1 January 2016: United Nations has declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (IYP) to bring attention to this important category of food crops. Pulses, also known as grain legumes, are a group of 12 crops that includes dry beans, dry peas, chickpeas, and lentils. They are high in protein, fiber, and various vitamins, provide amino acids, and are hearty crops. Pulses have often been associated with poverty throughout history. Legumes contain no cholesterol, are composed of lots of complex carbohydrates and little fat. More complex carbohydrates mean less of a drastic spike in blood sugar levels and marks more energy for longer. Pulses are also a source of vitamin B, folic acid, potassium selenium, magnesium and fiber, which aids in maintaining digestive health. India is the largest producer (25% of global production), consumer (27%) and importer (14%) of pulses among the world. Link: http://iyp2016.org
2 January 2016: Popular online streaming service Netflix is likely to launch in India next week during the trade show CES 2016. The website was planning to enter the Asian nations soon with Singapore and Hong Kong. It is believed that the U.S.-based company has partnered with an Indian Telecom company to leverage 4G networks. The internet video traffic was 46 per cent of all consumer internet traffic in 2014, up from 38 per cent in 2013. By 2019, media in video format is expected to grow up to 74 per cent of all internet traffic in India. Netflix is an American on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and some parts of Europe. As of October 2015, Netflix had over 69 million subscribers worldwide. Netflix carries most of the TV sitcoms, and movies. The online streaming service has contracts with a number of channel companies to stream their content online. Link: https://www.netflix.com
3 January 2016: Scientists have developed a new way to test one of the basic principles of Einstein's theory of general relativity using brief blasts of rare radio signals from space. The new method using radio waves, called Fast Radio Bursts, is ten to hundred times better than previous testing methods that used gamma-ray bursts. The method is a tribute to Albert Einstein on the 100th anniversary of his first formulation of the equivalence principle, a key component of the theory of general relativity. Fast Radio Bursts are superbrief blasts of energy, lasting just a few milliseconds. They appear to be caused by events beyond Milky Way. Fast Radio Bursts travel through space as waves of photon particles. If Fast Radio Bursts are proven to originate outside the Milky Way, and if their distances can be measured accurately, they will be a new powerful tool for testing Einstein's equivalence principle. Link: http://science.psu.edu
4 January 2016: A team of scientists in Ireland has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, which is now being used to answer pivotal questions about the origins of the country's people and their culture. Researchers sequenced the genome of an early farmer woman, who lived near Belfast some 5,200 years ago, and those of three men from a later period, around 4,000 years ago in the Bronze Age. The early farmer has a majority ancestry originating ultimately in the Middle East, where agriculture was invented, while the Bronze Age genomes are different with about a third of their ancestry coming from ancient Pontic steppe. The C282Y mutation is so frequent in people of Irish descent, which is said to be a Celtic disease marking the first identification of an important disease variant in history. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Link: http://www.pnas.org
5 January 2016: The periodic table has been given four new elements, changing one of science's most fundamental pieces of knowledge. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 will now be added to the table's seventh row and make it complete, after they were verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry on 30 December. All of the four new admissions are man-made. The super-heavy elements have been worked on since at least 2004, when studies began showing the discovery and priority of element 113. The new elements are the first to be added since 2011, when the table got elements 114 and 116. The elements have to be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist. For the moment, the elements are named after their number: element 113 is called Ununtrium (which means 113-ium), and has the symbol Uut. Element 115 is referred to as Ununpentium or Uup; 117 is called Ununseptium or Uus; and 118 is called Ununoctium or Uuo. Link: http://www.iupac.org
6 January 2016: Defying global public opinion, reclusive North Korea has claimed to have detonated its first hydrogen bomb sending political shock waves around the world and even angering its ally China. China joined the US, Russia, the European Union and others in condemning the action as a breach of international law and the UN Security Council tentatively scheduled an emergency meeting later on Wednesday at the behest of the US and Japan. Although North Korea's claims were taken with a pinch of salt, detection devices around the world recorded a 5.1 seismic event on the country's northeast coast. The three previous tests, including the most recent underground explosion in 2013, were of an atomic weapon, not the exponentially more devastating hydrogen variety. The other two tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009. As per news, North Korea could already have atomic weapons which can grow into several weapons per year. Link: http://earthquake.usgs.gov
7 January 2016: A team of scientists from the Centre for Ecological Science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) have sequenced the genome of Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus). While over 95 % of the genes were found to be similar to the African elephant, there are 1,500 bases that are unique to the Asian elephant including those responsible for the heightened sense of smell. A captive male elephant in Bandipur National Park was used for sequencing. There are 1,500 bases that are unique to the Asian elephant including those responsible for the heightened sense of smell. Similarly, sequencing the blood cell led to the realization that like the African elephant, the Asian elephant, too, has a particular gene, known to inhibit cancer that has been copied 20 times, rather than a single copy present in most mammals. The paper is published in Journal of Biosciences. Link: http://www.iiserpune.ac.in
8 January 2016: Even as the time nears for Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) to arrive in large number on the shores of Chennai to lay eggs, environmentalists and volunteers have been busy ridding the coastline of the garbage that got accumulated following the December floods. Student’s Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), Chennai Trekking Club and many volunteers were also a part of the clean-up activity. Over the years, however, the number of volunteers, environmentalists, conversationalists and general public who have taken an interest in the protection of the species, which has been classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, has risen with a number of public walks and awareness drives. The city in February is also set to host a Ridley Run, a marathon to propagate the importance of protecting the endangered species. Link: http://www.iucnredlist.org
9 January 2016: Joey was the last red kangaroo in captivity in India. With her death in October last year at Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, the fifth such death since 2011, the authorities have decided against keeping the pouched mammals in the future. Native to Australia, the red kangaroo is the largest of all marsupials. It was in June 2011 that the Alipore Zoo brought two pairs of red kangaroos from Czech Republic. They were the first to be seen at the zoo where kangaroos had died out in 1976. Of the four new kangaroos, a one-and-a-half year old male died in August 2011, followed by another 2-year-old male in December the same. The two females followed in February 2012 and August 2012. Nine months before its death, one of them had given birth to Joey, which died last October aged four. 'Capture myopathy' is common in kangaroos in captivity, as per veterinary scientists. Link: http://kolkatazoo.in
10 January 2016: Calicut University in Malappuram district will host the 28th Kerala Science Congress at the Tenhipalam campus from January 28- 30. The Kerala Science Congress is a three day annual event conducted by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology & Environment during the last week of January. Talented young researchers will be honoured with the ‘Kerala State Young Scientist Award’ during this event. Best Paper and Poster awards will be awarded to selected papers. The Special theme chosen for the 28th Kerala Science Congress is 'Climate Change and its Impact on Water Resources of Kerala'. The Science Congress will be jointly organised by Centre for Water Resource Development and Management (CWRDM) and University of Calicut in association with Kerala School of Mathematics, Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Science, C-STED and Kerala State Centre for Assistive Technology. Link: http://www.ksc.kerala.gov.in
11 January 2016: Scientists at Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) successfully produced a cloned buffalo offspring ‘Cirb Gaurav’ which was born on December 11. Cirb Gaurav is distinct from the earlier clones produced in India. It was produced from cells of ventral side of tail of superior bull. This part of the body is the least exposed to sunlight and may have less mutation rate, and can be good choice for isolation of donor cells to produce healthy clones. The newborn cloned calf, weighed 40.4 kg at the time of birth through normal delivery, was maintaining good health and showing normal activities. With this achievement, CIRB becomes world’s third and India’s second institute to produce cloned buffalo. National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal was the first to produce a cloned calf in India in February 2009, by name, Samrupa. This achievement has been made under the project: 'Cloning for Conservation and Multiplication of Superior Buffalo Germplasm'. Link: http://www.cirb.res.in
12 January 2016: In an unusual phenomenon, 45 dead, Short-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) were washed ashore between Kallamozhi and Manapad in Thoothukudi district today. Of these, 37 were adults and eight were sub-adults. As many as 36 whales, part of the group which survived the beaching, were rescued in a joint operation by several government agencies and pushed back to sea. As per Marine scientists at Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, the Short-finned Pilot Whales are deep water whales, diving up to 1,000 metres, who form stable matrilineal kinship groups. The Short-finned Pilot Whales could have stranded while in search of food, the favourite being squids. Not much is known about the species. IUCN classifies them as ‘data deficient’. While there were rumours claiming that the beaching could be due to climate change or pollution of the waters, the group most probably followed an isolated whale and must have been stranded. Link: http://www.iucnredlist.org
13 January 2016: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to build its heaviest rocket, which can carry satellites weighing 10 tonnes into space. Currently, the space agency’s geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV MK-2) can carry satellites weighing only two tonnes. The proposed rocket would be powered by a semi-cryogenic engine that runs on kerosene and liquid oxygen, which the space agency is currently developing. The design process for the semi-cryogenic engine has been completed and it is being built by Godrej Aerospace, which also makes the Vikas engines for ISRO’s rockets. The CE20, which the rocket uses, is an indigenously developed cryogenic engine. A full-fledged rocket with a communication satellite will be launched in 2017. ISRO will launch its fifth of the seventh regional navigation satellite, the coming January 20. The satellite will be part of India’s constellation of geo-positioning satellites that would help in disaster management, mapping and navigation. Link: http://www.isro.org
14 January 2016: Described for the first time in Uganda in 1947, Zika is an arbovirus belonging to the same family as dengue and yellow fever. These viral diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes in the Aedes genus, like the yellowfever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). The first cases were confirmed in Brazil in May 2015, and the country is currently experiencing the largest epidemic ever recorded with 440,000 to 1,300,000 suspected cases reported by the Brazilian health authorities. The Zika virus has spread quickly, affecting 10 countries in the tropical regions of the Americas as well as the Caribbean. Until recently the infection was considered relatively harmless, but in Brazil and other countries, they have noticed an increase in the number of microcephaly cases in fetuses whose mothers were infected during pregnancy. The sequencing done by Institut Pasteur is published in the journal The Lancet. Link: http://www.thelancet.com
15 January 2016: Scientists have for the first time successfully raised laboratory-bred colonies of a critically endangered Caribbean coral species to their reproductive age, a step towards sustainable restoration of degraded reefs. The Elkhorn coral was one of the species whose decline was so severe that it was one of the first coral species to be listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species act in 2006, and as critically endangered under The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened species in 2008. Due to its large size and branching shape, elkhorn corals created vast forests in shallow reef waters that protect shores and provide a critical habitat for a myriad of other reef organisms, including ecologically and economically important fish species. Elkhorn corals reproduce only once or twice a year, generally a few days after the full moon in August. Link: http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov
16 January 2016: Even as India prepares for a second mission to Mars, a team of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Mars Society Australia and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, will mount an expedition to Ladakh this August to study the similarities of certain parts of the region’s topography and microbial life to Martian surroundings. India’s second mission to Mars, scheduled to be in 2020, will involve collaboration with France and may include a lander or rover, remote controlled vehicles which can ostensibly better analyse a planet’s surface. This is the first time that India is part of the Spaceward Bound programme which is a NASA project that educates future space explorers. Before Ladakh, there have been expeditions to the deserts such in Atacama, Chile; Mojave, California; Arkaroola, Australia as well as the Arctic and Antarctica. Link: http://spacewardbound.in
17 February 2016: An Indo-French partnership will proceed to space exploration in a bid to probe Mars and Venus, as per the French space agency chief Jean-Yves Le Gall. France and India will put a lander on Mars in a bid to explore the planet. Jean-Yves Le Gall confirmed that France is ready to work with India to plant both flags on Mars as well as on Venus in a joint exploration. The two countries also inked a separate deal on a new thermal imaging satellite, said to be a follow-up of the Paris climate change conference. The venture will help scientists better understand the effects of climate change on vegetation. France will also be putting a payload on India’s OceanSAT satellite. It will be devoted to search and rescue beacons utilizing space. There are already two Indo-French space satellites for climate observations, namely the Megha-Tropiques launched in 2011 and SARAL-ALTIKA launched in 2013. Link: http://theowp.org
18 January 2016: The first flower has finally bloomed in outer space. Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly has tweeted a photo of the first ever flower grown in space today.The flower was grown as part of an experiment astronauts are conducting on how plants grow in microgravity. Besides the flower, the team also grew lettuce in space, after a failed first attempt. The flowers were grown inside the Veggie lab aboard International Space Station (ISS) which was installed in early May 2014. With the success of this experiment, Zinnia has become the first flowering plant grown outside Earth's atmosphere. The flowers appear similar to those grown on Earth, except for the curled edges of the petals, which could be due to the zero-gravity conditions. The system, according to scientists, uses red, blue, and green LED lights to simulate sunlight, making the successful growth of the flower you see above possible. Link: https://twitter.com
19 January 2016: Navigation Satellite System 'IRNSS-1E', was launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C31 from the spaceport of Sriharikota today. IRNSS-1E was launched from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, as per ISRO. IRNSS-1E carries two types of payloads - navigation and ranging payload, Isro said navigation payload will transmit navigation service signals to the users, and will be operating in L5-band and S-band. The ranging payload consists of a C-band transponder which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite, it said, adding that IRNSS-1E also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging. A highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload of the satellite. IRNSS-1E is the fifth navigation satellite of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment, and has a lift-off mass of 1425 kg. It’s configuration is similar to that of its predecessors IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in
20 January 2016: Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have identified two large patches of water ice on the surface of comet 67P, perhaps the most studied comet in history. The elusive ice was detected, us ing data collected by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, on the bottom part of the main lobe of the dumbbell-shaped comet, in a region called Imhotep. It appeared as noticeably bright patches in visible light and was located on cliff walls and debris falls. It looked like there was a break age, or something fell down on the surface of the comet, and a large, new inside area that had water ice was exposed. The surface of 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, like most comets, is mainly covered by materials so dark they appear almost black. This is because as comets fly towards the sun, they are exposed to warm temperatures that cause surface ice to sublimate, or transform directly from solid to gas. What remains are materials similar to rocks, sand and ash on Earth. Link: http://blogs.esa.int
21 January 2016: A genetically modified mosquito has helped reduce the proliferation of mosquitoes spreading Zika and other viruses in Brazil, its developers has said. The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the UK subsidiary of US company Intrexon. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce. Zika virus, first detected in Africa in the 1940's, was unknown in the Americas until last year when it appeared in northeastern Brazil. It has lead to a surge in the number of babies born with unusually small heads, a damaging neurological condition called microcephaly. According to Oxitec its proprietary OX513A mosquito succeeded in reducing wild larvae of the Aedes mosquito by 82% in a neighborhood of Piracicaba, where 25 million of the transgenic insects were released between April and November. Authorities reported a big drop in dengue cases in the area. Link: https://www.dna.com
22 January 2016: A new genus of tree frogs that was thought to have died out more than a century ago has been rediscovered in India. The Old World tree frog family currently contains over 380 species and includes some frogs with ambiguous classifications based on shared characteristics. Through their analysis, they identified a previously overlooked, yet distinct evolutionary lineage of frogs that the authors recognize as a new genus, Frankixalus. This genus probably remained unnoticed because of its secretive life in high canopy tree holes, says Prof S.D. Biju. Frankixalus differs from other tree frog genera in breeding, egg laying, and development. This includes having gel-encapsulated eggs, breeding in water accumulated in tree holes, egg laying on walls of tree holes, and tadpoles that devour their mother's eggs. The distinctiveness of this evolutionary lineage is also corroborated by the external appearance, skeletal shape and life history features. The study is published in PLOS ONE. Link: http://journals.plos.org
23 January 2016: Archaeologists have begun excavations in what they believe to be the legendary lost city of Ciudad Blanca, or White City, in the Honduran jungle. So far, they have removed dozens of artifacts, including a vessel with vulture-shaped handles, a clay tray with a jaguar's head and a stone-made throne carved with a jaguar possibly the remains of a ceremonial temple. The ruins, which appear to date between 1,000 and 1,500 AD, are distinct from the cultures of the ancient Maya civilization. It is believed the city's name was derived from the white limestone rock in the area and was first mentioned by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Thedore Morde suggested in 1940 the city was in fact the White City of the Monkey God. People from local tribes had told him of a monkey worshipping civilization. A monkey kidnapped a local woman, breeding half-human, half-monkey children. Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com
24 January 2016: The Mosquito-borne Zika virus is sweeping through South America and could infect hundreds of thousands of people, governments have warned. The virus can lead to common symptoms like headaches and joint pains. But if it hits pregnant women it can lead to huge problems for their children, leading to birth defects like microcephaly or abnormally small heads. The disease has already infected thousands of people across Colombia and Brazil. No newborns in Colombia are yet reported to have suffered from microcephaly, though of the 13,500 people already infected some 560 are pregnant women. The effects of Zika are usually mild. And only one in five of those people that are infected with it actually experience symptoms. At the moment, the only way to stop the spread of the disease is to clear the stagnant water that mosquitoes breed in, and keeping away from mosquito. Link: http://www.cdc.gov
25 January 2016: A computer has helped scientists find the largest prime number ever with over 22 million digits, breaking the previous record by around 5 million digits. A team at the University of Central Missouri, headed by Curtis Cooper also held the old record. They have broken the record four times. Cooper and his team are part of the The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search collaboration, an effort to find the largest prime number or, more specifically, a particular class of prime numbers that are called Mersenne, where it is one less than a power of two. The prime number, written as 2^74,207,281 - 1, had been found. The find came after a month of number crunching. It was only during a maintenance cycle that the message reporting the prime number found, was sent. The official discovery date is January 7th. The search for bigger prime numbers is conducted using a software called prime95. Link: http://primes.utm.edu
26 January 2016: The solar system may host a ninth planet that is about 10 times bigger than earth and orbiting far beyond Neptune, according to research published.Computer simulations show that the mystery planet, if it exists, would orbit between about 200 and 1,000 times farther from the sun than earth. So far, the planet has not been observed directly. Brown and astronomer Konstantin Batygin, also at Caltech, initially were sceptical that such a large planet would have eluded detection. But they modelled the hypothetical planet's gravitational effects on several known bodies in the region and found a near-perfect match. The computer model also predicted the location of other objects beyond Neptune, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. Brown's earlier research helped to demote Pluto in 2006 as the solar system's ninth planet after other small, icy bodies were found beyond Neptune. The paper detailing the discovery is published in this week's Astronomical Journal. Link: http://iopscience.iop.org
27 January 2016: Tiny fungi from Antarctica have survived hostile conditions similar to those on Mars simulated on the International Space Station (ISS), scientists including one of Indian-origin have found. The results provide new information for the search for life on the red planet. After 18 months on board in conditions similar to those on Mars, more than 60 per cent of the fungal cells remained intact, with stable DNA. Lichens from the Sierra de Gredos (Spain) and the Alps (Austria) were also sent into space for the same experiment. The McMurdo Dry Valleys, located in the Antarctic, are considered to be the most similar earthly equivalent to Mars. Only cryptoendolithic microorganisms, capable of surviving in cracks in rocks, and certain lichens can withstand such harsh climatological conditions. Researchers, collected samples of two species of cryptoendolithic fungi Cryomyces antarcticus and Cryomyces minteri. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
28 January 2016: Black Death, the historical plague pandemic in the mid-fourteenth century , may have been hiding in Europe for more than 400 years.Within only five years it killed 30-50% of the European population, researchers said. Unfortunately it did not stop there. The plague resur ged throughout Europe leading to continued high mortality and social unrest over the next three centuries. With its nearly worldwide distribution today, the once omnipresent threat of plague is all but absent in Western Europe. Scientists led by members of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, have re-constructed pathogen genomes from victims of the genomes from Great Plague of Marseille (1720-1722), which is conventionally assumed to be the last outbreak of medieval plague in Europe. Lead author Kirsten Bos cautioned that the geographical source of the disease cannot be identified yet. Link: http://www.shh.mpg.de
29 January 2016: A new carnivorous dinosaur species unearthed in the Wales, dating back 200 million-years, is possibly the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur from the UK, according to a new study. Researchers analysed the dinosaur skull and bones, discovered in 2014 on a beach near Penarth, Wales, and concluded it is a new species that they have named Dracoraptor hanigani. The dinosaur species was identified by David Martill from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and colleagues from National Museum Wales and the University of Manchester. Dracoraptor means dragon robber and hanigani honours brothers Nick and Rob Hanigan who discovered the remains. The dinosaur was meat-eating, from the theropod group.They also suggested that it may have been a juvenile animal, as most of its bones were not yet fully formed or fused. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE. Link: http://journals.plos.org
30 January 2016: The mystery behind the extinction of a huge flightless bird called Genyornis that flourished in the grasslands and woodlands of prehistoric Australia may have been solved, with burned eggshells as the clue and people as the culprits.
The burn patterns detected on eggshell fragments indicate that the humans who first arrived in Australia roughly 50,000 years ago gathered and cooked the big bird's eggs, playing havoc with its reproductive success. Genyornis, at almost 7 feet tall and perhaps 225 kg, was much bigger than today's large flightless birds like the ostrich or emu. It possessed powerful legs, small wings, large claws and a big beak for eating fruit, nuts and maybe small prey. It was a member of a family of giant birds called Dromornithids. Genyornis vanished around 47,500 years ago. The finding is published in Nature Communications. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org
31 February 2016: For the first time India is part of Spaceward Bound programme, which funds expeditions to places with extreme climate conditions. Even as India prepares for a second mission to Mars, a team of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Mars Society Australia and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, will mount an expedition to Ladakh this August to study the similarities of certain parts of the region’s topography and microbial life to Martian surroundings. India’s second mission to Mars, scheduled to be in 2020, will involve collaboration with France and may include a lander or rover remote controlled vehicles which can ostensibly better analyse a planet’s surface. Before Ladakh, there have been expeditions to the deserts such in Atacama, Chile; Mojave, California; Arkaroola, Australia as well as the Arctic and Antarctica. Link: http://quest.nasa.gov
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