1 February 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 people who are infected with Zika actually experience symptoms. At the moment, the only way to stop the spread of the disease is stop mosquitoe breeding and keeping away from mosquito. Link: http://www.wpro.who.int
2 February 2016: Shedding new light on how life began on Earth, scientists, including an Indian-origin researcher, have proposed a new set of cosmic chemical reactions that could have contributed to the formation of life on our planet. The researchers found that methanol, an abundant derivative of methane and better known on Earth as ‘wood alcohol’, is more reactive than methane itself. Through experiments and calculations, they demonstrated that methanol can give rise to varied hydrocarbons, their derivatives and products, including their ions (carbocations and carbanions), which have been observed in outer space. In the earliest minutes of the universe's formation, hydrogen and helium were formed from the energy of the big bang. All of the other elements developed through the transformation of hydrogen. The study is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Link: http://pubs.acs.org
3 February 2016: The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) today launched BGR-34, the country's first anti-diabetic ayurvedic drug designed for Type-2 diabetes mellitus, which has been scientifically validated for its efficacy and safety. BGR-34 has been developed jointly by the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), which are the research units of CSIR and located in Lucknow. BGR-34 costs Rs 5 per tablet and is available at all major chemist counters in Kerala. Six crore of the adult Indian population has been diagnosed with diabetes. Scientists of NBRI and CIMAP made an in-depth study of over 500 renowned ancient medicinal plants and finally identified the six best herbs listed in ayurvedic ancient texts which they combined and processed meticulously to develop this new drug for Diabetes. Link: https://bgr-34.life
4 February 2016: Today is World Cancer Day. World Health Organisation has put the spotlight on the need to improve access to cancer treatment and formulating strong policies to reduce tobacco and alcohol use. Every year across the world, 8.2 million people die from cancer. Tobacco use in both smoke and smokeless forms accounts for 22% of cancer deaths globally and is a leading cause of the disease in the South-East Asia region. In the South-East Asia region, occupational hazards and exposure to environmental substances continue to be a source of cancer and premature death. Outdoor air pollution increases the risk of cancer for all of us. The South East Asia region has 14 of the world's top 20 polluted cities. Encouraging people to get regular check-ups for early detection of cancer, abstaining from tobacco and alcohol use are some of the recommendations. Link: http://www.worldcancerday.org
5 February 2016: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has captured images of frozen nitrogen glaciers on Pluto carrying numerous 'floating' hills that may be fragments of water ice, giving an insight into the dwarf planet's fascinating and abundant geological activity. These hills individually measure one to several kilometres across, according to images and data from New Horizons. The hills, which are in the vast ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum within Pluto's 'heart,' are miniature versions of the large mountains on Sputnik Planum's western border. The hills are likely fragments of the rugged uplands that have broken away and are being carried by the nitrogen glaciers into Sputnik Planum. The image measures a little over almost 500 km long and about 340 km wide in dimension. It was obtained at a range of approximately 16,000 km from Pluto, during New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto last time, on July 14, in 2015. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
6 February 2016: The Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India will set up up a research lab - Borehole Geophysics Research Laboratory (BGRL) at Karad in Maharashtra to understand earthquake mechanism in the Koyna region of the state. A foundation stone for this laboratory was laid by the Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan at Hazarmachi, Karad today. The BGRL was conceptualized as part of the ministry's programme of 'Scientific Deep Drilling' in the Koyna Intra-plate Seismic Zone, Maharashtra for geological investigations and modeling dedicated to earthquake research in the area. The 6.3 magnitude Koyna earthquake in 1967 is the largest triggered earthquake in the world. Till date, 22 earthquakes of magnitude 5 and above, 200 earthquakes of magnitude 4 and above, and several thousand smaller earthquakes have occurred in the region, within an area measuring 30 km x 20 km. Link: http://pib.nic.in
7 February 2016: A Japanese firm would open the world's first fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvesting crops. As per Kyoto-based Spread, the indoor grow house will start operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day. It hopes to boost that figure to half a million lettuce heads daily within five years. The farm, measuring about 4,400 square metres, will have floor-to-ceiling shelves where the produce is grown. The move to robot labour would chop personnel costs by about half and knock energy expenses down by nearly one third, Morisada added. The pesticide-free lettuce will also have more beta carotene than other farm-grown lettuce, the Japanese company said. Robot-obsessed Japan has repeatedly turned to automated workers to fill labour shortages that get worse, nowadays. Link: http://spread.co.jp
8 February 2016: Renowned Italian artist Michelangelo likely suffered from arthritis in his later years, but addiction to work may have extended the use of his hands until he died, a new study suggests. Prolonged hammering and chiselling accelerated degenerative arthritis in the hands of Michelangelo. However, the intense work probably helped him keep his hands in shape until he died. Doctors analysed three portraits of Michelangelo between the ages of 60 and 65 which show that the small joints of his left hand were affected by changes that can be interpreted as osteoarthritis. According to letters written by Michelangelo, his hand symptoms appeared later in life and in 1552, in a letter to his nephew, he wrote that writing gave him great discomfort. Despite this he continued to create masterpieces and was seen hammering till his death in 1564. Link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com
9 February 2016: Scientists in north-east Germany have switched on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power. Planck Institute in Greifswald planned to inject a tiny amount of hydrogen and heat it until it becomes a super-hot gas known as plasma, mimicking conditions inside the sun. It's part of a world-wide effort to harness nuclear fusion, a process in which atoms join at extremely high temperatures and release large amounts of energy. Once achieved, it could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear fission reactors. Construction has already begun in southern France on ITER, a huge reactor that uses a strong electric current to trap plasma inside a device long enough for fusion to take place. The device, known as a 'tokamak', was conceived by Soviets in 1950s which is fairly easy to build, but difficult to operate. Link: https://www.iter.org
10 February 2016: World Health Organization congratulated India for launching one of the largest public health campaigns to deworm 270 million people in the age group of one to 19 years, in a single day across the country. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South-East Asia, confirmed on the same. Intestinal worms are a serious impediment to the development of children in India. The National Deworming Day, launched by India in 2015, has been an important step in the global push to fight malnutrition in children. The deworming initiative, along with measures to address hygiene, would go a long way in improving the health of children in the country. India's action complemented WHO's on-going battle against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), which though on the verge of elimination, continue to be public health challenges in the South-East Asia Region. Link: http://www.who.int
11 February 2016: Scientists in Asia are racing to put together detection kits for the Zika virus, with China on today confirming its first case, but the researchers are challenged by the lack of a crucial element, a live sample of the virus. Zika, suspected of causing brain defects in more than 4,000 newborns in Brazil after spreading through much of the Americas, is a particular worry in South and Southeast Asia, where mosquito-borne tropical diseases such as dengue fever are a constant threat. India is working on diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the world’s second populous country, but the lack of a live virus sample is hindering its efforts. As per Soumya Swaminathan, director general of the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, which spearheads research, a strain from 1950 was found dead and not suitable for research. Link: http://www.icmr.nic.in
12 February 2016: The goal of the agreement is to boost Indo-European exchange and to provide a platform for interaction with top-level scientists on both sides. As an EMBC Associate Member State, researchers working in India are now eligible to participate in all EMBO programmes and activities. Indian scientists can apply to EMBO's programmes, such as long-term fellowships for postdoctoral researchers, short-term fellowships, courses and workshops, as well as the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. At the same time, Europe will benefit from networking with the top-level scientists in India's research community. Deeper cooperation between nations will stimulate vision, ideas, and provide a framework for a long-term partnership between. An official launch ceremony has taken place in New Delhi today. The kick-off event included scientific presentations by Nobel Laureates Christiane Nüsslein- Volhard and Ada E. Yonath. Link: http://www.embo.org
13 February 2016: US space agency NASA is planning to set a record for the longest ever flight for a scientific balloon to be launched in New Zealand in April 2016. NASA's Balloon Programme team was on the cusp of expanding the envelope in high-altitude, heavy-lift ballooning with its super pressure balloon (SPB) technology. NASA experts are in the South Island resort town of Wanaka, preparing for the fourth flight of a 532,000-cubic-metre balloon, with the goal of an ultra-long-duration flight of up to 100 days. The launch of the pumpkin-shaped, football stadium size balloon was scheduled for sometime after April 1. The SPB was made from almost 8 hectares of polyethylene film and would ascend to a nearly constant float altitude of 33.5 km. The balloon would travel eastward carrying a 1,025 kg payload of tracking, communications and scientific instruments, and was expected to circumnavigate the globe once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere. The current SPB flight duration record is 54 days and was set in 2009. As the balloon travels around the Earth, it might be visible from the ground - particularly at sunrise and sunset. Link: http://www.nasa.gov
14 February 2016: University of Saskatchewan researchers recently released the first draft version of the lentil genome as a result of a collaborative, international genome sequencing project involving researchers from around the globe. Dr. Bert Vandenberg of the Crop Development Centre (CDC) is another of the researchers involved in the genome project. He is the only lentil breeder in Canada, and one of only three in North America, working on extensive lentil breeding research. There are emerging issues, such as a rise in the incidence of root rot, and Vandenberg’s team is working to develop better resistance to this and other diseases in new varieties. Canada is the world’s largest exporter of lentils, and Saskatchewan produces 95 per cent of the Canadian crop. Statistics Canada reports that Canadian lentil exports from August to November last year totalled a record 1.36 Mt, 65 per cent more than the amount exported during the same period in 2014. Prices for lentils have been strong over the past few years, with huge growth in export markets such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as a result of increasing demand and crop shortfalls in these countries due to drought. Link: http://dx.doi.org
15 February 2016: Last month was far and away the hottest February on record for the planet, by a margin that has surprised even the climate scientists who closely monitor global temperature data. It was also the most anomalously warm month Earth has seen in 135 years of NASA record keeping, continuing an astonishing recent streak that could see 2016 set a new record for hottest year. While a strong El Niño has given global temperatures a boost, the main reason for the spate of intensely warm months is the long-term warming of the planet caused by the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists have found. According to NASA, February 2016 was 2.43°F warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980, and 0.8°F warmer than the previous record February, in 1998. February also marked the fifth month in a row where global temperatures breached the mark of being about 2°F above average. Link: http://www.climatecentral.org
16 February 2016: A discovery of giant underwater craters at the bottom of Barents Sea could offer a viable explanation to the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. Scientists have found craters up to half a mile wide and 150ft deep, believed to have been caused by build-ups of methane off the coast of natural gas-rich Norway. The methane would have leaked from deposits of natural gas further below the surface and created cavities which finally bursts. The explosions causing the craters to open up could potentially pose risks to vessels traveling on Barents Sea. It could also possibly explain the loss of ships and aircraft in the controversial area referred to as the Bermuda Triangle. The area stretches from the British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean to the Florida coast, to Puerto Rico. Huge craters on the sea floor, found off Norway, suggest giant blowouts of methane. Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com
17 February 2016: By sequencing the genome of Zostera marina, a seagrass and the only flowering plant to have moved from land to sea, evolutionary biologists have discovered how gene loss and gain helped it to re-adapt to marine life. The plant’s genes responsible for sensing light, regulating osmosis, plant defense and pollination have changed to adapt to life in the sea. Researchers from twenty different universities, including King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, found that the plant lost all the genes responsible for pore formation in leaves, synthesis and detection of volatile compounds, and plant defense. It also lacked genes that play roles in sensing light and resisting ultraviolet-light-induced damage. Ten genes necessary for making exine, the protective outer coat of pollen grain were found to be missing, but all the other genes that contribute to the development of viable pollen grains remained intact. The plant’s decoded genome will help us understand its rapid adaptation under climate change as well as its ecological roles in storing carbon and stopping coastal erosion. The study is published in Nature. Link: http://dx.doi.org
18 February 2016: In an announcement that electrified the world of astronomy, scientists said that they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Albert Einstein predicted a century ago. Gravitational waves, first theorized by Albert Einstein in 1916 as part of his theory of general relativity. Scientists found indirect proof of the existence of the gravitational waves in the 1970s, computations that showed they ever so slightly changed the orbits of two colliding stars and the work was honoured as part of the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics. Gravitational waves are the 'soundtrack of the universe'. In 1979, the National Science Foundation decided to give money to the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to come up with a way to detect the waves. Twenty years later, they started building two LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, and they were turned on in 2001. Link: http://journals.aps.org
19 February 2016: It is time to bid final good bye to the Philae lander, a fridge-sized machine that landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced today. Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on the comet from which it is unlikely to recover. Philae has remained silent since July 9, 2015. As the comet and the spacecraft moved closer to the Sun on August 13, 2015, the closest point to the Sun along its orbit, there were hopes that Philae would wake up again. On June 13, 2015, the lander finally hailed the orbiting Rosetta and subsequently transmitted housekeeping telemetry. At the same time, Rosetta, Philae and the comet are heading back out towards the outer Solar System again. According to predictions, the temperatures should be falling far below those at which Philae is expected to be able to operate. Link: http://rosetta.esa.int
20 February 2016: A nuclear reactor in China has created plasma at a temperature of 50 million Kelvins (49.999 million degrees Celsius) for 102 seconds. The temperature is thought to be three times hotter than the core of the sun or roughly the same as a mid-sized thermo-nuclear explosion. The experiment was done in a machine called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). It happened last week at the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Jiangsu province. The research team had aimed to maintain a plasma of 100 million Kelvins for over 1,000 seconds, nearly 17 minutes. However, the length of time that the plasma was sustained and controlled remains significant, as this is one of the main obstacles to implementing nuclear fusion more widely. Despite the extreme temperatures reached during the experiment, there have been other plasmas produced which have been much higher in different types of machines. Link: http://english.ipp.cas.cn
21 February 2016: Archaeologists have confirmed that the find is a 15th century 'cog', a trading vessel used to sail the North and Baltic Seas. While evacuating the port of the city of Kampen, construction workers came across the skeleton of the ship underwater beneath sand and silt. It measures approximately 20 metres by eight, weighs about 40 tonnes, and is believed to have lain there for about 500 years. Archaeologist Wouter Waldus said after the ship had been weighed they knew the structure was stable. It even has a brick-arched oven and glazed tiles intact on the rear deck, according to Sky News. Because of metal joints across the structure, it was sturdier than other vessels of the same era and was remarkably well-preserved. Named 'Ijsselkogge' after the river delta it was found in, the structure was brought out of the water in a specially constructed metal frame, controlled by a computer. Link: http://www.holland.com
22 February 2016: As American space agency NASA looks forward to sending astronauts to Mars, it has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a possible international collaboration. Several space agencies of different countries are also expected to attend the meeting in Washington next month. The ISRO has been invited for the meeting to discuss the future collaborations for the mission to Mars. There is also a ISRO-NASA Mars Working Group in place, which has been looking into opportunities for enhanced cooperation in Mars exploration including potential coordinated observations and analysis between ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission and Nasa's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN).The UAE has also signed an agreement with the ISRO for Mars Mission, the first by any Gulf nation. Link: http://www.universetoday.com
23 February 2016: NASA has made public the recording of the mysterious 'outer-space music' that Apollo 10 mission astronauts heard as their spacecraft flew around the far side of the Moon in 1969. The transcript of the conversation between Apollo 10 astronauts Eugene Cernan and John Young mentioning the strange sound and the crew's response to the phenomenon were released in 2008. However, the audio of the discussion and the sounds that the astronauts were referring to has just been made public. Out of radio contact with Earth and all alone on the far side of the Moon, the astronauts had not expected to hear anything on their instruments. It was probably just radio interference. However, this explanation is disputed by Michael Collins, the pilot of Apollo 11 and the first person to fly around the far side of the Moon by himself, also recalled hearing strange sounds. Collins explained that the noise began when the radios in the two vehicles were both turned on and in close proximity to each other. Link: http://www.space.com
24 February 2016: The first animal to appear on Earth was probably the humble sea sponge, American scientists believe. According to researchers at the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), sea sponges pre-date the Cambrian explosion, an evolutionary period that began around 540 million years ago, during which a large number of new animals appeared. The MIT team made the discovery by analyzing molecular fossils - trace amounts of molecules found in ancient rocks that survive to this day. One rare molecule in particular, 24-Isopropylcholesterol, or 24-IPC, has been found in rocks that are 640 million years old. It's also known to be produced by sea sponges today. By analysing the genes of around 30 organisms, the team narrowed it down to a single gene, known as sterol methyltransferase (SMT), which can cause an organism to produce 24-IPC. The researchers found that both sea sponge and algae have the right number of copies of SMT to produce 24-IPC. Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com
25 February 2016: Today, Scott J Kelly, the US astronaut is to turn over command of the International Space Station to his fellow NASA astronaut Timothy L Kopra and climb into a Russian Soyuz capsule.The previous record was 215 days, reached by Michael Lopez-Alegria during a trip to the space station in 2006 and 2007. Counting his three previous trips to space, Kelly will have spent a total of 520 days in orbit. Some of the memorable sights from space included auroras and Hurricane Patricia in October. Until now, astronauts have spent six months, give or take, on the International Space Station. By studying Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, a Russian astronaut who is also part of this nearly one-year mission, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of what health issues astronauts might encounter during the six to eight months a trip to Mars would take. Link: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov
26 February 2016: In a rare discovery, palaeontologists have stumbled upon a nine crore-year-old rare coral fossil similar to that of brain coral in Bagh beds of Narmada valley region. This suggests the presence of marine life and sea in Central India during evolution. Discovery of coral fossil is also likely to help experts get a peep into the environment of that era. It is one of the oldest evidences of sea incursion in Narmada valley. Paleontogists have been working in Bagh beds for almost 20 years to gather evidences about marine life in the region. According to research and the fossil discovery, it is being considered that sea and marine life existed in this part of the earth for around 30 lakh years. Narmada valley is quite rich in fossils and coral presence suggests the area was under the sea. Corals were found in Mesozoic era. They were considered earliest species of life. Only a few corals have been reported in the country. Link: http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in
27 February 2016: NASA has dramatically changed its mind about the risks posed by asteroid 2013 TX68, a 100ft-wide rock which is currently heading towards Earth. NASA's initial estimate showed the whale-sized space rock may skim past Earth at just 11,000 miles (17,000 km), which is around 21 times closer to Earth than the moon, but NASA admitted this estimate may be widely inaccurate and the asteroid may also pass Earth as far out as 14 million km. Now, a new prediction for 2013 TX68, first spotted when it flew by Earth two years ago, is that it will fly by roughly 5 million km from our planet. NASA noted that additional observations of asteroid 2013 TX68 have been obtained, refining its orbital path and moving the date of the asteroid's Earth flyby from March 5 to March 8. The observations, were provided by images collected by NASA-funded Pan-STARRS asteroid survey. Link: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov
28 February 2016: NASA has started work on a new telescope with a view 100 times bigger than that of Hubble Space Telescope that may help unravel the mysteries of dark matter and advance the search for alien life. The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will aid researchers in their efforts to explore the evolution of the cosmos. It also will discover new worlds outside our solar system and advance the search for worlds that could be suitable for life. The mission is led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will manage the mission's 2.4-meter telescope and deliver the coronagraph, an instrument to help image and characterise planets around other stars. WFIRST, slated to launch in the mid-2020s, is the agency's next major astrophysics observatory, following the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018. Link: http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov
29 February 2016: Google has celebrated the 29th day of February today by giving the date that only comes around once every four years its own doodle. The earth's orbit takes 365.24 days to complete its solar orbit and an extra day every four years is added to keep calendar seasons synchronised with solar seasons. February was chosen as the month to have the leap day as it is the only month without 30 or 31 days. It has long been suggested that February only has 28 days due to the jealousy of Roman Emperors. According to the theory, the second month of the year had 30 days before the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus. Augustus supposedly wanted his month, August, to have as many days as July, the 31-day month named after Julius Caesar. If someone is born on February 29 in the UK, their date of birth is treated as March 1. Link: http://www.britannica.com
