2 March 2016: Data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in NASA's New Horizons shows a chain of exotic methane snowcapped mountains stretching across a dark expanse on Pluto. One of Pluto's most identifiable features, Cthulhu Regio stretches nearly halfway around Pluto's equator, starting from the west of the great nitrogen ice plains known as Sputnik Planum. It Measures about 3,000 kilometres long and 750 kilometres wide. Scientists think that Cthulhu's dark appearance is due to being covered by a layer of dark tholins - complex molecules that form when methane is exposed to sunlight. Cthulhu's geology exhibits a wide variety of landscapes - from mountainous to smooth, and to heavily cratered and fractured. The range is situated among craters, with narrow valleys separating its peaks. Scientists think this bright material could be mainly methane that has condensed as ice onto the peaks from Pluto's atmosphere. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
3 March 2016: A team of young Indian researchers and naturalists have recently discovered a new snake genus and species in Gujarat, India. The snake genus has been named Wallaceophis in honour of the legendary 19th century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), considered the father of biogeography, while the snake species has been named gujaratenisis to commemorate the western Indian state where it was discovered. Colubrid snakes (Family Colubridae) are present around the world with more than 1,800 species. Gujarat was a different place way back in the past, especially Saurashtra and Kutch regions, which were isolated islands and only after considerable rise of Himalayas and increase in the Antarctic ice sheet growth, the global sea level dropped by 50 metres which re-shaped landmasses worldwide, including Gujarat. The Wallaceophis gujaratenisis is presently found in just seven localities of Gujarat. The discovery is documented in the journal, Plos One. Link: http://journals.plos.org
4 March 2016: The world's only surviving wild horses, known as Przewalski's horse which became extinct two decades ago, is now going to spend its first winter in Russia, on the site in the Orenburg Reserves, a cluster of six strictly protected nature areas along the border with Kazakhstan. The area spanning more than 16,500 hectares (40,770 acres) is the largest unbroken, strictly protected plot of virgin steppe in Russia, safeguarded, ironically, by the fact that it belonged to the military for decades. Native to China, the stocky, tan-coloured horse with a spiky mane once inhabited the Eurasian steppe extending through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species was discovered by Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky who described it in the 19th century, leading to a surge of interest in Europe, followed by a brutal campaign to capture these animals. Link: http://www.pbs.org
5 March 2016: A crustacean was found in Indonesia, and the scientist decided to name him after Sir Elton John. The crustacean, Leucothoe eltoni, was found inside another reef invertebrate, in a commensal association, a parasitic relationship where the host is neither helped nor harmed. The Elton John crustacean was initially discovered in the coral reefs of Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Researchers behind the study were later contacted by scientists in Hawaii, where Leucothoe eltoni had arrived as an invasive species. Elton John was found living inside of 'the branchial chambers of solitary tunicates', so Elton John was basically hanging out in one of the tube-resembling structures of another marine organism. It has since been found in Indonesia, as well as, surprisingly, Hawaii. That’s because, in true rock star fashion, the crustacean has already gotten into trouble.The study is published this week in the journal ZooKeys. Link: http://zookeys.pensoft.net
6 March 2016: A team of researchers from India and the National University of Singapore (NUS) has discovered a new species of narrow-mouthed frog in the laterite rock formations of India's coastal plains. The frog, which is the size of a thumbnail, was named Microhyla laterite after its natural habitat. Laterite rock formations are prominent landscape features in the coastal plains of southwest India. The newly discovered species was named Microhyla laterite after the habitat it resides in. The research team suggested Laterite narrow-mouthed frog to be its common name, as frogs in the Microhyla genus have a smaller mouth compared to other frogs. The research team suggested Microhyla laterite to be classified as 'Endangered' according to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List criteria and guidelines. The discovery is published in the journal PLOS ONE. Link: http://journals.plos.org
7 March 2016: Scientists have discovered evidence in a meteorite that a rare radioactive element, Curium, was present during the formation of our solar system, ending a 35-year-old debate. The finding plays a crucial role in reassessing stellar evolution models and synthesis of elements in stars. The discovery ends a 35-year-old debate on the possible presence of Curium in the early solar system. On Earth, Curium exists only when manufactured in laboratories or as a byproduct of nuclear explosions. It could have been present, however, early in the history of the solar system, as a product of massive star explosions that happened before the solar system was born. The longest-lived isotope of Curium (247Cm) decays over time into an isotope of uranium (235U). If scientists were to analyse these two hypothetical minerals today, they would find that the older mineral contains more 235U (the decay product of 247Cm) than the younger mineral. The study was published in the journal Science Advances. Link: http://news.uchicago.edu
8 March 2016: China plans to land a probe on Mars in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of founding of the ruling-Communist Party of China and a decade after its first failed mission in 2011, after which India, US, Russia and EU stole the march. After months of flying, the probe is expected to land in Mars at the 100th anniversary of the CPC. The Communist Party, the sole governing party of China, was founded in 1921. In November 2015, China unveiled a model of its orbiter and landing rover at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai. So far, only the US, the former Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and India have successfully carried out Mars exploration missions. The size and structure of the Mars probe will be similar to Chang'e-3, China's first lunar lander that was launched in 2013. Mars exploration is among the 10 major orders that Long March 5, the country's next-generation heavy lift rocket, has received so far. Link: http://en.people.cn
9 March 2016: Researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University have discovered a bacteria that uses only two enzymes to break down plastic, according to a study. After five years of working with microbes and plastics, scientists identified a bacteria, dubbed Ideonella sakaiensis, that is able to decompose polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a common plastic used in bottles and clothing. In 2013 alone, its global production was 56 million tonnes. While scientists have found a few species of fungi able to decompose plastic, Ideonella sakaiensis is the first known bacteria with the ability to feed on PET. Ideonella sakaiensis can almost completely break down a thin film of PET in six weeks at a temperature of 30 C. The team at Kyoto University also managed to identify the gene in bacteria’s DNA responsible for plastic-decomposing enzymes, using that knowledge to generate new enzymes that broke down PET and plastic in the laboratory. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org
10 March 2016: Collision of two black holes brought the entire universe to stand still for a few milliseconds, by generating 50 times more power than that emitted by all the stars in the universe. The discovery was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory or LIGO, which recorded 3.6 x 1049 watts energy. The impact between the two black holes was so great that it instantaneously released energy in the form of gravitational waves instead of light. When the black holes merged they release enough energy to transform three suns’ worth mass into gravitational wave energy in a few milliseconds.The indirect evidence of gravitational waves was also measured by the researchers who were studying the massive outbursts of energy from the quasar OJ287. This also helped to confirm that missing orbital energy was being converted to gravitational waves, which coincided with Einstein's general relativity’s estimations. Link: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu
11 March 2016: Today marked the five-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, a series of nuclear meltdowns, triggered by an earthquake-induced tsunami, that released massive amounts of radioactive material and resulted in the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Since then, the plant’s damaged drainage system has continued to leak radioactive water into the environment, and one of the biggest enduring public concerns has been the safety of fish caught in the area’s surrounding waters. Now, with the fifth anniversary, new research may allow the public to breathe a little easier over the state of its seafood. Japanese White Sea-perch (Sebastes cheni), for instance, a large bottom-dwelling fish had a probability of 0.45, or 45 percent, of having radio-Cesium concentration above 20 becquerels per kilogram and a 9 percent chance of having greater than 50 becquerels per kilogram of flesh. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Link: http://www.pnas.org
12 March 2016: Deep in the Australian outback, circular, grass-ringed patches of earth stretch for several hundred square kilometres across the red, ancient soil. This is the first time these 'fairy circles' have been spotted outside the Namibian desert, where their formation has evaded explanation for decades. The new discovery could help resolve the long-standing mystery of how they form. Scientists visited the site 15 kilometres south-east of Newman, Australia, to measure the circles and analyse the conditions on the ground after an environmentalist working nearby sent them an aerial shot of the formations. In Namibia, local legends have explained the circles as the footsteps of the gods, burn marks from the breath of underground dragons, or even landing spots for UFOs. The most popular scientific theory for 'fairy circles' is that ants, termites or other insects nibble on the roots of grasses, so the plants die back in a circle from the site of an insect nest. Link: http://www.pnas.org
13 March 2016: A new era of Mars exploration for Europe began today as a new mission jointly developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) blasted into the sky on a Russian Proton rocket to find if Red Planet has traces of alien life. Named 'ExoMars 2016', the first phase of the ESA-Roscosmos mission lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Proton rocket. The mission will have the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator. TGO will make a detailed inventory of Mars’ atmospheric gases, with particular interest in rare gases like methane. Meanwhile, Schiaparelli lander will demonstrate a range of technologies to enable a controlled landing on Mars in future. The lander will separate from the TGO on October 16 and land on Mars on October 19 for several days of activities. Link: http://exploration.esa.int
14 March 2016: Exactly 137 years ago, on 14 March 1879, Pauline Koch gave birth to a boy whom she named Albert Einstein. Not considered to be smart or advanced as a child, Einstein went on to become the most brilliant scientist of his age. Some even say that we will never see the likes of another Einstein again. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on 14 March 1879 to Pauline Koch and Hermann Einstein. Albert Einstein was the elder of two, his younger sister, Maria Einstein, was born about two years later in November 1881. Einstein reportedly was slow in learning how to talk. That, combined with his tendency to whisper words softly to himself before saying them aloud led the family maid to nick name him 'der Depperte', the dopey one. On April 17, 1955, Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and was taken to the University Medical Centre in Princeton, New Jersey. He died the next morning, at the age of 76. Link: http://einstein.biz
15 March 2016: Rajyasabha of India was informed that out of 96,000 animal species, 50 have been labeled as Critically Endangered. The survey for this was made by Zoological Survey of India. Among these, there are species assessed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which include 18 species of amphibians, 14 varieties of fish, 13 birds and 10 mammals as critically endangered and 310 species as endangered, including 69 fish, 38 mammals and 32 amphibians. Government of India has established 730 Protected Areas, including 103 national parks, 535 wildlife sanctuaries, 26 community reserves and 66 conservation reserves, which primarily protect threatened species. The National CAMPA Advisory Council has approved the funding for recovery programme of various endangered species such as Dugong, Gangetic River Dolphin, Great Indian Bustard,Manipur Brow Antlered deer and wild Buffalo. Link: http://egreenwatch.nic.in
16 March 2016: After spending nearly a year in space, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly is hanging up his spacesuit. NASA announced Kelly’s retirement today, less than two weeks after he returned to Earth. He leaves the space agency on April 1. The 52-year-old Scott Kelly spent a U.S.-record 340 days in orbit on the International Space Station to see how the human body holds up for long periods of time in space. His results are being compared to those on the ground from his twin brother, Mark, who is a retired astronaut. Scott Kelly also holds the American record for most time in space- 520 days over four missions. During his one-year trip, Scott Kelly posted hundreds of images, mostly of Earth from orbit, on social media. But he also engaged in a little fun, donning a gorilla suit that was a gag gift from his brother and chasing fellow astronauts through the space station in a video. No immediate plans for the future of Scott Kelly has been announced. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
17 March 2016: In a first, scientists have created experimental chickens with dinosaur-like feet by manipulating their genes, highlighting the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. In dinosaurs, the ancestors of birds, fibula, one of the two long bones of the lower leg, is tube-shaped and reaches all the way down to the ankle. However, in the evolution from dinosaurs to birds, it lost its lower end, and no longer connects to the ankle, being shorter than the other bone in the lower leg, the tibia. Bird embryos first develop a tubular, dinosaur-like fibula. Afterward, it becomes shorter than the tibia and acquires its adult, splinter-like shape. Inhibiting a maturation gene resulted in chickens with a tubular fibula as long as the tibia and connected to the ankle, just like a dinosaur. However, its distal end has already become committed to shaft-like development, and matures early. The study is published in the journal Evolution. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
18 March 2016: The Government of Goa has begun the process to identify animals and birds which damage farm crops has begun and it was the first step towards officially declaring certain species as vermin. In February, Goa started the process was on to declare Peacocks, Bisons, Wild Boars and some species of Monkeys as 'vermin' or nuisance animals because they were damaging farm crops and horticulture. A process has been started by the forest department about which animals were harming crops. A team of the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests will then be dispatched and if they agreed permission to declare specific birds and animals as vermin can be given. Wild boars should be declared as vermin because they cause tremendous damage to agriculture, horticulture and floriculture crops. In the meanwhile, Parliamentary panel slammed Goa for Anti-Coconut Tree Law which it has tried to impose earlier. Link: https://www.goa.gov.in
19 March 2016: The 'Mangrove Cell' in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is to set up a Marine Animal Stranding Management Centre in Sindhudurg district, for first response in cases of stranding or beaching of marine animals. A pilot project will be set up in the coastal town of Malwan. The proposal has been discussed with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and a formal nod is awaited by the mangrove cell of the forest department, whose staff will be part of the Management Centre. The challenge before officials and experts dealing with the marine ecosystem was laid bare when dealing with the first case of live stranding of a 40-feet Blue Whale on the Alibaug coast in 2015. Even after a 10-hour rescue effort, the mammal could not be saved. The process to fix a protocol was then set in motion, with training from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to Maharashtra forest officials and other stakeholders. Link: http://mangrovecell.org
20 March 2016: Today is International Day of Happiness. The United Nations appointed Red, the leader of the 'Angry Birds' mobile game characters, as an envoy to inspire climate action toward a sustainable and happier future for all. Since 2013, the UN has annually observed the Day on 20 March as a way to recognize the importance of happiness in the lives of people worldwide. This year’s focus is on the relationship between having a healthy planet and happiness. The campaign, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Foundation, asks the general public across the world to make the 'Angry Birds' happy by taking actions on climate change and sharing their photos and commitments on social media platforms. As part of his ambassadorial duties, Red will go on a 'Virtual World Tour' starting on 21 March, highlighting various ways to take climate action. Link: http://www.un.org
21 March 2016: India's Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve is among the 20 new sites added by UNESCO to World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Located in the Western Ghats, the Agasthyamala biosphere reserve includes peaks reaching 1,868 metres above sea level. Consisting mostly of tropical forests, the site is home to 2,254 species of higher plants including about 400 that are endemic. It is also a unique genetic reservoir of cultivated plants especially cardamom, jamune, nutmeg, pepper and plantain. Three wildlife sanctuaries, Shendurney, Peppara, Neyyar and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger reserve are included in the site. The Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve (ABR) was established in 2001 and is spread across the two states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.There are 18 biosphere reserves in India out of which only nine (Nilgiris, Nanda Devi, Nokrek, Gulf of Mannar, Sundarban, and Great Nicobar) are included in the network. Link: http://en.unesco.org
22 March 2016: Data from the particle collider at CERN seems to point to a new massive particle not predicted by the standard model of physics. If confirmed, this could be the biggest discovery in physics since 1975 when a new lepton was found. The first hint came with an excess of photon pairs reported by Atlas and CMS experiments last year, with the latter proving more convincing in recent analysis using wider set of data. The small excess of photon pairs with a combined energy around 750 GeV is believed to be due to a new boson that spits out two photons and more as it decays. The Higgs boson or 'God particle' with a mass of 125 GeV discovered in 2012 at CERN was predicted by the standard model of physics. It is responsible for all the mass in the universe. Now the search is for other Higgs bosons with higher masses. If similar to Higgs boson, the new particle is expected to spit out more than photons. Link: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org
23 March 2016: An asteroid has been named after Akikiki (Oreomystis bairdi), a critically endangered Hawaiian Honey-creeper Bird. The credit for this goes to Prakash Vaithyanathan, a science teacher from Chennai, Tamilnadu. He had written to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) suggesting that new planetary bodies and other objects in space could be named after endangered or extinct animals, birds and plants. Vaithyanathan wrote to them on May 29, 2015, and received a reply the same day from a database manager with the IAU stating that they would be interested in implementing his idea. The reason for choosing the name of the Hawaiian honeycreeper was because the IAU annual conference was happening in Hawaii in May. In the database on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website, credit for the name ‘7613 akikiki,’ is given as: 'name suggested by Indian high-school teacher P. Vaithyanathan'. Link: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net
24 March 2016: The Chinese government has approved a motion to celebrate a National Day of Space Flight on April 24 every year starting from 2016. The year 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of China's spaceflight development. On April 24, 1970, China launched its first man-made earth satellite, Dongfanghong-1, making China the fifth country then to launch a domestically produced satellite using domestically produced rockets. The other four countries were Russia, the US, France and Japan. In the 60 years since, China has developed two bombs and one satellite project, mastered manned space flight, launched a lunar exploration project and generally achieved rapid growth in space technology, according to information on the official website of the central government. The National Day of Space Flight is meant to get young people interested in space science and to pay respect to scientists. Link: http://english.spacechina.com
25 March 2016: The Arab world’s first mission to Mars will begin the 62 million kilometre journey to the Red Planet from an island in south Japan. The UAE’s unmanned probe, named Hope, is set to launch from the Tanegashima Space Centre in July 2020 after the UAE Space Agency and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre announced on Tuesday that they would use a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rocket to send the satellite into orbit. According to Salem Al Marri, Assistant Director-general of scientific and technology affairs at Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, the Japanese company was chosen from 10 possible launch service providers across the globe after a thorough vetting process. To realize plans to send the probe to Mars by 2021 so it coincides with the country’s 50th anniversary, the satellite launch must take place during 2020, one of the biennial launch windows when Earth and Mars are at their closest. Link: http://www.arabianbusiness.com
26 March 2016: On April 22, India will formally sign the Paris climate agreement, adopted by over 190 countries last year December. The agreement will be open for signature at the United Nations headquarters in New York for one year, from April 22, 2016 to April 21, 2017. Around 80 to 100 countries are likely to sign the agreement on the first day itself. Under Article 21 of the agreement that was adopted on December 12 last year in Paris, after at least 55 countries accounting for an estimated 55 per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions will have to ratify the agreement before it enters into force. The Article 21 says that the Paris agreement will enter into force on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ratify the agreement. So far, only three countries, such as Fiji, Palau and Marshal Islands have completed their ratification process. Link: http://ec.europa.eu
27 March 2016: In the name of 'scientific research', the Japanese fleet killed a large number of Minke Whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) in the Antartic Ocean. Four ships from Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research returned to their home port after 115-days long expedition capturing 333 whales including more than 200 pregnant females. They especially targeted female whales to determine the specific age at which Minke whale reach sexual maturity. Their expedition faced global outrage when International Court of Justice in 2014 clearly stated that Japan's Antarctic whaling program has no scientific merits and ordered to stop commercialization of whale meat. The International Whaling Commission- an international body to conserve whale stock- banned commercial whaling in 1986, but scientific research was exempted. Japan has long been accused of taking advantage of this and is involved in commercial whaling. Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com
28 March 2016: Scientists working on NASA's Cassini mission have already identified the highest peak on Saturn's largest moon Titan. Titan's tallest peak is 10,948 feet high. The researchers also found out that all of Titan's highest peaks are about 10,000 feet in elevation. The study used images and other data from Cassini's radar instrument to reveal the surfaces in-depth. The researchers identified other peaks of similar height within the Mithrim Montes, as well as in the rugged region known as Xanadu. Cassini has also discovered that Titan also has rain and rivers that erode its landscape. Titan having some signification mountain present suggests that some active forces could be inducing an affect on the surface. The fact that Titan has significant mountains suggests that some active tectonic forces could be affecting the surface. Researchers now will be trying to find out what could be the reason behind such tall peaks on the Titan.Link: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
29 March 2016: Scientist have created a 3D atlas of the skeletal anatomy of the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) for the first time since its extinction. The dodo represents one of the best-known examples of extinctions caused by humans. The Dodo skeletons were discovered more than a century ago by an amateur naturalist, Etienne Thirioux, who was a barber by profession. The Thirioux skeleton housed in the Mauritius Institute represents the only known complete Dodo skeleton, and the only one comprising the bones of a single individual. The second Thirioux specimen, now housed in the Durban Natural Science Museum, is nearly complete but may have been assembled from the remains of more than one bird. In contrast, all other known Dodo skeletons housed in museums are incomplete and typically made up from the bones of many different individual birds. The study is published in the Memoir of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Link: http://www.tandfonline.com
30 March 2016: American scientists have created in a lab the smallest viable genome existing in nature with just enough essential genes for an organism to function and reproduce on its own, in a major step toward unlocking the mysteries of how life is created. The synthetic genome of this bacteria, dubbed JCVI-syn3.0, only carries 473 genes, compared to about 20,000 for a human being. But lead researchers Craig Venter, the first to sequence the human genome and Clyde Hutchinson and their colleagues have not yet determined the functions of 149 of the genes, about a third of the total. The minimal genome does not have genes that can modify and restrict DNA and it also lacks most genes that encode lipoproteins. However, the genome contains nearly all genes involved in reading and expressing it in the genome, as well as in preserving it across generations. The study is published in the journal Science. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org
31 March 2016: Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed producer, has approached Bayer AG to express interest in its crop science unit, including a potential acquisition worth more than $30 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The move underscores Monsanto's unabated expansion drive after Switzerland's Syngenta AG rejected its takeover approaches last year and agreed earlier this year to be acquired by ChemChina for $43 billion. It also illustrates Monsanto's determination to further consolidate its industry, as the global seed and crop protection market continues to suffer from high inventories and low prices for agricultural commodities. Monsanto sees valuable synergies between its seed business and the crop protection assets of Bayer. Among the possibilities discussed were an outright acquisition of the crop science unit and a joint venture or other type of partnership between the two companies, according to Monsanto officials. Link: http://www.monsanto.com
