planet took place on Mars. Scientists believe that combined data with Mangalyaan may spew some clues on the future and life of the Earth.Link:http://www.nasa.gov
11 March, 2015: Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, has successfully completed the second leg of its historic attempt to fly around the world. The journey took just over 15 hours. The distance covered, 1,468km set a new world record for a flight in a piloted solar-powered plane. In 1986, the Voyager aircraft became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling. The Solar Impulse project has already set plenty of other world records for solar-powered flight, including making a high-profile transit of the US in 2013. The plane was piloted by Bertrand Piccard, Project Manager of Solar Impulse. Bertrand Piccard is well known for his ballooning exploits. The Piccard name has become synonymous with pushing boundaries. Bertrand's father, Jacques Piccard, was the first to reach the deepest place in the ocean. And his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first person to take a balloon into the stratosphere, in 1931. Link:http://www.solarimpulse.com
12 March, 2015: As per the European Space Agency, a long-awaited communications window between Earth and robot lab Philae, zipping through space perched on a comet, opened on today without immediate signs of life. The systems for comet orbiter Rosetta to talk to the fridge-sized probe were switched on at 0100 GMT, but the first optimum slot for signal transmission came and went without word. The communications line will remain open until March 2. Philae landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014 after a 10-year trek travelling 6.5 billion kilometres, piggybacking on its mother ship, Rosetta. But, Philae settled at an angle in the shadow of a cliff. Philae had sent home reams of precious data before going into standby mode.The comet is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun, at a distance of 186 million kilometres, on August 13.Link:http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
13 March 2015: Mangrove vegetation in over 200 acres in Kollam and Thrissur districts will be notified as Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL) soon. It would be the first time in the State that mangroves would be notified as EFL. While being notified under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act, compensation will be provided to their owners. Mangrove stretches on Munro Island, Vincent and adjacent islands in the Neendakara region, Aayiramthengu, and patches in Aalumpadi-Pottasseri in Kollam, and areas near Poochapalli Palam, Chettuva and adjoining areas, and Gurushree in Thrissur have been identified as the priority areas for notification. Until now, Mangroves in the Kadalundi community reserve were the only legally protected mangrove area in Kerala. Kollam district was home to many rare mangroves such as Lumnitzera racemosa. Ceriops tagal was considered extinct on the Kerala coast, but was rediscovered on Vincent Island recently.Link:http://www.forest.kerala.gov.in
14 March 2015: India's scientific expeditions in the polar region will get a boost with the ministry of earth sciences deciding to procure a Polar Research Vessel (PRV) from Spain that can navigate through 18,000 nautical miles of frozen waters and break ice as thick as 1.5 metres. At present, India has a fleet of six such vessels. The new PRV will be commissioned by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa. The PRV will facilitate research expeditions in the polar region where the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technolog, have carried out studies. Now, India has ocean research vessel Sagar Nidhi that can break ice up to 40cm thick and navigate a maximum distance of 10,000 nautical miles. The new vessel is expected to sustain two research stations, Maitri and Bharti in Antarctica and the one in Norway, called Himadri. Link:http://www.moes.gov.in
15 March 2015: The recent discovery of three new fish species has re-emphasized the importance of the Manimala river flowing through Central Kerala as a biodiversity hotspot of freshwater fishes.The three new species, Puntius nelsoni, Systomus chryseus, and Systomus rufus , have been reported from three locations in Pathanamthitta district by Mathews Plamoottil, Assistant Professor in Zoology, Government College, Chavara. All the three belong to the Cyprinid family of freshwater fishes. While Puntius nelsoni has been discovered from Kallumkal, near the point where the Manimala river merges with the Pampa, Systomus chryseus has been reported from the riverbed of Keezhvaipur, a place near Mallappally, and Systomus rufus from Venpala, near Thiruvalla. The new discovery is published in the International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies. Link: http://www.faunajournal.com
17 March 2015: The NASA probe Dawn began orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres today on a voyage of discovery into the solar system's main asteroid belt, where it will collect a trove of data and photos. The Dawn probe, the first to orbit a dwarf planet, will stay over the mysterious body for 16 months to study its structure and gather clues to help mankind better understand how Earth and the other planets were created. It took Dawn seven-and-a-half years and 3.1 billion miles to reach Ceres's orbit, after leaving Earth and stopping off at the Vesta asteroid for its previous exploration mission. About an hour after reaching Ceres, Dawn sent a signal to mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Over the next several months Dawn will spiral down to the surface of Ceres. By November, the scientists hope to build a topographic map of Ceres. Link:http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov
22 March 2015: Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil has been chosen for the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for the year 2015. Prof. Gadgil, who was Chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), will share the $200,000 cash prize with noted American marine ecologist Dr. Jane Lubchenco. Both winners will receive the prize and a gold medallion at a private ceremony in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on April 24. Prof. Gadgil’s landmark report on the preservation of the unique ecosystem of the Western Ghats was especially noted as the reason behind his award. Also noted were Dr. Gadgil’s contributions behind the crafting of India’s National Biodiversity Act, 2002. The prize, instituted in 1973, is awarded by the Tyler Prize Committee with the administrative support of the University of Southern California. Link:http://tylerprize.usc.edu
23 March 2015:Today marked the 200th anniversary of the ‘map that changed the world’created by William Smith (1769-1839), who is often called ‘the father of English geology’. He created the world's first geological map of a country. His masterpiece, a Herculean task, showed the different rock layers of England, Wales and part of Scotland. Smith made the map before the advent of trains, so he spent 14 years traveling the United Kingdom on foot and horseback so that he could note each area's geologic structures. When the map finally came out in 1815, his publisher, John Cary, made engraved copper plates that could print the map, and had colorists hand paint each sheet.Earlier maps identified rocks by type, but those maps were more like ‘mineralogical maps’, not geological maps. The rediscovered map is on view for the public at the Geological Society in London. Link:https://www.geolsoc.org.uk
6 March 2015: India’s first ever Web Observatory was launched recently at International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bangalore. Bangalore was the 6th one in that series where apart from Web Science Trust, University of Southampton and some other leading global web science laboratories came forward to make things happen. It has been launched by Prof. S. Sadagopan (Director, IIT-B) & Prof. Dame Wendy Hall (Executive Director of Web Science Institute, University of Southampton), jointly organized by IIIT and British High Commission in India. A web observatory is a system that collects necessary data and link from the web to provide a distributed analytical platform. IIIT-B will be such a first node in India to collect and distribute related data for economic advancement. India’s First Web Observatory will also open up a new careers. Link: http://www.iiitb.ac.in
7 March, 2015: Ancient Mars was likely to have possessed a primitive ocean that held more water than the Earth's Arctic Ocean, according to NASA. Perhaps about 4.3 billion years ago, Mars would have had enough water to cover the entire surface in a liquid layer about 450 feet deep. In all, the red planet's early ocean would have contained 20 million cubic kilometres of water, but since then, 87 percent of that water has been lost to space. By comparing the ratio of ‘heavy water’ containing deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, with regular water, scientists believed that Mars must have lost a volume of water 6.5 times larger than the amount trapped in the present polar caps. An early ocean on Mars containing the lost water would have covered 19 percent of the planet's surface, in the Northern Plains. The findings are published in the journal Science. Link:http://www.sciencemag.org
8 March 2015: The world's first human head transplant could take place within the next two years, according to an Italian surgeon who claims to have developed a technique for the radical surgery. Sergio Canavero, from the Turin Advanced Neuro-modulation Group in Italy, who first proposed the idea in 2013, has published a summary of the technique he believes will allow doctors to transplant a head onto a new body. The technique involves cooling the recipient's head and the donor body to extend the time their cells can survive without oxygen. The major blood vessels will be linked using tiny tubes, before the spinal cords are cut. The project will be announcedat the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in Maryland, in June. The technique is published in Surgical Neurology International.Link:http://www.surgicalneurologyint.com
9 March, 2015: When the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), in 1946, there was no mention of the women who worked on programming the computer. Now, the story of the ‘ENIAC Six’ is being told in a new documentary, ‘The Computers’. The 20-minute film includes details of the programming work performed by Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.As a Harvard undergraduate studying computer science in 1986, the film’s co-producer and co-writer, Kathy Kleiman, discovered the names of the six women. Kleiman was told that the women were models, but he learned that the women were mathematicians who programmed ENIAC to perform computations for the U.S. Army during World War II. Link:http://eniacprogrammers.org
10 March, 2015:NASA scientists celebrated a big achievement today morning when MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) successfully completed 1000 orbits around the red planet, where it has been circling from past few months to study upper atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN started its venture on November 18, 2013 and successfully entered the Martian orbit on September 5, 2014. Since then it has been orbiting Mars’s upper atmosphere with 6,500 kilometers being the farthest point while 130 kilometers being the closest point to the Martian surface. The prime objective of MAVEN is to observe the Mars atmosphere and give an insight into how the transition from moist and warm planet to dry and cold planet took place on Mars. Scientists believe that combined data with Mangalyaan may spew some clues on the future and life of the Earth.Link:http://www.nasa.gov
11 March, 2015: Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, has successfully completed the second leg of its historic attempt to fly around the world. The journey took just over 15 hours. The distance covered, 1,468km set a new world record for a flight in a piloted solar-powered plane. In 1986, the Voyager aircraft became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling. The Solar Impulse project has already set plenty of other world records for solar-powered flight, including making a high-profile transit of the US in 2013. The plane was piloted by Bertrand Piccard, Project Manager of Solar Impulse. Bertrand Piccard is well known for his ballooning exploits. The Piccard name has become synonymous with pushing boundaries. Bertrand's father, Jacques Piccard, was the first to reach the deepest place in the ocean. And his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first person to take a balloon into the stratosphere, in 1931. Link:http://www.solarimpulse.com
12 March, 2015: As per the European Space Agency, a long-awaited communications window between Earth and robot lab Philae, zipping through space perched on a comet, opened on today without immediate signs of life. The systems for comet orbiter Rosetta to talk to the fridge-sized probe were switched on at 0100 GMT, but the first optimum slot for signal transmission came and went without word. The communications line will remain open until March 2. Philae landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014 after a 10-year trek travelling 6.5 billion kilometres, piggybacking on its mother ship, Rosetta. But, Philae settled at an angle in the shadow of a cliff. Philae had sent home reams of precious data before going into standby mode.The comet is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun, at a distance of 186 million kilometres, on August 13.Link:http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
13 March 2015: Mangrove vegetation in over 200 acres in Kollam and Thrissur districts will be notified as Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL) soon. It would be the first time in the State that mangroves would be notified as EFL. While being notified under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act, compensation will be provided to their owners. Mangrove stretches on Munro Island, Vincent and adjacent islands in the Neendakara region, Aayiramthengu, and patches in Aalumpadi-Pottasseri in Kollam, and areas near Poochapalli Palam, Chettuva and adjoining areas, and Gurushree in Thrissur have been identified as the priority areas for notification. Until now, Mangroves in the Kadalundi community reserve were the only legally protected mangrove area in Kerala. Kollam district was home to many rare mangroves such as Lumnitzera racemosa. Ceriops tagal was considered extinct on the Kerala coast, but was rediscovered on Vincent Island recently.Link:http://www.forest.kerala.gov.in
14 March 2015: India's scientific expeditions in the polar region will get a boost with the ministry of earth sciences deciding to procure a Polar Research Vessel (PRV) from Spain that can navigate through 18,000 nautical miles of frozen waters and break ice as thick as 1.5 metres. At present, India has a fleet of six such vessels. The new PRV will be commissioned by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa. The PRV will facilitate research expeditions in the polar region where the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technolog, have carried out studies. Now, India has ocean research vessel Sagar Nidhi that can break ice up to 40cm thick and navigate a maximum distance of 10,000 nautical miles. The new vessel is expected to sustain two research stations, Maitri and Bharti in Antarctica and the one in Norway, called Himadri. Link:http://www.moes.gov.in
15 March 2015: The recent discovery of three new fish species has re-emphasized the importance of the Manimala river flowing through Central Kerala as a biodiversity hotspot of freshwater fishes.The three new species, Puntius nelsoni, Systomus chryseus, and Systomus rufus , have been reported from three locations in Pathanamthitta district by Mathews Plamoottil, Assistant Professor in Zoology, Government College, Chavara. All the three belong to the Cyprinid family of freshwater fishes. While Puntius nelsoni has been discovered from Kallumkal, near the point where the Manimala river merges with the Pampa, Systomus chryseus has been reported from the riverbed of Keezhvaipur, a place near Mallappally, and Systomus rufus from Venpala, near Thiruvalla. The new discovery is published in the International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies. Link: http://www.faunajournal.com
16
March 2015: All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG), an NGO based
in Pune has won the 2015 Risk Award and a grant of 100,000 at the UN's 3rd
World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction here on today, competing from among
145 applicants from 60 countries. AIILSG has been working in a community of
25,000 people in ten slums of Pune. The UN's six-day world conference on
disaster risk reduction (DRR) was meeting to sign the new framework for 190
UN member countries that will replace the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). The
HFA was signed in 2005 after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, laying
guidelines for member countries to legislate DRR laws to mitigate disaster
losses - both economic and human lives. The UNISDR is also pushing for more women
participation in DRR activities all across the globe.Link: http://www.unisdr.org
17 March 2015: The NASA probe Dawn began orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres today on a voyage of discovery into the solar system's main asteroid belt, where it will collect a trove of data and photos. The Dawn probe, the first to orbit a dwarf planet, will stay over the mysterious body for 16 months to study its structure and gather clues to help mankind better understand how Earth and the other planets were created. It took Dawn seven-and-a-half years and 3.1 billion miles to reach Ceres's orbit, after leaving Earth and stopping off at the Vesta asteroid for its previous exploration mission. About an hour after reaching Ceres, Dawn sent a signal to mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Over the next several months Dawn will spiral down to the surface of Ceres. By November, the scientists hope to build a topographic map of Ceres. Link:http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov
18
March 2015: Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk.
Alexei Leonov became the first human to walk in space, when the cosmonaut stepped
out of his spacecraft 50 years ago, on March 18, 1965. The 30-year-old native
of Siberia became the first ‘human satellite’ to orbit our planet. While
hovering outside his spacecraft, he performed a series of somersaults, flips
and other aerobatics in front of a television camera that broadcast his
activities back to Earth. He spent around 20 minutes outside the vehicle during
this first-ever Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA). US had to spy on this and learning to perform space-walk was one of the techniques that had to be developed in order for
American astronauts to head to the Moon during the Apollo program. Ed White
became the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission on June
3, 1965. Link: http://scifiart.narod.ru
20 March 2015: The world's first hydrogen-powered tramcar has rolled off the assembly line in China's eastern Shandong Province. The new tram is the only hydrogen powered vehicle in the field and makes China the only country to have mastered the technology. Hydrogen fuel cells are a new clean energy source, widely used in the automobile industry, but lagging behind in the field of rail transit. It took two years for Sifang to solve key technological problems, with the help of research institutions.The tram can be refilled with hydrogen in three minutes and can then run for 100km at speeds as high as 70 kmph. The average distance of tramcar lines in China is about 15km, which means one refill for our tram is enough for three round trips. The overall running costs will also be greatly reduced. Each tram has over 60 seats and can carry 380 passengers. Link: http://www.railway-technology.com
19 March 2015:
Nobel prize winner in 2009 for his contributions in the field of chemistry, Sir
Venkataraman Ramakrishnan has been elected as the new President of the Royal
Society of London founded for promoting Physico-Mathematical Experimental
Learning. Sir Ramakrishnan, who has been acting as the deputy director of the
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, will take the post from 1 December this
year replacing Sir Paul Nurse who headed the Socirty since 2010. Ramakrishnan,
after studying B.Sc. in physics from Baroda University, India, went to Ohio
University in the USA for his Ph.D. He studied at the
University of California and researched at Yale
University. Ramakrishnan was elected as the member of the Royal Society back in
2003. The Royal Society had many great persons as its President since its formation on 28 November 1660.Link:https://royalsociety.org
20 March 2015: The world's first hydrogen-powered tramcar has rolled off the assembly line in China's eastern Shandong Province. The new tram is the only hydrogen powered vehicle in the field and makes China the only country to have mastered the technology. Hydrogen fuel cells are a new clean energy source, widely used in the automobile industry, but lagging behind in the field of rail transit. It took two years for Sifang to solve key technological problems, with the help of research institutions.The tram can be refilled with hydrogen in three minutes and can then run for 100km at speeds as high as 70 kmph. The average distance of tramcar lines in China is about 15km, which means one refill for our tram is enough for three round trips. The overall running costs will also be greatly reduced. Each tram has over 60 seats and can carry 380 passengers. Link: http://www.railway-technology.com
21 March 2015:
Stockholm Water Prize, known as the ‘Nobel Prize for water’ has been given to
an Indian campaigner Rajendra Singh who is often dubbed the ‘Water Man of
India’. The Stockholm International Water Institute, which presented the prize,
said his lessons were essential as climate change alters weather patterns round
the world. The methods are based on an ancient Indian technique. He brought water
to 1,000 villages. The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize said that his
methods have also prevented floods, restored soil and rivers, and brought back
wildlife. The judges say his technique is cheap, simple, and that his ideas
should be followed worldwide. Rajendra Singh uses a modern version of the
ancient Indian technique of rainwater harvesting. It involves building
low-level banks of earth to hold back the flow of water in the wet season. Link:http://www.siwi.org
22 March 2015: Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil has been chosen for the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for the year 2015. Prof. Gadgil, who was Chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), will share the $200,000 cash prize with noted American marine ecologist Dr. Jane Lubchenco. Both winners will receive the prize and a gold medallion at a private ceremony in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on April 24. Prof. Gadgil’s landmark report on the preservation of the unique ecosystem of the Western Ghats was especially noted as the reason behind his award. Also noted were Dr. Gadgil’s contributions behind the crafting of India’s National Biodiversity Act, 2002. The prize, instituted in 1973, is awarded by the Tyler Prize Committee with the administrative support of the University of Southern California. Link:http://tylerprize.usc.edu
23 March 2015:Today marked the 200th anniversary of the ‘map that changed the world’created by William Smith (1769-1839), who is often called ‘the father of English geology’. He created the world's first geological map of a country. His masterpiece, a Herculean task, showed the different rock layers of England, Wales and part of Scotland. Smith made the map before the advent of trains, so he spent 14 years traveling the United Kingdom on foot and horseback so that he could note each area's geologic structures. When the map finally came out in 1815, his publisher, John Cary, made engraved copper plates that could print the map, and had colorists hand paint each sheet.Earlier maps identified rocks by type, but those maps were more like ‘mineralogical maps’, not geological maps. The rediscovered map is on view for the public at the Geological Society in London. Link:https://www.geolsoc.org.uk
24 March 2015: India's maiden effort exploring the Red Planet has been extended
for another half year after the Mars Orbiter Mission successfully completed a
round, set to pursue further exploration of the planet and the Martian
atmosphere. After arriving on the Red Planet in September 2014 and successfully
completing its initial mission, the orbiter will be extending its stay on Mars
for further exploration. Mars Orbiter, weighing 1,340 kilograms, or a little
over one ton, has a surplus of fuel, allowing it to extend its time on Mars
beyond what was initially intended. Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on
November 5, 2013 and made it to the Red Planet after nine months of
inter-planetary space travel. The Mars Orbiter Mission gave India the
distinction of being the first country in Asia to enter the Martian sphere of
influence. China attempted to get to
Mars in 2011 but failed. Link:http://www.isro.gov.in
25 March 2015: After two months of successful trials, India's Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe), indigenously built by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), was operationalised for research today in North Antarctica. PROVe had been undergoing trial in Antarctica since its deployment by the NIOT in ‘Priyadarshini Lake’ on the Schirmacher Oasis, which is a source of water for ‘Maitri’, India's second base in the icy continent.Union Minister for Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan made the symbolic launch of the PROVe from the NIOT headquarters in Chennai. PROVe could aggressively enhance the plans towards capability building and research in ocean sciences. Monsoon prediction will also become easier in the future. PROVe will measure parameters like ocean currents, temperature and salinity in the Arctic. PROVe is now moved to North Antarctic ocean can be remotely operated from a ship.Link:http://pib.nic.in
26 March 2015: Just months after receiving the green light from the Indian government, the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) has been dealt a blow after a court writ was filed against the facility's new site by environmentalists. The writ, filed in a state court and the National Green Tribunal, alleges that the site is in a seismic and biologically diverse area, and that tunnelling could affect nearby aquifers. Originally scheduled to be complete in 2012, the INO finally received the go-ahead in January this year when it received Rs 15bn ($236m) towards construction inside a mountain near Pottipuram, in Tamil Nadu. Pottipuram was selected in 2010, as the original choice, Singara village in Tamil Nadu, was near an elephant corridor. The petition also claims that the tunnelling zone for the observatory is a Charnockite-zone, one that contains Feldspar and Quartz. Link:http://www.imsc.res.in
27 March 2015: Jupiter may have swept through the early solar system like a wrecking ball, destroying any newly-formed super-Earths by driving them into the Sun, a new study has found. The findings suggest that a second generation of inner planets, including Earth and Mars, would then have formed from the depleted material that was left behind. The study also explains why the terrestrial planets in our solar system have such relatively low masses. Their model incorporates `the Grand Tack scenario', proposed in 2011. In that scenario, Jupiter first migrated inward toward the Sun until the formation of Saturn caused it to reverse course and migrate outward to its current position. As Jupiter moved inward, however, gravitational perturbations from the giant planet would have swept the inner planets and asteroids into close-knit orbits. Link:https://solarsystem.nasa.gov
28 March 2015: Two astronauts were ready for a 12-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS) today, in a longest human expedition to space so far and testing the limits of human research, space exploration and the human spirit. Most expeditions to the space station last four to six months. NASA's Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will be part of research to help the US space agency and the international partners reduce risks and better understand how to ensure that astronauts will thrive on longer missions. By doubling the length of this mission, researchers hope to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. Human psychology is also an important area of study, as the effects of living in isolated and small spaces will be important to understand ahead of future human missions to Mars. Link:http://www.nasa.gov
29 March 2015: China plans to build a huge solar power station 36,000km above the ground in an attempt to battle smog, cut greenhouse gases and solve energy crisis, much on the lines of an idea first floated in 1941 by fiction writer Isaac Asimov. In 1941, Isaac Asimov had published a short story 'Reason', in which a space station transmits energy collected from the sun using microwave beams. The power station would be a super spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit equipped with huge solar panels. The electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth.The electricity generated from the ground-based solar plants fluctuates with night and weather, but a space generator collects energy 99% of the time. Space-based solar panels can generate ten times as much electricity as ground-based panels.Link: http://www.power-technology.com
30 March 2015: The genome of Pygmy Hog (Porcula salvania) has been sequenced. It is a species of the wild pigs and one of the rarest extent Suids which originally inhabited the grasslands of the foothill plain south of the Himalayas. So far, very little was known about the taxonomy and the biology of this enigmatic species. Previous mitochondrial DNA analyses indicated it to be a basal species of the genus Sus (family to which pigs belong), which we now confirm based on the genome sequences. Efforts for conserving the pygmy hog started in 1995 with the creation of a breeding program in Basistha in Assam and since its establishment the Pygmy Hog Conservation Program (PHCP) has released already more than 80 pygmy hog in the grassland of Assam. Sequencing was done at SciGenom Laboratories in Chennai, collaborating with PHCP in India and Animal Breeding and Genomic Centre of Wageningen.Link:http://www.wageningenur.nl
31 March 2015: The Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) has initiated a networking project to arrest the depletion of sacred groves in the State and protect local biodiversity hotspots. A two-day workshop held at the institute recently culminated in the creation of a sacred grove network involving nature lovers, conservation groups and researchers. The network would act as a platform to share information on the threats faced by the groves and formulate strategies for conservation. According to the report prepared by the Assembly Committee on Forest and Environment, the breakdown of the joint family system and construction of new houses in place of old homes is responsible for the destruction of the groves attached to homes. The princely State of Travancore had about 10,000 sacred groves in 1956, of which only1,200 exist today. Link: http://www.kfri.res.in
25 March 2015: After two months of successful trials, India's Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe), indigenously built by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), was operationalised for research today in North Antarctica. PROVe had been undergoing trial in Antarctica since its deployment by the NIOT in ‘Priyadarshini Lake’ on the Schirmacher Oasis, which is a source of water for ‘Maitri’, India's second base in the icy continent.Union Minister for Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan made the symbolic launch of the PROVe from the NIOT headquarters in Chennai. PROVe could aggressively enhance the plans towards capability building and research in ocean sciences. Monsoon prediction will also become easier in the future. PROVe will measure parameters like ocean currents, temperature and salinity in the Arctic. PROVe is now moved to North Antarctic ocean can be remotely operated from a ship.Link:http://pib.nic.in
26 March 2015: Just months after receiving the green light from the Indian government, the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) has been dealt a blow after a court writ was filed against the facility's new site by environmentalists. The writ, filed in a state court and the National Green Tribunal, alleges that the site is in a seismic and biologically diverse area, and that tunnelling could affect nearby aquifers. Originally scheduled to be complete in 2012, the INO finally received the go-ahead in January this year when it received Rs 15bn ($236m) towards construction inside a mountain near Pottipuram, in Tamil Nadu. Pottipuram was selected in 2010, as the original choice, Singara village in Tamil Nadu, was near an elephant corridor. The petition also claims that the tunnelling zone for the observatory is a Charnockite-zone, one that contains Feldspar and Quartz. Link:http://www.imsc.res.in
27 March 2015: Jupiter may have swept through the early solar system like a wrecking ball, destroying any newly-formed super-Earths by driving them into the Sun, a new study has found. The findings suggest that a second generation of inner planets, including Earth and Mars, would then have formed from the depleted material that was left behind. The study also explains why the terrestrial planets in our solar system have such relatively low masses. Their model incorporates `the Grand Tack scenario', proposed in 2011. In that scenario, Jupiter first migrated inward toward the Sun until the formation of Saturn caused it to reverse course and migrate outward to its current position. As Jupiter moved inward, however, gravitational perturbations from the giant planet would have swept the inner planets and asteroids into close-knit orbits. Link:https://solarsystem.nasa.gov
28 March 2015: Two astronauts were ready for a 12-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS) today, in a longest human expedition to space so far and testing the limits of human research, space exploration and the human spirit. Most expeditions to the space station last four to six months. NASA's Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will be part of research to help the US space agency and the international partners reduce risks and better understand how to ensure that astronauts will thrive on longer missions. By doubling the length of this mission, researchers hope to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. Human psychology is also an important area of study, as the effects of living in isolated and small spaces will be important to understand ahead of future human missions to Mars. Link:http://www.nasa.gov
29 March 2015: China plans to build a huge solar power station 36,000km above the ground in an attempt to battle smog, cut greenhouse gases and solve energy crisis, much on the lines of an idea first floated in 1941 by fiction writer Isaac Asimov. In 1941, Isaac Asimov had published a short story 'Reason', in which a space station transmits energy collected from the sun using microwave beams. The power station would be a super spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit equipped with huge solar panels. The electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth.The electricity generated from the ground-based solar plants fluctuates with night and weather, but a space generator collects energy 99% of the time. Space-based solar panels can generate ten times as much electricity as ground-based panels.Link: http://www.power-technology.com
30 March 2015: The genome of Pygmy Hog (Porcula salvania) has been sequenced. It is a species of the wild pigs and one of the rarest extent Suids which originally inhabited the grasslands of the foothill plain south of the Himalayas. So far, very little was known about the taxonomy and the biology of this enigmatic species. Previous mitochondrial DNA analyses indicated it to be a basal species of the genus Sus (family to which pigs belong), which we now confirm based on the genome sequences. Efforts for conserving the pygmy hog started in 1995 with the creation of a breeding program in Basistha in Assam and since its establishment the Pygmy Hog Conservation Program (PHCP) has released already more than 80 pygmy hog in the grassland of Assam. Sequencing was done at SciGenom Laboratories in Chennai, collaborating with PHCP in India and Animal Breeding and Genomic Centre of Wageningen.Link:http://www.wageningenur.nl
31 March 2015: The Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) has initiated a networking project to arrest the depletion of sacred groves in the State and protect local biodiversity hotspots. A two-day workshop held at the institute recently culminated in the creation of a sacred grove network involving nature lovers, conservation groups and researchers. The network would act as a platform to share information on the threats faced by the groves and formulate strategies for conservation. According to the report prepared by the Assembly Committee on Forest and Environment, the breakdown of the joint family system and construction of new houses in place of old homes is responsible for the destruction of the groves attached to homes. The princely State of Travancore had about 10,000 sacred groves in 1956, of which only1,200 exist today. Link: http://www.kfri.res.in
