April 2013

Red Wine can distort the results of Testosterone Level in Body

Researchers from the Kingston University, London in January 2013 declared that Red Wine helps in boosting the performance enhancing hormone testosterone in the body of the athletes and players. The researchers also claimed that the beverage would not only help them in winning the trophies, but an athlete under influence of red wine can also cross all the anti-doping tests. A team at the University’s School of Life Sciences led by Professor Declan Naughton in their findings confirmed that there are chances in which, the amount of testosterone excreted by the body is distorted under the influence of Red Wine and can easily skip the drug tests from the Urine Samples. Quercetin is the compound found in red wine that have abilities of blocking the action of enzyme called UGT2B17 partially. UGT2B17 is an enzyme that finds out testosterone in the human body and then signals kidney to excrete it. Testosterone is a natural steroid hormone available in the body of men and women with abilities of increasing the muscle mass, speed up the recovery process and boost stamina to a different level. The research was conducted in test tubes till date and the human trial is yet to be done. The clinical study of its effects on human beings would help in determining the effects of red wine on human being.

2 Billion Year Old Martian Rock Is a Meteorite with 10 Times More Water than Normal

Scientists claimed that the 2-billion year old dark black rock, called Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 or Black Beauty, which landed into Sahara desert in 2011 is actually new kind of Martian meteorite which contains 10 times excess water than the normal.

Black Beauty weighs around 320 g. After studying it intensively for over a year, the team of US scientists finally determined that the meteorite was formed 2.1 billion years ago and that too during the starting of most recent geologic period called Amazonian, on Mars. Programme scientist for the Mars Exploration Programme at NASA headquarters, Washington explained that the age of Black Beauty was important because it is majorly older than the other Martian meteorites. NASA also explained that the meteorite is a perfect match for the outcrops as well as surface rocks which it had studied remotely through their Mars rovers as well as Mars-orbiting satellites. The composition of Black Beauty is much different than previously studied meteorites from Mars. It is composed of cemented remains of basalt, which is a rock that is formed from hastily cooled lava. These remains are mainly pyroxene and feldspar, which most probably are from the volcanic activities. This is an unusual meteorite chemistry which matches the Martian crust that was measured by Mars Odyssey Orbiter as well as Mars Exploration Rovers of Nasa. Around 110 Martian rocks have already been recovered on Earth, primarily in Sahara or Antarctica. The oldest one is from 4.5 billion years ago when Mars was much warmer and wetter. A lot of Martian meteorites are from 1.3 billion years ago and remaining ones are from 600 million years ago. The latest meteorite is Black Beauty which was donated to University of New Mexico by a US citizen who had purchased it from the Moroccan meteorite dealer in 2011.

India’s First Successful Intestinal Transplant Performed

The first successful and healthy intestinal transplant surgery in India was given to a software engineer on 24 November 2012 at Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon. Because around 60 percent intestinal transplants are not successful due to jettison and higher degree of infection of transplanted organ, therefore the hospital authorities waited for announcing the results till patient recovered completely. The earlier attempts of intestinal transplant in India have always failed. The chairman managing director of Medanta, Dr Naresh Trehan announced that this was the first successful intestinal transplant in India and it provided new hopes to the country. In context with the intestinal transplant for the Delhi gangrape victim, Dr Trehan declared that the victim was not medically fit for the surgery. In the patient who received the first successful intestinal transplant in India, merely 28 cm of small intestine was left out of 600 cm. Rest of it was removed completely. Small intestine performs the function of food absorption as well as digestion. But after finding the cadaver donour, the transplant was successfully completed on 24 November 2012. The cost of surgery was 30 lakh Rupees.

Scientists Developed a Drug That Help Paralysed Walk Again

Scientists at the Stanford University in the second week of January 2013, California developed an experimental drug called LM11A-31 which is claimed to help paralysed people reclaim their movements. The new drug enabled the mice which had no movements in lower limbs, to walk again with the coordinated steps. The mice were even able to imitate the swimming motions. In a 42-days long experiment, the scientists gave three doses of the drug to different groups of the mice starting at four hours post injury and later twice every day. In the tests, it was also observed that the medication did not cause any pain in mice. Also, there were no toxic effects on them. Blood brain barrier, which is responsible for protecting the central nervous system (CNS) from harmful chemicals carried in the bloodstream, was also crossed efficiently. This is for the very first time that the oral drug was observed to provide effective therapy like this. This is therefore said to be the first drug that if taken orally, produced functional improvement leading to no toxicity in rodent model. Apart from this, the scientists tested the small molecule for the ability to avoid death of cells known as oligodendrocytes. Oligoden-drocytes actually are the cells which surround as well as provide protection to the axons, which are long projections of the nerve cells. Protection is provided to axons by wrapping them in myelin sheath which provides protection to the fibres.

India Successfully test-fired manoeuvrable version of BrahMos

India on 9 January 2013 successfully test-fired a highly manoeuvrable version of the 290-km range supersonic cruise missile BrahMos from a naval warship off the coast of Vishakhapatnam in Bay of Bengal. The missile blasted off in a pre-designated war scenario taking a ‘double— manoeuvre in S-form’ hitting the designated target ship just one meter above water line. The sheer velocity and power of hit made the missile rip through the ship’s hull.

The present test firing is considered to be the 34th launch of BrahMos after the successful October 2012 launch from INS Teg in the Arabian Sea.

About BrahMos Missile

BRAHMOS is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase. Stealth technology and guidance system with advanced embedded software provides the missile with special features.

• The BrahMos missile system was inducted into the Indian Navy in 2005 when it began arming the Rajput-class guided missile destroyers and inducted subsequently in many warships.

• BrahMos is capable of acquiring data not only from the American GPS but also from Russian GLONASS satellite systems also, which ensures double redundancy.

• The missile has identical configuration for land, sea and sub-sea platforms and uses a Transport Launch Canister (TLC) for transportation, storage and launch.

Astronomers discovered Magnetic Ropes in Venus’s Upper Atmosphere

Astronomers found flux ropes in Venus’s ionosphere (upper atmosphere), above the poles in the second week of January 2013. The flux ropes are magnetic entities stretching for hundreds of kilometers in size. Astronomers were boarding the European Space Agency’s Venus Express Spacecraft. Flux ropes have been seen before around other planets, including Earth. They transport superheated plasma gas from one end of the rope to the other. Flux ropes are formed on Earth near the face of the planet opposite the Sun. The stream of charged particles known as the solar wind flows around the planet and thus a magnetotail of charged particles on the other side is created. Unlike most other planets in the Solar system, Venus has no magnetic field. The ionosphere (or upper atmosphere) of Venus acts as an obstacle to the solar wind. The ionosphere of Venus remains unmagnetised most of the time, but when the solar wind reaches a higher pressure than the surrounding atmosphere it gets magnetised. In these conditions, relatively small flux ropes can form because of the higher speed of the solar wind blowing over the slower ionosphere. In fact, the flux ropes on Venus form from solar particles on the side of the planet facing away from the Sun, in the magnetotail. Earlier, the giant flux ropes were also found in the atmosphere of Mars. Mars does not have a magnetic field like Venus.

Scientists Developed a Drug to Reverse Permanent Deafness

Scientists in the second week of January 2013, at the Harvard Medical School, US developed a drug codenamed LY411575, which is claimed to be a cure of the permanent deafness. The drug works by exciting the inner ear. It actually triggers the restoration of sensory hair cells. As of now, it was not possible to refurbish the cells which were lost because of various factors such as toxic drugs, infection and loud exposure of noise. This kind of deafness, which usually occurred to DJs and rock musicians, was assumed as irrevocable. Scientists were successful in restoring the hearing in mice to some extent. These mice were deafened due to loud noise. The scientists believed that this research was helpful in creating effective treatments related to acute noise provoking deafness in the humans.
The sensory hairs which are very tiny are present in the cochlea and they are very crucial for hearing. Vibrations of the sound which are transferred from eardrum shake these hairs, leading to nerve messages transferred to the brain. In the absence of these hairs, the pathway to hearing remains blocked. As a result, the auditory centre of the brain does not receive any signals. Fish as well as birds have the ability to regenerate the sound-sensing hair cells. Mammals lack this ability. In the new approach, the scientists reprogrammed inner ear cells by reducing the protein known as Notch. In the early laboratory research, it was shown that the Notch signals enabled in preventing the stem cells in cochlea from transforming themselves to new sensory hair cells. Newly developed drug can curb Notch. In the study, mice suffering from noise-induced loss of hearing could generate functional sensory hair cells once the drug was injected in the damaged cochlea. The study is significant because the hearing loss affects 250 million people in the world.

Mars Curiosity Rover captured a Flower like formation on Martian Rocks

NASA in the first week of January 2013 unveiled that Mars Curiosity Rover has captured an image of a flower like object embedded on the rocks of Mars. It has also photographed a snake-like rock formation on the Martian Rocks. The picture of flower was captured by the microscope Mars Hand Lens Imager held by the robotic arm of Rover on 19 December 2012. The 2.5 billion dollar Curiosity Rover landed on Mars on 5 August 2012 with a mission to identify that was the planet in its past was habitable or had primitive microbial life. The mission would end after 2 years from the day it landed on the Glenelg, the Martian Peak base named MountSharp by the Scientists.

Researchers Discovered Fossil of First Bird with Teeth in China

Fossil skeleton of the early bird called Sulcavis Geeorum which lived 125 million years ago was discovered in the first week of January 2013 in China. The bird had strange kind of ridges on the teeth which allowed it to open up hard-shelled snails and insects as well. This is an unusual fossil which was preserved so well that some of the stomach contents were present even now. The discovery would help the researchers find out the kinds of food items that earliest birds of Earth ate during the time when dinosaurs existed. The fossil skeleton of the first bird with teeth indicated that the bird had durophagous diet, which means that the teeth of this bird were able to eat prey that had hard exoskeletans. Researchers believed that teeth of this new specimen increased the known range of tooth shapes in the early birds, which in turn would indicate about the ecological diversity.

About Sulcavis Geeorum

• Sulcavis Geeorum is the enantiornithine bird (extinct toothed bird) that existed around 125 million years ago in Liaoning Province, China.

• Enantiornithine birds are actually a kind of early birds and also the most numerous birds from dinosaurs-era.

• Sulcavis Geeorum is said to be the first bird discoevred with tooth enamel. The birds are said to be have evolved from the dinosaurs but the dinosaurs have carnivorous teeth that have special characteristics for eating only meat.

• Enantiornithine are the unique birds among others that show minimal tooth reduction along with assortment of the dental patterns. However, Sulcavis Geeorum has strong teeth having grooves on inside surface which strengthen their teeth against harder foods.

• No other bird species in the past had striations, preserved ridges, serrated edges or other kinds of dental ornamentation.

Indian Institute of Astrophysics to Develop World’s Largest Solar Telescope

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore in the first week of January 2013 informed about its decision to come up with world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The project would commence by the end of year 2013 and the telescope is likely to be placed at Hanle or Merak village near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. The telescope would be a 2-metre class, state-of-the-art National Large Solar Telescope (NLST).

It’s expected that the project would complete by 2017. The project has been planned with a budget of 300 crore rupees and after installation, it would help the astrophysicists capable of practicing day and night astronomy. This telescope would help the researchers to understand the process of creation and decay of sunspots along with other fundamental processes that takes place on the surface of sun. This telescope would also help in filling the longitudinal gap between Europe and Japan. The telescope with its innovative design and backend instruments would also provide crucial information on nature of magnetic fields due to its unprecedented spatial resolution.

Cochin Shipyard launched Aadesh

Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) on 8 January 2013 launched the first fast patrol vessel (FPV), built for the Indian Coast Guard. The vessel which is named Aadesh was launched by Jayasree Muralidharan, in the presence of M.P. Muralidharan, Director General of Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and K. Subramaniam, Chairman and Managing Director of the Coast Guard.

The vessel is the first in a series of 20 numbers fast patrol vessel (FPVs) contracted by CSL for the Indian Coast Guard. The contract was signed in year 2010 with of which the delivery the last vessel scheduled for 2017. The ship was designed by the Kochi-based SEDS and this is the first association between CSL and a local design house. The yard also launched two other platform supply vessels for PSV Holdings Inc, Cyprus.

Specification of Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV)

• It has a designed speed of 33 knots with propelled water jets to attain the speed.

• Its primary role includes fisheries protection and monitoring, patrol within exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and coastal patrol, anti smuggling, search and rescue operations and for anti piracy operations.

• The secondary role of vessel is to provide communication link and escort convoys during hostilities and war time.

• Although it is small in size and complex but is technologically very challenging.

Cochin Shipyard currently has 27 ships on order consisting of 20 FPVs, five offshore support ships for Indian and foreign owners, one buoy tender vessel for the Department of Lighthouses and Lightships and the Prestigious Aircraft Carrier for the Indian Navy.

About Cochin Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV)

Cochin Fast Patrol Vessels (FPV) are basically chain of 20 patrol boats being built by Cochin shipyard Limited for the Indian Coast Guard at its shipyard located at Cochin in state of Kerala.

• The Vessels have length of 50 m and can attain speed of 35 Knots.

• Each vessel is powered by three Tognum supplied 16V 4000 M90 engines with an output of 2,720 kW (3,648 bhp) each in combination with three Rolls-Royce Kamewa 71S3np water jets to enable them to operate in shallow waters and offer higher speeds and better maneuverability than conventional propellers.

• The vessels roles include coastal patrolling, anti-smuggling missions, fisheries protection, as well as search and rescue duties.

India Affected By the Cyber Spying Campaign Called Red October

Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security firm on 14 January 2013 revealed that India is one among various nations which are hit by the cyber spying which has been targeting governmental, diplomatic and scientific research organisations for around 5 years.

The cyber spying campaign is termed Red October or Rocra by the Kaspersky Lab. Rocra significantly affected countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, India, Belgium and Azerbaijan apart from other countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Soviet republics.

Rocra infected hundreds of the computers across the world in categories such as research institutions, government, diplomatic/embassies, nuclear/energy research, trade and commerce, aerospace and military as well as oil and gas companies. Kaspersky Lab declared that the cyber spying campaign was functional since 2007 and at present too it is active.

Depending upon the Kaspersky Security Network, the number of infections that affected Russia was maximum (35). It was followed by Kazakhstan (21). India, Azerbaijan and Belgium had 15 infections each. Other affected nations included Armenia (10), Afghanistan (10), Turkmenistan (7), Iran (7), US (6), Vietnam (6), Ukraine (6), Pakistan (5) and Brazil (4).

About Red October

Rocra is the short name given to Red October. Apart from attacking the established computer workstations, Rocra can also steal the data from various smartphones, catch the files from the removable disk drives as well as abandon the network equipment configurations. Rocra can also scan through the local network FTP servers as well as email databases.
Rocra is not like the other highly automatic cyber-spying campaigns such as Gauss and Flame. The attacks of Rocra are very carefully chosen.

The configuration of the hardware as well as software of the victim’s device is what drive every operation. Apart from the software and the hardware, every habit of document use and the native language also drive the operation.

Intel Developed New Device That Helps Stephen Hawking Communicate Faster

A team at Intel, the computer hardware firm created a device, which is said to allow Stephen Hawking, the renowned scientist of the world to communicate faster than before. With the help of new device, Hawking will be able to discuss his ideas about fundamental physics in speedy manner. The 71-year old physicist has been affected by the degenerative disease, due to which he composes sentences at very slow speed, i.e., one word per minute. But Intel created a new device which allows him to create five words per minute. The rate of sentence composition could also increase to ten words per minute. Hawking, from last 10 years has composed the sentences at a pace of one letter at a time while making use of the jerk of the cheek in order to stop the cursor as it runs on the on-screen keyboard. He therefore composes his sentences at a pace of one word at a time and the computer, which is attached to the wheelchair reads it aloud in the metallic voice.

However, in the recent past, Hawking, who is suffering from the motor neuron disease, finds it difficult to control the cursor using the jerk of his cheek, which significantly slows down the pace at which he can communicate with everyone. Intel started working on the new device for Hawking in 2011 after he requested for the help from Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder. The new device or system which was created by Intel makes use of the facial recognition technology in order to identify not just the cheek movements of Hawking, but also the jerks from the mouth as well as the eyebrows, which eventually sends his words to the new machine for speech. Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer described that a device with character-driven interface has been created, which is actually a better word forecaster. The new technology of the device would enable Hawking to make use of two diverse signals in order to express his ideas, which in turn also means that he would be able to communicate while making use of the Morse code. This in turn is a great improvement.

World’s First 3-D Printed Building Planned by Dutch Architect to come up by 2014

The Dutch architect, Janjaap Ruijssenaars in the fourth week of January 2013 unveiled his plans to design the first 3D-printed house of the world. The Landscape House will appear as a continuous looping Möbius strip that rises from the ground and then folds back in seamless rolling band. However, the intricate geometry of the planned building is not crafted from concrete, but from the layers of printed sand. Janjaap Ruijssenaars is at present, working with the mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs for creating this building in sections of up to 6x9m, which are printed with the help of D-Shape printer. The special D-Shape printer is developed by the Italian engineer Enrico Dini and it makes use of the stereolithography principles just like the small printers. The only difference is that this D-Shape printer is scaled up and uses the sand fused together with the help of chemical binding agent.

The sections of the building will be printed like the hollow shells and later they will be filled with the fibre-reinforced concrete in order to imbibe it with the extra strength. The special, first-of-its-kind 3D printed building will take an estimated time of 18 months, which means that it will be available in 2014. The cost of constructing this building is estimated to be €4-5m (£3.3-£4.2m). Earlier, the largest ever 3D-printed object was created by the Italian architect Andrea Morgante of Shiro Studio. This architect made use of the same printer in order to fabricate the 3m-high pavilion in 2009.

Iran Announced Sending a Monkey Successfully Into Space

Iran on 28 January 2013 announced that it had successfully sent into space a monkey. While declaring the sending of a monkey into space, Iran also declared that it was yet another step towards the space flight goal of Tehran. The rocket called Pishgam (meaning Pioneer) reached at a height of 120 km. Though the details about timing or the location were not disclosed, but Iran declared that the monkey had come back to the Earth successfully. Since a long time, Iran wanted to send an astronaut in space as its aerospace programme in 2012. In 2010, Iran declared that it had launched the Explorer rocket into space which carried worms, turtle and mouse. Iran’s effort to launch a monkey into the space had earlier failed in 2011. However, US and the allies worried that the technology from the space programme might be utilised for creation of missiles which could potentially also be armed with the nuclear warheads. Iran, in the meanwhile, denied that it took atomic weapons and also claimed that it was using the nuclear reactors for medical and energy applications. In its joint project with Russia, Iran had announced that it had successfully launched satellites into space back in 2005. Though Iran conceals details of the new space facility that it has planned, but the most important satellite launch complex of Iran is near Semnan.

April 2013

Early monkeys sent into space

• The first country to launch the primate into space was US. It sent a rhesus monkey known as Albert into a sub-space altitude of 39 miles in the V2 rocket in 1948. However, Albert died because of suffocation in the flight.

• Another monkey called Albert II was sent into space achieving the altitude of 83 miles in the V2 rocket in 1949. Though Albert II survived but it died because of parachute failure.

• In late 1949, other two monkeys called Albert III and Albert IV were sent but again did not survive.

• In 1951, Albert V died because of parachute failure.

• In 1951, Albert VI, also called Yorick survived the flight but only reached the height of 45 miles. The boundary of outer space is considered beyond 62 miles.

• The landmark was achieved by the US in 1959 when two primates were recovered alive after their spaceflight. These primates were a rhesus monkey called Able and a squirrel monkey called Baker. These primates were aboard a rocket called Jupiter.

River Ran on the Mars 3.5 Billion Years Ago

The European Space Agency released surprising pictures of the remains of huge river which ran across the Red Planet, Mars at some point of time, on 17 January 2013. The images which were captured by the ESA’s Mars Express showed Reull Vallis, the river-like structure, which is believed to have formed when water ran from the surface of Mars in distant past. The Reull Vallis, cut a steep-sided channel through Promethei Terra Highlands and then ran towards the floor of huge Hellas basin. The structure which surprised the astronomers stretches for around 900 miles or 1500 km across the Martian surface and also shows various tributaries. One of the tributaries was seen cutting the main valley towards the upper side in the north. Experts from ESA opined that these images displayed a resemblance with the morphology which is found in various areas affected by glaciation on Earth. Planetary scientists, in the meanwhile opined that images represented the presence of high water or the glacial levels on Mars, before the water or ice evaporated.

ESA described that the sides of Reull Vallis were mainly sharp as well as steep in the images captures by the Mars Express. The parallel longitudinal features covered floor of the channel. The structures like these were believed to be formed due to passage of loose ice or debris during Amazonian period because of the glacial flow along the channel. These structures, it is believed, were formed somewhere around 3.5 billion years ago. The lineated structures like these, which were rich in ice, were also found in the surrounding craters. Such images were useful because they provided the scientists and astronomers a glimpse into the past of the Red Planet.

Astronomers measured the Process how Universe cooled on lines of Big Bang Theory

Astronomers in the fourth week of January 2013 revealed that they have made the most precise measurement of the fact that how the Universe has cooled down in a period of 13.77 billion years history following the prediction made in the Big Bang Theory. To find out the fact and to carry on the study, the astronomers studied molecules in the gas cloud at a distance of 7.2 billion light years from us somewhere in the universe – a distance so far that the light emitted from it took half the age of the Universe to reach us. A team of Astronomers from France, Germany, Sweden and Australia used the Australian Telescope Compact Array to measure the heat of Universe at the time when it was half of its current age.

A statement released from the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science described that the study has been able to find out the most precise measurement to identify the fact that how the Universe has cooled over a time of 13.77 billion years. The scientists looked back halfway across the Universe to look back halfway into the Universe history and the basic reason to do so is to identify the time, when the light left the galaxies. Astronomers studied gas at a distance of 7.2 billion light years away in an unnamed galaxy and identified that the cosmic background radiation was the only thing that kept it warm – left over by the big bang. Behind this unnamed galaxy PKS 1830-211 quasar is also in existence.

Space Telescope of NASA Discovered Magnetic Braids in Sun’s Atmosphere

The space telescope of NASA discovered astonishing magnetic braids of super-hot matter in outer atmosphere of the Sun. The scientists claimed that this discovery could help in explaining the mysterious hot corona of the Sun. The scientists of NASA additionally also explained that the discovery made by High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C of NASA would help in forecasting the space weather in a better way. The 9.5-inch (24 centimetres) telescope was launched by NASA in July 2012 on the 10-minute flight merely beyond the atmosphere of the Earth in order to know about the corona, which is the million-degree outer atmosphere of the Sun. The NASA’s telescope captured 165 photographs depicting astonishing details, before it came back to the Earth. It was found out that the Sun’s surface was very hot, as expected. It was almost up to 6125 degrees Celsius. However, it was found that the corona, the outer atmosphere which is way above the surface of the Sun was even hotter, by around a 1000 times more, despite the absence of solar flares.

The scientists also discovered that the powerful magnetic waves which rippled from below the surface of the Sun could heat up the corona by 1.5 million degrees Celsius. However, it was made clear that this was not the only reason that accounted for ultra-hot temperatures of the corona. With the high-resolution images of the corona of the Sun, it is clear that magnetic braids generated a lot of heat, which is enough to support the fact that the temperature is as high as up to 6 million degrees Celsius.

The scientists from NASA revealed that they had observed the bundle of magnetic fields, which in turn wrapped various other bundles to create magnetic bundle ensemble. The magnetic fields in the ensemble have different kinds of lengths. Also, there may be difference in the rate of curvature along the solo field lines. Some of the fields are curved highly, while the others are curved less.

The magnetic fields were also visible physically within the super-hot plasma that composes the Sun. For example, the highly curved magnetic fields could appear like the coronal loops or the giant arches which rise from the Sun. The magnetic braids in turn can also grow unbalanced so that the individual magnetic field lines of force can communicate within themselves.

This phenomenon is called reconnection and it diminishes the magnetic field’s curvature, which in turn releases huge amount of energy that heats up the plasma or increases the speed of solar flares or other outbursts.
Even though the magnetic braids were visible on the Sun’s surface, but there are not enough ways to find out how common these magnetic braids were in corona. The scientists explained that there was a possibility that the braids being observed were not actually the bundles of magnetic fields but actually the sets of various magnetic loops which were overlying or underlying on each other. If this was the case, then it was possible that they stored less energy than what it was analysed. Despite all this, the corona of the Sun still held 100 times the amount of energy which needed to be super-heated.

Device to remove insect pests from stored grains

Stored grains are attacked by several pests. They assume importance as they start their damage in the field itself. Generally insects fly from nearby farms, farm store houses or farmer storehouses and start laying eggs on the grains that are stored. Eggs are the root cause in of damage to the grains during storage. As the use of pesticides and fumigants on or near stored grain is more dangerous to human beings and due to the development of resistance to the insects, mechanical methods like rotation, tumbling and impact of infested grains prove to be effective in the removal of stored-product insects.

Limited information

Mechanical removal of insects from stored grains is an important pest control strategy. Till now only very limited information is available in using the mechanical mode for controlling the egg stages of insects. Hence, a device to remove adult stored product insects and crush the eggs present in stored grain has been developed by Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The device has a grain feeding hopper, insect cleaning unit with an outlet to collect them separately and an outlet for the treated grain.

It can be easily operated and within five minutes majority of the insects present in the food grains can be removed and collected in the collection outlet. Further inner arrangement in the insect cleaning unit facilitates crushing of the eggs, if any, in the grains. The capacity of the hand operated machine is 200 – 250 kg/hr. It can be easily motorized depending on the need.

Scientists Discovered Gene That Restricts Tumours

Scientists at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Biotechnology claimed in the third week of January 2013 that they found the SCO2 gene which has potential qualities of restricting tumours.
Scientists claimed that this SCO2 gene can therefore be used for the treatment of various kinds of cancers. As of now, p53 gene was considered as the protein that holds back tumours and therefore prevents occurrence of cancer. But as per the combined research studies which were conducted by the scientists of JNU School of Biotechnology and Ohio State University Medical Centre as well as other universities, p53 gene employs SCO2 gene to imbibe this tumour-suppressing quality to it. In the research study, the scientists injected SCO2 protein which is encoded in SCO2 gene, in the colon as well as breast tumour xenografts in the mice. The result was constant decay of the tumours. When SCO2 was combined with cancer drugs such as tamoxifen and cisplatin, the success rate of hypoxic tumour regression was 85 percent in 4 weeks.

Actually, SCO2 is responsible for enhancing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which in turn activates the apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1). Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) then degenerates the growth rate of tumours. ROS is a kind of unstable molecule which encompasses oxygen, which in turn leads to easy reaction with the other molecules in the cell. Building of ROS in the cells can lead to damaged DNA, RNA as well as proteins, eventually being fatal. But SCO2 causes promotion of ROS for positive reasons, i.e. to activate the cell death and thus shrinking these tumours. The scientists however also made it clear that translating these findings into the real-time treatment or therapy would take time. But it is still a very important step in the process of understanding mechanistic reasons of cancer. The scientists declared that all the genes which are involved in cancer cell metabolism hold importance, but they need to be understood and discovered. However, with the advanced therapies and the treatments in the future, cancer would not remain a deadly disease.

Researchers Discovered Protein behind Scaly and Dry Skin in Eczema

A team of researchers including that of an Indian-origin, at Oregon State University discovered in the first week of January 2013, one malfunctioning protein which leads to itchy, dry as well as inflamed skin wounds in a kind of eczema.

The protein is called Ctip2 and it actually causes certain skin conditions by controlling body fat which keeps the skin hydrated and healthy. Eczema actually causes major loss of certain fluids through the skin which in turn leads to penetration of certain allergens. In the study conducted by the researchers, it was found that insufficient Ctip2 leads to reduction in the lipids in skin which are required for staying healthy and performing its function.

Additionally, this leads to unwanted creation of proteins which can cause inflammation.

The ability of the skin to oppose to inflammation goes down because the quantity of inflammation is rising and the main factor is Ctip2 not performing its job. One of these or both these issues can cause eczema. It was known that Ctip2 controls the body fats which can keep your skin hydrated and healthy, but researchers discovered that in case this protein starts malfunctioning, it could lead to atopic dermatitis which is a common kind of eczema.

At present, the treatment includes moisturizing the skin for protection. In certain difficult cases, powerful steroids are used but it also leads to negative effects, especially long term side effects. The skin is actually the largest human body organ and also the important one. It fights against the external factors and therefore is also influenced by environment and genetics. In the condition of eczema, the function of skin slows down. The findings in turn can help the researchers in discovering the new treatments for eczema.

The main findings of the study were as follows:

• Protein called Ctip2 starts controlling body fats which are helpful in keeping the skin cell hydrated as well as healthy.

• However, in the people suffering from eczema, this starts malfunctioning leading to itchy, red and dry skin.

• The researchers believed that the findings could lead to certain new treatments as well.

Astronomers discovered Largest Cosmic Structure in the Universe

Astronomers in the first week of January 2013 discovered the largest known structure in the Universe called Large Quasar Group (LQG) that is powered by super massive black holes clump together. This cluster of galaxies spans across four billion light years. Quasars are considered to be the nuclei of galaxies of the universe, which undergoes brief period of extremely high brightness making them visible in the sky from extreme distant positions. The LQG was identified by a research team from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) that is led by Dr. Roger Clowes and the significant size of the same is challenging the Albert Einstein’s Principle of Cosmology. The principle states – the Universe when viewed at a large scale, it seems to be the same; it doesn’t matters that from where it is being observed from. The Einstein’s principle is just an assumption but was never demonstrated after observations so it’s beyond reasonable doubts. The newly, discovered LQG carries a dimension of 500 megaparsecs (Mpc). The elongated structure makes its longest dimension to a size of 1200 Mpc or 4 billion light years, which is 1600 times larger than the distance between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest neighbour of the Milky Way Galaxy and is separated from each-other by about 0.75 Mpc or 2.5 million light years. The cluster of whole galaxies of the Universe can be up to 2 to 3 Mpc and the LQGs can go up to 200 Mpc and above. The modern calculations of astrophysicist’s states that they can’t find any structure larger than 370 Mpc and these calculations are made on the basis of modern theory of cosmology and the principle of cosmology. One will take 4 billion years to cross the LQG if one travels with the speed of light and this is just not because of its huge size but also because it has challenged the accepted principle of cosmology given by Einstein. Astronomers in the first week of January 2013 discovered the largest known structure in the Universe called Large Quasar Group (LQG) that is powered by super massive black holes clump together. This cluster of galaxies spans across four billion light years. Quasars are considered to be the nuclei of galaxies of the universe, which undergoes brief period of extremely high brightness making them visible in the sky from extreme distant positions. The LQG was identified by a research team from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) that is led by Dr. Roger Clowes and the significant size of the same is challenging the Albert Einstein’s Principle of Cosmology. The principle states – the Universe when viewed at a large scale, it seems to be the same; it doesn’t matters that from where it is being observed from. The Einstein’s principle is just an assumption but was never demonstrated after observations so it’s beyond reasonable doubts.

The newly, discovered LQG carries a dimension of 500 megaparsecs (Mpc). The elongated structure makes its longest dimension to a size of 1200 Mpc or 4 billion light years, which is 1600 times larger than the distance between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest neighbour of the Milky Way Galaxy and is separated from each-other by about 0.75 Mpc or 2.5 million light years. The cluster of whole galaxies of the Universe can be up to 2 to 3 Mpc and the LQGs can go up to 200 Mpc and above. The modern calculations of astrophysicist’s states that they can’t find any structure larger than 370 Mpc and these calculations are made on the basis of modern theory of cosmology and the principle of cosmology. One will take 4 billion years to cross the LQG if one travels with the speed of light and this is just not because of its huge size but also because it has challenged the accepted principle of cosmology given by Einstein.

Agartala to turn a ‘green’ city

Aiming to make Agartala an environmentally safe city, the Tripura government is preparing a report to make use of solar energy mandatory by owners of buildings. The present building rules would be changed to make use of solar energy compulsory in buildings to reduce dependence on conventional energy, TripKar said the company would soon provide PNG connections to 10,000 new domestic consumers here. The Agartala Municipal Council has made a Rs 452.32 crore-master plan to make Agartala a “solar city”. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy would bear 90 per cent of the cost and the remaining 10 per cent would be borne by the state government in the next three years. The Transport department has already introduced 70 Compressed Natural Gas -run buses and CNG kits would be fitted to those vehicles run either by petrol or by diesel. “About four lakh people live in the city, but the density of automobiles in this city is higher than many big cities in the country,” state Transport and Urban Development Minister Manik Dey said. There are over 200,000 various types of vehicles, including 4,500 auto-rickshaws, plying in the city and many such auto-rickshaws are now fitted with CNG kits, he said.

“At present there are three CNG stations and we have a plan to set up more such stations. PNG connections would be given to additional 10,000 households within six months,” Kar said. Tripura Science, Technology and Environment Minister Joy Gobinda Debroy said. “The rules would be applicable to private, government and commercial buildings,” Debroy said. With the Centre suggesting that Northeastern state capitals should be included among 60 cities in the country to be turned into solar energy hotspots, Debroy said the state government had started preparing a detailed project report. Meanwhile, the Tripura Natural Gas Co Ltd (TNGCL) has announced a plan to run all vehicles in the city with CNG by 2013.

Curiosity rover set to drill its first Martian rock

NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing to drill the Martian surface and is driving towards a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. It’s the most highly anticipated milestone since the six-wheel, nuclear-powered rover landed near the Martian equator five months ago on its two-year prime mission, investigating whether the planet ever offered an environment favourable for microbial life. If the rock meets rover engineers’ approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the mission, NASA said. “Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission’s most challenging activity since the landing.

It has never been done on Mars,” said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don’t control. We won’t be surprised if some steps in the process don’t go exactly as planned the first time through,” Cook said in a NASA statement. Curiosity first will gather powdered samples from inside the rock and use those to scrub the drill. Then the rover will drill and ingest more samples from this rock, which it will analyse for information about its mineral and chemical composition.

The chosen rock is in an area where Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) and other cameras have revealed diverse unexpected features, including veins, nodules, cross-bedded layering, a lustrous pebble embedded in sandstone, and possibly some holes in the ground. The rock chosen for drilling is called “John Klein” in tribute to former Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager John W Klein, who died in 2011. The target is on flat-lying bedrock within a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay”. The terrain in this area differs from that of the landing site, a dry streambed about 500 metres to the west. Curiosity’s science team decided to look there for a first drilling target because orbital observations showed fractured ground that cools more slowly each night than nearby terrain. “The orbital signal drew us here, but what we found when we arrived has been a great surprise,” said Mars Science Laboratory project scientist John Grotzinger. “This area had a different type of wet environment than the streambed where we landed, maybe a few different types of wet environments,” said Grotzinger.

LHC to re-awaken in 2015 with doubled energy, luminosity

After a successful three-year run that saw the discovery of a Higgs-boson-like particle in early 2012, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, will shut down for 18 months for maintenance and upgrades. This is the first of three long shutdowns, scheduled for 2013, 2017, and 2022. Physicists and engineers will use these breaks to ramp up one of the most sophisticated experiments in history even further. According to Mirko Pojer, Engineer In-charge, LHC-operations, most of these changes were planned in 2011. They will largely concern fixing known glitches on the ATLAS and CMS particle-detectors. The collider will receive upgrades to increase its collision energy and frequency. Presently, the LHC smashes two beams, each composed of precisely spaced bunches of protons, at 3.5-4 tera-electron-volts (TeV) per beam. By 2015, the beam energy will be pushed up to 6.5-7 TeV per beam. Moreover, the bunches which were smashed at intervals of 50 nanoseconds will do so at 25 nanoseconds.

After upgrades, “in terms of performance, the LHC will deliver twice the luminosity,” Dr. Pojer noted in an email to this Correspondent, with reference to the integrated luminosity. Precisely, it is the number of collisions that the LHC can deliver per unit area which the detectors can track. The instantaneous luminosity, which is the luminosity per second, will be increased to 1x10 per centimetre-squared per second, ten-times greater than before, and well on its way to peaking at 7.73x10 per centimetre-squared per second by 2022. As Steve Myers, CERN’s Director for Accelerators and Technology, announced in December 2012, “More intense beams mean more collisions and a better chance of observing rare phenomena.” One such phenomenon is the appearance of a Higgs-boson-like particle. The CMS experiment, one of the detectors on the LHC-ring, will receive some new pixel sensors, a technology responsible for tracking the paths of colliding particles. To make use of the impending new luminosity-regime, an extra layer of these advanced sensors will be inserted around a smaller beam pipe. If results from it are successful, CMS will receive the full unit in late-2016. In the ATLAS experiment, unlike with CMS which was built with greater luminosities in mind, pixel sensors are foreseen to wear out within one year after upgrades. As an intermediate solution, a new layer of sensors called the B-layer will be inserted within the detector for until 2018. Because of the risk of radiation damage due to more numerous collisions, specific neutron shields will be fit, according to Phil Allport, ATLAS Upgrade Coordinator. Both ATLAS and CMS will also receive evaporative cooling systems and new superconducting cables to accommodate the higher performance that will be expected of them in 2015. The other experiments, LHCb and ALICE, will also undergo inspections and upgrades to cope with higher luminosity. An improved failsafe system will be installed and the existing one upgraded to prevent accidents such as the one in 2008. Then, an electrical failure damaged 29 magnets and leaked six tonnes of liquid helium into the tunnel, precipitating an eight-month shutdown. Generally, as Martin Gastal, CMS Experimental Area Manager, explained via email, “All sub-systems will take the opportunity of this shutdown to replace failing parts and increase performance when possible.”

Tough times and calorie intake

People tend to seek higher-calorie foods that will keep them satisfied longer when there is a perception of tough times, a new study has claimed. According to the study, bad news about the economy could cause you to pack on the pounds.

The study found that when subconsciously primed with such messages, a ‘live for today’ impulse is triggered causing people to consume nearly 40 per cent more food than when compared to a control group primed with neutral words. When the same group primed with “tough times” messages was told the food they were sampling was low-calorie, they consumed roughly 25 per cent less of the food.

The Oldest Super Predator Living on Earth, Tyrant Swimmer Discovered by the Scientists

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences in the second week of January 2013 discovered that the oldest known super predator of the world was the marine crocodile. Predators are the carnivores that are capable of feeding on the prey which is large or even larger than them. This recently discovered oldest known super predator of the world, a marine crocodile was a toothy beast which looked partly like a shark and partly like a threatening dolphin. The scientific name of this oldest predator of the world is Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos or simply Tyrant Swimmer. The lead author of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences, Mark Young described that the Tyrant Swimmer was the oldest metriorhynchid macrophage, an animal with a capability of feeding on the large-bodied prey. The term called metriorhynchid basically represents the bunch of marine crocodiles which were identical to dolphins that we see now.

However, they do not have bony armour, but do have tail fluke and flipper-like forelimbs. Tyrant Swimmer was capable of opening its mouth wider. The remains of the Tyrant Swimmer which were found in Oxford Clay Formation, the Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation originally from Southeast England were studied. These remains were stored for sometime at Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. Tyrant Swimmer basically is known to be from the shallow marine areas across Europe, primarily Poland, England and France. Around 165 million years ago, a lot of Europe was completed covered by the shallow sea, which also led to the formation of large to small islands. It is in this shallow sea that the Tyrant Swimmer lived with various other marine reptiles. However, the Tyrant Swimmer might have been faster in water than others, which allowed it to out-swim possible predators. Tyrant Swimmer could have used its swimming capabilities for capturing the prey. However, no contents of the stomach of Tyrant Swimmer were located as of now, which meant that what it ate precisely, is still a mystery.

Two New-Born Giant Planets Observed Around the Star

Astronomers studying about the newborn star called HD 142527, observed glimpses of the planets which were forming around it, depicting the stage of planetary evolution which was never seen before. The new-born planets were observed using the largest radio telescope on Earth, Atacama Large Millimetre /submillimeter Array in the Atacama Desert of Chile. It was observed that streams of gases were flowing through the gap found in the disc of the material that was surrounding the young star supported theories, about how these planets grew.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) described the vast stream of gases were flowing through the gap in disc. Astronomers were studying the HD 142527 which is 450 light years away from the Earth. It was found that this star is surrounded by cosmic dust as well as a disc of gases. The disc is segregated into an inner as well as an outer part with the help of a gap. The gap might have been created by newly formed giant planets of gas which were clearing out the orbits as they revolved around the star. The astronomer leading the study, Simon Casassus explained that these giant planets grew in size by capturing gases from the outer discs, from the streams which act like bridges across the gap in the disc. Simon Casassus also explained that astronomers were predicting the existence of these streams but this was the first time that they were observed directly.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved New Tuberculosis Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on 31 December 2012 approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is counted to be first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. The agency approved J&J’s pill, named Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. Sirturo, which chemically known as bedaquiline, is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. That’s a form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used for tuberculosis. Sirturo provides much-needed treatment for patients who don’t have other therapeutic options available. However, it was also mentioned by the agency that the drug carries risks of potentially deadly heart problems and should be prescribed carefully by doctors.

It is estimated that roughly one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. The disease is rare in the U.S., but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide. Of those, about 150,000 succumb to the increasingly common drug-resistant forms of the disease. About 60 per cent of all cases are concentrated in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.

The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. It was seen during company testing that Nine patients taking Sirturo died compared with two patients taking a placebo. Five of the deaths in the Sirturo group seemed to be related to tuberculosis, but no explanation was apparent for the remaining four. Regardless of the deaths, the FDA approved the drug under its accelerated approval program, which allows the agency to clear innovative drugs based on promising preliminary results.

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