UN/S "peacekeepers" torturing a Somali child over fire.
In 2009, Wikileaks released over 600 United Nations investigative reports.
Now on US documents, facing "Criminal Offence" by Pentagon.
December 1: India’s first science expedition has reached the South Pole, with five scientists, two vehicle mechanics, and a doctor driving 10 days across 2,350km of icy and crevassed terrain where temperatures at one point dropped to minus 64°C. The team had set out on November 13 from Maitri, India’s scientific outpost in Antarctica, riding on Arctic trucks that have specialised spiked tyres and high clearance to negotiate the rugged and crevasse-infested terrain.
December 2: Scientists have discovered an arsenic eating bacterium, which opens up new areas of exploration for extraterrestrial life.A report published today in the journal Science claims it's the first microorganism found that can sustain life using a 'toxic' chemical. The researchers of the US Geological Survey, isolated a bacterium strain called GFAJ-1, a member of the Halomonadaceae family of Proteobacteria which uses arsenic instead of Phosphorus.
December 3: A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai. A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003. China already has the world's longest high-speed rail network, and it plans to cover 8,125 miles (13,000 kilometers) by 2012 and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.
December 4: Neutron bomb inventor Samuel T. Cohen, who designed the tactical nuclear weapon intended to kill people but do minimal damage to structures, has died. Cohen worked for the RAND Corporation and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory when he developed the small neutron bomb in 1958, which used tiny particles that could zip through tanks, walls or buildings with minimal damage but kill humans, usually by attacking their central nervous system. It also minimized long-term nuclear contamination.
December 5: India will soon phase out the Cirus research reactor, the 40-MW power unit supplied by Canada in the mid-50s with heavy water from the US to the state-run Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Trombay near Mumbai. Plutonium from Cirus (Canada India Research US) was used in India's first nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan May 18, 1974. The country's largest indigenous nuclear reactor, Dhruva, also located at BARC, generates weapons-grade plutonium-bearing spent fuel.
December 6: Haryana state would host the world's first Global Centre for Nuclear Energy partnership. The global centre would be at village Kheri Jassaur, near Bahadurgarh, in district Jhajjar. The centre would be set up with the assistance of France, Russia and United States for research and development of secure and proliferation resistant reactor systems. The Centre would also host short-term training courses for international nuclear experts in the field of nuclear security.
December 7: United Nations Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP resident representative Patrice Coeur-Bizot handed over certificates to the Forest Department for their achievements in planting trees under various schemes. The acknowledgement comes as part of the ‘One Billion Tree Campaign’ of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).The UNEP acknowledged the efforts of the Forest Department in providing strong support to such programmes aimed at combating the ill-effects of global warming.
December 8: A brand-new bacterial species has been found aboard the RMS Titanic, 3.8 km below the ocean surface, which is contributing to its deterioration. The new bacterium has been named Halomonas titanicae by the scientists from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada and the University of Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain. The researchers, who report their findings in the latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology published on 8 December.
December 9: Akatsuki, the Japanese probe to Venus failed to reach orbit and was captured by the sun's gravitational pull in a setback to Japan's shoestring space program, which will have to wait another six years to try again. The probe would have been the first that Japan had put in orbit around another planet. Japan launched a failed mission to Mars in 1998 that was plagued by technical glitches and finally abandoned in 2003. Akatsuki was designed to monitor volcanic activity on Venus.
December 10: Scientists may need to rewrite the text books following the discovery of a carbon-rich exoplanet. Reporting in the journal Nature, Dr Nikku Madhusudhan and colleagues from Princeton University, say the planet WASP-12B has an atmosphere with equal parts carbon and oxygen. Madhusudhan says the planet's atmosphere is abundant in carbon monoxide, and has considerably more methane and less water than would be expected for a planet of this temperature in our solar system.
December 11: A team of researchers in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) has created the tiniest battery in the world. The rechargeable, lithium-based battery is developed by a team led by researcher Jianyu Huang. The discovery has paved way for the development of smaller and more efficient batteries in future. The battery comprises of a three millimeters long lithium cobalt cathode, a single tin oxide nanowire anode and an ionic liquid electrolyte.
December 12: Scientists at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, have used stem cell technology to create mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species and even help same-sex couples have their own genetic children one day. According to the study published Wednesday in the journal Biology of Reproduction, scientists were able to manipulate cells from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line.
December 13: The UN conference on Climate in Mexico has reached an agreement. The agreement comprises a "Green Climate Fund," reaffirms a goal of raising $100bn (£63bn) in aid by 2020 and has measures to protect tropical forests and new ways to share new clean energy technologies. The Mexico deal does not include a commitment to extend Kyoto beyond 2012. Kyoto obliges almost 40 developed nations to cut emissions until 2012. Website: http://unfccc.int/2860.php
December 14: Beginning next year, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the of the world's worst nuclear disastert that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago. Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe. Related health problems still persist. A few private firms now offer tours to the restricted area, but the government says those tours are illegal and their safety is not guaranteed.
December 15: A research scholar at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, V.N. Linshy has found that foraminifera, a kind of single cell microorganism, is capable of detecting even minute amounts of toxic pollutants in the sea. She has been honoured by the Indian Science Congress, the country’s apex scientific body, with the best young environmental scientist for 2010-11 for her work. Foraminifera organisms can detect even micro gram quantities of mercury and cadmium, major pollutants of oceans across the world.
December 16: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a point at the edge of the solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. The event signifies that after 33 years on the go, the spacecraft is about to reach interstellar space. Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena California say the spacecraft is now some 17.4 billion kilometres from the Sun. Launched on September 5th, 1977, Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock and entered the heliosheath in December 2004.
December 17: The environment ministry Tuesday launched a web portal to provide information about the vast biodiversity of the country. The Indian Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) has been developed by the Foundation and Ecology Security, Gujarat. The interactive portal uses open-source interface and will help the users to contribute data to the portal that would be periodically reviewed by experts. Website: http://www.bisindia.org/
December 18: Scientists have identified amino acids, a fundamental building block of life, in a meteorite where none were expected. The meteorite formed when two asteroids collided. Finding aminoacids from this type of meteorite suggests that there is more than one way to make amino acids in space, which increases the chance for finding life elsewhere in the Universe. Previously, scientists had found amino acids in samples of Comet Wild 2 from NASA's Stardust mission, and in various carbon-rich meteorites.
December 19: Internet search engine Google has developed a new browser that can map out the entire human body. The hi-tech 3D application, called 'Google Body Browser', has been hailed as a breakthrough in the study of anatomy that could revolutionise people's understanding of the human body and fast-track medical research. The gadget, yet to be officially released, lets you explore the human body in much the same way you can navigate the world on Google Earth.
December 20: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the launch of the GSLV-FO6 with India’s latest communication satellite scheduled for today, has been postponed due to a minor leak in one of the valves of the Russian cryogenic stage. The revised schedule for the launch would be firmed up after ascertaining the cause of the leak, remedial actions and due verifications. However, according to ISRO, other major changes in the launch vehicle had been incorporated in GSLV-FO6.
December 21: The United Nations decided to constitute an ultimate scientific authority on biodiversity to help protect ecosystems and stem the planet's dramatic loss of animal and plant life.Modelled on the UN's climate change panel (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), will harness the expertise of thousands of scientists worldwide. The idea nudged closer to reality in October at a meeting in Nagoya, Japan of the UN Convention on Biodiversity.
December 22: A prototype solar device devised by researchers in the
December 23: Scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of Pitcher plant in central Palawan and said they would name it after the late Filipino botanist Leonardo Co.The new species, believed by its discoverers to be the only one of its kind in the world, is distinguished by its unusual dark strains and enlarged traps, according to the latest post in the scientists.The scientists said it was a sad irony that this black Pitcher plant was found so soon after Leonardo Co died.
December 24: Scientists at the High Altitude Regional Centre of Zoological Survey of India have discovered a rare species of butterfly known as Silvery Meadow Blue (Polyommatus florience) in Paangi Valley of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. The Silvery Meadow Blue butterflies are found in areas 3,000 metres above sea level. It likes meadows and areas outside forests and can be found during the month of July when the high altitude areas experience a late-flowering season.
December 25: The rocket carrying an Indian communication satellite exploded just after liftoff in the second launch failure for India's space agency this year.The rocket exploding in smoke and fire just after it launched from the Sriharikota space center in Andhra Pradesh state. It was carrying a GSAT-5P communication satellite into orbit. The vehicle developed an error 47 seconds after liftoff and lost command according to
Indian Space Research Organization.
December 26: Union environment launched a project to create a genetic garden of halophytes, the first of its kind in the country, in Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district today. The garden will initially house over 45 species found along the coast including Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The idea behind the creation of the botanical garden is to explore the venues for commercial exploitation of halophytes, or saline-resistant species of plants, which would ensure livelihood for the coastal inhabitants.
December 27: Scientists in
December 28: A paper published this week in the journal PLoS Biology shows that African elephants are in fact two species that diverged millions of years ago. Modern savanna, or bush, elephants weigh about twice as much as their forest-dwelling cousins and have significantly different body shapes, with the savanna breed standing nearly 3 feet taller than the forest elephants. Scientists say that distinct species of savanna-dwellers and forest-dwellers diverged millions of years ago.
December 29: An international consortium of scientists has claimed to have successfully sequenced the genome of the wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca). According to the scientists, the 14-chromosome woodland strawberry has one of the smallest genomes of approximately 240 million base pairs. The consortium comprised of 75 researchers from 38 institutions. The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics,will help strawberry breeders to develop disease resistance and improve fruit quality.
December 30: Giving alternative treatments such as homeopathic remedies to children may have deadly side effects in rare instances, a new analysis says. Australian researchers monitored suspected side effects from alternative medicines like herbal treatments, vitamin supplements or naturopathic pills. They found 39 reports of side effects including four deaths.The study was published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, a specialiozed publication of the medical journal BMJ.
December 31: The Earth and the diversity of life it harbors continues to surprise us. This year, researchers found some truly astounding creatures that had been unknown to science even through centuries of exploration.While some of these newfound species were found in remote, others were hiding in seemingly plain sight. Here are some of the new species found in 2010 http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/new-species-discovered-2010-0900/. Also on http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/dec/25/new-species-discovered-2010.
