Title : Empires of the Monsoon:
A History of the Indian Ocean
and Its Invaders
Author : Richard Seymour Hall
Pages : 608
Publisher : HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Price : $ 0.61
ISBN : 10-0006380832
Empires of the Monsoon is a panoramic study of the history of the Indian Ocean and the destruction of its traditional trade by colonial Europe. Its major achievement is to weave into a coherent whole the histories of a kaleidoscope of civilisations and peoples. Empires of the Monsoon reads like some mediaeval Book of Wonders, rich with exotic improbabilities. It is all gripping stuff, dizzily ambitious in its scope and full of some of the oddest facts imaginable.
'A triumph: a first class comprehensive narrative of the impact upon the people of the Indian Ocean of those who penetrated it. It is hard to believe that this account of a European epic has any rival.' J.M. Roberts, author of the Penguin History of the World Until Vasco da Gama discovered the sea-route to the East in 1497-9 almost nothing was known in the West of the exotic cultures and wealth of the Indian Ocean and its peoples. It is this civilization and its destruction at the hands of the West that Richard Hall recreates in this book.
Hall's history of the exploration and exploitation - by Chinese and Arab travellers, and by the Portuguese, Dutch and British alike - is one of brutality, betrayal and colonial ambition. It is history told with the true gift of a storyteller and a keen eye for the exotic. It is a compelling and instructive epic. It is the story of many marvels and many great adventures. A panoramic account of the Indian Ocean and its invaders combining scholarly zeal with a good journalist's flair for selection and narrative.
The book is full of fascinating information. Hall's lively compendium is rich in bloodthirsty sultans, swashbuckling pirates, hypocritical imperialists and serendipitous Sinbads. He is an enthusiastic storyteller who can hold you with his glittering eye. Hall is a distinguished journalist and writer. He was born in 1925 and spent his childhood in Australia and England.
Review courtesy: www.amazon.com
The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) of 1959-1965 was one of the greatest international, interdisciplinary oceanographic undertakings of all time embracing physical and chemical oceanography, meteorology, marine biology, marine geology and geophysics.
Forty-six research vessels under 13 different flags undertook research that extended over 320 cruise months, including an unprecedented number of hydrographic surveys (and repeat surveys) that covered the entire Indian Ocean basin. They were supported by research facilities ashore.
India was a very active participant in IIOE and was given, among other things, the responsibility of sorting, identification and maintenance of zooplankton collections. For this purpose, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) established the Indian Ocean Biological Centre (IOBC, 1962-66) at Cochin in cooperation with UNESCO.
One of the most important outcomes of IIOE was the transformation of the IOBC into the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) as a CSIR National Laboratory, on the 1st of January 1966. In order to celebrate the linked events of 50 years of completion of IIOE and the Golden Jubilee of NIO, an International Symposium will be organized from 30th November to 4th December 2015.
The Symposium, co-sponsored by NIO, SCOR, and IOC, will provide a forum for marine and related scientists all over the world to present results of their latest research in the Indian Ocean, review the progress made in understanding the unique characteristics of the region and plan future research to address outstanding issues.
Website: http://www.io50.incois.gov.in
The Higgs Bison Discovered!!
Ancient DNA research has revealed that Ice Age cave artists recorded a previously unknown hybrid species of bison and cattle, the mystery species, known affectionately by the researchers as the Higgs Bison because of its elusive nature, which originated over 120,000 years ago.
Research has revealed that the mystery hybrid species eventually became the ancestor of the modern European bison, or wisent, which survives in protected reserves such as the forest between Poland and Belarus.
It is believed that it originated through the hybridisation of the extinct Aurochs (the ancestor of modern cattle) and the Ice Age Steppe Bison, which ranged across the cold grasslands from Europe to Mexico.
Radiocarbon dating showed that the mystery species dominated the European record for thousands of years at several points, but alternated over time with the Steppe bison, which had previously been considered the only bison species present in Late Ice Age Europe.
The cave paintings depict bison with either long horns and large forequarters (more like the American bison, which is descended from the Steppe bison) or with shorter horns and small humps, more similar to modern European bison.
More information: http://www.nature.com
1 October 2016: A new generation of universal flu vaccines has been designed to protect against the future global pandemics that could potentially kill millions of people. The vaccine, designed by an international team of scientists, has the potential to give protection for up to 88 per cent of known flu strains worldwide in a single shot, spelling the end of the winter flu season. The
components of this universal flu vaccine would be short flu virus
fragments, called epitopes -that are already known to be recognised by
the immune system. However, sometimes it doesn't work as in the H3N2
(influenza A) vaccine failure in winter 2014-2015. Also, these yearly vaccines give us no protection at all against potential future pandemic flu. Previous pandemics include the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918, and the pandemics of 1957 and 1968, which led to millions of deaths there off. Link: http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org
2 October 2016: India formally joined the Paris Climate Change Agreement by submitting its instrument of ratification at UN headquarters in New York, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The instrument of ratification was deposited by India's permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin. By putting Gandhi seal on the climate deal, the country will now urge the global community to adopt 'Gandhian way of life' (shun extravagant lifestyles) to reduce their carbon footprints and protect the earth from adverse impact of climate change. Besides
pushing these points during negotiations around framing the rules,
India will also set up a pavilion during COP22
to showcase the country's action on climate change and explain how the
'Gandhian lifestyles' actually help it
reduce its carbon footprints. India will articulate its point vigorously during the next climate conference (COP22) at Marrakech in Morocco, beginning November 7. Link: http://unfccc.int
3 October 2016: Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty which was created in order to protect the unique and pristine Antarctic landscape. Signed on 4 October 1991 by 31 countries, the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty came into force in 1998, once it had been ratified by all 26 countries. The Protocol designates Antarctica as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science; and bans the commercial extraction of minerals. Today there are 38 Parties to the Protocol, who each send representatives to the annual meetings of the Committee for Environmental Protection, which advises the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting on Antarctic environmental issues. The Environmental Protocol is best known for its ban on commercial mining in Antarctica. To mark its 25th anniversary, all Parties had underlined their commitment to the mining ban in May 2016. Link: http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org
4 October 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan won the Nobel Medicine Prize for his work on autophagy, a process whereby cells 'eat themselves' which when disrupted can cause Parkinson's and diabetes. Autophagy is a fundamental process in cell physiology with major implications for human health and disease. The process is essential for the orderly degradation and recycling of damaged cell parts and its failure is believed to be responsible for ageing and cell damage. Researchers first observed during the 1960s that the cell could destroy its own contents by wrapping them up in membranes and transporting them to a recycling compartment called the lysosome. In a series of brilliant experiments in the early 1990s, Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker's yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy. He then went on to explain the underlying mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in human cells. Link: https://www.nobelprize.org
5 October 2016: China, the largest cotton producers in the world, has made a breakthrough in controlling a major disease of cotton plants using gene technology. After eight years of research, Chinese scientists with the Institute of Microbiology of Chinese Academy of Sciences found that gene interference technology can prevent the spread of a soil-borne fungal pathogen Verticillium dahlia, the causal agent of vascular wilt disease so-called 'Cotton Cancer' in China. Verticillium dahliae is a vascular fungal pathogen responsible for devastating many crops. The group of scientists led by Prof. GUO Huishan from Institute of Microbiology of Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that trans-kingdom small RNAs (sRNAs) can be used to protect crops from infection of fungal pathogens. Based on their findings, scientists have cultivated a new strain of cotton with resistance to Verticillium dahliae. The findings are published in Nature Plants. Link: http://www.nature.com
6 October 2016: India's latest communication satellite GSAT-18 was successfully launched by a heavy duty rocket of Arianespace from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. GSAT-18, built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), aims at providing telecommunications services for the country by strengthening ISRO's current fleet of 14 operational telecommunication satellites. The European launcher Ariane-5 VA-231 injected GSAT-18 shortly after orbiting co-passenger Sky Muster-II satellite for Australian operator NBN (National Broadband Network). GSAT-18 that aims at providing augumented communication facilities to the14 telecom satellites operated by ISRO. GSAT-18 was launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit about 32 minutes after the lift-off. GSAT-18 is the 20th satellite from ISRO to be launched by the European space agency and the mission is the 280th for Arianespace family. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in
7 October 2016: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is driving towards new uphill destinations to further study ancient, water-rich environments and potential for life on the red planet. The destinations include a ridge capped with material rich in the iron-oxide mineral hematite, about two-and-a-half km from its current location, and an exposure of clay-rich bedrock beyond that. These are key exploration sites on lower Mount Sharp, which is a layered mound where the Curiosity rover is studying evidence of water-rich environments that contrast with the dry conditions on the surface of Mars today. Hundreds of photos Curiosity took in recent weeks amid a cluster of mesas and buttes of diverse shapes are fresh highlights among the more than 180,000 images the rover has taken since landing on Mars in August 2012. The latest drill site, the 14th for Curiosity, is in a geological layer about 180 meters thick, called the Murray formation. Link: https://www.nasa.gov
8 October 2016: British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year's Nobel Prize in physics for work that ‘revealed the secrets of exotic matter’. The three ‘opened the door’ to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. They were for their ‘theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter’. Thouless is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Their research was conducted in the 1970s and '80s. Nobels are for discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time. Each Nobel prize has a purse of 8 million kronor ($930,000) along with a medal. They will be awarded in a ceremony on December10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. Link: https://www.nobelprize.org
9 October 2016: National Highways of India, spread across 1,00,089 kilometers of the country have potential of about 7.33 million tonnes of carbon sequestration but in reality, there is only 2.13 to 2.46 million tonnes of carbon that is being sequestered, says a study by students of Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal. The study recommends that 90% vegetation cover needs to be achieved for this abiding to the guidelines of National Green Highways Mission. The study was conducted in collaboration with National Highways authority of India. It aims
to give an estimate that how much green cover need to be increased for improving carbon sequestration
capability of national Highways. It is to be mentioned that of 142.04 million tonnes of carbon emitted by transport sector, 87% is estimated to be released from road transport alone. Thus the National Green Highways mission was launched to in July 2016, which aims for plantation and maintenance of green buffer zone along highways. Link: http://nationalgreenhighways.org
10 October 2016: Half the original mass of India and Eurasia disappeared into the Earth's interior before the two landmasses began their slow-motion collision about 60 million years ago, a new study has found. The study by researchers at University of Chicago in the US has important implications for our understanding of when the continents grew to their present size and how the chemistry of the Earth's interior has evolved. It examined the collision of Eurasia and India, which began about 60 million years ago, created the Himalayas and is still in slow progress. According to plate tectonic theory, the surface of the Earth comprises a mosaic of about a dozen rigid plates in relative motion. These plates move atop the upper mantle, and plates topped with thicker, more buoyant continental crust ride higher than those topped with thinner oceanic crust. Oceanic crust can dip and slide into the mantle, where it eventually mixes together with the mantle material. Link: http://www.nature.com
11 October 2016: Dr. Andrew Mude, an economist and principal scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), will be presented with the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application for his work leading an innovative livestock insurance program that employs satellite data to help protect livestock herding communities in the Horn of Africa from the devastating effects of drought. The Rockefeller Foundation provides the endowment for the award. Des Moines, Mude and colleagues from the University of California, Davis and Cornell University received the Award for Scientific Excellence . The award recognizes significant achievements originating from work performed through USAID’s Feed the Future Innovations Labs, which has provided support for the livestock insurance project since its inception via the BASIS Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab team. Link: https://news.ilri.org
12 October, 2016: Today marks the two-year anniversary of the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Adopted in 2010 and entering into force on 12 October 2014, the Nagoya Protocol aims to create equity between providers and users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. To achieve this goal, the Protocol provides a clear framework to ensure that access to genetic resources and/or associated traditional knowledge is granted on the basis of prior informed consent and that any benefits derived from the use of these resources or knowledge is shared fairly and equitably with the provider country and its indigenous peoples and local communities, as appropriate. The Nagoya Protocol is a key element in the global framework for sustainable development. Link: https://www.cbd.int
13 October 2016: China launched its longest manned space mission, sending two astronauts into orbit to spend a month aboard an space laboratory that is part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. The Shenzhou 11 blasted off on a Long March rocket from the remote launch site in Jiuquan, in the Gobi desert. The astronauts will dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or 'Heavenly Palace 2', which was sent into space last month. It will be the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts. Shenzhou 11 is the third space voyage for Jing, who will command the mission and celebrate his 50th birthday in orbit. In a manned space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong 1. Shenzhou 11, whose name translates as 'Divine Vessel', will also carry three experiments designed by Hong Kong middle school students including silk worms. Link: http://orbiter-forum.com
14 October 2016: The world's oldest giant panda in captivity, Jia Jia, has died at a Hong Kong theme park at the age of 38, the equivalent of 114 human years. The female panda was euthanised, following rapid deterioration in her health over the past two weeks. Her food consumption had drastically fallen over recent weeks, from 10 kg a day to under three, leading to a 4kg weight loss. Jia Jia whose name meant 'good', was a gift from the Chinese government to Hong Kong in 1999, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the former British colony's handover to the mainland. The average life expectancy for pandas living in captivity is under 20 years, making Jia Jia's longevity unique among her species. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the destruction of the natural habitat of the giant pandas in the wild has reduced their population to less than 2,000. Their low birth rate also added to their endangered status. Link: https://www.oceanpark.com.hk
15 October 2016: The world’s largest reef system, the Great Barrier Reef has been declared dead in an obituary written for Outside Magazine by Rowan Jacobsen.‘The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness,’ said Rowan Jacobsen, Environment writer for Outside Magazine. The Great Barrier Reef was 25 million years old. Being approximately 1,400 miles long with up to 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands, it was the World’s only living structure that was visible from space. ‘It harbored 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusc, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds and 30 species of whales and dolphins,’ the obituary read.In fact, aerial-view images of the Great Barrier Reef shared by Independent even reveal the extent of the damage caused by climate change. Earlier this year, researchers discovered how over 93 per cent of individual reefs had been affected by coral bleaching. This was the worst coral bleaching hit that impacted the Great Barrier Reef.Link: https://www.nasa.gov
16 October 2016: In order to protect and increase wild tiger population, nearly one million acres of protected habitat in India and Bhutan will be covered under a new private conservation efforts. The 'Project C.A.T. - Conserving acres for Tigers' by Discovery Communications and NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF) aims to conserve the wild tiger population, which has dropped by 96 % in the last century alone to only 4,000 left in the wild due to habitat loss and pervasive poaching. This transboundary partnership will allow rangers to more closely monitor tiger health and other key scientific data, take additional anti-poaching safeguards, and maintain land and corridors to improve movement of all wild animals. The Discovery channel will also leverage its formidable creative capabilities to support WWF's effort, which began in 2010, to double the population of wild tigers across the world by 2022. Link: http://indiacsr.in
17 October 2016: The government will be guided by scientific evidence and 'larger interests'
of consumers and farmers in deciding commercial use of GM mustard even
as it works to narrow the gap between opponents and supporters of the
genetically engineered crops. In keeping with its commitment to the
Supreme Court that has stayed a decision on commercial release till
October 17, the government is looking to reengage public opinion and
non-government organisations. A sub-committee of the central biotech
regulator Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has, meanwhile,
been examining the 800-odd stakeholders' comments it received during
the 30-day period (September 5 October 5). The previous UPA government
took a different view of GM crops as it was more influenced by NGOs
campaigning against genetically modified crops.The GEAC had in 2010
cleared Bt brinjal but the decision was not accepted by the government. Link: http://www.moef.gov.in
18 October 2016: Europe's experimental Mars probe hit the right spot but at the wrong speed likely ending up in a fiery ball of rocket fuel when it struck the surface at high speed. Schiaparelli was meant to test technology for a more ambitious European Mars landing in 2020, and scientists say the data it sent back before going silent will prove highly useful for that mission. ESA also stressed that Schiaparelli's mother ship was successfully placed into orbit and will begin analyzing the Martian atmosphere in search for evidence of life. Europe's Beagle 2 probe reached the surface in 2003 but failed to deploy properly. Only NASA has repeatedly succeeded in landing several robotic vehicles on Mars, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. Instead of achieving a soft landing it probably plummeted the last 2-4 km onto the surface, therefore impacting at a considerable speed. Link: http://exploration.esa.int
19 October 2016: The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), a major science project of the country, which was all set to come up in Theni in Tamil Nadu, is in danger of being shifted to some other State because of obstacles created by activists. India can proudly say that the first detection of cosmic-ray produced neutrinos was in the Kolar Gold Field (KGF) experiment in 1965. Two Nobel Prizes have been awarded for the detection of these elusive neutrinos, one in 2002 and the other in 2015. To build this INO facility and to create scientifically trained human power, an Inter-Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) is being established near the Madurai Kamaraj University campus. It is high time for the silent majority to show that they are not in agreement with the propaganda of the activists. Unfortunately, cases have been filed in the Madurai bench of Madras High Court and in the Southern Bench of National Green Tribunal in Chennai. Link: http://www.ino.tifr.res.in
20 October, 2016: Sloths are declared the slowest animals on Earth.Their distinctive title was revealed around International Sloth Day, which was celebrated worldwide today. The animals gain the title thanks to their slow metabolism, which remains unbeaten in the animal kingdom. Specialists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison spent seven years studying sloths. The study shows that this variety of sloths only needs 162 kilojoules per day per kilogram of energy. It is common knowledge that sloths can sleep up to 20 hours a day. They are so slow that they can only advance about 40 yards a day. Today there are two families of sloths, including 6 species, but in the past, they were much more numerous. Fossil evidence accounts for no less than 50 species. The mammals have gigantic ancestors that could reach 8000 pounds. Their sizes were impressive, considering the fact that they were plant-eaters. Link: https://www.international-sloth-day
21 October, 2016: Planet Nine, the undiscovered one at the edge of our solar system appears to be responsible for the unusual tilt of the Sun, say researchers. Planet Nine was predicted by Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown from California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) in January this year. The large and distant planet may be adding a wobble to the solar system, giving the appearance that the sun is tilted slightly. All of the planets orbit in a flat plane with respect to the sun, roughly within a couple degrees of each other. That plane, however, rotates at a six-degree tilt with respect to the sun–giving the appearance that the sun itself is cocked off at an angle. Planet Nine, based on their calculations, appears to orbit at about 30 degrees off from the other planets’ orbital plane, influencing the orbit of a large population of objects in the Kuiper Belt. The findings have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Link: http://www.nature.com
22 October, 2016: On this day eight years ago (October 22, 2008), ISRO launched its first lunar probe atop a PSLV rocket – Chandrayaan 1. Chandrayaan 1 was India’s first mission to the moon and included an orbiter and an impactor probe. Aside from India becoming the fourth nation to place its flag on the moon, the biggest achievement of the mission was the discovery of widespread presence of water molecules in lunar soil. The Chandrayaan 1 mission was supposed to last two years, but scientists lost communication after just 312 days of operation. Chandrayaan 1’s Terrain Mapping Camera on board the spacecraft was able to capture and send back 70,000 3D images of the Moon’s surface, and was even able to record the landing site of NASA’s Apollo 15 mission. Following the success of Mangalyaan 1, ISRO is also working on Mangalyaan 2, which is planned for 2020. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in
23 October, 2016: Sequencing the genome of an organism allows scientists to investigate its unique genetic make-up, its evolutionary links to other creatures, and how it has adapted to its environment. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, have sequenced the first reef fish genome, the Blacktail Butterflyfish (Chaetodon austriacus), an iconic Red Sea species considered to be an 'indicator' species for coral health. While genome sequences already exist for well-established model species such as the Zebrafish, which is commonly used in medical research, there are no genomes publically available for natural populations of tropical reef fish. The genome may also help stem trading in wild reef fish, because aquaculture specialists may eventually be able use the data to produce new, aquarium-tolerant species to fulfill the market demand for decorative fish. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
24 October, 2016: For a record-breaking 15 years now, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has orbited Mars and provided an unprecedented global view of the planet. Originally, the Mars mission planned for 2001 was to be named 'Mars Surveyor 2001'. The mission consisted of two parts: an orbiter and a lander. However, after the failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, NASA scrubbed the lander portion of the mission. NASA renamed the orbiter '2001 Mars Odyssey' after Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction book '2001: A Space Odyssey'. The 2001 Mars Odyssey mission launched on April 7, 2001 via Boeing’s Delta II 7925 rocket and arrived at its Mars orbit on October 24, 2001. The primary science phase of the mission lasted approximately 917 Earth days. To fulfill these goals, the Mars Odyssey orbiter brought three instruments with it: THEMIS, GRS and MARIE. Link: http://mars.nasa.gov
25 October, 2016: As the Kashmir Stag popularly known as Hangul is on the verge of extinction, largely because of human intrusions and domestic livestock grazing, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is all set to declare it a ‘critically endangered’ species to protect this beautiful animal from disappearing from earth. Once found in the high altitudes of northern India and Pakistan, Hangul now only lives in the dense riverine forests of Dachigam. Historically, the Hanguls were distributed in the mountains of Himalaya, Kashmir, Chenab Valley and Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh.It is listed under Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and JK Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1978 and has also been listed among the top 15 species of high conservation priority by the Government of India. There is only one viable population left in the Dachigam National Park (NP) today. Link: http://icneotropical.org
26 October, 2016: The UN’s World Meteorological Organization stated today that heat-trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere are growing faster than ever before, with carbon dioxide surging permanently beyond a troubling milestone. The agency said the global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million last year, but 2016 is expected to be the first full year to exceed the mark. Carbon dioxide levels rise because of the burning of fossil fuels and were intensified last year by the El Nino, a weather pattern caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean. El Nino leads to droughts in tropical regions and reduces the capacity of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide. Methane, nitrous oxide, and other heat-trapping gases are also spiking. In 2015, levels of methane were 2.5 times greater than in the preindustrial era, while nitrous oxide was 1.2 times above the historic measure. Link: http://www.wmo.int
27 October, 2016: The genome sequence of genome of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis, the most common laboratory frog reveals that it originated when different frog species hybridized and the genome doubled, paralleling events that led to the origin of vertebrates. Scientists from the University of California and the University of Tokyo reports a striking pattern of genome duplication in the African Clawed Frog. The team showed that the frog's genome arose through inter-specific hybridizations of two now-extinct species between 15 and 20 million years ago. Confirming a longstanding hypothesis, the analysis shows that the long and short sub-genomes of Xenopus laevis were originally derived from two frog species. Through a process of inter-species mating, these two progenitors merged to form a new species that eventually became today's African Clawed Frog.The study is published in Nature magazine. Link: http://www.nature.com
28 October, 2016: Delegates from 24 countries and the European Union have agreed that the Ross Sea in Antarctica will become the world's largest Marine Protected Area (MPA). Some 1.57m sq km (600,000 sq miles) of the Southern Ocean will gain protection from commercial fishing for 35 years. The Ross Sea, its shelf and slope only comprise 2% of the Southern Ocean but they are home to 38% of the world's Adelie penguins, 30% of the world's Antarctic petrels and around 6% of the world's population of Antarctic minke whales. The region is important to the rest of the planet as the upwelling of nutrients from the deep waters are carried on currents around the world. The Ross Sea is also home to huge numbers of krill, a staple food for species including whales and seals. Their oil is critical for salmon farming. However there are concerns that overfishing is having significant impact on their numbers. Link: http://www-ocean.tamu.edu
29 October, 2016: Russian researchers have released a video of a tactical weather station built by the Nazis deep in the frozen Arctic at the height of World War II. The researchers found the base, codenamed 'Schatzgraber' ('Fortune Seeker' or 'Treasure Hunter') at Alexandra Land, an island in the Franz Josef Land group of islands situated above the 80 degree north latitude, about 1,000 km from the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean. The base is believed to have been built on direct orders from Adolf Hitler in 1942, a year after his invasion of Russia. Germans needed weather data from the Arctic to help their cruisers and submarines in their raids along the Northern Sea route. The station transmitted more than 700 weather reports between September 1943, when it became operational, and July 1944, when it was abandoned, according to the Russian researchers. The findings will be displayed in an exhibition in northern Russia later. Link: http://www.iflscience.com
30 October 2016:
China will deploy world's largest outdoor air purifier designed by a
Dutch engineer in its smog- hit capital Beijing, as the thick
heavily-polluted haze returned to haunt the city, driving people
indoors. The seven-meter-tall tower, brainchild of Dutch designer Daan
Roosegaarde, is undergoing last-minute checks in Beijing's 751 D Park
art area. The 'Smog Free Tower' can capture about 75 per cent of PM 2.5
and PM 10 tiny particles in its vicinity and then release purified air.
The tower can clean 30,000 cubic meters of air per hour through its
patented ozone-free ion technology. Beijing has been plagued with heavy
smog since the beginning of October. The city's environmental
authorities issued a 'yellow alert' for air pollution. 'Yellow alert' is
the third-most serious level in a four tier colour-code warning system.
Red is the most serious and orange the second-most serious while blue
is the least serious pollution level. Link: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com
31 October 2016: Pakistan's Glacier Lakes Outburst Flood (GLOF) project in
Gilgit-Baltistan region, which was opposed by India on technical
grounds during the Green Climate Fund Board meeting in South Korea, got
'conditional nod' after participants acknowledged the concerns flagged
by New Delhi. Reports say that GLOF had caused massive destruction in the
remote valley of Bindo Gol in Chitral district, damaging homes,
communication links, orchards and agricultural lands in July, 2010. The
project is being piloted in Bindo Gol, Chitral, Bagrot and Gilgit in the
first phase with the financial support by the UNDP. Once the pilot
phase gets over, the second phase worth $37 million would require
the funding from the United Nations Green Climate Fund. On
India's insistence, it was decided that there would be no disbursement
of funds unless there was an independent evaluation of the concerns over the project's ecological imbalance.
Link: http://www.pk.undp.org
Director: Amat Escalante
Story: Amat Escalante
Camera: Manuel Alberto Claro
Running time: 100 minutes
Language: Spanish
A single, silent shot of a meteor in space. A naked woman with something long and slimy crawling over her leg. Those are the first two shots of director Amat Escalante’s The Untamed and the best part about them is how they feel totally unrelated to what follows.
What follows feels like a semi-typical, repressed adult drama.
There’s Veronica, the woman with the leg. She meets a doctor named Fabian whose sister, Alejandra, is not happy in her marriage to Angel, a major problem as they have two young boys. Connections between these people develop and, for the bulk of the film, Escalante explores them in a recognizable, but raw, realistic fashion. You almost forget about those first two shots of the movie. But those shots cast a fascinating shadow on the film.
So as you watch this upsetting tale of lies, sex, poverty, homophobia, and violence, there’s always a twinge that makes you remember things are going to eventually take a turn for the weird. Once that happens, The Untamed glues itself to your consciousness. There are a handful of images in the film that you will never forget, seeing them, your mind races with the implications and beauty of what that meteor and crawly thing represent.
Title : The Invention of Nature:
Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
Author : Andrea Wulf
Pages : 496
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN :10-1848549008
Price : $ 13.24
Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature, which lays out the life of the Prussian explorer and naturalist Humboldt, has won the Royal Society Insight Investment science book prize. 'The Invention of Nature' reveals the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and how he created the way we understand nature today. Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current to the Humboldt penguin. Humboldt was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age.
His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether climbing the highest volcanoes in the world, paddling down the Orinoco or racing through anthrax–infested Siberia. Perceiving nature as an interconnected global force, Humboldt discovered similarities between climate zones across the world and predicted human-induced climate change. He turned scientific observation into poetic narrative, and his writings inspired naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth and Goethe but also politicians such as Jefferson.
Alexander von Humboldt was the pre-eminent scientist of his time. Contemporaries spoke of him as second in fame only to Napoleon. All over the Americas and the English-speaking world, towns and rivers are still named after him, along with mountain ranges, bays, waterfalls, 300 plants and more than 100 animals. There is a Humboldt glacier, a Humboldt asteroid, a Humboldt hog-nosed skunk. Off the coast of Peru and Chile, the giant Humboldt squid swims in the Humboldt Current, and even on the moon there is an area called Mare Humboldtianum.
Darwin called him the 'greatest scientific traveler who ever lived'. As with Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle 32 years later, all of Humboldt’s work was founded on a single momentous journey, which becomes the centerpiece of Wulf’s book. In 1799, Humboldt set off for the Americas with a botanist, Aimé Bonpland, making landfall in modern Venezuela. Together they plunged by canoe into the botanic richness of the rain forests, ascending the Upper Orinoco, where Humboldt was the first to map the great river’s union with a tributary of the Amazon, a juncture that defied contemporary assumptions.
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