December 2012

India on 4 October 2012 successfully test fired its indigenously developed, nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi-II from a test range in Odisha. The missile was test fired by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.

All the radars and electro-optical systems along the coast have monitored the missile throughout its flight path. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have developed Prithvi-II for the Indian Air Force for deep interdiction and the missile can be armed with a nuclear warhead weighing 500 kg. In this flight, it carried conventional explosives.

Prithvi-II is a user-friendly missile which has a completely guided trajectory.

The SFC had earlier launched it on August 25, 2012 and the flight was successful. The Indian Army is already armed with the single-stage Prithvi-II, which uses liquid propellants.
From July 2012 onwards the Strategic Forces Command had launched a series of strategic missiles including Agni-I, Agni-II and Agni-III. It is one of the five missiles that were developed under the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

• New research, published in the journal BMC Medicine , finds that the fat surrounding the prostate of overweight or obese men with prostate cancer provides a favourable environment to promote cancer growth.

• For the first time, scientists have proved that a class of genes causes mutation in some flowering plants rendering their flowers sterile, offering a glimpse further back into the evolutionary development of flowers.

• A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involving the use of camera traps indicates that tigers in Chitwan National Park, Nepal are walking the same paths as people, albeit at different times

• The 2nd Metop satellite (Europe’s second polar-orbiting weather satellite) was launched on September 17 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, atop a Russian Soyuz launcher.

• A new image portrays a beautiful view of the galaxy NGC 7090, as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is viewed edge-on meaning we cannot see the young hot stars as the spiral arms are not visible.

• Small fragments of keratin protein in the eye can help keep pathogens at bay, finds a University of California, Berkeley study. The finding could lead to new, inexpensive antimicrobial drugs

• A long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space.

• Researchers at Rice University and the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have developed a way to make flexible components for rechargeable lithium-ion (LI) batteries from discarded silicon.

• A new study in Pediatrics reveals that metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with cognitive and brain impairments in adolescents and needs to be taken into account when considering early treatment of childhood obesity.

• A Washington State University researcher has found new evidence that the plastic additive BPA can disrupt women’s reproductive systems, causing miscarriages and birth defects.

• Acyl sugars, not found in cultivated tomatoes, play a key role in allowing wild tomatoes to fend off bugs. New research at Michigan State University identifies the first gene that helps produce acyl sugars.

• Adequate sleep is an important part of a weight loss plan and should be added to the recommended mix of diet and exercise, states CMAJ ( Canadian Medical Association Journal ). Less sleep means more appetite

• Humans’ superior brain size in comparison to chimpanzees’ traces back to the womb says a study in Current Biology , the first to track and compare brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses

• In a paper in Nature Physics , an international team of scientists, explains the mysterious physical mechanisms underlying the origin of Sun’s coronary mass ejections based on state-of-the-art computer simulations.

• Exercise is not just good for physical health — research shows that daily physical activity can also boost our mental health.

• A new study has found evidence that marathon running could trigger pulmonary edema, where fluid builds up in the lungs and causes breathlessness, cough and even heart attacks or respiratory failure in serious cases.

• The malaria species rampant in the Asia-Pacific region has been a significant driver of evolution of the human genome, a new study has shown.

• A new study, by scientists from the Universities of York, Glasgow and Leeds, of fossil and geological records going back 540 million years, suggests that biodiversity increases as the planet warms.

• Scientists at Duke University have found that regions of the brain involved in planning and controlling complex vocal sequences may also be necessary for memorizing sounds that serve as models for vocal imitation.

• With every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, tropical regions will see 10 per cent heavier rainfall extremes, with possible impacts for flooding in populous regions, a study published inNature Geoscience finds.

• A study in Current Biology says that ants use a strategy to handle ‘information overload.’ Temnothorax rugatulus ants, place the burden of making complex decisions on the entire colony, not on an individual ant.

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