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| Andhra Pradesh's new State Flower. Photo Courtesy: Andhra CM's Twitter |
1 June 2018: Andhra government has declared new state symbols to replace the ones held by Telangana after it was created. The Rose-ringed Parrot (Psittacula krameri) has been chosen as the State Bird and the Jasmine (Jasminum sambac) is the new State Flower. It retained Black Buck (Antilope cervicapra) as its State animal and the Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) as the State Tree. Telangana’s State Animal is the Spotted Deer (Axis axis), the State Bird is the Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis), Tanner's Cassia (Senna auriculata) is the State Flower and Khejri Tree (Prosopis cineraria) is the State Tree and Snakehead Murrel (Channa striata) is the State fish. The Indian roller and Blue Water-Lilly (Nymphaea nouchali) were State Bird and Flower of Andhra Pradesh earlier. Telangana was created from Andhra Pradesh in June 2014 and both shared Hyderabad as the state capital, but Andhra plans to make Amravati its future capital. Link: http://www.ap.gov.in
2 June 2018: Scientists tracked down the oldest known lizard, a tiny creature that lived about 240 million years ago when Earth had a single continent and dinosaurs were brand new. Scans of the fossilised skeleton of Megachirella revealed the chameleon-sized reptile was an ancestor of today's lizards and snakes, which belong to a group called Squamates. This finding dragged the group back in time by 75 million years, and means that lizards inhabited the planet since at least 240 million years ago. That suggests that Squamates had already split from other ancient reptiles before the Permian/Triassic mass extinction some 252 million years ago, and survived it. Up to 95 % of marine and 75 % of terrestrial life on Earth was lost. Megachirella, discovered some 20 years ago was initially mis-classified as a close lizard relative. The finding is published in Nature. Link: https://www.nature.com
3 June 2018: Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade, the Indian cultivator who invented many high-yielding varieties of paddy, died today. Khobragade belonged to the little forest village of Nanded in Nagbhid village of Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. Around 1983, Khobragade noticed a new variety of paddy in his farm, which he experimented on in the years to come. The variety was found giving high yields and by 1990, the variety was given a name HMT. He got some media attention when Forbes Magazine named him among seven most powerful entrepreneurs of India in 2010. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) recognised his work in 2003-04 and the Maharashtra government gave him the Krishi Bhushan and Krishi Ratna awards for his innovations. One of his varieties called Chinnour is akin to the Basmati of the north. He named his latest variety after himself: DRK. Link: http://nif.org.in/innovation
4 June 2018: Over a dozen Google employees have resigned to protest the company’s involvement in a US Department of Defense project called Project Maven. This comes after nearly 4,000 employees signed a petition in April 2018, asking Google CEO Sundar Pichai to cut the sever ties with the controversial Project Maven and declare that Google would not let its AI be used in the ‘business of warfare.’ The contract for Project Maven has been signed by Google’s Cloud unit,and is a deal that could result in billions of dollars of revenue for Google and its parent company Alphabet. Project Maven is the US Defense Department’s project to rely on Artificial Intelligence in order to make sense of the images captured by the US military’s aerial drones. In case of the military drones, Project Maven will be used to identify what will be on interest in these war zone situations. Link: https://www.defense.gov
5 June 2018: Released today on World Environment Day, Animal Discoveries, 2017 from the ZSI lists 300 new species of fauna and 239 new flora species, as per the Zoological Survey of India and the Botanical Survey of India. The number of vertebrates discovered includes 27 species of fish, 18 of amphibians and 12 of reptiles. The highlight of the animal discoveries was a new fossil reptilian species, Shringasaurus indicus, recorded by scientists of the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute. The important discoveries include a frog species, Nasikabatrachus bhupathi, named after Indian herpetologist S. Bhupathy and a snake, Rhabdops aquaticus, discovered from the northern Western Ghats. With these discoveries, the number of animal species in India stands at 1,01,167 and the number of plant species has increased to 49,003. Link: https://zsi.gov.in
6 June 2018: The hurricane formed today was named Aletta, the first hurricane of the ongoing tropical cyclone formation. The season officially started on May 15 in the eastern Pacific and on June 1 in the central Pacific. They will both end on November 30. These dates historically describe the period each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. However, the formation of tropical cyclones is possible at any time of the year, as shown by the formation of Subtropical Storm Alberto on May 25, which upon its formation marked the fourth consecutive year a storm developed before the official start of the season. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Pacific basin. Aletta is a category 3 hurricane which tends to be 4, on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Link: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov
7 June 2018: NASA announced that its robot explorer Curiosity rover found organic molecules in rocks of Mars. Curiosity has been exploring Mars ever since it landed there in 2012. Curiosity analysed the drilled samples on Mars. The exploration found the organic molecules in rocks formed three billion years ago. This discovery could indicate that there was life on Mars at that time. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. Curiosity has not determined the source of the organic molecules. This discovery was made by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. Billions of years ago there was a shallow lake of water inside the Gale Crater on Mars that contained all the ingredients for life. Curiosity found the first indications of water on Mars in 2013. The findings are detailed in the journal Science. Link: http://science.sciencemag.org
8 June 2018: A team of Indian scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, discovered a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size exoplanet, which is about 27 times the mass of Earth and six times the radius of Earth. The planet revolves around a Sun-like star, some 600 light years away from Earth. The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed ‘PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-Sky Search’ (PARAS) spectrograph integrated with 1.2m telescope at PRL’s Gurushikar Observatory in Mount Abu. With this discovery, India has joined a select league of countries which has discovered planets around stars. In a post on the website of the Indian Space Research Organisation, scientists said the name of the host star is EPIC 211945201 or K2-236 and the planet will be known as EPIC 211945201b or K2-236b. Link: https://www.prl.res.in
9 June 2018: The annual monsoon trawling ban will come into effect in Kerala from midnight today to July 31. This year, the total number of days has been increased to 52. It was on 24 May 1981, the government of Kerala banned monsoon trawling throughout the Kerala coast, but a relaxation was made for the Neendakara area. This created protests from traditional fishermen and on 13 July, the government formed an expert committee named the Babu Paul Commission which didn't recommend banning of monsoon trawling. In 23 June, 1988, government banned monsoon trawling, again exempting Neendakara. On June 26, 1989, the expert committee also recommended a ban on monsoon trawling. Finally, the government banned monsoon trawling from 20 July to 31 August in the territorial waters of Kerala. Link: http://base.d-p-h.info/fr
10 June 2018: The largest iceberg ever recorded, that broke away from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf 18 years ago, could be nearing the end of its voyage. When iceberg B-15 first broke away in March 2000, it measured around 295 kilometres long and 37 kilometres, with a surface area of 11,000 square km, larger than the whole island of Jamaica. The Iceberg B-15 broke up into smaller icebergs, the largest of which was named Iceberg B-15A. In 2003, B-15A drifted away from Ross Island into the Ross Sea and headed north, eventually breaking up into several smaller icebergs in October 2005. Just four pieces remain that meet the minimum size requirement, at least 37 kilometres to be tracked by the US National Ice Center. When astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shot a photograph on May 22 this year, B-15Z measured about 18 km long and 9 km wide. Link: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov
11 June 2018: On May 24, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will award the 2018 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences, to Susan Solomon, MIT professor of atmospheric chemistry and Syukuro Manabe, Princeton University senior meteorologist. Manabe, one of the founders of climate modeling, did groundbreaking work predicting how the climate system would respond to increases in carbon dioxide. Solomon is best known for solving the mystery of the ozone hole, the annual thinning of the protective stratospheric ozone layer over Antarctica. It was Solomon’s studies in Antarctica that identified the chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons. Identifying the problem led to a global solution called the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to phase out ozone-destroying gases and replace them with less harmful chemicals. Link: https://www.crafoordprize.se
12 June 2018: Dr. Russell Mittermeier has been awarded the 2018 Indianapolis Prize. Mittermeier is the Executive Vice-Chair of Conservation International, and served as President of Conservation International from 1989 to 2014. Named 'Hero for the planet' by TIME magazine, Mittermeier is regarded as a world leader in the fields of primatology, biodiversity and tropical forest conservation. Mittermeier is the seventh recipient of the prestigious prize, which has been awarded by the Indianapolis Zoological Society, every two years since 2006 to 'the most successful animal conservationist in the world'. Mittermeier will receive the Lilly Medal, the largest international monetary award given exclusively for the successful conservation of endangered or threatened species, and be honored at the Indianapolis Prize Gala in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 29 2018. Link: http://www.indianapoliszoo.com
13 June 2018: A message from late British astrophysics giant Stephen Hawking was beamed towards the nearest black hole as his remains are laid to rest in London's Westminster Abbey today. As the ashes of the British theoretical physicist were interred, a specially-written composition featuring his famous synthesised voice was beamed into space by the European Space Agency. Hawking, who captured the imagination of millions around the world, died on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76. Propelled to stardom by his 1988 book 'A Brief History of Time', an unlikely worldwide bestseller, Hawking's genius and wit won over fans from far beyond the rarefied world of astrophysics. Around 1,000 members of the public drawn from more than 100 countries were due to attend the service, following an online ballot in which 25,000 applied for tickets. Link: https://www.stephenhawkinginterment.com
14 June 2018: A series of commemorative stamps have been released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of director Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Spacey Odyssey. Each of the eight stamps, launched by the Isle of Man Post Office, contains a hidden message for fans to find. They feature Kubrick, stills from the science fiction film, behind the scenes images and typography inspired by original graphics. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was a film inspired by Arthur C Clarke's short story The Sentinel and the pair wrote the screenplay. It follows a voyage to Jupiter with the intelligent computer HAL after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith buried beneath the lunar surface. In addition to images relating to the film, one of the stamps features Arthur C Clarke and others depict the characters and computer in the film. Kubrick was born in 1928 raised in New York and died in 1999. Link: http://www.visual-memory.co.uk.
15 June 2018: Vizhinjam Bay in Kerala, a busy fishing ground noted for its biodiversity-rich marine ecosystem, is home to the smallest sea cucumber in India, scientists have reported. The animal, which grows to a size of just 2 cm, is named Thyonina bijui, after Dr. A. Biju Kumar of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala. The specimen was identified as a new species by Professor Ahmed Thandar, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. According to Dr. Biu Kumar, this is the first species of sea cucumber endemic to the Kerala coast and is known only from Vizhinjam. Often referred to as the 'Earthworms of the Sea', these animals are responsible for recycling of sediments into animal tissue and nitrogenous waste which can be taken up by algae and sea grass. The discovery is published in the international journal Zootaxa. Link: http://www.mapress.com
16 June 2018: Paleontologists at Mexico's acclaimed Desert Museum have discovered the remains of a new species of dinosaur named Acantholipan gonzalezi, that inhabited the coast of northwest Coahuila state 85 million years ago, making it the oldest dinosaur to have inhabited the region. The name Acantholipan gonzalezi, comes from the Greek acanthos, which means spine, and Lipan, in honor of the brave Apache tribe that inhabited the region where the specimen was found. Acantholipan differs from its closest relatives such as Nodosaurus and Niobrarasaurus, since the ulna (one of the bones of their forearms) has a much larger projection than in other Nodosaurs, in addition to having conical spines in the pelvic region. A replica of the Acantholipan gonzalezi will be shown at Coahuila's Desert Museum, which features Latin America's most important collection of dinosaur remains. Link: https://link.springer.com
17 June 2018: An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has analyzed two 3,800-year-old Yersinia pestis genomes that suggest a Bronze Age origin for Bubonic Plague. The strain identified by the researchers was recovered from individuals in a double burial in the Samara region of Russia. The study shows that this strain is the oldest sequenced to date that contains the virulence factors considered characteristic of the Bubonic Plague, and is ancestral to the strains that caused the Justinian Plague, the Black Death and the 19th century plague epidemics in China. The plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was the cause of some of the world’s deadliest pandemics, including the Justinian Plague, the Black Death in the late 1800s. The study is published in Nature Communications. Link: https://www.nature.com
18 June 2018: Professor HYM Ram (Holenarasipur Yoganarasimham Mohan Ram), an unassuming botanist passed away today. His scientific contributions in botany have been profound with over 200 research papers besides several books he wrote and edited. HYM was the recipient of the J C Bose Award (1979), the Om Prakash Bhasin Award (1986) and the Sergei Nawashin Medal, USSR (1990).He was born in Karnataka, on September 24, 1930, to illustrious parents and had both advantage and disadvantage of growing up with several siblings including his elder brother, eminent journalist H Y Sharada Prasad who was also press advisor to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. An authority on tissue culture, HYM researched on its application in some of the economically important species such as banana, legumes and bamboo. Link: http://vigyanprasar.gov.in
19 June 2018: The world's oldest Sumatran orangutan, which had 11 children and 54 descendants spread across the globe, has died today, aged 62, as per Australian zoo officials. Puan, Indonesian for 'lady', died at Perth Zoo, where she had lived since being gifted by Malaysia in 1968. Apart from being the oldest member of our colony, she was also the founding member of our world-renowned breeding program and leaves an incredible legacy. Born in 1956, she was noted by the Guinness Book of Records as being the oldest verified Sumatran orangutan in the world. The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is one of the three species of orangutans, found only in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Its common name is based on two separate local words, orang (person) and hutan (forest), and translates as 'person of the forest'. Link: https://perthzoo.wa.gov.au
20 June 2018: Scientists at the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Thrissur, have prepared a new database which will be of great help to mango breeders. The mango database lists 40 mango varieties based on a standard set of features. None of the available databases present the mango germplasm in detail, following the standard International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) descriptors. The National Mango database, developed with support from the Department of Biotechnology, has limited data. More than 20 attributes can be easily accessed by selecting the varieties from a drop down menu in the database. There is a separate section where flowers, fruits and leaf images are also stored for identification. Each of the 40 varieties listed online were carefully selected from a collection of 160 varieties that are maintained by KAU since 1992 as a part of gene sanctuary. Link: http://bic.kau.in
21 June 2018: E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award on Taxonomy for the Year 2017, the highest award in taxonomic research in India has been awarded to P T Cherian, Scientist, Department of Zoology, University of Kerala, for his exceptional work in the field of animal taxonomy. The award was instituted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the name of scientist Dr E K Janaki Ammal in order to honour eminent Indian scientists for their life time achievements. The award consists of 5 lakh, a scroll and a medallion. Cherian has been researching on the two-winged Diptera group of insects and has found more than 20 new genera and more than 700 new species in this group, mainly from India and his classification of Diptera group is followed world over today. He is continuing his work on Diptera group at his Department as an Emeritus Scientist. Link: https://bsi.gov.in
22 June 2018: Researchers from the School of Marine Sciences at CUSAT have reported the discovery of a new species of Victoriopisa Amphipoda from the Valanthakad mangrove in Vembanad backwaters, Kerala. Amphipoda is an order of Crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. The name Amphipoda comes from New Latin with Greek roots meaning different footed, in reference to two kinds of legs that amphipods possess. Victoriopisa is genus coming under the family Melitidae among the Order Amphipoda. The new species has been named Victoriopisa cusatensis, the first time a species is named after CUSAT (Cochin University of Science and Technology). The discovery underscores the need to conserve Kerala's mangroves which has shrunken 14,000 hectares to around 600 hectares. The study is published in the journal Zootaxa. Link: http://www.mapress.com
23 June 2018: A study finds 3.4 million acres (13,760 square kilometers or 5,313 square miles) in Europe fit the definition of primary forest set by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) set in 2005. The researchers discovered 3.4 million acres (13,760 square kilometers or 5,313 square miles) in Europe fit this definition of primary. What exactly makes a forest primary is a bit of a debate, tropical rain-forests are generally considered primary if there is no evidence whatsoever of human disturbance. But the woods that once covered Europe is now largely gone, cleared by human settlers to grow food and build houses starting around 6,000 years ago. And with the woods went the animals that used to live in them. The new study also has published the first map of Europe’s last wild forests. The study is published in the journal Diversity & Distributions. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
24 June 2018: Two community-led organisations from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland bagged the 2018 India Biodiversity Awards in recognition for conservation of wild species. The awards go to Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve Management Committee in Arunachal Pradesh and Lemsachenlok Organization in Nagaland. Initiated in 2012 by the Government of India, in partnership with UNDP India, the India Biodiversity Awards recognise and honour outstanding models of biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and governance at the grassroots level in India. The Singchung Bugun Committee tried to protect the Bugun Liocichla (Liocichla bugunorum), a bird in the forests fringing Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, discovered by Ramana Athreya, an ecologist, and naming it in honour of the Bugun tribe which believe to own that forest. Link: http://www.in.undp.org
25 June 2018: The Kerala Forest Department has drawn up a comprehensive plan to reinvigorate sacred groves (Kaavu) in the state. With the Forest Department having invited applications from the owners of these groves, financial support will be provided for the conservation of their eco-diversity, research, planting of rare species, cleaning of ponds, protection of rare species of animals and birds in these groves and for constructing bio-fences. Those interested to apply for availing financial support should submit the applications on or before August 31. On a rough estimate, Kerala has about 1,500 sacred groves which are distinct and unique in biological diversity. Ernakulam district has some major sacred groves in the state, including Iringorkavu spread over a hectare in Perumbavur. The sacred groves of Kerala are the remnants of evergreen forest patches, protected based on beliefs. Link: http://www.forest.kerala.gov.in
26 June 2018: The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Manama since decided today to remove the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee considered that safeguarding measures taken by the country, notably the introduction of a moratorium on oil exploration in the entire maritime zone of Belize and the strengthening of forestry regulations allowing for better protection of mangroves, warranted the removal of the site from the World Heritage List in Danger. The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996 and it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in Danger in 2009 due to the destruction of mangroves and marine ecosystems, offshore oil extraction, and the development of non-sustainable projects. The 42nd session of the Committee will continue until 4 July, 2018. Link: http://whc.unesco.org
27 June 2018: Controversial Australian obstetrician Dr William McBride, whose investigations revealed the dangers of Thalidomide in pregnant women, has died aged 91. The obstetrician was celebrated for alerting the world to the birth defects caused by the morning sickness drug. Dr McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed Thalidomide. Dr. McBride was awarded a medal and prize money by the prestigious L'Institut de la Vie, a French Institute, in connection with his discovery, in 1971. He established Foundation 41, a Sydney-based medical research foundation and working with Dr P H Huang, he proposed that Thalidomide caused malformations by interacting with the DNA of the dividing embryonic cells of Rabbits. This work was published in the journal Pharmacology and Toxicology, in 1999. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
28 June 2018: Harlan Ellison, who emerged as a major figure in the New Wave of science fiction writers in the 1960s and became a legend in science fiction and fantasy circles for his award-winning stories and notoriously outspoken and combative persona, died today in Los Angeles. He was 84. Ellison was born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, United States on May 27, 1934. Since selling his first short story in 1955, Ellison won multiple awards from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America and the Horror Writers Assn. The third most anthologized science fiction writer behind Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, Ellison also won four Writers Guild of America Awards, including those for memorable 1960s episodes of the TV series 'Star Trek'. (The City on the Edge of Forever) Ellison on occasion used the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. Link: http://www.isfdb.org
29 June 2018: Dr. Arvid Carlsson, a Swedish scientist whose discoveries about the brain led to the development of drugs for Parkinson’s disease died today. He was 95. His death was announced by the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, where he had been a professor of pharmacology. When Carlsson started his research in the 1950s, he discovered that Dopamine, a chemical in the brain is an important neurotransmitter, a brain chemical that passes signals from one neuron to the next. Other scientists confirmed that Dopamine is depleted in people with Parkinson’s disease. Carlsson shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two American researchers, Dr. Eric Kandel and Paul Greengard, in 2000, who made their own discoveries on chemical signaling in brain. All Parkinson’s disease drugs used today work by increasing Dopamine signaling in the brain. Link: https://sahlgrenska.gu.se
30 June 2018: Link: CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) the artificial intelligence assistant went on its way to the International Space Station this morning aboard SpaceX’s most recent resupply launch. CIMON was designed by Airbus and IBM to assist the European Space Agency’s astronauts in everyday tasks aboard the ISS . Weighing in at just 11 pounds and roughly the size of a medicine ball, this minute astronaut is equipped with the neural network strength of IBM’s Watson. Crew members will be able to correspond with CIMON via voice commands and access a database of procedures. CIMON will also be able to detect the crew members’ moods and react accordingly. CIMON’s emotional intelligence, in addition to its friendly face and voice, will help it operate like a true crew member aboard the station. CIMON’s mission will continue from this June through October 2018. Link: https://www.esa.int
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