1 August 2016: A near-Earth asteroid that is coming towards our planet
after being dislodged by a gravitational pull can indeed strike us and and
cause massive destruction but according to experts, it has a one in 2,700
chances of hitting. Such an event will not take place for 150 years and the
people living in the year 2135 would know whether the asteroid named Bennu
posed an actual threat to hit Earth. The OSIRIS-REx Mission, headed by NASA and
the University of Arizona, plan to launch an unmanned spacecraft on September 8
in the efforts to reach Bennu in August 2018. OSIRIS-REx will launch from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 411 rocket during a 34-day launch period
starting September 8. It will orbit the Sun for a year and then use Earth's
gravitational field to assist it on its way to Bennu. In August 2018,
OSIRIS-REx's approach to Bennu will begin. It will use an array of small rocket
thrusters to match the velocity of Bennu and rendezvous with the asteroid. The
spacecraft will begin a detailed survey of Bennu two months after slowing to
encounter Bennu. After the selection of the final site, the spacecraft will
briefly touch the surface of Bennu to retrieve a sample. The sampling arm will
make contact with the surface of Bennu for about five seconds, during which it
will release a burst of nitrogen gas. The procedure will cause rocks and
surface material to be stirred up and captured in the sampler head. Link:
2 August 2016: Jupiter's volcanic moon lo
has a thin atmosphere that collapses in the shadow of the planet condensing as
ice, say NASA-funded researchers, revealing the freezing effects of its shadow
during daily eclipses on the moon's volcanic gases. Io is the most
volcanically-active object in the solar system. This is the first time
scientists have observed this remarkable phenomenon directly, improving our
understanding of this geologically active moon. The volcanoes are caused by
tidal heating, the result of gravitational forces from Jupiter and other moons.
These forces result in geological activity, most notably volcanoes that emit
umbrella-like plumes of sulphur dioxide gas that can extend up to 480 km above
Io and produce extensive basaltic lava fields that can flow for hundreds of
miles. The new study documents atmospheric changes on Io as the giant planet
casts its shadow over the moon's surface during daily eclipses. Io's atmosphere
is in a constant state of collapse and repair and shows that a large fraction
of the atmosphere is supported by sublimation of SO2 ice. Link:
3 August 2016: Chinese scientists are set
to perform the world's first genetic editing trial on human beings this month.
The idea behind using this controversial technique on cancer patients at a
hospital in Chengdu city, is to find a cure for lung cancer. The trial will
cover 10 patients with lung cancer. It will be conducted by a set of
oncologists who will attempt to selectively edit genome parts and replace them
with new DNA stretches. The oncologists will inject patients with cells
modified using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique. The trial received
ethical approval from the hospital's review board on July 6. Gene editing is
disallowed in most countries because of fears that it can lead to dangerous
consequences as scientists try to produce "designer babies" with
extremely dangerous mental and behavioural traits. This is the first step on a
path that scientists have carefully mapped out towards the legalization of
(genetically modified) babies. On the other hand, a section of scientists see
it as an opportunity to find cures and even avoid production of babies with
inherited diseases. The US journal Science named CRISPR as the "2015
Breakthrough of the Year". Link:
4 August 2016: In a first, the Federal
Aviation Administration has given license to a private US company, co-founded
by an Indian American, to launch a spacecraft and land on moon in 2017. This
breakthrough US policy decision provides authorisation to Moon Express for a
maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the Moon's surface, the company
said in a media release. There have been no private space missions so far
beyond Earth's orbit and only state agencies have performed outer space
missions. The company was co-founded in 2010 by space visionary, Dr Bob
Richards, Naveen Jain and serial entrepreneur and artificial intelligence and
space technology guru, Dr Barney Pell, with the common vision to be at the
forefront of commercial space exploration and innovation. The Moon Express 2017
mission approval is a landmark decision by the US government and a pathfinder for
private sector commercial missions beyond the Earth's orbit. The federal
interagency's approval of the Moon Express 2017 lunar mission establishes an
important precedent for the private sector to engage in peaceful space
exploration, bringing with it monumental implications for the advancement of
technology, science, research, and development, as well as commercial ventures
that expand Earth's economic sphere. Link:
5 August 2016: To mark Curiosity rover's fourth anniversary since
landing on Mars, Nasa has launched a new mobile game that lets users explore
the rugged terrain of the red planet. In the social media game, Mars Rover,
players drive through Mars, challenging themselves to navigate and balance the
rover while earning points along the way. The game also illustrates how Nasa's
next Mars rover, in development for launch in 2020, will use radar to search
for underground water. The mission is examining the lower slopes of Mount
Sharp, a layered mountain inside Gale Crater, to learn more about how and when
ancient environmental conditions in the area evolved from freshwater settings
into conditions drier and less favourable for life. Curiosity landed inside
Mars' Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. During the rover's first Earth year on
Mars, the mission accomplished its main goal when it found and examined an
ancient habitable environment. Researchers determined that a freshwater lake at
the "Yellowknife Bay" site billions of years ago offered the chemical
ingredients and energy favourable for supporting microbial life, if life has
ever existed on Mars. Link:
6 August 2016: Geologists have found
evidence supporting the hypothesis that Indian subcontinent was part of
Antarctica a billion years ago but were separated and re-united several times
due to tectonic movement of plates before the evolution of mankind. A group of
geologists from India and Switzerland researching on evolution of the Earth's
crust studied ancient rocks of the continental crust in the Eastern Ghats area
and found important clues to the formation of the continents. India and
Antarctica then got separated by an ocean. Their research, which was recently
published in international journal 'Elsevier', shows the two continents
separated once more and a new ocean was formed where the old ocean had been.
After this collision the crust broke apart again, once more separating India
from Antarctica and now there is a big ocean between the two land masses that
had actually combined several times in the Earth's history, says the research
report. All this happened much before the evolution of mankind on earth and the
research team collected evidences at the junction of the Singhbhum Craton and
Eastern Ghats in Odisha and Jharkhand. Link:
7 August 2016: Scientists have identified
20 potentially habitable Earth-like rocky planets from a trove of over 4,000
exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission till date. The new research
outlines 216 Kepler planets located within the 'habitable zone'- the area
around a star in which a planet's surface could hold liquid water. Of those, 20
were listed as the best candidates to be habitable rocky planets like
Earth.This is the complete catalogue of all of the Kepler discoveries that are
in the habitable zone of their host stars. The research also confirms that the
distribution of Kepler planets within the habitable zone is the same as the
distribution of those outside of it - additional evidence that the universe is
teeming with planets and moons where life could potentially exist. The
boundaries of the habitable zone are critical. If a planet is too close to its
star, it will experience a runaway greenhouse gas effect, like Venus. But if it
is too far, any water will freeze, as is seen on Mars. The 20 planets in the
most restrictive category - rocky surface and a conservative habitable zone -
are the most likely to be similar to Earth. The study was published in the
Astrophysical Journal. Link:
8 August 2016: A cosmic display of
'shooting stars' will light up the night skies this week during the annual
Perseid meteor shower, when up to 200 meteors per hour will hit the Earth's
atmosphere and disintegrate in flashes of light, according to NASA. The
Perseids show up every year in August when Earth ventures through trails of
debris left behind by an ancient comet. This year, Earth may be in for a closer
encounter than usual with the comet trails that result in meteor shower,
setting the stage for a spectacular display. An outburst is a meteor shower with
more meteors than usual. The last Perseid outburst occurred in 2009. Every
Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun
every 133 years. Each swing through the inner solar system can leave trillions
of small particles in its wake. When Earth crosses paths with Swift-Tuttle's
debris, specks of comet-stuff hit Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate in
flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly
out of the constellation Perseus. Most years, Earth might graze the edge of
Swift-Tuttle's debris stream, where there is less activity. Occasionally,
Jupiter's gravity tugs the huge network of dust trails closer, and Earth
ploughs through closer to the middle, where there is more material. Link:
9 August 2016: India's premier scientific
research body, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR)
Mysuru-based constituent laboratory, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research
Institute (CSIR-CFTRI), has developed an Omega-3 and Vitamin-E enriched frozen
nutritional dessert - called Nutrice - from vegetarian sources. This product
will provide the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of omega-3 for children in
one serving. Using the knowledge of traditional Indian food habits, the
CSIR-CFTRI has developed a diverse array of food products such as nutri-chikki
incorporated with spirulina, rice mix, high protein rusk, energy food, nutri
sprinkle, sesame paste and fortified mango bar so as to address the varying
nutritional requirements of people. Dietary supplementation of Omega-3 fats,
which are the poly unsaturated fatty acids, are beneficial for brain
development in children and good health in elderly population. Since people's
food habits largely revolve around diverse food sources and preparations to
address the different nutritional requirements, the CSIR-CFTRI has been working
to develop such dietary products for years. Link:
10 August 2016: The country's first tiger
cell will soon take shape at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) campus in Dehradun.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the setting up of the cell was
signed between the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and WII. The
cell will house a database of tigers as well as DNA and stripes samples of the
big cats from over 50 tiger reserves, and will aid conservation efforts by
keeping an update on tiger numbers as well as tracking poaching incidents
throughout the country. The cumulative data of countrywide tiger assessment
which WII has been compiling for more than a decade will now be
institutionalized in the cell. In addition, the cell will also have a national
tiger photo database which will be used for tackling poaching or wildlife crime
incidents. For instance, if we have camera trap images of a tiger who is found
dead or killed, then we can easily identify it by matching its stripes.
Incidentally, WII had a few months ago, matched four of the five tiger skins
found from a poacher, with the images of the tigers once captured in Corbett
Tiger Reserve. WII had been working at creating a stripes repository of tigers
from India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Link:
11 August 2016: Nearly two years after it
was launched, 'Mangalyaan' is still functioning well, and with a planned course
correction next January to extend its battery life, it would keep going for
many years. The correction in the trajectory of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM)
is required to keep the power supply strong during a long-duration eclipse,
caused by shadow of Mars falling on it for 7-8 hours, so that it could continue
to function longer. The long-duration eclipse period (in January) could cripple
the satellite if no corrections are done because the battery cannot support
long-duration eclipse. He delivered a lecture at IIT-Gandhinagar as a part of
the institute's Roddam Narasimha Distinguished Lecture series. ISRO is every
single Indians pride. ISRO is also working on its second lunar mission
spacecraft, Chandrayaan-II. Unlike Chandrayaan-I, we have planned a controlled
descent of Chandrayaan-II which we intend to put into orbit by the end of next
year or early part of 2018. Rover engineering version is undergoing test. Link:
12 August 2016:
Scientists and wildlife managers from the Sabah Wildlife Department, Swedish
Museum of Natural History and Danau Girang Field Centre on Wednesday said it
has successfully sequenced the complete genome of the Sumatran rhinoceros,
using the blood samples of Tam. Swedish Museum of Natural History and leader of
the project, Dr Love Dalén, said in a statement said that the genome sequencing
was made out due to the lack of success in captive breeding programmes and
maintaining the animals, as well as producing offspring. Meanwhile, Sabah
Wildlife Department Assistant Director Dr Sen Nathan said the success will not
lead to any immediate cloning of the rhinoceros as genome sequence is not
required for this. Their comments came following USCF Vice Chancellor Prof.
Datuk Dr Ghazally Ismail's statements on Aug 6 that UCSF would pursue genome
sequencing of the rhinos as its first step towards cloning the species in
collaboration with the University of Salford and the University of Verona,
adding that the work required approximately RM2 to RM3 million. Towards this
end, Danau Girang Field Centre Director Dr Benoit Goosens said the whole genome
sequence would be available for free, adding, however, the real cost of a de
novo genome assembly of a rhinoceros was much lesser. Link:
13 August 2016: The Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences &
Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, an institute of national importance
under the department of science & technology, have signed MoU to develop
'Deep Brain Stimulator' (DBS). The first prototype is planned to be available
in three years. The DBS is currently being imported, limiting its wider usage
due to the high cost. The planned joint development is targeted to provide an
affordable alternative. The DBS involves implanting electrodes within certain
areas of brain and the regular electrical pulses generated by a pacemaker-like
device placed under the skin in upper chest regulates the abnormal impulses of
the brain. It is used in typical neurological conditions of essential tremor,
Parkinson's disease and Dystonia. The DBS consists of implanted pulse
generator, electrodes and extension cables which interface with external
Programmer module and wireless battery charger. As per the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU), signed between BARC and SCTMIST on Thursday, the BARC will
develop the device as per specifications provided by SCTMIST and the latter
will be responsible for clinical trials, testing and qualification. The
Electronics Division, Reactor Control Division and Centre for Design &
Manufacture of the BARC will participate in the development of various
subsystems. The MoU was signed by Asha Kishore, director, SCTIMST,
Thiruvananthapuram on behalf of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical
Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram and Y S Mayya,
director, Electronics & Instrumentation Group, BARC on behalf of the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre at BARC, Trombay. Link:
14 August 2016: In a bid to validate
concepts for the future manned journey to Mars, NASA has approved the Asteroid
Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development
for the mission's robotic segment. ARM is a two-part mission that will
integrate robotic and crewed spacecraft operations in the proving ground of
deep space to demonstrate key capabilities needed for NASA's journey to the red
planet. The robotic component of ARM will demonstrate the world's most advanced
and most efficient solar electric propulsion system as it travels to a
near-Earth asteroid (NEA). NEAs are asteroids that are fewer than 194 million
km from the Sun at the closest point in their orbit. Although the target
asteroid is not expected to be officially selected until 2020, NASA is using
2008 EV5 as the reference asteroid while the search continues for potential
alternatives. A target asteroid such as 2008 EV5 is particularly appealing to
the scientific, exploration, and industrial communities because it is a
primitive, C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid, believed to be rich in volatiles,
water and organic compounds. The ability to extract core samples from the
captured boulder will allow us to evaluate how its composition varies with
depth and could unlock clues to the origins of our solar system. Astronaut
sampling and potential commercial activities could indicate the value of C-type
asteroids for commercial mining purposes, which in turn could have significant
impacts on how deep space missions are designed in the future. After collecting
a multi-tonne boulder from the asteroid, the robotic spacecraft will slowly
redirect the boulder to an orbit around the Moon, using its gravity for an
assist, where NASA plans to conduct a series of proving ground missions in the
2020s. Link:
15 August 2016: A mysterious 200-km wide
chunk of ice has been discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune, the farthest
recognized-planet from our sun. Bizarrely, this object is going around the sun
in a backwards direction and its orbit is tilted by 110 degrees from the plane
in which all planets stay. The object has been named Niku, a Chines word for
'rebellious' by the the international team of astronomers that made the
discovery using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1
Survey (Pan-STARRS 1), Universe Today reports. Astronomers have discovered many
such objects in the region beyond Neptune. These are collectively called
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). They orbit the sun at an average distance of 30
Astronomical Units or 1.5 billion km. Laws of physics dictate that when a
planetary system like our Solar System forms, all the bodies orbit in the same
direction. So if you look down at the Solar System from the 'top' all objects
including planets will be moving around in the counterclockwise direction. But
Niku is going around clockwise. This means that some outside, unknown forces
are acting on it. In fact, when compared to other TNOs, the researchers found
that all of them including Niku occupied a common plane and were clustered
together. Link:
16 August 2016: Locating people living in
poverty, such as through door-to-door surveys, sometimes is difficult.
Therefore, scientists are now turning to satellite images. In a study published
on Thursday in the US journal Science, researchers from the Stanford University
used machine learning, the science of designing computer algorithms that learn
from data, to extract information about poverty from high-resolution satellite
imagery. They found the newly developed approach was able to 'make fairly
accurate predictions' of impoverished areas across five African countries:
Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Rwanda. According to World Bank data from
2000 to 2010, 39 out of 59 African countries conducted less than two surveys,
from which nationally representative poverty measures could be constructed.
Overall, surveys are costly, infrequent, and cannot always reach countries or
regions within countries, for instance, due to armed conflict. Recent studies
showed that satellite data capturing nightlights can be used to predict wealth
in a given area. However, nightlight data alone is not effective at
differentiating between regions at the bottom end of the income distribution,
where satellite images appear uniformly dark. To circumvent this problem, the
new study turned its attention to daylight imagery, which offers higher
resolution and can capture features such as paved roads and metal roofs, markers
that can help distinguish poor and ultra-poor regions. Link:
17 August 2016: The world population will reach 9.9 billion in 2050,
increasing by 33 per cent from an estimated 7.4 billion now, the latest report
from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) has predicted. If the assumptions
underlying 2050 projections by the PRB's World Population Data Sheet are
applied to subsequent years, the world population would hit the 10 billion mark
in 2053, with set to Asia gain about 900 million to 5.3 billion. PRB's projections
show Africa's population will reach 2.5 billion by 2050, while the number of
people in the Americas will rise by only 223 million to 1.2 billion. Europe
registers a decline from 740 million to 728 million. Oceania (which includes
Australia and New Zealand) would rise from 40 million to 66 million. The Data
Sheet's midcentury population projections indicate that the combined population
of the world's least developed countries in the world will double by 2050 to
1.9 billion. The population in 29 countries will more than double. Nearly all
of these countries are in Africa. In Niger, the country with the highest birth
rate, the population will more than triple. The data showed that, 42 countries
will register population declines. These countries are scattered throughout
Asia, Latin America and Europe. Some European countries will post significant
declines, such as Romania, which is projected to have a population of 14
million in 2050, down from 20 million today. The population of the US will be
398 million, up 23 per cent from 324 million today. According to the Data
Sheet's estimates of current population, over 25 per cent of the world's
population is under 15 years old. The figure is 41 per cent in least developed
countries and 16 per cent in more developed countries. Link:
18 August 2016: Amid spiralling cases of
dengue reported in the national capital, a study has found that the
vector-borne disease in cardiac patients could aggravate their heart ailments.
Four persons have died due to dengue this season while the total number of
cases in the city has climbed to over 310. The research was conducted by Fortis
Healthcare in the last three months involving 150 dengue patients admitted to
its hospitals in Delhi and NCR. The study also claimed that electrocardiograph
and echocardiograph (ECG & Echo) readings changed in those patients who
were admitted with dengue fever but with no prior heart ailments. The research
refers only to those dengue patients who are in need of hospitalisation. The
study released today by the hospital suggested that those having dengue fever
coupled with chest discomfort, shortness of breath, unnecessary fatigue, must
get their ECG or Echo done to rule out the possibility of heart involvement. If
the changes are detected early, the situation can be handled in the first
interface and heart disease progression could be averted, it said. In Delhi,
out of the total cases reported this season, nearly 192 were recorded in the
first three weeks of August, according to the latest municipal report.
19 August 2016: NASA is planning to hand
over the control of the International Space Station (ISS) to a commercial
company around the mid 2020s. The timing fits with the end of the US
government's current funding of the ISS programme, which was extended by Obama
administration from its original deorbiting date of 2016 through 2020.
Operations were prolonged through 2024 to help give NASA a platform from which
to run its near-Earth preparatory missions leading up to the ultimate manned
mission to Mars. However, NASA did not specify any potential buyer. A new
docking adapter is being put in place to support crew shuttle missions from
Boeing and SpaceX, both of which are set to start shuttling personnel to the
ISS in 2017. SpaceX has been running resupply missions for the space station
and NASA since 2012, and has completed nine such missions to date.
20 August 2016: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover
has captured a stunning 360-degree panoramic view of features called 'Murray
Buttes', combining more than 130 images taken on the fourth anniversary of
probe's landing on the red planet. The image was acquired by the Mast Camera
(Mastcam) on as the rover neared on lower Mount Sharp on Mars, during the
afternoon of the mission's 1,421st Martian day. The visual drama of Murray
Buttes along Curiosity's planned route up lower Mount Sharp was anticipated
when the site was informally named nearly three years ago. A butte is an
isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat
top. Mesa is an elevated area that has a top that is wider than its height,
while a butte has a top that is narrower than its height. The buttes and mesas
of Murray Buttes are capped by material that is relatively resistant to
erosion, just as is the case with many similarly shaped buttes and mesas on
Earth. This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer that formerly
more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is now driving on. In
the image a dark, flat-topped mesa is seen towards the left, which is about 90
meters from the rover's position. It stands about about 15 meters high. Link: .
21 August 2016: Scientists have, for the
first time, developed laser from fluorescent jellyfish proteins that were grown
in bacteria. These lasers have the potential to be far more efficient and
compact than conventional ones and could open up research avenues in quantum physics
and optical computing. The breakthrough represents a major advance in so-called
polariton lasers. By repurposing the fluorescent proteins that have
revolutionised biomedical imaging, and by allowing scientists to monitor
processes inside cells, the team created a polariton laser that operates at
room temperature powered by nanosecond pulses, just billionths of a second.
Gather and colleagues from the University of Wurzburg and Dresden University of
Technology in Germany, genetically engineered E coli bacteria to produce
enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP). The researchers filled optical
microcavities with this protein before subjecting them to 'optical pumping', where
nanosecond flashes of light are used to bring the system up to the required energy
to create laser light. After reaching the threshold for polariton lasing,
pumping more energy into the device resulted in conventional lasing. This helps
confirm that the first emission was due to polariton lasing, Gather said, which
is something other approaches using organic materials have been unable to
demonstrate so far. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
22 August 2016: While radio-collaring of
tigers is now common, an atlas for the endangered state fish of Madhya Pradesh,
Narmada Mahseer (Tor tor), is being
prepared in a first of its kind experiment in the country. The forest
department has begun identifying the occurrence of Narmada Mahseer and is
mapping them in protected areas with Global Information System (GIS) technology.
GIS helps in capturing, checking, storing and displaying data on earth's
surface and can show different kinds of data on one map. The Nagdwari and
Sonbhadra tributaries of Denwa river have been explored. Many juvenile fishes
had been found in rivers and they were being mapped. A Rs 5-lakh budget has
also been allotted for facilitating the survey. Additional principal chief
conservator of forest (wildlife), Indore, Pankaj Srivastava said a scientific
protocol would be made with help of collected data and help of experts and
communities to ensure conservation. While conservation plans top the list of
forest department, officials said they were facing some problems as many
officials on the field do not have enough expertise to recognize the species. Link:
23 August 2016: India has identified and
registered nine new indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry this year,
taking the list of 'desi' breeds in the country to 160 including 40 of cows and
13 of buffaloes. Among the newly registered breeds, the cattle is found to be
more disease resistant than the other known indigenous breeds. Indigenous
breeds of livestock and poultry are identified and registered as part of an
exercise to conserve them, taking in view their area-specific suitability and
heat\cold and disease resistance capabilities. These nine indigenous breeds of
livestock and poultry include one breed of cow, two breeds each of goat and
sheep, three breeds of pig and one breed of chicken. These breeds have been
registered by Karnal-based National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR).
The ICAR had initiated the mechanism for 'Registration of Animal Germplasm'
through the NBAGR. It had in 2008 constituted a Breed Registration Committee
that takes a call on registration of newly found indigenous breeds based on
scientifically produced evidence. The idea of the registration is to
have an authentic national documentation system of valuable sovereign genetic
resource with known characteristics. The newly identified and registered breeds include Badricow
(Uttarakhand), Teressa goat (Nicobar Island), Kodi Adu goat (Tamil Nadu),
Chevaadu sheep (Tamil Nadu), Kendrapada sheep (Odisha), Tenyi Vo pig
(Nagaland), Nicobari pig (NicobarIsland), Doom pig (Assam) and Kaunayenchicken
(Manipur). Link:
24 August 2016:
Peanuts or groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea
L.) are an important global food source and are a staple crop grown in more
than 100 countries, with approximately 42 million tonnes produced every year.
In a world first, under the leadership of University of Western Australia
Winthrop Professor Rajeev Varshney, a global team sequenced and identified
50,324 genes in an ancestor of the cultivated peanut, Arachis duranensis. They decoded the peanut DNA to gain an insight
into the legume's evolution and identify opportunities for using its genetic
variability. Importantly, the researchers have isolated 21 allergen genes,
that, when altered, may be able to prevent an allergic response in humans. The
last decade has seen an alarming rise in peanut allergies with almost three in
every 100 Australian children suffering, and only 20 per cent growing out of
the allergy. The allergic reaction of peanuts is caused by specific proteins in
its seeds, according to Dr Varshney who is also the Research Program Director
at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
They also identified additional genes that would help increase crop
productivity and improve peanut nutritional value by altering oil biosynthesis
and protein content. Link:
25 August 2016: The
exotic and colorful snub-nosed monkey spends its days foraging about the
treetop in the mountain forests in China, Myanmar and Vietnam. Though once
widespread, this endangered species is only limited to fragmental mountain
forests, and the highest altitude (up to 4,500 meters) of any primate, making
them a fascinating subject for evolutionary biologists to study to reveal the
genetics behind their adaptations. Five living species with different census
population sizes are commonly recognized: R. roxellana, the Sichuan or golden
snub-nosed monkey, totaling about 25,000 individuals; R. brelichi, the gray
snub-nosed monkey (800 individuals); R. bieti, the black or Yunnan snub-nosed
monkey (2,000 individuals); R. avunculus, the ultra rare Tonkin snub-nosed
monkey (200 individuals) and R. strykeri, Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (300
individuals). In a heroic effort, authors Ming Li, Ruigiang Li et al. have now
sequenced, assembled and analyzed the mutations in the genomes of 38 wild
snub-nosed monkeys (from genome mapping of 42 individuals: 27 golden, 4 gray, 2
Myanmar and 9 black) from four different endangered species of snub-nosed
monkeys -the largest investigation into primate genomics outside of the great
apes. The findings were published in the advanced online edition of Molecular
Biology and Evolution. Link: Xuming Zhou,. Population genomics reveals low
genetic diversity and adaptation to hypoxia in snub-nosed monkeys. Molecular
Biology and Evolution, 2016; msw150 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msw150
26 August 2016: A new method for analysing
the chemical composition of stars may help scientists winnow the search for
Earth-like planets where life like ours can form, a new study has found.
Researchers from Yale University in the US have found a computational modelling
technique that gives a clearer sense of the chemistry of stars, showing the
conditions present when their planets formed. The system creates a new way to
assess the habitability and biological evolution possibilities of planets
outside our solar system. Lead author John Michael Brewer, a postdoctoral
researcher at Yale, has used the technique previously to determine temperature,
surface gravity, rotational speed, and chemical composition information for
1,600 stars, based on 15 elements found within those stars. The new study
looked at roughly 800 stars, focusing on their ratio of carbon to oxygen, and
magnesium to silicon. Brewer explained that understanding the makeup of stars
helps researchers understand the planets in orbit around them. For instance,
the study shows that in many cases, carbon is not the driving force in
planetary composition. Brewer found that if a star has a carbon/oxygen ratio
similar to or lower than that of our own Sun, its planets have mineralogy
dominated by the magnesium/silicon ratio. About 60 per cent of the stars in the
study have magnesium/silicon ratios that would produce Earth-like compositions;
40 per cent of the stars have silicate-heavy interiors.
27 August 2016: As the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), which has received more than 1.5 terabyte of data from
Mars continues to remain mum on the Mars Orbiter Mission's (MOM) findings on
the Red Planet, US' NASA has said that the 'seasonal dark streaks that have
become one of the hottest topics in interplanetary research don't hold much
water'. The new findings are from the Mars Odyssey mission, which is orbiting
Mars and relies on ground temperatures measured by infrared imaging. They do
not contradict last year's identification of hydrated salt at these flows,
which since their 2011 discovery have been regarded as possible markers for the
presence of liquid water on modern Mars. Nasa, however, said that the the
temperature measurements now identify an upper limit on how much water is
present at these darkened streaks: about as much as in the driest desert sands
on Earth. When water is present in the spaces between particles of soil or
grains of sand, it affects how quickly a patch of ground heats up during the
day and cools off at night. Perhaps ISRO hasn't found anything noteworthy with
its methane sensor. No need for media to make yet another drama at of this.
ISRO scientists though continue to remain mum on the findings of our Methane
Sensor, which was sent aboard MOM to detect methane, a possible indication of
life. Senior scientists maintain that the data is primarily being analysed by
the principal investigators, following which it will be sent for peer review.
MOM has already outlived its expected life around Mars by nearly 18 months and
continues to send in data. MOM was launched on November 5, 2013 and entered the
Martian orbit on September 24, 2014. It was expected to have a life of around
six months ending March 2015, but has continued to live on, orbiting the Red Planet.
28 August 2016: In a bid to control monkey
menace in the state, the Uttarakhand forest department in collaboration with
the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is going to introduce a project, pegged
as the first in the country, in which female monkeys will be given oral
immuno-contraceptive medicine, Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) once in each year
for three successive years which will nullify the effect of sperms on ovum
making the female infertile for three years. This, experts say, will help
curtailing the burgeoning simian population, which is a raging menace, to a
large extent. The project has been proposed by Akash Verma, divisional forest
official of Purola forest division and Govind Wildlife Sanctuary. The vaccine
will be mixed into the food which will have its impact on the female monkey
only in rendering her infertile for a year. So the same monkeys will have to be
given repeated dose over a period of three -four years. For identification, the
monkeys will either be tagged or identified from their traits. Such experiments
of immune-contraception have been carried out in countries such as America,
Austrialia, Brazil etc on small to big animals but not in India so far. He
said, in two months' time, the pilot project will kick start in the state after
laying out the road map. The environment ministry will also be roped in for
facilitation of project at various levels.
29 August 2016: India successfully tested its own scramjet or air
breathing engine with the launch of a rocket, said a senior official of Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The two stage/engine RH-560 sounding rocket
took off from the rocket port located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The two air breathing engines were like hugging
the rocket on its sides and normally when the rocket reaches a height of 11 km
the scramjet engines would start breathing air. The scramjet engine, used only
during the atmospheric phase of the rocket's flight, will help in bringing down
the launch cost by reducing the amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the
fuel. The scramjet engine designed by ISRO uses hydrogen as fuel and the oxygen
from the atmospheric air as the oxidiser. The test flight was the maiden short
duration experimental test of Isro's scramjet engine with a hypersonic flight
at Mach 6. ISRO 's Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), which is an advanced
sounding rocket, was the solid rocket booster used for testing the air
breathing engine. The rocket weighed 3,277 kg during lift-off. According to
ISRO, some of the technological challenges handled by ISRO during the
development of scramjet engine include the design and development of hypersonic
engine air intake, the supersonic combustor, development of materials
withstanding very high temperatures, computational tools to simulate hypersonic
flow, ensuring performance and operability of the engine across a wide range of
flight speeds, proper thermal management and ground testing of the engines.
Link:
29 August 2016: NASA has finally
reestablished contact with a spacecraft communication with which was lost
nearly two years ago. Contact was reestablished on Sunday with one of Nasa's
Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories, known as the STEREO-B spacecraft,
after communication was lost on October 1, 2014. Over the course of the 22
months, the STEREO team had worked to attempt contact with the spacecraft. Most
recently, they attempted a monthly recovery operation using NASA's Deep Space
Network, or DSN, which tracks and communicates with missions throughout space.
The STEREO Missions Operations team plans further recovery processes to assess
observatory health, re-establish attitude control, and evaluate all subsystems
and instruments. Communication with STEREO-B was lost during a test of the
spacecraft's command loss timer, a hard reset that is triggered after the
spacecraft goes without communications from Earth for 72 hours. The STEREO team
was testing this function in preparation for something known as solar
conjunction, when STEREO-B's line of sight to Earth and therefore all
communication was blocked by the Sun. Launched in October 2006, STEREO is the
third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes programme (STP). It employs
two nearly identical space-based observatories one ahead of Earth in its orbit,
the other trailing behind to provide the first-ever stereoscopic measurements
to study the Sun and the nature of its coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. The two
STEREO spacecraft were originally designed to complete a two-year mission,
ending in 2008. The long life of the two STEREO spacecraft has been a boon for
scientists studying the Sun and its influence throughout the solar system, the
US space agency said in a statement earlier. The two STEREOs slowly drifted
away from Earth as they orbited the Sun, one ahead and one behind our home
planet, giving scientists constantly-improving views of the Sun's far side,
allowing us for the first time to see the whole Sun at once, it added.
30 August 2016: Today
is the 10th anniversary of Pluto’s demotion to dwarf planet status.
Our solar system went from having nine major planets to having eight major
planets, with the outermost planet being Neptune, according to astronomers’ new
definition of what it means to be a planet. The XXVIth General
Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formalized the decision.
The public and many astronomers didn’t take it lightly, with some declaring
they would still consider Pluto a planet and with the word Plutoed, meaning to
demote or devalue something, entering the global lexicon. Prior to 2006,
astronomers hadn’t gotten around to establishing clear standards – such as a
minimum size or mass, or other considerations by which an object might be
categorized as a solar system ‘planet’ versus ‘dwarf planet’. They began to see
a need when many small bodies such as Haumea and Makemake began being
discovered in the outer solar system. Eris, also considered a dwarf planet, is
even more massive than Pluto! So if Pluto is a planet, why shouldn’t Eris be
granted planet status as well? That was the question the IAU asked itself,
which led to its formation of a Planet Definition Committee and ultimately the
2006 decision. Meet the Planet Definition Committee of the International
Astronomical Union. This group made the final decision to demote Pluto to dwarf
planet status. But, even within the committee, not all agreed. The committee
had a few possible roads to travel down. One would be to make the decision by
size (or mass) so that Pluto would remain a planet, and therefore Eris and
Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt in the inner solar system would
become planets, too. For awhile, it looked as if that might happen with some
IAU committee members favoring that decision. Link:
31 August 2016: Dr Kenneth T
Bainbridge was the physicist who directed the first atomic bomb test, and
Trinity was the codename given to the world’s first nuclear explosion by Dr J
Robert Oppenheimer, known as the ‘father of atomic bomb’ for leading the World
War II Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bomb. To advocate the
banning of nuclear tests and to educate the world about the legacy impact of
nuclear detonation, the UN unanimously approved a draft resolution on December
02, 2009 to declare August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The
resolution was initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan with a view to
commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear test facility on August
29, 1991, which was the world’s largest underground nuclear test site. After
the establishment of the International Day against Nuclear Test, all states
party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) committed themselves to ‘achieve
peace and security of world without nuclear weapons’ in May 2010. The inaugural
commemoration of the International Day against Nuclear Tests was marked on
August 29, 2010. In August 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), signed by
the US, the UK and the USSR, entered into force, and banned the nuclear testing
of signatory states in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater but not
underground. Later, the PTBT became redundant with the signing of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in September 1996, which bans all nuclear
explosions in all environments. Link:
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