New method for viewing muscle activation

A new signal processing method uses ultrasound imaging, 3-D motion capture technology and proprietary data-processing software to scan and capture 3-D maps of muscle structure in just 90 seconds.

Oldest evidence of dog domestication

A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication.

Improved Ergonomics for Wheelchair Users

Engineers have developed an ergonomic seat for electric wheelchairs which enables the user to move around frequently. It enhances the freedom of movement of wheelchair users with a range of disabilities.

Brain Adjustment to Injured Arm in Sling

Using a sling or cast after injuring an arm may cause your brain to shift quickly to adjust. The size of brain areas compensating for the injured side increase, and those areas that are not being used due to the cast or sling decrease.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide hits marine life

Results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date say  that one-third of atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.

More physical activity, better school grades

A systematic review of previous studies suggests that there may be a positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance of kids, according to a report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine .

New way to clean up spent nuclear fuel

Researchers have used metalorganic frameworks (MOFs) to capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel.

Airborne radar to study current active volcano

A one-week NASA airborne radar campaign will help scientists better understand processes occurring under Earth's surface at Kilauea, Hawaii's current most active volcano.

Saving snow leopard using stem-like cells

The production of embryonic stemlike cells from the tissue of an adult snow leopard may lead to cryopreservation of genetic material for cloning and other assisted reproduction techniques.

Less carotene protects from parasitic plants

Grain crops that produce less carotene can produce more food, especially in Africa, as they are less affected by parasitic plants. Rice plants that produce less carotene than usual are less infected by the Striga parasite.

New Wireless Device to detect the Presence of Termites

Scientists developed a new wireless device to detect the presence of termites by hearing them chew through timber. Once the new device detects the presence of termites, it will immediately send an SMS or email to a pest control firm. This device is made of a tiny sensor, smaller than a fingernail. The tiny sensor is attached to a piece  of wood and kept around the house to detect termite stations.

Factors that may trigger glaucoma

When it comes to whether or not you will develop exfoliation syndrome,  an eye condition that is a leading cause of secondary open-angle glaucoma, age, gender and where you live do matter.

Human settlements and Galapagos reptiles

Land and marine reptiles living close to human settlements in the Galápagos Islands were more likely to harbour  antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, says a study.

Coral reef evolution from ancient time

200 million years ago fish with jaws capable of feeding on corals emerged, but the real explosion in reef diversity did not occur till about 50 million years ago when fishes like today's specialist coral feeders emerged.

How do igloos protect Eskimos from the severe cold?

The Igloo is a domed snow house often associated with the Inuit (also known as Eskimos), the native inhabitants of the Canadian Arctic. Igloos are relatively easy to construct, made from materials found in abundance: snow and ice. The igloo is an ingenious invention, very effective in keeping people warm. These aremeans to reduce heat loss by wind convection and by moisture from precipitation. Hypothetically, if it is -40°C outside, the igloo has the potential to warm up to 0°C. The major factors that enable to keep Eskimos warm inside the igloos are:

• Snow and ice work as insulators to trap body heat inside the igloo. Thus, the occupants of an igloo double as a furnace of sorts.

• The walls block the wind, which is often so bitter that it can make freezing temperatures feel many degrees colder.

• Insulation capabilities actually increase a few days after construction. Body heat and sun exposure cause the inside of the igloo to melt ever so slightly. When the igloo is unoccupied during hunting expeditions, the melted snow freezes over, turning into ice. Several days of gradual thawing and refreezing turns the entire structure to solid ice, making it not only super strong, but also warmer than ever.

Moon-walk mineral discovered in Australia

Tranquillityite — the last mineral thought to have been unique to the Moon has been discovered in the remote Pilbara region of Australia. It is named after the Apollo-11 landing site.

Key malaria parasite protein decoded

The structure and function of a protein that plays a key role in the life of a parasite that killed 655,000 people in 2010, has been cracked.

Brain fluid levels and Alzheimer's onset

Cerebrospinal levels of brain fluid appear to be decreased at least 5 to 10 years before some patients with mild cognitive impairment develop Alzheimer's disease. Other spinal fluid levels are later markers of disease.

How bat brains parse sounds for multitasking

Bats use echoes to navigate and to hunt while flying. Neural circuits within the two brain halves allow a bat to navigate or ‘see' its surroundings and at the same time carry on a conversation with other bats.

Amplifier helps diamond spy on atoms

An ‘amplifier' molecule placed on the tip of a diamond could help  scientists locate and identify individual atoms.

Restored wetlands not equal to original ones

Once a wetland is degraded, it does not recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil  carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years.

Ice age findings forecast problems

Changes in the oxygenation of oceans at the end of the last Ice Age have implications for oceans' future under global warming.

Climate change affects elk, plants and birds

Reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful, cascading shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants.

Great apes make sophisticated decisions

Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos make more sophisticated decisions than was previously thought.

Enzyme's protective role in brain stroke

A key enzyme of sugar metabolism is activated in the brain's nerve cells after a lack of oxygen due to a stroke which results in insufficient oxygen and nutrient supplies in the brain. The enzyme plays a protective role.

Reaching new frontiers of space's dark matter

New findings by astronomers mapping the universe on the largest scale ever reveal a universe comprising an intricate cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies spanning more than one billion light years.

UK Scientists identified New Maze Gene, called Meg1

The UK scientists on 16 January 2012 discovered a new gene in maize plants, called Meg 1. The gene regulates the transfer of nutrients from the plant to the seed. It could increase the crop yields and improve food security. The Scientists from the University of Warwick and Oxford University identified the gene.

New technique may boost IVF success rates

A new technique successfully used in mice to identify embryos likely to result in a successful pregnancy could be used in humans, potentially boosting IVF success rates and reducing the number of multiple births.

Young stem cells prolong life in mice

After a shot of stem/progenitor cells, mice bred to age too quickly improved their health and lived two to three times longer than expected. The progenitor cells were derived from the muscle of young, healthy animals.

How Gulf of Mexico returned to normalcy

An innovative computer model has demonstrated the respective roles of underwater topography, currents and bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico in cleaning up the deepwater methane plumes after the 2011 oil spill.

Saturn–like ring system around a star spotted

Saturn has a ring system. Now a team has discovered a ring system  around a sun in the constellation Centaurus similar to Saturn's. Data from  the SuperWASP and All Sky Automated Survey projects was used.

Pythons, people take turns as hunters, prey

More than a quarter of a Filipino hunter-gatherer group have been attacked by giant pythons. The same hunter-gatherers target the pythons as food, besides competing with them for the same prey — deer, pigs and monkeys.

Graphene Use to Boost Electronic Shelf Life

Graphene conducts heat about 20 times faster than silicon. By understanding how heat transfers through a two-dimensional graphene system, its use in semiconductor devices could prolong their life.

Ink for small, highperformance electronics

A new reactive silver ink prints highperformance electronics on ubiquitous, low-cost materials such as flexible plastic, paper or fabric substrates.

Scientists found Cells that can help prevent Spread of Cancer

A team of scientists in the second week of January 2012 identified a group  of cancer cells that play a main role in preventing the development of the disease. This scientific finding could lead to re-evaluation of common cancer treatment for patients.It pointed out that anti-angiogenic therapies that target those tumour cells- called pericytesinadvertently make tumours more aggressive. The study was published in the journal Cancer Cell. It underscores the need of more research on tumourcell composition to bring out more effective therapies. For the study, the team of scientists created genetically modified mice to support drug-induced depletion of pericytes in growing tumours. They then deleted pericytes in their cancer tumours, decreasing pericyte numbers by 60 percent.

Intercropping: when rice breeds fish breeds rice

A notable announcement would have been made yesterday at this year's Indian Science Congress at Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The rural, tribal belt of Koraput, Orissa which is rich in floral and faunal diversity would have been formally declared as the eleventh “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System” (GIAHS) by the FAO-UNDP-GEF group. Each GIAHS is a remarkable land use system or a landscape, rich in globally significant biological diversity. It ranges from  the Andean mountain agriculture of Peru, the Ifugao rice Terraces of the Philippines, the Rice-Fish intercropping or co-culture system of inland central China to the Maghrab landscape of Algeria/Tunisia. And, while Koraput is recognized now, the Seppina Bettas system of the use of foliage and leaf litter system of the Western Ghats in India is waiting to join the GIAHS family. The key feature in each GIAHS is the people living there. The community has, over the centuries understood, appreciated, respected and preserved the surrounding biodiversity of plants and animals. The gentle wisdom that the people, “the tribals,” have gathered over the centuries can be captured in the motto “everything depends on everything else.” How is what they do better than current practice of monoculture of the same plant over tens or hundreds of hectares, where yields are pushed to high levels through the use of fertilizers, pesticides and weed killer chemicals? Is it the scale of the thing? Each tribal person farms over a couple of hectares at best, while agriculture companies do so over hundreds.

Salcaded Duck arrived for the First Time at Pong Dam Lake

In Himachal Pradesh, more than 1.20 lakh migratory birds from Siberia and Central Asian countries descended on Maharana Pratap Sagar, popularly known as Pong Dam Lake, in Kangra district. Although, 415 species of migratory birds had landed at different places of the Pong Dam over the past 10 years, it is for the first time that 'salcaded duck' has arrived in this wetland. The migratory birds from trans- Himalayan regions had started reaching the Pong  Dam wildlife sanctuary in October 2011. Besides a maximum of 25000 bar-headed geese, various other species landed in good numbers, including common pochard, ruddy shell ducks, Eurasion wigeon and pintail. The Wildlife department, in collaboration with the Bombay National History Society, put 15 collar bands and seven transmitters on 22 migratory birds with an objective to get their location details, flying path and breeding grounds to understand their migration routes.

Vents reveal unknown creatures

The ocean's deepest volcanic vents, kilometres below the surface, are teeming with life forms never before seen that thrive near superhot underwater geysers, according to a new study. Eyeless shrimps and white-tentacled anemones were photographed bunched around cracks in the ocean floor spewing mineral-rich water that may top 450 degrees Celsius , researchers reported recently. The vents, called baptised the Beebe Vent Field, were discovered on the Caribbean seafloor in the Cayman Trough. Some five kilometres below the surface, the trench is home to the world's deepest known ‘black smoker' vents, so-called for the cloudy fluid that gushes from them. During an expedition in 2010, a team lead by marine geochemist Doug Connelly of Britain's National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton biologist Jon Copley used a deep-diving robot submarine to explore the trough.The researchers also found previously unknown vents on the upper slopes of nearby Mount Dent. This rises some three kilometres from the sea floor. Cameras on the submarine captured  startling images of a new species of ghostly-pale shrimp — dubbed Rimicaris hybisae — that had gathered in clusters of up to 2,000 specimens per square metre. Lacking normal eyes, the shrimp have a light-sensing organ on their backs, presumably to help them navigate in the faint glow of the deep-sea vents, said the study that was published in Nature Communication . A related species, Rimicaris exoculata , has been found living at the edge of another deep-sea vent 4,000 kilometres away on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge . Elsewhere at the Beebe Vent Field, the scientists saw hundreds of white anemones lining the cracks where warm, copper-rich water seeps from the sea bed. The vents on Mount Dent also thronged with the new shrimp, along with a snake-like fish, an unknown species of snail and a flea-like crustacean called an amphipod.

Why do we feel hungry very frequently during winter?

The main purpose of intake of food is to supply energy for physical needs. The body maintains a balance between energy expenditure and calorie intake which helps in proper maintenance of body weight. The food we eat is utilized by the body by a process called metabolism (the various chemical reactions occurring in the body's cells to break down food to give us energy and heat), and this works best at normal body temperature (37ºC). When the ambient temperature drops below certain value, the body generates heat by increasing its basal metabolic rate in order to keep up the body temperature. There are two ways by which this metabolic feat is achieved – one, by increasing the breakdown of body's stored fat, and  two, by providing the body more fuel to burn in the form of food. Alternately, you can consume more food to meet the increased metabolic demands of the body. A part of our brain, called hypothalamus, controls this automatic regulation. The hypothalamus functions as a thermostat, and it has  two discrete centers for regulating the food intake – a ‘feeding centre' and a ‘satiety centre', both of them together maintain a judicious balance of feeding behavior. The chief factors which influence these centres are — the body weight, the amount of food present in the gut, the amount glucose in the blood and finally the body temperature. Thus in cold  weather the feeding centre is stimulated so that food intake is increased. It is worth noting here that warm weather decreases the appetite to some extent. However, ambient temperature is not a major player in regulating the food intake in human beings, whereas body weight plays a significant role.

African leaping lizards inspire robot design

University of California, Berkeley, Scientists and students studied how lizards manage to leap successfully even when they slip and stumble, and found that swinging the tail upward is the key to preventing a forward pitch that could send them head-over-heels into a tree. The study is published in Nature today (Jan 5). The scientists subsequently added a tail to a robotic car they named Tailbot and discovered that it's not as simple as throwing your tail in the air. Robots and lizards have to adjust the angle of their tail just right to counteract the effect of the stumble. Given an actively controlled tail, even robots can make a leap and remain upright, according to a University of California, Berkeley press release. “We showed for the first time that lizards swing their tail up or down to counteract the rotation of their body, keeping them stable,” said team leader Robert J. Full, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. “Inspiration from lizard tails will likely lead to far more agile search-and-rescue robots, as well as ones having greater capability to more rapidly detect chemical, biological or nuclear hazards.” Full and his team used high-speed videography and motion capture to record how a redheaded African Agama lizard handled leaps from a platform with different degrees of traction, from slippery to easily gripped sandpaper. They coaxed the lizards to run down a track, vault off an obstacle and land on a vertical surface with a shelter on top. When the friction on the obstacle was reduced, lizards slipped, potentially causing their body to spin out of control. When the researchers saw how the lizard used its tail to counteract the spin, they created a mathematical model as well as Tailbot to better understand the animal's skills. With a tail but no feedback from sensors about body position, Tailbot took a nose dive when driven off a ramp, which mimicked a lizard's takeoff. Tailbot was able to stabilize its body in midairwhen body attitude was sensed  and fed back to the tail motor sent. The actively controlled tail redirected the angular momentum of the body into the swing of the tail, just as with leaping lizards, Full said.

Scientists found the Extinct Monkey, the Miller’s Grizzled Langur in Indonesia

Scientists rediscovered a large grey monkey-the Miller’s grizzled langurin the dense jungles of Indonesia. The monkey was believed to be extinct. The monkey has black face framed by a fluffy, Dracula-esque white collar. It has hooded eyes and a pinkish nose and lips. The animal one roamed the north-eastern part of Borneo, as well as the islands of Java and Sumatra and the Thai-Malay peninsula. The area once the habitat of these monkeys had been destroyed by human encroachment, conversion of land for agriculture and mining and fires.

‘Stay clear of stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury'

“Stay clear of stem cell treatment for Spinal Cord Injury (SCI),” warned Professor Alan Mackay-Sim , Director of National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research in Australia. He visited the Mary Verghese Institute of Rehabilitation attached to Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore in early December 2011. He is one of the world's foremost authorities on this subject and the first to try olfactory ensheathing cells on humans with SCI. The accepted path for translating from animal experiments to humans is staged clinical trials, which involve three stages. A Phase I trial is a test of safety, the first step in moving from animals into humans. Phase I trials do not prove anything more, but are a must. We have a Phase I trial of autologous transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cells in persons with chronic SCI. Autologous transplantation means transplanting a patient's own cells; this helps avoid rejection by the immune system, which can occur when foreign cells such as embryonic stem cells are transplanted. There has been a Phase I trial of autologous transplantation of bone marrow stem cells. A Phase I trial using embryonic stem cells was recently discontinued by Geron Corp after transplantation in four patients. We must all understand that research on using stem cells for SCI is proceeding only in ‘baby steps'. This is likely to be the trend in the years ahead, too. The spinal cord is an extremely sensitive part and that is an added factor in the measured pace of work. It is important to understand the risk of a new treatment and balance that against a hoped-for benefit. In SCI, risks such as losing function, gaining new pain and new/enhanced spasticity must be balanced against benefits that are proven in animals, but may not apply to humans. This involved six persons with complete, chronic injury of the thoracic spinal cord. We  took small pieces of tissue from inside their nose and using them, we grew their olfactory ensheathing cells in the lab. To track whether there were any changes for good or bad, we assessed the six every three months for three years. There were no significant changes in any of the six. All we can say is that the procedure for transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cell is safe. We cannot set out a number, but cell transplantations have restored nerve connections between the brain and the lower spinal cord and improved walking, breathing and other functions in paraplegic rats. There are no stem cell treatments in the world today that have been fully tested in all stages of clinical trials. Part of the process of clinical trials is to report the outcomes and open them to public scrutiny for others to judge. Persons with SCI must not go in for treatment using stem cell or olfactory ensheathing cells in any part of the world, as there is a long way to go to have a scientifically proven approach that also works. The money that is or could be spent on stem cell treatment must be used to improve the quality of life in other ways and not wasted in this treatment now.

While landing, the rear wheels of an airplane touch the ground first. Why?

An aircraft is equipped with tricycle under carriage type landing gear front or nose wheels and the rear ones. It is a safer practice to tilt the plane with nose upward just before the touch down so as to bring the rear or main landing gears in contact with the ground first and then lower the nose slowly a little after. There are various reasons of following this practice. Centre of gravity of the plane lies somewhere in the middle of the fuselage which is close to the rear wheels. It is therefore desirable to bring the rear wheels to the ground first for better controllability of the plane immediately after the touch down. Otherwise, if the plane lands on nose wheels, it would have a tendency to wobble and swing around wildly. The  second reason is that the nose wheels/ gears are not that strong so as to absorb the landing impact. Another reason and very important reason is that as soon as the rear wheels touch the runway, a resistive force distributed on both sides equally starts working on the plane. Because of two wheels located apart at adequate distance, it is much easier to control skidding/ going off the runway of the plane just in case there are unequal forces on two sides.

Muscles' growth when work ed makes them unique

Now, researchers have identified a key ingredient needed for that bulking up to take place. A factor produced in working muscle fibers apparently tells surrounding muscle stem cell “higher ups” that it's time to multiply and join in, according to a study in  the January Cell Metabolism , a Cell Press journal. In other words, that so-called serum response factor (Srf) translates the mechanical signal of work into a chemical one. “This signal from the muscle fibre controls stem cell behaviour and participation in muscle growth,” says Athanassia Sotiropoulos of Inserm in France. “It is unexpected and quite interesting.” It might also lead to new ways to combat muscle atrophy. Sotiropoulos' team became interested in Srf's role in muscle in part because their earlier studies in mice and humans showed that Srf concentrations decline with age. That led them to think Srf might be a culprit in the muscle atrophy so common in aging. The new findings support that view, but Srf doesn't work in the way the researchers had anticipated. Srf was known to control many other genes within muscle fibers. That Srf also influences the activities of  the satellite stem cells came as a surprise. Mice with muscle fibers lacking Srf are no longer able to grow when they are experimentally overloaded, the new research shows. That's because satellite  cells don't get the message to proliferate and fuse with those pre-existing myofibers. Srf works through a network of genes, including one known as Cox2. That raises the intriguing possibility that commonly used Cox2 inhibitors—think ibuprofen— might work against muscle growth or recovery, Sotiropoulos notes. Treatments designed to tweak this network of factors might be used to wake muscle stem cells up and enhance muscle growth in circumstances such as aging or following long periods of bed rest, she says. Most likely, such therapies would be more successfully directed not at Srf itself, which has varied roles, but at its targets. “It may be difficult to find a beneficial amount of Srf,” Sotiropoulos says. “Its targets, interleukins and prostaglandins, may be easier to manipulate.”

Scientists Claim ed that Alcohol can be Use

Scientists at the US National Institutes of Health claimed that alcohol could be used to treat tremors, a brain disorder that triggers exaggerated shaking and occurs during movement. The octanol (a form of  alcohol and a colourless ingredient in perfume) can help treat tremor.The tremor can affect people of all ages. For their experiment, the scientists gave patients a single dose of one milligramme of octanol for each kilogramme of their weight, and found it significantly decreased tremor for up to 90 minutes. In their second experiment, people who had octanol had fewer symptoms of tremor after five hours than those were given a placebo. Tremor occurs during movement, but not at rest. It affects not only the arms and hands but also the head, face and feet. In at least half of cases there is a family history as well. Other causes of similar tremor symptoms include an over-active thyroid, anti-epileptic medication and drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders. In fact, tremor is caused by spontaneous activity in nerve cells in the areas of the brain that control movement. One theory is that alcohol may help dampen this activity. It is known that alcohol has some effect on this kind of movement because as well as reducing tremor. It can also cause it if drunk excessively.

Enhance scientist ryots interaction to solve problems

The thought that farmers could turn innovators to solve their problems somehow did not seem to appeal to the common man or government. In reality a farmer's job extends beyond more than just growing and selling. “In fact in today's scenario agricultural innovation by farmers is the key to addressing growing challenges as there is a growing perception that the emerging demand of the farmers for technological and institutional support is not adequately addressed,” says Dr. S. Ayyapan, Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi and Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research (DARE). ICAR for the first time since its inception under the stewardship of Dr. Ayyapan, instituted a separate committee named National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP) to validate, document and help farm innovations. The Initiatives of NAIP extended the efforts towards improving rural livelihood of farmers living in less favoured, marginal or more complex environments. Another newly proposed project — ‘Farmer First' aims to move beyond production and productivity and to recognise the complex, diverse and risk prone realities of majority of the farmers and enhance farmersscientists contact with multi stake holders participation. “Farmer First aims at enriching farmers-scientists interface for technology development and application. It will be achieved with focus on innovations; feedback;  multiple stakeholders participation, multi method approaches, vulnerability, and livelihood interventions,” explains Dr. Ayyappan. “Highly qualified scientists, even if they are committed, are often unaware of the actual needs and problems of poor and marginalised farmers. “A huge gap exists in the quality of research output required at the farm level and that being developed in the labs,” he says. In contrast to other areas like medicine, agricultural researchers mostly work in isolation from each other and most of their research findings are academic rather than practical. According to him research system should play  a proactive role in reaching out to farmers for getting first hand information, farmers' perceptions, feed back on generated technologies, and develop new and more appropriate processes, methodologies and technologies for diverse farm environment. Indian agriculture embraces diverse actors  in its endeavour to feed 1.21 billion people. Small and marginal farmers may be uneducated, but one cannot question the fact that they do possess a deep knowledge about farming and understanding of the complexity of nature and its impact on cultivation, resulting from years of practising agriculture.

Scientists for the First Time Produced Mixed Embryo Monkeys

Scientists for the first time produced monkeys composed of cells taken from separate embryos. They combined cells from different embryos and implanted them into female monkeys. The cells never fuse, but they stay together and work together to form tissues and organs. The animals, which contain genetically distinct groups of cells from more than one organism, are termed as chimeras. The three rhesus monkeys born are named Chimero, Roku and Hex. These monkeys have tissues made up of a mixture of cells, which represent as many as six separate embryos. Although Chimeras are essential for studying embryonic development, research has largely been restricted to mice. Initial efforts by the scientists to produce living monkey chimeras by introducing cultured embryonic stem cells into monkey embryos failed.

Researchers disco vered a New Species of  Earthworm called Moniligaster Ivaniosi

The researchers identified a new capital of Andaman and Nicobar islands. The species was named Moniligaster ivaniosi, after the name of the college. The new species has unique features, which includes three pairs of genital apertures and a black line running along the middle region. The unique morphological features of the worm, especially the reproductive structures were attributed to the geographical isolation of Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, the new species shows distinct differences from the nearest related species, M. ophidioides M. grandis and M. sapphirinaoide. The specimen of the new species was deposited at the Zoological Survey of India, Kozhikode.

New species found on Antarctic sea floor

British scientists have discovered what they claim is a “lost world” of unknown species nearly 8,000 feet deep on the sea floor off the coast of  Antarctica — kept alive by undersea volcanoes. A team from Oxford and Southampton universities and the  British Antarctic Survey was exploring  off the coast of Antarctica and found colonies of marine life, including crabs, an octopus and starfish very new to science, living in the murky depths. The  reason their existence is remarkable is that they were found on top of undersea volcanoes called hydrothermal vents,  which pump out plumes of black smoke causing temperatures to rise to 380 degrees C — hot enough to melt lead. With no sunshine there, they live in complete darkness but the creatures get their energy from breaking down highly toxic chemicals found in the smoke, the Daily Mail reported. The most numerous of the two dozen new species found is a type of “yeti crab” around 16cm long, which was piled in huge heaps of up to 600 animals near the vents. Unlike other crabs it has a dense mat of hair on its chest which it is thought to use to grow bacteria to eat. For the first time researchers, using a Remotely Operated Vehicle, have been able to explore the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean. “Hydrothermal vents are home to animals found nowhere else on the planet that get their energy from breaking down chemicals,” said Professor Alex Rogers of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, who led the research.

UK Scientists found the Ho ff Crab on the Southern Ocean Floor

UK scientists discovered new crab species on the Southern Ocean floor. The new crab species was named the  Hoff because of its hairy chest. The Hoff lives around volcanic vents off South Georgia. The animal has yet to be formally classified. It is, however, a type of yeti crab.Yeti crabs were first identified in the southern Pacific and are recognised for their hairs, or setae, along their claws and limbs that they use to cultivate the bacteria which they then eat. However, the new species found around the vents that fill the East Scotia Ridge are slightly different in their appearance. The novel types of starfish, barnacles, sea anemones, and an octopus are also found in the region. There were as many as 600 animals found per square metre. The UKrobotic submersible, Isis, was employed to investigate the ridge near Antarctica. The region is dotted with hydrothermal vents (cracks in the volcanic rock where mineral-rich, hot waters flow from below the seabed to sustain an extraordinary array of organisms). Vent systems in other parts of the world are occupied by animals like tubeworms, mussels, other types of crab, and shrimps. These animals were not found in the East Scotia Ridge.

Perils of mobile predictive texting

Predictive text, a marvel of mobile phones that has made it quicker and easier to communicate with people, has been blamed for errors that can sabotage relationships by leaving users fuming. Predictive texting is a facility that makes SMSing faster especially for phones with non-qwerty keyboard. The latest submissions to the DamnYouAutoCorrect website show how the simple predictive text misspelling of the words ‘at Pam's' resulted in a very awkward conversation between a woman and her boyfriend. Instead of typing ‘We need to spend some time at Pam's' user ‘Jenni' mistakenly texted: ‘We need to spent some time apart', prompting a furious reply from her partner, according to the Daily Mail . Modern mobile phones come with a built-in dictionary which enables them to predict what word a user wants from only a few key presses. Phones can often predict a completely random word — often with hilarious results. For example, it is easy to end up asking a friend out for a quick riot (pint) or telling them about being stuck in a Steve (queue). A study in 2009 found predictive text messaging changes the way children's brains work and makes them more likely to make mistakes generally. Scientists said the system trains young people to be fast but inaccurate. Previous research has shown that predictive texting makes people sloppy when it comes to spelling, with many flummoxed by words such as questionnaire, accommodate and definitely

Two more planets orbiting binary stars discovered

More than 700 planets orbiting a star (extrasolar planets) have been discovered till date. But a planet orbiting two stars was more in the realms of science fiction till recently. Astronomers surprised everybody last September when they reported the first ever discovery of such a planet orbiting two stars (Kepler-16 system). Such a body is called a circumbinary planet. In the case of exoplanets orbiting a star or Earth orbiting the Sun, only the planets are in orbit around the star. But in the case of circumbinary planets, all the three bodies (a planet and binary stars) are in motion. While the planet orbits the binary stars, the gravitationally bound pair of stars (binaries) orbit around each other. If this discovery last year was considered as a rare find, scientists report today (January 12) the discovery of two more ci rcumbinar y planets — Kelper-34 b and Kepler- 35 b. The results are  published in Nature . Both the planets orbiting their respective binary stars are “lowdensity gasgiants.”

Kelper-34 B

The Kelper-34 B planet has 22 per cent of the mass of Jupiter and 76 per cent of the radius of Jupiter. The planet takes 289 days to complete one orbit around the binary stars. The two stars (A and B) orbiting each other have an orbital period of 28 days. Star A is brighter and more massive than star B, and hence called a primary star. Three transits were detected in all by the scientists. Of the three, two were made by the primary star A moving across star B, and one by the secondary star B moving across star A.

Kepler 35 B

In the case of Kepler 35 b, the transiting planet has 13 per cent of the mass of Jupiter and 73 per cent of radius of Jupiter. The planet takes just 131 days to complete one orbit around the binary stars. The stars (A and B) have an orbital period of 21 days. Four transits by the two stars were detected. Of the four, three were made by the primary star moving across the secondary star, and one transit made by the secondary star moving across the primary star.

Too hot for life

While Kepler-16 b, which was discovered last year is slightly too cold to support life, both Kepler-34 b and  Kepler-35 b are too hot, notes a news item published in the same issue of Nature . The planets orbiting the binary stars experience extreme seasons due to the orbital motion of the two stars. This is because the “the light received from their parent stars changes not only during the stars' orbital periods (tens of days) and the planetary orbital period (hundreds of days), but also on much longer timescales through precession [slow changes in the rotational or orbital parameters] of the orbits due to threebody effects.” The average amount of stellar energy received by the Kepler- 34 b planet is 2.4 times the Earth's insolation, with a variation of 250 per cent. Similarly, in the case of Kepler-35 b, the insolation is 3.6 times the Earth's, with a variation of 160 per cent. It must also be noted that unlike planets in the Solar System, these bodies do not follow the same path on successive orbits. This is due to the gravitational effects between the three bodies.

Scientists produced Artificial Human Semen to help Infertile Men

Scientists claimed to find a way to produce artificial human semen that could help infertile men father their own children. The scientists for the first time grew mouse sperm in a laboratory. For this, they used few germ cells in a laboratory dish. These cells produce semen in testicles. In fact, the scientists grew the sperm by enveloping the germ cells in a special compound called agar jelly to create a similar environment to that found in testicles. The sperm produced thus were healthy and not genetically damaged. The findings of the scientists are published in the latest edition of the Asian Journal of Andrology. How does coconut water form in a coconut? Coconut water is the endosperm part of the coconut plant. It is the nutritive tissue for the development of embryos in angiosperms and develops as post-fertilisation structure from the primary endosperm nucleus. Three types of endosperm have been recognised: nuclear, cellular, helobial. The coconut endosperm is a nuclear type. In very young coconut fruit, the endosperm is found as a clear fluid in which float numerous nuclei of various sizes. This fluid compactly fills the embryo sac in which the embryo is developing. At a later stage, the suspension shows, in addition to free nuclei, several cells enclosing variable number of nuclei. Gradually these cells and free nuclei start settling at the periphery of the cavity and layers of cellular endosperm start appearing. This forms the coconut meat. This meat is very tender enclosing the fluid content called coconut water. At this stage the nut is called tender coconut. The quantity of the cellular endosperm increases further by the divisions of the cells. In mature coconut the liquid endosperm becomes milky enclosed by the cellular part called kernel and it does not contain free nuclei or cells. The percentages of ariginine, alanine, cystine and serine in the protein are higher than those in cow's milk. At the stage in which the coconut water is consumed as a beverage the concentration of sugar is at its maximum and total solids is less when compared with the water found in nut with kernel. The principal constituent is the Potash, the concentration of which is markedly influenced by potash manuring. The concentration of ascorbic acid ranges from 2.2 to 3.7 mg/100cc. The concentration is high in the water of green nut with soft pulp and gradually diminishes as the nut ripens.

Managing rhinoceros beetle in coconut

Rhinoceros beetle is mainly a pest of coconut and oil palms. Adults damage palms by boring into the centre of the crown, where they injure the young, growing tissues and feed on the exuded sap. Eggs are laid in manure pits or other organic matter and hatch in 8-12 days. Larvae takes another 82-207 days before entering an 8-13 day non feeding prepupal stage. Pupal stage lasts for 17-28 days. Adults remain in the pupal cell for 17-22 days before emerging and flying to palm crowns to feed. The beetles are active at night and hide in feeding or breeding sites during the day. Mostly mating takes place at the breeding sites. Adults may live for 4-9 months and each female lays 50-100 eggs during her lifetime. Chop and burn decaying logs or break them up and destroy any adult beetles developing inside. Cut stumps as close to the soil surface as possible. A hooked wire can be used to extract and destroy rhinoceros beetle adults feeding in coconut trees. Fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae can be applied in manure pits @ 4 kg/tonnes to control the grubs that feed on the decaying matter Apply mixture of neem seed kernel powder + sand (1:2) @150 g per palm in the base of the 3 inner most leaves in the crown Place phorate 10 G 5 gms mixed with sand in two inner most leaf axils for 2 times at 6 months intervals. Place three napthalene balls at leaf axil at the top of the crown. Treat the longitudinally split tender coconut stem and green petiole of fronds with fresh toddy and keep them in the garden to attract and trap the beetles. Use pheromone traps with rhinolure at 12/ha for trapping the adults and destroy them Apply 50 kg of FYM or compost or green manure, 1.3 kg urea (560 g N), 2.0 kg super  phosphate (320 g ) and 2.0 kg muriate of potash (1,200) g ms in two equal splits. During 2nd, 3rd and 4th year. For nut bearing coconut, root feed with TNAU coconut tonic at 200ml/palm, once in six months. Apply 200 g of borax/palm/ year in two splits.

Horned Snake Discovered

For the first time, researchers have discovered a new colourful snake which sports horns just above its eyes.The 2.1- feet-long horned snake having a body coloured in striking black and yellow was found in a remote part of Tanzania, East Africa. It's named Matilda's horned viper, or Atheris matildae , after the daughter of Tim Davenport, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Director of Tanzania, DiscoveryNews reported. The researchers, who detailed their finding in journal Zootaxa , said they have no idea why the snake has horns. However, they believe the horns could be helping them protect their eyes, or they might be used in visual displays to attract potential mates. Perhaps they serve a variety of other functions too, the researchers said. Davenport and his colleagues anticipate that the species will be classified as critically endangered  and have already established a small  captive breeding colony for it.

Genetically Modified Silkworms can Spin Stronger Silk than Spiders

Scientists in America claimed to have genetically modified silkworms to spin the much stronger silk that spiders produce.Their work could lead to new material for medicine and engineering. Their eventual aim is to produce silk from worms that has the toughness of spider silk.In weight-for-weight terms, pider silk is stronger than steel. The scientists have been trying to reproduce such silk for decades.

Humanstem cells survive in monkeys with Parkinson's

In a major step forward in treating Parkinson's, a Japanese medical team has claimed that dopamine-generating human stem cells survived for six months in a monkey brain affected by the disease. A Japanese medical team yesterday confirmed that dopaminegenerating cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) survived for six months in a monkey brain affected by Parkinson's disease, the Kyodo news agency reported. The first-ever such confirmation for a primate brain marks a step forward in regenerative medicine using iPSCs to treat humans, said the research team including members from the Kyoto University Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application. The team also found the time the monkey spends on making movement increased 10 per cent. People plagued with Parkinson's disease develop such symptoms as shaking, rigidity and slowness of movement as their dopaminergic neurons decline. In the absence of measures to prevent the decline of the dopamine-generating cells, iPSC treatment is expected to be useful against the disease. The team  derived dopaminergic neurons from human iPSCs, transplanted them into a monkey brain and confirmed that they survived while generating dopamine in the monkey brain for six months. Mars meteorite found in Morocco Scientists have claimed that chunks of a meteorite which fell in Morocco last July were from Mars — a rare event which happened for  the first time in 50 years. It is the fifth time that such Martian meteorite fall has been reported, an event which has occurred every 50 years. The first was in 1815 in France, second in 1865 in India,  then Egypt in 1911 and Nigeria in 1962. The latest fall of the fragments of the Martian meteorite took place near Foumzgit in Morocco, following a meteorite shower which is believed to have occurred in July 2011. But, the rock was not found on the ground until December, when collectors began speculating it had come from the red planet. Now, a panel of international experts has confirmed that their suspicion is true. In fact, astronomers believe that millions of years ago something large collided with Mars, spraying rock into space. The rocks then began gliding through the solar system until a piece entered Earth's atmosphere, The Daily Telegraph reported. The piece fragmented as it descended and one large piece reached the ground where it broke up into smaller pieces. The event will provide planetary scientists with valuable samples from Mars that no space mission has ever been able to bring back to Earth, say experts.

Our brain can tell real face from imitations

Both the right and the left sides of the brain work together to tell a real face from a facial imitation, says a study co-authored by an Indian-born scientist. Objects that resemble faces are everywhere, but our brains are adept at locating images that look like faces. However, the normal human brain is almost never fooled into thinking such objects actually are human faces. “You can tell that it has some ‘faceness' to it, but on the other hand, you're not misled into believing that it is a genuine face,” says Pawan Sinha, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On the left  side of the brain, the fusiform gyrus, an area long tied with face recognition, calculates how ‘facelike' an image is. The right fusiform gyrus then appears to use that information to make a quick, categorical decision of whether the object is, indeed, a face, the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reports.

Yeast evolves to multicellular variety in 60 days in the lab

The origin of multicellular life is one of the most important milestones in earth's history. And despite it happening independently nearly two dozen times in the past, very little is known about the way the initial evolution from unicellular to multicellular life had taken place. This is because these transitions occurred some 200 million years ago. Contrary to the general perception that this important transition was challenging, and took a long time to happen, scientists have experimentally proved the ease with which this can take place. They achieved the transition in a yeast species in very short span of time — 60 days. The multicellular yeast showed many key characteristics of a truly many-celled organism. “The first crucial steps in the transition [can take place] remarkably quickly under an appropriate selective condition,” the scientists write in their paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Organisms, both unicellular and multicellular, have to adapt to changing conditions like temperature, pressure, nutrient supply, oxygen content etc to survive. For instance, failure to adapt to changing climatic conditions resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. In this case, the scientists used gravity as a selection pressure as it was easy to observe, study and replicate in a lab using test tubes. Such a selection pressure is however not seen in nature. They used gravity to select for primitive multicellularity by allowing clusters of unicellular yeast to settle at the bottom. Clustering yeast settles faster than single cells, and bigger clusters settle faster than smaller clusters. The proof that the clusters were formed by the division of individual cells came through 16 hours of microscopic examination for growth. Cells taken from the clusters proved their hallmark characteristic — each cell giving “rise to a new snowflake-like cluster [cell].” Cells did not divide at random. While cells in the juvenile stage grew rapidly to multiple cells, and hence helped in increasing the size of the cluster, the fully-grown adult stage was marked by division of the matured cells into daughter cells. The presence of both juvenile and adult stages is a mark of true multicellularity. The scientists also investigated the most vital and crucial question that has been dogging science — transition from unicellular to multicellular life. The most important difference between unicellular and  multicellular life lies in the size of the daughter cells. While unicellular yeast divides into two daughter cells of similar size as the parent cell, the daughter cells of multicellular yeast “were consistently half the size of their parental clusters [cells].” Apoptosis or programmed cell death (where old cells die after a point of time) was witnessed. Though apoptosis is seen even in single-celled yeast and other species, the end purpose of apoptosis witnessed in snowflakes  was quite different. It was in response to selective pressure — apoptotic cells breaking off from the snowflakes and allowing the rest of the flake to produce greater number of cells within a given time. Bigger clusters settle faster at the bottom and hence become eligible for repeated studies.

Health Authorities in Australia detected Deadly Disease, Murray Valley Encephalitis

Health authorities in Australia are bracing against a possible outbreak of  a potentially deadly disease, Murray Valley Encephalitis. The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and was recently found in chicken in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain, usually caused by a viral infection. Although rare, it is potentially lifethreatening, and may lead to permanent brain damage or death. Symptoms may include a high fever and headache, accompanied by a stiff neck, vomiting, light sensitivity, and convulsions. It can also infect humans.

Dinosaur Archaeopteryx had black feat hers

Archaeopteryx, a winged dinosaur long believed to be the world's first bird, had black feathers, according to a scientific feat reported on Tuesday. The colour of skin and feathers is one of the big unknowns about dinosaurs, and it is left to the imagination of artists, rather than scientists, to depict how these enigmatic creatures looked. Researchers in the United States and Europe pored over a remarkably preserved wing feather in an Archaeopteryx fossil unearthed in a German limestone quarry in 1861. The shape of the feather indicated that it was a ‘covert,' the term for a feather that covers the primary and secondary wing plumage which birds use in flight. Their next goal was to hunt for fossilised melanosomes, or pigment-producing parts of a cell. Two attempts to image the tiny, sausageshaped components — measuring just a millionth of a metre long and 250 billionths of a metre wide — failed. The breakthrough came with a scanning electron microscope at the Carl Zeiss laboratory in Germany, which revealed hundreds of the structures encased in patches in the feather. “The third time was the charm, and we finally found the keys to unlocking the feather's original colour, hidden in the rock for the past 150 million years,” said Ryan Carney, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University, in the northeastern U.S. state of Rhode Island. statistically matched against the melanosomes of 87 species of living birds, Archaeopteryx's plumed treasure was estimated to be black, with a 95-percent certainty, the scientists say. Black could have been useful as camouflage, for display or to regulate the body temperature. The alignment of the melanosomes, and tiny overlapping appendages called barbules, are evidence that the wing feather was rigid and durable, rather like the feathers of modern birds. “If Archaeopteryx was flapping or gliding, the presence of melanosomes would have given the feathers additional structural support,” Carney said. “This would have been advantageous during this early evolutionary stage of dinosaur flight.” The paper is published by the journal Nature Communications . Archaeopteryx has a hallowed place in palaeontology. A fossil of the creature, discovered 150 years ago, inspired the belief that this was the forerunner of all birds. The raven-sized creature had feathered wings and a wishbone as well as the reptilian features of teeth, clawed fingers and a bony tail. The cherished theory was knocked back last July when Chinese fossil-hunter Xing Xu determined that Archaeopteryx was only one of numerous proto-birds, or feathery dinosaurs, which lived around 150 million years ago.

World's first magnetic soap produced

In a pioneering research, scientists claim to have produced the world's first magnetic soap that is composed of ironrich salts dissolved in water. A team at Bristol University says that its soap, which responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution, would calm all concerns over the use of surfactants in oil-spill clean-ups and revolutionise industrial cleaning products. For long, researchers have been searching for a way to control soaps (or surfactants as they are known in industry) once they are in solution to increase the ability to dissolve oils in water and then remove them from a system. The Bristol University team produced the magnetic soap by dissolving iron in a range of inert surfactant materials composed of chloride and bromide ions, very similar to those found in everyday mouthwash or fabric conditioner. The addition of the iron creates metallic centres within the soap particles, say the scientists led by Julian Eastoe. To test its properties, the team introduced a magnet to a test tube containing their new soap lying beneath a less dense organic solution, the  Angewandte Chemie journal reported. When the magnet was introduced the iron-rich soap overcame both gravity and surface tension between the water and oil, to levitate through the organic solvent and reach the source of magnetic energy, proving  its magnetic properties.  Once the surfactant was developed and shown to be magnetic, the scientists took it to Institut Laue- Langevin (ILL), the world's flagship centre for neutron science, to investigate the science behind its remarkable property. When surfactants are added to water they are known to form tiny clumps (particles called micelles). At ILL, the scientists used a technique called “small angle neutron scattering (SANS)” to confirm that it was this clumping of the ironrich surfactant that brought about its magnetic properties.