1 June 2016: A group of 25 scientists at Harvard University proposed an ambitious project to create a synthetic human genome, or genetic blueprint, in an endeavour that is bound to raise concerns over the extent to which human life can or should be engineered. A synthetic genome would involve using chemicals to create the DNA present in human chromosomes. Potential applications from a synthetic human genome include: growing transplantable human organs; engineering immunity to viruses; engineering cancer resistance; and accelerating vaccine and drug development using human cells and organs. The project aims to build such a synthetic genome and test it in cells in the laboratory within 10 years. The project, which arose after meeting of scientists last month at Harvard University, was unveiled in the journal Science. They hope to get $100 million in public and private funding to launch it this year and expect total costs of less than the $3 billion used for the original Human Genome Project that completely mapped human DNA for the first time in 2003. Link:http://science.sciencemag.org
2 June 2016: Chennai-born physicist Tom Kibble, whose work was crucial in the theory of the Higgs Boson, died today. He was 83. Prof. Kibble had been working with Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College, London. After Peter Higgs formulated his ground-breaking mechanism for the Abelian gauge theories, in 1964, Tom Kibble came up with a more general version for non-Abelian gauge theories, in 1967. This immediately led Weinberg to make the connection and postulate the Higgs Mechanism. Kibble’s contribution was crucial in making Weinberg see the connection. Several awards and honours did come Prof. Kibble’s way, including the Order of the British Empire, and Albert Einstein Medal. However, the fact that he was not included in the Nobel in 2013, for the discovery of the Higgs Boson, which went to Peter Higgs and Francois Englebert, reportedly worried even Higgs himself. Prof. Kibble was born in Madras, as Chennai was known then, in 1932, and his father was a math and statistics professor at Madras Christian College. Link: http://www.imperial.ac.uk
3 June 2016: Nepali soldiers have kicked off efforts to partially drain a giant glacial lake near Mount Everest, fearing possible flooding that could threaten the lives of thousands. Scientists say climate change is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, creating huge glacial lakes which could burst their banks and devastate mountain communities. Imja Tsho, located at an altitude of 5,010 metres, just 10 kilometres south of the world's highest peak, is the fastest-growing glacial lake in Nepal. The surface area covered by the lake expanded from 0.4 to 1.01 sq.km. between 1984 and 2009, triggering concerns that it may breach its banks and flood villages downstream. The work began in April and the army expects to complete the project by the end of the year. Nepal is home to some 3,000 glacial lakes, of which seven are regarded as high-risk. The move to partially drain the lake comes one year after a major international study warned that glaciers in the Everest region could shrink by 70 % or disappear entirely by the end of the century. Link: http://www.nepalupclose.com
4 June 2016: The machines at Bletchley Park's Block H, the world's first purpose-built computer centre, helped gather crucial intelligence for the British military during the war. The machine Hitler used to send coded messages to his generals met the supercomputer that revealed its secrets today, watched on by veteran operatives whose painstaking work helped bring World War II to an end. Scientists at Bletchley Park in southern England, the WWII code breaking headquarters, fired up the valves, whirring wheels and spinning tors of the two machines to recreate how German military chiefs sent secret messages and how they were deciphered. Hitler's Lorenz machine boasted 1.6 million billion possible coding combinations thanks to a series of twelve rotors, a million times more complex than the more feted Enigma machine. operatives who fed encrypted German messages into the machine, including Irene Dixon, now in her nineties. Only decades after the war that Dixon discovered she had been processing the most sensitive of information. Link: https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk
5 June 2016: Sweden has been voted as the best country in the world when it comes to serving the interests of its people and contributing to the common good of humanity while India figured low at 70th position on a list of 163 nations. According to the 'Good Country' 2015 index which seeks to measure how countries contribute to the global good, Sweden, relative to the size of its economy, does more "good" and less harm than any other country. The report ranked a total of 163 countries taking 35 different UN and World Bank indices into account, including global contributions to science, culture, peace and security, climate change and health and equality. The top 10 best countries included Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Finland, Canada, France, Austria and New Zealand, whereas Libya was ranked as the least "good" country in the world. India figured at 70th position overall, three places below China, with the best ranking (27th) in 'international peace and security' and the worst (124th) in 'prosperity and equality'. Link: https://sweden.se
6 June 2016: A team of physicists led by Attila Krasznahorkay of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences published a rather provocative paper late last year in Physical Review Letters claiming that a strange radioactive decay anomaly is indicative of an unknown fundamental force. Despite the incredible claim, their paper wallowed in obscurity until physicist Jonathan Feng and his colleagues at the University of California decided to give it a closer look-and they found nothing wrong with the Hungarians' experiment or conclusion. The physics world is now abuzz with the possibility of a undiscovered fundamental force. Speculation about this elusive fifth force has existed for years, partly driven by the inability of the standard model of particle physics to explain dark matter -a hypothetical form of matter that comprises a huge portion of the mass and energy in the observable universe. Researchers at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and other groups in the United States and Europe are now working on how to address the problem. Link: http://journals.aps.org
7 June 2016: The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced the launch of the world's largest concentrated solar power (CSP) project. Located on a single site within the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the plant will consist of five facilities. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed either in late 2020 or 2021, at which time it's expected to generate 1,000 MW of power. By 2030, this plant could be churning out five times that amount-enough to raise the emirate's total power output by 25 percent. Concentrated solar power plants, unlike solar energy drawn from photovoltaic cells, use a large array of mirrors (called heliostats) to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a small area like a tower-top. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light gets converted to heat, which drives a steam turbine connected to an electrical power generator. Thermal heat can be stored easily, making it possible to produce electricity after sunset and night. Link: http://helioscsp.com
8 June 2016: Four new names will soon be added to the periodic table as scientists have put forth their recommendations for the names of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118. The names proposed for the new elements are in honour of Japan, Moscow, Tennessee, and a Russian scientist. Element 113, discovered by a RIKEN group in Japan led by Kosuke Morita, is the first element on the periodic table found in an Asian country. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia (JINR) late last year were recognized for discovering elements 115 and 118, while LLNL, JINR, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Vanderbilt University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas were recognized for the discovery of element 117. Elements heavier than uranium (with 92 protons), are not produced in nature but are made by scientists in labs. These elements are created using particle accelerators which smash two atoms which can sometimes form new elements fit for the periodic table. Link: http://www.nature.com
9 June 2016: A scientific breakthrough on the DNA sequencing of the groundnut (also known as peanut) promises the development of improved groundnut varieties with enhanced traits such as increased pod and oil yield, drought and heat tolerance and greater disease resistance. A team of 51 scientists from 9 institutes in China, India, the United States and Australia, including the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), have decoded the complete DNA sequencing of the ancestor of the groundnut, the diploid A-genome (Arachis duranensis). Other significant traits this could help develop include aflatoxin-free, nutrition-rich and allergen-free varieties. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), is an important crop both commercially as well as nutritionally. It is grown in more than 100 countries and is consumed in all countries in one or other form. Globally, this crop is cultivated in 25.7 million hectares with an annual production of about 42.3 million metric tons, achieving average productivity of 1.6 tons/hectare. Link: http://www.icrisat.org
10 June 2016: China plans to launch an independent optical facility, which will function like the Hubble Space Telescope, along with the construction of a space station in the coming years. The field of view of the optical cabin will be 300 times as large as that of the Hubble, and the cabin will be connected with the space station, said Gu Yidong , technology consultant of China's manned space flight project and academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), built by the NASA and the European Space Agency, orbits just outside the Earth's atmosphere, taking extremely high-resolution images of deep space. It was launched in 1990. The calibre of the telescope is about two metres, and its resolution is near that of the Hubble. The optical cabin will conduct heterochromatic photometry and slitless spectroscopy sky surveys. The cabin will stay in orbit with the space station, and will connect to the station when it needs maintenance or upgrades. China's space station is expected to be completed in 2020. Link: http://en.people.cn
11 June 2016: The solar-powered airplane, the Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 on a globe-circling voyage that began more than a year ago in the United Arab Emirates reached a milestone, completing a trip across the United States with a Statue of Liberty fly-by before landing in New York. Pilots Andre Borschberg, who flew the plane to New York, and Bertrand Piccard, who will start the next leg of the journey, expect to leave 'soon' to cross the Atlantic Ocean for Europe or South Africa on their way to completing an aviation engineering feat to advance environmentally compatible technology. The Solar Impulse 2’s wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries. The plane runs on stored energy at night. The trip began in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan. The plane had a five day trip from Japan to Hawaii, where the crew was forced to stay in Oahu due to battery damage. Link: http://www.solarimpulse.com
12 June 2016: With its scheduled arrival at the largest planetary inhabitant in our solar system on July 4, NASA’s Juno mission is now less than a month away from Jupiter. The mission is now 26 days and 17.8 million kilometres away from Jupiter, the US space agency. On the evening of July 4, Juno will fire its main engine for 35 minutes, placing it into a polar orbit around the gas giant, it added. Giant Jupiter lies in the harshest radiation environment known, and Juno has been specially designed to safely navigate the brand new territory. The Juno mission was launched on August 5, 2011 with the primary aim of improving our understanding of the solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter. With its suite of science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere of Jupiter, and observe the planet’s auroras, according to a statement made in NASA’s Juno mission profile. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
13 June 2016: New fossils unearthed in 2014 may be that of the ancestors of the 'hobbit-like' Homo floresiensis whose fossils were found in 2003. Half-sized humans who lived 700,000 years ago were almost certainly the ancestors of enigmatic 'hobbits' whose fossils were found on the same Indonesian isle in 2003. A modest haul of teeth and bones from an adult and two children has bolstered the theory that the hobbits, known to scientists as Homo floresiensis, arrived on Flores island as a different, larger species of hominin, or early man, probably about a million years ago. The process, called 'Island dwarfism', was well known in animals, with some species shrinking as much as six fold in adapting to an environment with fewer resources. The new fossils were unearthed in central Flores in 2014, about 100 kilometres from the 2003 discovery of the hobbit remains. Homo erectus, up to six feet tall and weighing up to 70 kg, is thought to have been the first human species to venture out of Africa. The article is published in the jounal Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com
14 June 2016: In an effort to end ongoing disputes surrounding forest land boundaries, the state forest department is set to finish survey and boundary demarcation of forest land within a year, as per the two-day workshop on modern survey methods, jointly organised by the Forest and Survey Departments. Forest survey activities will be strengthened and training to forest officials on survey methods will be completed in six months. The department aims to complete survey of forest land within a year. As the boundaries of forest and revenue land have not been earmarked, it is estimated that as many as 29 per cent of state’s area should be maintained as forest. Demarcating of forest boundaries will be done through scientific methods. It will also help address the issue of forest encroachment. Laying of 2,000 boundary stones within a year is a huge task which could be possible with the help of those who completed training in survey from the State Modern Survey Institute.Link: http://www.forest.kerala.gov.in
15 June 2016: Researchers have found an organic molecule essential to biology in interstellar space for the first time, a discovery that could help solve a long-time mystery. The origin of chirality in molecules remains a mystery, but scientists are hopeful that the interstellar discovery could finally solve the puzzle by clearing up what ingredients formed the base of our solar system. Researchers have found more than 180 molecules in space that give off a distinct vibration scientists can detect with radio telescopes. Larger, more complex molecules have more complicated vibration patterns, making them more difficult to identify. Scientists hope that if they can understand the chirality of the propylene oxide molecule found in space, they can gain a better understanding of chiral molecules on Earth. The study, known as the Prebiotic Interstellar Molecular Survey, is part of nearly a decade of research by the West Virginia-based NRAO, the organization that operates the ultra-sensitive Green Bank Telescope. The study is published in Science. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org
16 June 2016: To better understand and predict South Asia's seasonal monsoon, scientists are getting ready to release robots in the Bay of Bengal in a study of how ocean conditions might affect rainfall patterns. The monsoon, which hits between June and September, delivers more than 70% of India's annual rainfall. Its arrival is eagerly awaited by hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers, and delays can ruin crops or exacerbate drought. Yet, the rains are hard to predict and depend on the complex interplay between global atmospheric and oceanic movements in ways not yet fully understood. They can be affected by weather phenomena such as El Nino, and could become even more erratic with climate change and even air pollution. Working from an Indian research ship departing the southern port city of Chennai later this month, the British scientists will spend a month at sea releasing seven underwater robots across a 400-kilometer (250-mile) stretch of water. The torpedo-shaped robots are programed to navigate up and down through the water to a depth of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), measuring the water salinity, temperature and current and transmitting the data to a satellite. At the same time, scientists from the University of Reading and the Indian government in a related study will take atmospheric measurements.
Link: https://www.uea.ac.uk
17 June 2016: The ground-breaking detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time postulated by Albert Einstein 100 years ago, that was announced in February was no fluke. Now, the scientists have spotted them for a second time. The researchers detected gravitational waves that washed over Earth after two distant black holes spiraled toward each other and merged into a single, larger abyss 1.4 billion years ago. That long-ago violent collision set off reverberations through spacetime, a fusion of the concepts of time and three-dimensional space. These gravitational waves were observed by twin observatories in the United States late on December 25, 2015. The detectors are located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. The first detection of gravitational waves was made in September and announced on February 11. It created a scientific sensation and was a benchmark in physics and astronomy, transforming a quirky implication of Einstein's 1916 theory of gravity into the realm of observational astronomy. The waves detected in September and December both were triggered by the merger of black holes, which are regions so dense with matter that not even photons of light can escape the gravitational sinkholes they produce in space.
Link: http://www.nature.com
18 June 2016: Men are migrating to cities, leaving behind women in villages. That's impacting agriculture as women find it difficult to use heavy equipment used for farming. But that is going to change as the government plans to develop women-friendly equipment to sustain agriculture. The capacity of women has to be enhanced to sustain agriculture in the country in view of demographic and socio-economic changes in rural areas due to climate change. Changes in temperature and precipitation, increased frequency of extreme events such as drought and floods, as well as the accelerated melting of the Himalayan glaciers have raised concerns about the future of agriculture and food production, and its ability to keep up with the growing demands. Experts have repeatedly said that men are migrating from the rural areas due to climate change. According to ICIMOD, majority of people in the Himalayan region live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Climate change, population growth, rural-urban migration and other socio-economic changes have impacted agriculture. Keeping that in mind, the government has now stepped in to ensure that even if men migrate, women in the rural areas take up agriculture. The focus is on these women whose hard work will drive this sector in the future. It's a step to secure our food plate.
Link: http://www.icimod.org
19 June 2016: In 2016, for the first time in human history, atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide will be above 400 parts per million all year round as recorded at the iconic Mauna Loa, Hawaii measuring station. This is because El Nino has given an extra boost to the already rising CO2 levels. Since human emissions are now 25 per cent greater than in the last big El Nino in 1997/98, all of this adds up to a record CO2 rise this year. Mauna Loa is famous because it is here that the rising trend in CO2 was first recorded by Charles David Keeling in 1958. At that time, CO2 levels were about 315 parts per million. This has been increasing at an average rate of 2.1 parts per million for the last 60 years. The scientists already successfully predicted this year's maximum concentration of 407 parts per million last month. Carbon dioxide levels show modest ups-and-downs with the seasons. Plants draw down CO2 in the summer and release it again in the autumn and winter. Since natural processes only remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere gradually, levels will remain high even if human emissions began to decline. Scientists expect the concentrations to now remain above 400 parts per million for at least a human lifetime. The finding is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Link: http://www.nature.com
20 June 2016: Researchers at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University have identified antimicrobial peptides as promising molecules to be developed as drugs against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Across the world there is a lot of work happening on developing solutions for drug-resistant bacteria. The emergence of multidrug-resistant microbes (MDRs) and chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells are causing serious havoc in health care sector and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) hold the promise to tackle this problem. They can be used as a component in targeted medicines, she said. Traditional antibiotics generally target a particular physiological process of bacteria, such as cell wall synthesis, DNA replication etc. whereas, antimicrobial peptides mostly act without specific receptors and are ideal molecules to overcome the development of resistance. AMPs are a group of evolutionary conserved and relatively short molecules (12-100 amino acids) of the immune system, which are found in all forms of life ranging from microbes to humans, to combat microbial challenge. The project 'Molecular studies on myeloid antimicrobial peptides in buffalo' identified genes of three such peptides from the buffalo bone marrow. All the peptides were tested for its antimicrobial activity such as, antibacterial (including MDR bacteria), antifungal, antiviral, anti-parasitic, and anti-cancerous property.
Link: http://www.kvasu.ac.in
21 June 2016: A new research paper published today claims that a method for converting plastics to usable fuel has been developed in the laboratory. According to the latest available figures, the world produced 299 million tons of plastic in 2013. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, between 22 percent and 43 percent of the plastic used worldwide is disposed of in landfills. This trash is non-biodegradable and will continue to survive for centuries. Another study conservatively put the total plastic trash dumped in oceans at nearly 300,000 tons causing immense loss and damage to marine life. Till date no chemical or biological process has been developed to degrade the plastics accumulating across the world's ecosystems. So, a solution of the kind reported in this research paper could potentially be a game changer. Although the research team claims that the process is inexpensive and can be carried out under mild conditions, the question whether it is scalable - taken from the lab and commercialized for large scale use - is still not clear. The ratio of plastic to catalyst is currently approximately 30 to 1, which is not nearly good enough for commercial purposes, phys.org reported. The researchers want this to reach a goal of 10,000 to 1.The research was done by a combined team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of California and the results are published in the journal Science Advances. Link: http://advances.sciencemag.org
22 June 2016: India took a big leap in space technology today when Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) used its workhorse PSLV-C34 to inject 20 satellites including 17 foreign satellites into orbit in a single mission and set a new record today. The 320-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C34) took off on its 36th flight at 9.26am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with 20 satellites including its primary payload Cartosat-2 series, which provides remote sensing services, and earth observation and imaging satellites from US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia. It was also 14th flight of PSLV in 'XL'configuration with the use of solid strap-on motors. Cartosat-2 was placed in orbit at 9.44am. With Cartosat-2 weighing 727.5kg, PSLV lifted off a total of 1,288kg in to space and began placing the satellites into orbit about 17minutes later. ISRO set a world record for the highest number of satellites launched in a single mission when it placed 10 satellites in a PSLV on April 28, 2008. NASA in 2013 placed 29 satellites in a single mission and Russia in 2014 launched 33 satellites in one launch. Apart from Cartosat-2, the satellites launched on Wednesday include Lapan-A3 from Indonesia, Biros from Germany, M3MSat from Canada, SkySat Gen2-1, a Google-made satellite from USA, GHGSat-D from Canada, 12 Dove satellites from USA, Sathyabamasat from Sathyabhama University, Chennai and Swayam from College of Engineering, Pune.
Link: http://www.isro.gov.in
23 June 2016: Rice farming originated in China over 9000 years ago, according to new evidence unearthed by archaeologists. This pushes back the period of origin from the present estimate of about 8200 years ago, made in 2011. This discovery, made by a team of archaeologists from the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada and the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in China. The study sheds new light on the origins of rice domestication and on the history of human agricultural practices. Working with three researchers from the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Zhejiang Province, China, Crawford found the ancient domesticated rice fragments in a probable ditch in the lower Yangtze valley. They observed that about 30 per cent of the rice plant material - primarily bases, husks and leaf epidermis - were not wild, but showed signs of being purposely cultivated to produce rice plants that were durable and suitable for human consumption. Crawford says this finding indicates that the domestication of rice has been going on for much longer than originally thought. The rice plant remains also had characteristics of japonica rice, the short grain rice used in sushi that today is cultivated in Japan and Korea. Crawford says this finding clarifies the lineage of this specific rice crop, and confirms for the first time that it grew in this region of China. The study is published in Scientific Reports, an online open-access journal from the publishers of Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com
24 June 2016: Pluto's largest moon Charon is home to an unusual canyon system that's far longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon on the Earth, a new image taken by NASA's New Horizon probe has revealed. The deep canyon named Argo Chasma is approximately 700 km long while Arizona's Grand Canyon is 450 km long. New Horizons scientists estimate Argo Chasma to be as deep as 9 km, which is more than five times the depth of the Grand Canyon. There appear to be locations along the canyon's length where sheer cliffs reaching several miles high occur and which could potentially rival Verona Rupes on Uranus' moon Miranda (which is at least 5 km high) for the title of tallest known cliff face in the solar system. Pluto's largest moon, Charon, once had a sub-surface ocean that has long since frozen and expanded - pushing outward and causing the moon's surface to stretch and fracture on a massive scale, recent images from NASA's New Horizons mission had revealed. Charon is characterised by a system of pull apart tectonic faults, which are expressed as ridges, scarps and valleys, the latter sometimes reaching more than 6 km deep. Scientists said Charon could have been warm enough to cause the water ice to melt deep down, creating a subsurface ocean. But as Charon cooled over time, this ocean would have frozen and expanded - lifting the outermost layers of the moon and producing the massive chasms we see today.Link: https://www.nasa.gov
25 June 2016: The central regulator on transgenic organisms has proposed to utilize farms of select agricultural universities for field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops as a nationally-coordinated project under strict expert supervision. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of the environment ministry has identified 40 agricultural universities, with big isolated farms, for the purpose. They have been chosen keeping in mind the agro-climatic zones where transgenic seeds can be put on trial with precautions. The idea is to convince states about field trials of such crops in a protected environment, arguing that the risks and benefits of GM crops cannot be known unless scientifically tested. Besides central universities in Bihar (Pusa, Samastipur), UP (Jhansi) and Manipur (Imphal), state varsities in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand have been identified. The idea was first suggested by eminent scientist M S Swaminathan who had, in an interview to TOI in January, recalled his proposal and spoke about the importance of the project to provide a uniform method of assessment. Link: http://envfor.nic.in
26 June 2016: TeamIndus, a space-technology startup, today announced the launch of Lab2Moon, a competition for young people globally to create an experimental payload to fly on board the TeamIndus spacecraft set to be launched to the Moon in late 2017. This will be the first opportunity for a non-government experiment to fly to the moon since 1976. Teams of up to three members will be required to write a 300 word overview of their project, share drawings and upload a 2-minute video explaining why it should go to the Moon. The payload should be under 250 grams and should be able to communicate with the mothership. A jury of internationally-renowned scientists and technologists including Dr. K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman of ISRO, will shortlist 20 teams by the 25th of August, 2016. The winner will be declared on 26th January, 2017. TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The startup has already won a $1 million milestone prize. There are over 85 engineers and 15 former ISRO scientists who are helping TeamIndus design and develop its proprietary technology from its headquarters in Jakkur, north Bangalore. To win the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a privately funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high-definition video and images back to Earth.Link: http://lab2moon.teamindus.in
27 June 2016: Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been named the best place in the world to visit by a key US travel site. The US News and World Report's World's Best Places to Visit for 2016-17 gave the Great Barrier Reef the top position, ahead of Paris and Bora Bora, Xinhua news reported citing News Corp. The site described the Reef as holding 'a spot on every traveller's bucket list'. Tourism and Events Queensland chief executive Leanne Coddington said the reef's status as number one was a vote of confidence in its worldwide tourism appeal. The Great Barrier Reef is a living treasure and a major tourism draw-card for visitors to Queensland. It is an unrivalled experience that tens of thousands of people are enjoying every day. She noted that tourism to the reef contributed almost 5.2 billion Australian dollars ($3 billion) to the nation's economy. The Great Barrier Reef welcomes more than 1.9 million visitors each year. Link: http://travel.usnews.com
28 June 2016: While the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has launched a long-term monitoring studies in five Himalayan states including Himachal Pradesh to document the impact of climate change on animal biodiversity, a study conducted by State Centre on Climate Change, Himachal Pradesh, has already found that in Himachal Pradesh a number of diseases occurred in the past ten years. Some diseases among these are worsened by climate change including influenza, cholera, babesiosis, verminous pneumonia, tuberculosis, rabies and bronchopneumonia etc. Study report titled "Animal Diseases Influenced by Climate Variation in Himachal Pradesh" states that predicted negative impact of climate change on Indian agriculture would also adversely affect livestock production by aggravating the feed and fodder shortage. It said that alterations of temperature and precipitation regimes may result in a spread of disease and parasites into new regions or produce an increase in the incidence of disease, which, in turn, would reduce animal productivity and possibly increase animal mortality.
Link: http://www.hpccc.gov.in
29 June 2016: Europe's trailblazing Rosetta spacecraft will end its mission on September 30, reuniting with robot lab Philae on the surface of a comet hurtling through the Solar System. Rosetta, perhaps best known as the mothership of comet lander Philae, whose exploits in an alien world were followed by people around the world, was hoisted into space in March 2004. With Philae riding piggyback, it arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014 after a ten-year, 6.5-billion kilometre journey. In November that year, it sent down Philae, a 100-kilogramme lab equipped with 10 instruments for comet sniffing and prodding. After bouncing several times, the robot lab ended in a ditch shadowed from the Sun's battery-replenishing rays. But it managed to run about 60 hours of experiments and send home reams of valuable data before running out of energy and entering standby mode. As 67P neared the Sun on its elongated orbit, Philae emerged from hibernation in June 2015 and sent a two-minute message to Earth via Rosetta. The lander went permanently silent in July 2015 after eight intermittent communications with Earth. The mission was conceived to unravel the secrets of comets, believed to be time capsules from the birth of the Solar System. Link: http://www.esa.int
30 June 2016: Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand was conferred the Honoris Causa Doctor of Science by Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) during its 49th convocation ceremony in Kanpur today. The 46-year-old Anand was bestowed with the degree by NITI aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya in Kanpur. While receiving the degree, Anand remembered the day when he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1985 and shared that this dress code in Kanpur brought back memories of that day at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December, 1969 at Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Madras (now Chennai), where he grew up. His father Krishnamurthy Viswanathan was a retired General Manager of Southern Railways.He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sports person to receive the award. Link: http://www.chessgames.com
Director : Peter Chelsom
Producer : Richard Barton Lewis
Screenplay: Allan Loeb
Music : Andrew Lockington
Camera : Barry Peterson
The Space Between Us (working title Out of This World) is an upcoming American adventure film directed by Peter Chelsom, and written by Allan Loeb, from a story by Stewart Schill, Richard Barton Lewis and Allan Loeb. The first human born on Mars travels to Earth for the first time, experiencing the wonders of the planet through fresh eyes. He embarks on an adventure with a street smart girl to discover how he came to be.
On March 13, 2014, it was revealed that a science-fiction adventure film titled Out of This World was in development at Relativity Media, and scripted by Allan Loeb. Later in August 2014, it was reported that Peter Chelsom was hired to direct the film, while Relativity would produce and distribute the film. On September 8, 2015, it was announced that the title of the film would be The Space Between Us. In October 2015, STX Entertainment scheduled the film to be released on July 29, 2016. The release date was later switched with STX's other release, Bad Moms, and is now scheduled to be released on August 19, 2016.
Movie Website: http://www.imdb.com
Title : Selfish Gene
Author : Richard Dawkins
Pages : 496
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN : 10-0198788606
As influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication.
This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research.
Forty years later, its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published. This 40th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today, as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews.
Professor Richard Dawkins is one of the most influential science writers and communicators of our generation. He was the first holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he held from 1995 until 2008, and is Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford.
His bestselling books include The Extended Phenotype (1982) and its sequel The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), A Devil's Chaplain (2004), The Ancestor's Tale (2004) and The God Delusion (2007).
He has won many literary and scientific awards, including the 1987 Royal Society of Literature Award, the 1990 Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the 1994 Nakayama Prize for Human Science, the 1997 International Cosmos Prize, and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest in 2009.
Review Courtesy: www.amazon.com
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles.
Operation Barbarossa, as it was called, was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing immensely superior resources. The Germans had serious deficiencies. They severely underestimated their opponent; their logistical preparations were grossly inadequate for the campaign; and German industrial preparations for a sustained war had yet to begin.
Moscow seemingly lay open to a German advance, but at this point Russian weather intervened with heavy rains that turned the roads into morasses. The frosts of November solidified the mud, so that the drive could resume. The Germans struggled to the gates of Moscow where Soviet counterattacks stopped them in early December.
In desperate conditions, they conducted a slow retreat as Soviet attacks threatened to envelop much of their forces in a defeat as disastrous as that which befell Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812. In the end the Soviets over-reached, and the spring thaw in March 1942 brought operations to a halt. But Barbarossa had failed, and Nazi Germany confronted a two-front war that it could not win.
Source: http://www.history.com
Phylum : Chordata
Class : Aves
Order : Passeriformes
Family : Ploceidae
Genus : Ploceus
Species : Ploceus philippinus
Worried about the seemingly declining numbers, due to several reasons including habitat loss, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has decided to hold a pan-India Baya Weaver Count on two consecutive Sundays, June 5 and June 12, urging nature lovers to record and report the sightings of Indian Baya Weaver Birds in their areas.
The Bayas are a common species across India but along with most of the other weaver birds they are slowly undergoing a population decline because of increasing loss and modification of grasslands into human-dominated landscape, like agriculture farms, orchards, factories, canals and roads.
Highly gregarious, sparrow-sized, feed on grains, seeds and insects and have a high-pitched voice. Some males bring the nesting material, while some males weave thin threads into retort-shaped structures. During breeding season, April and August, the Baya males sport a distinctive yellow breeding plumage.
According to BNHS, all these factors have made it an urgent need to monitor this once common species and to collect its population data across India in order to reduce habitat loss and degradation and to promote conservation awareness initiatives. All Indian weaver bird species are protected and listed in Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The records can be submitted on www.bnhs.org emailed to: ibabnhs@gmail.com
1 May 2016: Swarms of insects breeding in a polluted river near the Taj Mahal are threatening the intricate marble inlay work at the 17th century monument to love by leaving green and black patches of waste on its walls. Workers scrub the walls clean every day, but the regular scrubbing can damage the floral mosaics and shiny marble surface, as per Bhuvan Vikram of the Archaeological Survey of India. Authorities are looking for a permanent solution to the problem created by the insects from the genus Goeldichironomus, a type of elongated fly that resembles a mosquito, that is proliferating in the polluted Yamuna River. The river has stagnated to the point that it no longer supports fish that once kept the insects in check. Archeologists are also struggling to protect the monument from air pollution, which turns the marble yellow and brown. The Taj Mahal was built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and houses their graves and a mosque. Link: http://icon.org.uk
2 May, 2016: The second part of a joint European-Russian mission to probe Mars for traces of life has been delayed two years, with a new launch date set for July 2020. In the first phase, the European Space Agency (ESA) and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, hoisted in mid-March two probes bound for the Red Planet. The Tracer Gas Orbiter will examine Mars' atmosphere, and a lander dubbed Schiaparelli, after a 19th-century astronomer will settle on the planet's surface in a trial run. The planned second stage of the mission will dispatch a European rover capable of drilling up to two metres into the Martian surface in search of organic matter. Space agency officials had warned that the follow-on ExoMars mission, originally scheduled for launch in 2018, might be delayed due to technical problems. The 2020 payload will also be lifted into space by a Russian Proton rocket. The double ExoMars mission will complement the work of NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been criss-crossing Mars' surface for more than three years. Link: http://exploration.esa.int
3 May, 2016: A veteran Mexican diplomat has been chosen to head the United Nations' newly upgraded climate office, UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced in a letter to France's environment minister. As per Ban, he will appoint Patricia Espinosa Cantellano as the new UNFCCC Executive Secretary for a term of three years, referring to the body which oversaw the international negotiations in December leading to a historic climate pact. The letter is dated April 28 and addressed to French minister Segolene Royal, whose country hosted the 195-nation climate talks. A former foreign minister, and currently Mexico's ambassador to Germany, Espinosa made her mark in climate circles when she took the helm at the UN in 2010, a year after the process was nearly derailed in Copenhagen. She will replace Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, who held the post for six years. The mandate of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, now in its 21st year, is to slash carbon pollution and help poor countries cope with climate impacts. Link: http://www.un.org
4 May, 2016: Scientists have found that there is low probability of the existence of the mysterious 'Planet Nine', a Neptune-mass world that may circle our Sun at a distance of about 64 billion to 225 billion kilometres. Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, leaving theorists puzzled over how this planet could end up in such a distant orbit. Planet Nine circles our Sun at a distance of about 64 billion to 225 billion kilometres, or 400-1,500 astronomical units. This places it far beyond all the other planets in our solar system. Researchers conducted millions of computer simulations in order to consider three possibilities. The first and most likely involves a passing star that tugs Planet Nine outward. Such an interaction would not only nudge the planet into a wider orbit but also make that orbit more elliptical. Researchers find only a 10 per cent probability, at best, of Planet Nine landing in its current orbit. The planet would have had to start at an improbably large distance to begin with. The study was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.Link: http://iopscience.iop.org
5 May, 2016: Oil giant ExxonMobil started a new venture that could make carbon-dioxide capture a more economically attractive way to fight global warming. ExxonMobil's new agreement with FuelCell Energy aims to develop technology for capturing carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants using fuel cells. The idea is that the fuel cells could generate the additional electricity needed for the carbon-capture process, eliminating at least part of what has been seen as a burdensome cost in the process. FuelCell Energy is a specialist in fuel-cell technology, which converts waste gases into energy. The company believes it has developed a solution to combining carbon capture and fuel-cell technology in a way that could pay for itself with power generation. The power plant exhausts would be delivered to the fuel cell, which would use some of the exhaust for generating power while concentrating the carbon dioxide, making capture easier. The process would also eliminate around 70% of smog-producing nitrogen oxides from power plants. Link: http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en
6 May, 2016: The world's most powerful proton smasher is preparing for its biggest run yet which scientists hope will uncover new particles that could dramatically change our understanding of the Universe. Late last year, before CERN shut down its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a technical break, two separate teams of scientists said they had discovered anomalies that could possibly hint at the existence of a mysterious new particle. The discovery of a new particle could prove the existence of extra space-time dimensions, or explain the enigma of dark matter. The LHC, housed in a 27-kilometre (17-mile) tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border, has shaken up physics before. In 2012 it was used to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson, the long-sought maker of mass, by crashing high-energy proton beams at velocities near the speed of light. A year later, two of the scientists who had in 1964 theorised the existence of the God particle, earned the Nobel physics prize for the discovery. Recently LHC underwent a two-year upgrade. Link: http://home.cern
7 May, 2016: A bizarre crocodile-sized hammerhead-creature, that lived 242 million years ago in today's southern China, may have been the earliest known example of a plant-eating marine reptile. The fossil , discovered in 2014, has a poorly preserved head, but seems to have a flamingo-like beak. Scientists said that the 'beak' is actually part of a hammerhead-shaped jaw apparatus, which it used to feed on plants on the ocean floor. The name, Atopodentatus unicus, hints at its muddled past - it is Latin for 'unique strangely toothed'. Not only does this discovery solve the mystery of the strange-toothed animal, but it also provides an example of the first herbivorous marine reptile. The jaw structure is clearly that of an herbivore. It has similarities to other marine animals that ate plants with a filter-feeding system, but Atopodentatus is older than them by about eight million years. Atopodentatus also tells story about the world's largest mass extinction 252 million years ago. The study was published in the journal Science. Link: http://advances.sciencemag.org
8 May, 2016: The central government's premier research institution, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is joining hands with the former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar-led Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), Pune, to develop drought tolerant genetically modified (GM) sugarcane that will need less water for cultivation. The final call will be of the central regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)- of the environment ministry. So far, GM brinjal has not been allowed commercial release even after getting the regulator's nod in India whereas the similar transgenic variety is being cultivated by neighbouring Bangladesh. GM sugarcane in water stressed areas can offer hope in Maharashtra and other parts of India. The research body, nevertheless, appears to be preparing for the future. Under the existing procedure, once the RCGM approves a transgenic variety of any crop it goes to the GEAC for getting permission for field trials. At present, only GM Cotton (Bt Cotton) is allowed for commercial cultivation in India. Link: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org
9 May, 2016: Scientists have gotten to the root of the carrot, genetically speaking. Researchers have sequenced the genome of the carrot, an increasingly important root crop worldwide, identifying genes responsible for traits including the vegetable's abundance of vitamin A, an important nutrient for vision. The genome may point to ways to improve carrots through breeding, including increasing their nutrients and making them more productive and more resistant to disease, pest and drought, the researchers said. The vitamin A in carrots arises from their orange pigments, known as carotenoids. The study identified genes responsible for carotenoids as well as pest and disease resistance and other characteristics. In addition to eyesight, vitamin A also is important for immune function, cellular communication, healthy skin and other purposes. The researchers sequenced the genome of a bright orange variety of the vegetable called the Nantes carrot, named for the French city. The study who led the study published in the journal Nature Genetics.Link: http://www.nature.com
10 May, 2016: A transit of Mercury over the disc of the Sun took place today afternoon and was visible from India after a gap of about ten years. The transit of Mercury is a phenomenon in which the planet will be seen as a small black dot travelling from one end of the solar disc to the other. It is seen when mercury passes between the Sun and the Earth and it happens only when the three are lined up. Mercury appears as a dot on the solar disc because its angular size is very small compared to that of the Sun as seen from Earth. The transit of mercury will be visible from most of Asia (except south eastern parts and Japan), Europe, Africa, America, America, Arctic and most of the Pacific Ocean. The transit will be visible in India after ten years and the next it will be visible in the country after a long gap of 16 years in 2032. Finally the transit ends when the disc of Mercury is externally tangent with the Sun (egress exterior). The transit of Mercury is relatively a rare phenomenon, occurs 13 or 14 times in a century, mostly in the months of May and November. Link: https://web.archive.org
11 May, 2016: A new species of Ceropegia has been collected from the lateritic hill Pokkunnu, near Nanminda in Kozhikode district of Kerala. The new species is named Ceropegia nampyana, in honour of Professor Santhosh Nampy, Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, for his valuable contribution to the field of Angiosperm taxonomy, who guided the first author to the field of taxonomical research. It is so far known from the type locality only. About 30 individuals were located. Flowering and fruiting after monsoon; flowers and fruits were collected in October. According to IUCN criteria, the species falls under the category Data Deficient (DD). The genus Ceropegia L. includes more than 200 species distributed in the Old World ranging from South East Asia, India, Madagascar, Tropical Arabia, Canary Islands and Africa except the Mediterranean region, New Guinea and Northern Australia. The report of the new species is published in International Journal of Advanced Research. Link: www.journalijar.com
12 May, 2016: An international study led by IISc researchers has found evidence that Indian landmass may have drifted away from Madagascar 90 million years ago and floated across the Indian Ocean to join the Asian landmass (Eurasia continent). The researchers determined the timing of suturing (formation and re-formation of continents) by radioactive dating of minerals like zircon, monazite within the suture. They took samples of rocks from the lands in Asia joined by the suture zone and studied their mineral composition for the presence of compounds like metal oxides (Eg: aluminium oxide and iron oxide) and elements like calcium and manganese.They were studying the theory that India (along with Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Australia and Antarctica together called eastern Gondwana) broke off a very long time ago from Africa and South America (western Gondwana) - a concept first put forward in 1979, but still a matter of debate. A recent paper had also linked the Mercara suture zone with the Bestimisaraka suture zone in Madagascar. Link: http://www.newsforafrica.com
13 May, 2016: An experimental malaria vaccine has been found to protect a small number of healthy people from infection for more than one year after immunization. The vaccine, known as the PfSPZ Vaccine, was developed and produced by US-based pharmaceutical company Sanaria. NIAID researchers and collaborators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore conducted the clinical evaluation of the vaccine, which involved immunisation and exposing willing healthy adults to the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum in a controlled setting. The parasites that cause malaria are transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. The PfSPZ Vaccine is composed of live, but weakened P. falciparum sporozoites the early developmental form of the parasite. Previous research showed the PfSPZ Vaccine to be highly protective three weeks after immunisation. For the phase one clinical trial, the researchers enrolled 101 healthy adults aged 18 to 45 years who had never had malaria. Link: http://www.sanaria.com
14 May, 2016: China
has opened its first deep-sea research institute which experts said
will be meaningful for resource exploitation and improvements to naval
technology. The Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE)
located in Sanya, Hainan province passed an acceptance inspection and
began official operations today. The IDSSE is the first scientific
research base for study of the deep seas and is also China's first
public platform for deep-sea research and technological experiments.
Since 2012, Chinese scientists have participated in several research
projects related to the South China Sea, including scientific voyages in
the area. Deep-sea research will also have military uses, as studies on
complex marine environments can help improve naval technology, which is
usually the most advanced military technology in a country. The mother
ship for a new deep-sea submersible was delivered to the Chinese Academy
of Sciences in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. It is expected to dive
to the Mariana Trench for a mission. Link: http://download.springer.com
15 May, 2016: French astrophysicist Andre Brahic, one of the discoverers of Neptune’s rings, died in Paris at the age of 73. An expert on the solar system, in 1984 he launched a programme which led to the discovery, with US astronomer William Hubbard, of the rings around the gaseous planet Neptune. Born into a modest family in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942, Brahic's family originated from the coal mining village of Petit-Brahic in the Banne commune of southern France. Brahic was first introduced into the field of astrophysics by Evry Schatzman, one of the foremost astrophysicist in France at the time. In the 1980s, Brahic became a specialist in exploring the Solar System NASA Voyager program and the Cassini spacecraft. It was his interest in Saturn and its rings which led him to launch his Neptune research. Neptune’s outermost ring is divided into three arcs to which Brahic gave the names Liberte, Fraternite and Egalite. In 1990 an asteroid was named Brahic-3488, in his honour. Brahic wrote several books including 'Worlds Elsewhere; Are We Alone'. Link: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net
16 May, 2016: Delhi is not the most polluted city in the world any more, according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) urban air quality database released today. In fact, it now ranks 11th among 3,000 cities in 103 countries in terms of PM 2.5 (fine, particulate pollution) and 25th in terms of PM 10 (coarse pollution particles) levels. This is though a considerable improvement since 2014 when Delhi was ranked the most polluted city in terms of PM 2.5 levels, WHO had monitored only 1600 cities last time. Zabol in Iran is the most polluted city in the world. Gwalior and Allahabad are a close second and third in terms of PM 2.5, which is associated with more serious health impacts than PM 10. Patna and Raipur rank 6th and 7th. Totally, four Indian cities are among the world's ten most polluted, 10 out top 20 are also in India. In WHO's 2014 report, 13 out of 20 most polluted cities were in India. Delhi's annual PM 2.5 mean for 2013 (second half) is 122 mg per cubic metres according to WHO's report compared to 153 mg per cubic metres as per WHO's previous report. Link: http://www.who.int
17 May, 2016: The
International Space Station, the space laboratory that showcases
cooperation between Russia and the United States, today orbited Earth
for the 100,000th time. Travelling at an altitude of about 250 miles
(400 kilometres) and a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometres)
per hour, the space station circles the Earth once every 90 minutes. Its
"anniversary orbit" lasted from 7:35 am to 9:10 am Moscow time (0435 to
0610 GMT). This is a significant milestone and is a tribute to this
international partnership made up of the European Space Agency, of
Russia, Canada, Japan and the United States. Williams is on his third
ISS mission and is currently on board the station with fellow Nasa
astronaut Timothy Kopra, Britain's Tim Peake and Russians Yury
Malenchenko, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka. The first section of
the ISS station called Zarya or Dawn in Russian, was launched into space
more than 17 years ago on November 20, 1998. The first crew to inhabit
the station American astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts
Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko arrived in 2000, since when it has
been continually occupied. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
18 May, 2016: Helen
Sharman, the first Briton in space, celebrated the 25th anniversary of
the event this week at Imperial College London, where she now works as
Operations Manager in the Department of Chemistry. She also celebrated
at the Science Museum. On 18th May 1991, Dr. Sharman, together with
Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Anatoly Artsebarsky lifted off
for the Mir space station on the Soyuz TM-12 mission, which lasted eight
days. Dr. Sharman’s tasks included agricultural and medical tests,
photographing the British Isles, and taking part in an amateur radio
hookup with British schoolchildren. The twenty-fifth anniversary was
celebrated with her Russian colleagues as well as about a dozen
astronauts. Earlier this week, on 18th May, she was reunited with the
spacesuit she wore in 1991. On 20th May, Dr. Sharman returned to the
Science Museum to commemorate the day she and her crew members docked
with Mir. Other European astronauts as well as her original Soviet crew joined her in the celebration. Sergei Krikalev holds the record
for the second-longest time spent non-stop in space- 803 days. Krikalev
was one of the people who helped train the astronaut Tim Peake, who
is currently in Space Station. Link: http://www.helensharman.com
19 May, 2016: In a first, scientists have directly observed magnetic reconnection, a fundamental process in nature that may be key to learning more about the cosmos and help protect future deep space missions as we journey farther from our planet. When two sets of magnetic fields connect, an explosive reaction occurs. As the magnetic fields realign and snap into a new formation, they send particles zooming off in jets. The effects of this sudden release of particles and energy such as giant eruptions on the Sun, the aurora, radiation storms in near-Earth space, high energy cosmic particles that come from other galaxies have been observed throughout the solar system and beyond. However, scientists have never been able to witness the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection directly. The mission, the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), is made of four identical spacecraft that NASA launched in March last year. They fly in a pyramid formation to create a full 3D map of any phenomena they observe. The 25 sensors will be collecting thousands of observations. Link: http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov
20 May, 2016: The World-first Scanning Helium Microscope has been built by Australian researchers who feel it could open doors for many new discoveries by allowing scientists to scrutinize materials without disturbing them. Paul Dastoor of University of Newcastle who has been working on the Scanning Helium Microscope (SHeM) for two decades said the new microscope will enable scientists to study human, animal and plant samples, as well as computer chips and pharmaceutical drugs, without damaging or changing them. The scanning helium microscope means the samples will be analysed in their true state for the first time ever and every time a new microscope was developed there had been enormous scientific advances. SHeM could be useful in major industries such as solar energy, defence, explosives and information technology. SHeM could help with the clean-up of toxic or even radioactive spills, without harming the surrounding flora or fauna. The possibilities were endless in the areas of biology and pharmaceuticals.Link: https://www.newcastle.edu.au
21 May, 2016: The State broadcaster, Doordarshan’s one-hour documentary titled, ‘Whispers of Warming’ has won the best documentary film award at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union TV Award competition held in Krabi, Thailand. The one-hour documentary film on climate change has been directed by Anoop Khajuria, Assistant Director of Programme, Doordarshan It attempts to tell the story of the people who inhabit the western Himalayas and are being impacted by the climate change due to global warming. The film has documented the phenomenon of climate change through the perceptions of people in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and focused on their struggle to adapt to changing weather conditions. The documentary revolves around the theme of climate change in the Ladakh division of the western Himalayas. It competed with 40 films from 20 countries across the world. India is a major stake holder in the Paris Declaration on climate change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Link: http://www.indiantelevision.com
22 May, 2016: Two Indian American scientists, Ramesh Raliya and Pratim Biswas, at Washington University in St Louis have found a sustainable way to boost agricultural production in keeping with the increasing global population, during their research on the use of nanoparticle technology in agriculture. Their epoch-making invention of an eco-friendly alternative to conventional phosphorus-rich fertilizers is expected to usher in a new age of organic farming. Pratim Biswas at Washington University in St Louis is a professor of environmental engineering science and Ramesh Raliya is a research scientist. Both in the School of Engineering and Applied Science discovered that the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles in farming would not only improve the growth of food crops but also save water bodies from the polluting effects of phosphorus deposits. The study is published in Washington University’s Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. Link: http://pubs.acs.org
23 May, 2016: The first technology demonstrator (TD) launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), or the spaceplane in popular parlance, took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota. Visually, the RLV-TD is a rocket-aircraft combination measuring about 17 m, whose first stage is a solid propellant booster rocket and the second stage is a 6.5 m long aircraft-like winged structure sitting atop the rocket. In RLV-TD that is awaiting launch at SHAR, the first stage, weighing about 9 tonnes, is merely the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3) flown in the 1980s. The vehicle took off like a rocket and the RLV was taken to a height of 70 km and where the booster will release the vehicle for its manoeuvres. The test is, therefore, termed as Hypersonic Experiment 1 (HEX-1). However, the ultimate objective of the RLV programme of ISRO is to enable the vehicle traverse a very wide range of flight regimes from Mach 0 to Mach 25 based on air-breathing propulsion for achieving two-stage-to-orbit capability. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in
24 May, 2016: In
a new study, it has been revealed that the Bene Israel community in the
western part of India carries genetic proof of the Jewish roots. The
community too has identified itself as Jewish. According to their oral
history, the Bene Israel people descended from 14 Jewish survivors of a
shipwreck on India's Konkan shore. The exact timing of this event and
the origin and identity of the Jewish visitors are unknown. Some date
the event to around 2,000 years ago. Others estimate that it took place
in 175 BCE. But others still believe their Jewish ancestors arrived as
early as the 8th century BCE. The research team based their study on
data from the Jewish HapMap project, an international effort led by
Harry Ostrer of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, to determine the
genetic history of worldwide Jewish diasporas. They used sophisticated
genetic tools to conduct genome-wide analyses on the genetic markers of
18 Bene Israel individuals. It is published on PLOS ONE. Link: http://journals.plos.org
25 May, 2016: Psilocybin , the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, may one day be an effective treatment for patients with severe depression. It will be useful to treat patients who fail to recover using other therapies. A small-scale pilot study of psilocybin's use in cases of treatment-resistant depression showed it was safe and effective. Of 12 patients given the drug, all showed some decrease in symptoms of depression for at least three weeks. Magic mushrooms grow worldwide and have been used since ancient times, both for recreation and for religious rites. British researchers led by David Nutt, a professor of neuro-psychopharmacology at Imperial, have been exploring the potential of psilocybin to ease severe forms of depression in people who don't respond to other treatments. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 350 million people worldwide are affected by depression, a common mental disorder characterized by sadness. The results, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal.Link: http://www.thelancet.com
26 May, 2016: The Europa ocean on Jupiter's icy moon may have the Earth-like balance of chemical energy necessary for life, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity, a new NASA study suggests. Europa is strongly believed to hide a deep ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell. Whether the Jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of intense scientific interest. The answer may hinge on whether Europa has environments where chemicals are matched in the right proportions to power biological processes. Life on Earth exploits such niches. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California compared Europa's potential for producing hydrogen and oxygen with that of Earth, through processes that do not directly involve volcanism. The balance of these two elements is a key indicator of the energy available for life. The oxygen production is about 10 times higher than hydrogen production. The research was published in Geophysical Research Letters. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
27 May, 2016: Awarded annually, the Medal of Science recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and mathematics. A 65-year-old Indian American scientist will receive the ‘National Medal of Science’ award from U.S. President Barack Obama this week, the White House. Rakesh K Jain, a professor of tumour biology at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Harvard Medical School, will receive the award from Obama along with 16 other recipients of the ‘National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation’ today. The award function was initially scheduled for January 22 but was postponed due to a major snow storm. Awarded annually, the Medal of Science recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and mathematics. The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. Link: http://www.uspto.gov
28 May, 2016: India will get an indigenously-built supercomputer next year as part of the government's Rs 4,500-crore programme aimed at taking India into an elite league of nations who have made advancements in the field. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing that built India's first supercomputer, Param , is handling the project, said Ashutosh Sharma, secretary in the ministry of science and technology. The government had, in March 2015, approved the plan of the National Supercomputing Mission, under which 80 supercomputers will be built in the next seven years. The new supercomputers will be kept in different institutes across the country. A supercomputer can be used for various purposes like climate modeling, weather forecast, discoveries of drugs among others. Currently, countries like the US, Japan, China and the European Union account for a major share of the top supercomputing machines in the world. Link: http://www.cdac.in
29 May, 2016: National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) has deployed a bread loaf-sized Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat from an airlock on the International Space Station to study the Sun's soft x-rays that can affect our communications systems.MinXSS
will operate for up to 12 months and the data will also help scientists
understand the physics behind solar flares. The soft X-rays carry
information about the temperature, density and chemical composition of
material in the Sun's atmosphere, allowing scientists to trace how
events like flares and other processes heat the surrounding material in
the Sun's atmosphere. CubeSats are a new, low-cost tool for space science missions. Instead of the traditional space science missions, CubeSats are designed to take narrowly targeted scientific observations, with only a few instruments. MinXSS was launched via the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative programme on December 6 last year aboard Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft through NASA's Commercial contract. Link: http://lasp.colorado.edu
30 May, 2016: China will launch its first experimental quantum communication satellite in July, whose communications cannot be intercepted, as per Chinese Academy of Sciences. It will be the first quantum communication through a satellite in the world. Quantum communication boasts ultra-high security as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated. It is hence impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack the information transmitted through it, Pan said. The CAS's project includes launch of a satellite and building of four ground stations for quantum communication and one space quantum teleportation experiment station. Upon completion, the satellite will be able to establish quantum optical links simultaneously with two ground bases thousands of kilometres apart. Chinese scientists have taken five years to develop the first quantum satellite. It will be transported to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in June.Link: http://english.cas.cn
31 May, 2016: China will send lunar probe Chang'e 5 to land on the moon and return with samples in the second half of 2017. According to State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), it will be the first time a Chinese probe will land on the moon, collect samples and return to Earth, and the third stage of China's lunar exploration endeavour. The first stage of the lunar expedition was achieved by sending Chang'e 1, a circumlunar satellite, in 2007. China then landed its first lunar probe Chang'e 3 on the surface of the moon in 2013. Beijing is also planning to be the first country to land on the far side of the moon. That mission will be carried out by Chang'e-4, a backup for Chang'e-3, and is due to be launched in 2018, according to SASTIND. It also plans to orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover around 2020. The country will also unveil a new generation of carrier rockets including Long March 5 and 7 in 2016, along with other new satellites and spacelabs. Link: http://www.clep.org.cn
