2 February 2018: Four major rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, Indus and Ravi in Jammu and Kashmir have been declared 'national waterways' by the union government, paving the way for inland navigation on them to boost water transport and tourism. As per Sham Lal Choudhary, Minister for Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control, the state government was examining the feasibility-cum-detailed project report of Inland Waterways Authority of India prepared for inland navigation and construction of horizontal and vertical terminals across these waterways. The development of these national waterways will boost the Inland Water Transport and tourism potential on the national waterways of the state, improving the socio-economic profile of people there. Link: http://www.iwai.nic.in
3 February 2018: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) today launched the world's smallest rocket with the ability to put a micro-satellite into orbit, following a failed attempt and several postponements over the last year. The rocket, an improved version of JAXA's SS-520, was carrying a micro-satellite weighing three kilograms and was developed by the University of Tokyo to capture images of the Earth's surface. JAXA had launched the first of these rockets on January 2017, which fell into the sea after launch due to short-circuit during take off. The current launch aimed to test the ability of the Japanese aerospace agency to launch low-cost rockets that can put micro satellites into space at affordable rates against the growing demand for launches from the private sector. Link: http://global.jaxa.jp
4 February 2018: A 23-feet-wide replica of the Moon was flaunted at Gateway of India today. The replica which is half million times smaller than the real celestial body was unveiled for public viewing to mark 70 years of the British Council in India. The Moon replica is on a tour of India with a two-day stopover in Mumbai. The replica was created with the UK Space Agency using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery. The Moon replica is known as the Museum of the Moon and is created by British artist Luke Jerram. The miniature replica's one centimetre represents five kilometres of the lunar surface. The Museum of the Moon is intended to give audiences a feel where man first landed successfully on July 20, 1969, and the replica comes a year before the golden jubilee of the historic Moon landing accomplished by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. Link: https://uk-india.britishcouncil.in
5 February 2018: An international consortium of scientists sequenced the genomes of seven wild species of rice and two domesticated cultivars: a drought-tolerant variety called Nagina 22, and IR8, so-called 'miracle rice', a high-yield variety developed in 1967 and pivotal in the Green Revolution that helped relieve famine in Asia. Comparing these nine new rice genome sequences to four previously available wild rice genomes, the team has generated paddy's 15-million-year evolutionary history. Because the newly created genetic resource is so broad, representing distantly related rice species that have evolved in habitats throughout Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia, it enables researchers to find out how plants adapted to different growing conditions. The study is published in Nature Genetics. Link: https://www.nature.com
6 February 2018: SpaceX’s big new rocket blasted off today on its first test flight, carrying a red sports car aiming for an endless road trip past Mars. The Falcon Heavy rose from the same launch pad used by NASA nearly 50 years ago to send men to the moon. With liftoff, the Heavy became the most powerful rocket in use today, doubling the liftoff punch of its closest competitor. The three boosters and 27 engines roared to life at Kennedy Space Center, as thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and roads to watch the rocket soar, delayed more than two hours by high wind. Two of the boosters were recycled and programmed to return for a simultaneous touchdown at Cape Canaveral, while the third, brand new, set its sights on an ocean platform some 300 miles offshore. SpaceX's ultimate goal is to establish a city on Mars.
Link: http://www.pnas.org
7 February 2018: Up to 16 percent of all species on Earth could qualify as potential ‘alien species’. The number of newly emerging alien species continues to rise, posing a significant challenge to bio-security interventions worldwide, according to a study. Alien species are those that do not belong to a region and introduced intentionally or accidentally by humans. Researchers analysed a global database of 45,984 records detailing the first invasions of 16,019 established alien species from 1500 until 2005 to investigate the dynamics of how alien species spread worldwide. Between the years 2000 and 2005, one quarter of records are of species that had not previously been found anywhere as an alien, which is a worryingly high proportion. The researcher have reported their finding in the journal PNAS. Link: http://www.pnas.org
8 February 2018: Researchers state that over 1000 new species of mammals have been described globally during the last dozen years. The number of recognized mammal species has increased over time from 4,631 species in 1993 to 5,416 in 2005, and now to 6,495 species. This total includes 96 species extinct within the last 500 years, and represents nearly a 20% increase in overall mammal diversity. The updated tabulation details 1,251 new species recognitions, at least 172 unions, and multiple major, higher-level changes, including an additional 88 genera and 14 newly recognized families. This new listing is now publicly accessible in the Mammal Diversity Database, a website that seeks to continue updating mammal species data, collected allover the world. The study is published in the Journal of Mammalogy. Link: https://academic.oup.com
9 February 2018: Scientists have discovered that permafrost in the northern hemisphere stores massive amounts of natural mercury and a warming climate could release large amounts of this dangerous toxin that may cause neurological effects in humans and animals, ranging from motor impairment to birth defects. The scientists measured mercury concentrations in permafrost cores from Alaska and estimated how much mercury has been trapped in permafrost north of the equator since the last Ice Age. The study found approximately 793 gigagrams, or more than 15 million gallons, of mercury is frozen in northern permafrost soil. That is roughly 10 times the amount of all human-caused mercury emissions over the last 30 years. The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Link: https://academic.oup.com
10 February 2018: NASA's Juno spacecraft accomplished a close flyby over Jupiter’s churning atmosphere this week, successfully completing its 10th science orbit. The closest approach was on February 7. All of Juno’s science instruments and the spacecraft’s JunoCam were in operation during the flyby, collecting data that is now being returned to Earth, the statement added. Launched on August 5, 2011, Juno recently probed the depths of Jupiter’s famous storm, the Great Red Spot. During its first pass over this iconic feature in July 2017, Juno found that the storm penetrates well below the clouds – about 300 kilometres into the planet’s atmosphere. The spacecraft arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet’s cloud tops as close as about 3,400 kilometres. Link: https://academic.oup.com
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14 February 2018: A massive chunk of a Martian meteorite will be carried onboard NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission, to serve as target practice for a high-precision laser on the rover’s arm. The ambitious Mars 2020 rover will collect samples from the red planet’s surface that a future mission could potentially return to Earth. One of the rover’s many tools will be a laser designed to illuminate rock features as fine as a human hair. That level of precision requires a calibration target to help tweak the laser’s settings. The team behind the laser instrument called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) selected Sayh al Uhaymir 008 (SaU008), a meteorite found in Oman in 1999. Earth has a limited supply of Martian meteorites, which scientists determined were blasted off Mars’ surface millions of years ago. Link: https://academic.oup.com
15 February 2018: Exactly 30 years ago, cult sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf first aired on the BBC – and geeks have been obsessed ever since. As the show celebrates its 30th anniversary and looks ahead to a potential new series, we reveal all the ways you can watch Red Dwarf online and get yourself ready for Red Dwarf season 13. Take a look on Twitter today and, amidst the usual slurry of rants about the sorry state of the world, you’ll see something altogether more cheery trending: #RedDwarf30. Yes, on February 15 1988, the first ever episode of Red Dwarf aired on BBC Two, making 2018 the 30th anniversary of the decidedly off-piste science fiction show. Indeed, such is the enduring popularity of Red Dwarf that a new run was commissioned by Dave in 2009 and – unlike many a rehashed TV show – released to critical acclaim. Link: https://academic.oup.com
16 February 2018: NASA is planning to send its new deep space atomic clock on a flight aboard a spacecraft, to test the system’s ability to provide accurate onboard timekeeping for future missions. In deep space, accurate timekeeping is vital to navigation, but not all spacecraft have precise timepieces aboard.For 20 years, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US has been perfecting the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), an instrument being built for deep space exploration. Most missions rely on ground-based antennas paired with atomic clocks for navigation. Ground antennas send narrowly focused signals to spacecraft which return the signal. An Atomic Clock, GPS Receiver and Ultra-Stable Oscillator make up the Deep Space Atomic Clock Payload, and is integrated into the middle bay of Surrey Satellite US Orbital Test Bed Spacecraft. Link: https://academic.oup.com
17 February 2018: Prenatal testing is hardly a new concept - in fact, for parents-to-be, it's standard practice throughout the course of a normal pregnancy.The gamut of tests available ranges from routine screenings to highly specific panels that can determine the overall health of the developing foetus, as well as assess its risk for a growing number of genetic conditions.In fact, by using the parents' genomes, researchers have been able to construct a complete genetic portrait of a developing foetus for nearly a decade.Since the process is invasive, complicated, and costly, it hasn't yet become common. A new blood-based fetal genetic test, developed by a team at the Beijing Genomics Institute in China, is much simpler than existing methods and can be performed as early as the first trimester of pregnancy. Link: https://academic.oup.com
18 February 2018: Link: https://academic.oup.com
19 February 2018: Rice has been used by many cultures to sustain their populations. According to Dr. Rod Wing, research being done today could help different varieties of rice feed even more of the worlds population. The rice of the future maybe in the world's bowls sooner than we think. Researchers, led by Dr. Rod Wing, a University of Arizona professor of plant science and director of the Arizona Genomics Institute, completed the genome sequencing of 13 varieties of rice in an effort to cultivate new varieties to feed a changing world. Scientists working on the International Oryza Map Alignment Project worked for 15 years to complete and compile the genomes of nine new varieties of rice, including seven wild varieties. Four additional genomes had already been sequenced. Oryza is the genus for rice. Link: https://academic.oup.com
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