Russian-made Soyuz Craft Launched

A three-man team blasted off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board a Russian-made Soyuz craft for a half-year stay at the International Space Station. Nasa astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian
cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin set off from the Baikonur facility as scheduled. The craft was due to dock with the space station on 17 April 2012. The crew will join the three astronauts on thea orbiting laboratory. Russia is now the sole nation capable of transporting humans to the International Space Station after the withdrawal of the US shuttle but this blast-off was the first manned flight from Baikonur since 21 December 2011.

International Institute for Species Exploration Unveiled the Top Ten New Species

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University unveiled a list of the 10 best newly discovered species of 2011. A monkey found in the high mountains of Myanmar, Rhinopithecus stryker, figured in the list. A beautiful but venomous jellyfish, a night-blooming orchid and an ancient walking cactus creature are also on the list. The top 10 is intended to bring attention to the biodiversity crisis and the unsung species explorers and museums who continue a 250-year tradition of discovering and describing the millions of kinds of plants, animals and microbes with whom we share this planet. An international committee came out
with the final list from more than 200 nominations of species that capture our attention because they are unusual.

Refrigerated Onions

Onions contain amino acid sulphoxides that form sulphenic acids in the onion cells. Both the enzymes and the sulphenic acids are kept separately in the cells. When you cut the onion, the otherwise separate enzymes start mixing and produce propanethiol S-oxide which is a volatile sulphur compound that starts wafting towards your eyes. The gas that is emitted reacts with the water of your eyes and forms sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid
thus produced causes burning sensation in your eyes and this in turn leads to the tear glands secreting more tears. Thus you end up with watery eyes every time you cut onions at home. When you chill an onion, either in the refrig erator or in a bowl of cold water, the enzymes in the onion slow down at a molecular level. This means that when you cut into a cold onion, the slow-moving enzymes and sulphur molecules have less momentum when they combine to make the irritating sulphurous molecules.  They also move much more slowly as they escape the onion walls and often will not reach your eyes or nose. This simple tactic can greatly reduce or eliminate an onion’s a bility to make you cry.

U.S. Telecom Towers Kill Seven Million Birds a Year

Telecom towers are killing nearly seven million birds every year in the U.S. as they migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America, says a new study. According to a study, around 84,000 telecom towers, some of which can rise nearly 2,000 feet into the sky, much higher than the Empire State Building at 1,250 feet, dot the two countries. However, the birds are killed not by running into the tower itself but the dozens of cables, known as guy wires, that prop up the thin, freestanding structures, said study co-author Travis Longcore, associate professor at the University of Southern California. The taller the tower the greater the threat, the study found, the journal PLoS ONE reports. During bad weather, the birds were pushed down by cloud cover and flew at lower altitudes. The clouds also removed navigation cues,  such as stars, leaving only the blinking or static red lights of towers. The blinking did not fool the birds, but towers with a static red light resulted in more dead birds, according to a Southern California statement.

Why Some Teenagers Smoke

Scientists have been intrigued by why some teenagers start smoking or experimenting with drugs while others do not. In the largest imaging study of its kind, involving the brains of 1,896 14- year-olds, scientists have discovered a number of previously “unknown  networks” that go a long way towards an answer. Robert Whelan and Hugh Garavan, psychiatrists at the University of Vermont, report that differences in these networks provide strong evidence that some teenagers are at higher risk for drug and alcohol experimentation — simply because their brains work differently, making them more impulsive, the journal Nature Neuroscience reports.
This discovery helps answer a long-standing chicken-or-egg question. “The differences in these networks seem to precede drug use,” says Garavan.

NGT Suspended Environment Clearance to the Srikakulam Thermal Power Plant

The National Green Tribunal suspended environment clearance to the thermal power plant in Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh. The tribunal also instructed the Union Environment Ministry to come with the final guidelines and site criteria for Thermal Power Plants urgently. The tribunal was hearing petitions filed by 6 locals against the 2640 MW thermal power plant of Nagarajuna Construction Company. The petitioners had alleged that the land allotted for the thermal power plant is not suitable for the commercial use. They argued that the proposed plant will adversely affect the ecological system of the vicinity. The tribunal in its findings mentioned that the existing guidelines to set up a thermal power plant don’t take notes of the factors that affect the environment and ecology today. The tribunal also quashed environment clearance to the 1200 MW thermal power plant in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.

India Successfully test-fired Akash missile

India successfully test-fired the indigenously built Akash missile from the DRDO’s (Defence Research Development Organisation) Interim Test Range (ITR), at Chandipur in Balasore district of north Odisha on 24 May
2012. The surface-to-air missile was launched from the launch pad number three of the premier missile  testing centre at 11:9 hours. 5.7meter long and 720 kg in weight, anti-aircraft missile can hit its target locating at a distance of 25 to 30 kms. The missile is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads up to 60 kg. It can also track and shot down several targets in one go with the help of Rajendra, a sophisticated radar, built by the DRDO. The missile has been developed by the DRDO under the ambitious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). It has already been inducted into the Indian armed forces following several successful trials.

Needless Alarmist Views on Low dose Radiation

On May 1, this year, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists published a Special Issue on low level radiation risks. Radiation risk has a bearing on dose limits to radiation workers, guidelines for evacuation of public from areas of contamination and in optimisation of radiation dose in medical radiation procedures. The effects of high radiation doses are clearly known; at low doses there are uncertainties. The dilemma on the effect of low dose radiation continues. The Special Issue contains seven articles and an editorial. Rather than offering an unbiased view, the Bulletin tried its best to show that radiation is riskier than what was thought of so far. Dr Beyea, the Guest Editor reviewed three epidemiological studies including the 15 nation nuclear workers study covering years 1943-2000. They showed some increase in cancer rates at low doses. Each of these studies has infirmities. Unlike his claim, the 15- nation study did not shock the radiation protection community. Currently, doses to nuclear workers are relatively low. The present dose limits with the provision that the doses to workers should be As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) ensure adequate protection effortlessly. Studies in the High Back Ground Radiation Areas of Kerala showed that there is no cancer risk attributable to radiation. Dr.Bayea did not agree. “For a more positive view of these types of studies, see Boice et al. (2010),” Dr Beyea suggested. Dr Boice who heads the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements did not respond to my e-mail query. The Bulletin which criticized others who held different views, seldom based it on science. It upbraided the French Academy of Sciences for the relationship of some of its members with the French nuclear
industry and medical practice and Electric Power Research Institute with U.S. nuclear industry. The Bulletin argued that the reports of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) would not say that some risk continues up to zero dose, as the Committee, a product of the United Nations, must be cognizant of national politics in UN countries! Some sort of conspiracy theory!

Protective Mechanisms

A paper published in the European Heart Journal (2011) demonstrated that at low doses there might be protective mechanisms at work. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2011), researchers showed that cell repair mechanisms were effective in dealing with exposure to low doses of radiation. A contributor, Dr Colin Hill, University of Southern California skillfully highlighted genomic instability and bystander effects (phenomena which may increase radiation risk), put adaptive  response on a low key and ignored the existence of cellular repair mechanisms. Dr Beyea uncritically accepted the high per capita medical dose (often unwanted) in developed countries as a starting point for millions of people and worried about any exposure to radioactive releases from nuclear accident (Fukushima) as contributing to their delayed cancer risk. He ignored the risks from unwanted medical doses which are often much higher.

The Hesitation

Based on one paper, Dr Beyea invoked the so called “supra-linear” concept to argue that low dose radiation is much more dangerous than what was thought of till now; though the authors themselves hesitated to do so. Dr Hill and Dr Richardson, two contributors, did not respond to the queries of this writer. After protracted correspondence, Dr Beyea wanted me to consider quoting the following from his article. “It should be noted that all of these cellular effects, including bystander effect, genomic instability, and adaptive response, some of which are thought to have effects working in opposite directions, could already be incorporated into the linear human
dose-response curve (Morgan and Sowa, 2009), making the debate much ado about nothing.” The observations claiming enhanced radiation risks had many unhighlighted frailties . The Guest Editor faced difficulties in
compiling the Issue. “Yes, it should be no secret who was asked to contribute to the special issue.” Dr Beyea confided in response to my query. Dr. John Boice did not have the time, given his new responsibilities. Dr Fred Mettler, Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine declined. Dr.Michael Stabin, Adjunct Professor of physics at the Illinois Institute of Technology refused. I was not surprised. The criticism in this review applies only to the articles, which explain radiobiological concepts. The “sophisticated update” promised by Beyea in the Editorial became one sided. The Bulletin has been less than neutral in its approach; it did not provide the complete picture, particularly on low dose repair related studies. A reader whose knowledge is confined only to the special issue will not be ready to join the debate armed with a broadbased view. The Issue served to preserve intact, the antinuclear power credentials of the Bulletin!

Government and Scientists must Encourage Rural Innovators

The plight of f armers across the country remains the same. “In Mr. Balasahib Patil from Maharashtra. Mr. Patil developed a new dual poded gram variety called ‘Sushil Laxmi’ that yields nearly 1.8 tonnes per acre under irrigated, and 0.8 to 0.9 tonnes per acre under rain-fed conditions. The variety is reported to be highly popular among farmers across the States of Punjab, Maharashtra, K arnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. Last year the
farmer received orders for nearly 2,000 tonnes of seeds from several areas.

Several Varieties

Mr. Patil claims to have developed many varieties of gram, primarily through a selection process. “Though my father wanted me to work on our sugarcane plantation, which is cash crop cultivation, and more income can be
generated, I wanted to research on gram,” he says. Initially unconvinced, his father gave a little over two acres of land for his research. “Since I did not possess large acres to experiment with different gram varieties, I could not preserve many of my varieties. “I started cultivating on leased lands. Later I bought the leased land on my own by paying twenty per cent more. I am now cultivating gram in more than 300 acres,” he says. Terming his explorations as being more out of curiosity than to a plan, the farmer says that a chance visit to Dharwad University some years back provided him an opportunity to observe the scientists working on some breeding programmes on gram there.

Keen Observation

Observing the scientists there adopting crossing to develop new varieties, he also started doing the same after coming back. “The only difference was that they worked in glass labs and I worked in the open fields. After several initial attempts for nearly eight years the farmer successfully stabilized the characters and then started distributing the seeds to other farmers. “I took a sample plant inside a saline water bottle to the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Delhi to verify and validate my research. But they (scientists) did not evince any interest in it. “Undeterred, I took the samples to the Office of the Agriculture Ministry. The then Agriculture Minister waived the testing fee (Rs.15,000) for variety testing from AICRP (All India Coordinated Research Project) as a gesture of appreciation,” he says.

Commercial Marketing

Based on the encouraging results from farmers using the variety, Mr. Patil started to commercially market the seeds. “The attitude of some of our agricultural scientists baffles me. Instead of encouraging a farmer like me to develop more varieties, they are asking me to hand over my variety to them for releasing it. “Why should I hand over my child (variety) to some strangers? It is my baby and I have all rights over it, and can myself release it. In fact I stopped interacting or encouraging scientists to visit my farm or share information with them,” he says bitterly.

Income Generation

“Though my father initially refused to hand me over his ancestral land for experimenting, after seeing the income generation from the new variety, he handed over the entire 15 acres under my care. I also bought an additional 15 acres to carry on with my experiments,” he says. Currently, the farmer is experimenting on bittergourd and okra (lady’s finger).

Two Meteorological Equators

Researchers at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, have investigated the oceanatmospheric phenomenon called Double Inter tropical Convergence Zone (DITCZ) over the Western Indian Ocean, for its meteorological characteristics. The study gains importance as earlier studies found weak signals of the DITCZs over the Indian Ocean in November. However, till now, the temporal evolution of these in the Indian
Ocean could not be ascertained, mainly because of paucity of data. About 10 degrees north or south of the equator there forms a region of convective activity which is called the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Sometimes, on the opposite side of the equator, another ITCZ forms which is shortlived (November-December) in the western Indian Ocean and this phenomenon is called Double Intertropical Convergence Zone (DITCZ). The study was conducted by Dr. M.R. Ramesh Kumar (Senior Scientist, Physical Oceanography Division) and colleagues and has been published in the International Journal of Remote Sensing. The researchers determined, using a suite of sensors, including those of NASA satellites, which provided rainfall-distribution data, when and where the DITCZ existed over the Indian Ocean for the study period (1988-2005). They used
these sensors, to study the different phases of the DITCZ’s life-cycle and investigated it for rainfall, fresh water flux (difference between evaporation and precipitation), cloud liquid water, cloud cover and relative humidity. Analysing cloud cover for November-December of the years 2002-2009 it was found that a large area was covered by clouds in the last 2 weeks of November and first 2 weeks of December. High relative humidity
because of the moistening due to convection and convectively formed cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere on both sides of the equator, was observed. It was found that the values of these and the other parameters were consistent with the criteria for formation of a DITCZ. To explore the potential impacts of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events on DITCZs, dail y rainfall data for the years 1997, 2002 and 2006 were analysed. A robust relationship between the two was found. This is in interesting contrast to the eastern Pacific Ocean (where they were absent during the ENSO years, 1983, 87, 92 and 97). Due to the involvement of several ocean atmospheric processes and their feedbacks to a different degree in different regions, it is difficult to pinpoint whether DITCZs are caused by oceanic processes, the atmospheric dynamics or a combination of both, say the authors. Meteorologists who have studied the ITCZs also call it the earth’s meteorological equator. This is because it forms the rising arm of the Hadley circulation. The Hadley circulation is characterised by winds which rise near the equator, flow pole wards after reaching the upper troposphere, and then descend around 30 degrees north and south latitude and flow towards the equator. The westerly shift of the equator-ward winds, due
to the Corialis effect causes the Trade winds.

Controlling Stem Borer in Maize

The stem boring insect, is the most destructive pest of maize. Its caterpillars damage the plants by boring into the leaves, stem and cob. In young plants this pest causes a typical ‘dead heart’ symptom as the central shoot dries up. Feeding of folded leaves makes ‘shot holes’. The upper part of the stem in older plants dies due to the boring of the cater pillars in the stem pith. Bore holes are visible near the nodal region of the stem. The infested cobs lead to yield reduction and have low market value.

Life History

The adult moth lays around 400 eggs on the underside of the leaves near mid-ribs. Hatching takes place in 7-10 days. Larvae develop inside the stem for 28-37 days and pupate there itself. Pupal period lasts for about 10 days. Adult moths are straw colored and nocturnal. The entire life cycle is completed in three weeks. During winter the larval stage undergoes hibernation.

Management Practices

• Follow crop rotation and fallowing practices. Plough the infested fields during summer.

• Burn stubbles which act as refuge of the pest. Use tolerant varieties like Ganga 5 Hybrid.

• Raise cow pea as intercrop with maize at 1:4 to minimize the borer incidence.

• Collect and destroy infested ‘dead hearts’.

• Hand pick and destroy insect stages and shell the infested cobs to kill the caterpillars.

• Attract and kill the adult moths by setting up light trap at one/ 5 acres.

• Mix granular insecticides such as quinalphos 5G at 10 kg/ha or Carbaryl+ Lindane 4 G or carbofuron 3G at 17kg/ha with sand to make up a total quantity of 50 kg and sprinkle on the leaf whorls on 20th day of sowing.

Novel Mutations Associated with Pancreatitis in Indians

In a new study, scientists have found novel mutations to be associated with chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of pancreas), reinforcing earlier observations that genetic susceptibility for the disease was diff erent in Indians as
compared to Americans and Europeans. The study was conducted by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in collaboration with Asian Healthcare Foundation, Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Department of
Gastroenterology, SCB Medical College, Cuttack and Department of Gastroenterology, Medical College, Calicut. According to Dr.Giriraj Ratan Chandak, lead author of the study, which was published in GUT online on May 12, the team at CCMB had been investigating chronic pancreatitis for more than 10 years and established earlier that the genetic basis for it was different among Indians. It was found that unlike in Americans and
Europeans, mutations in trypsinogen, a gut enzyme, which digests the pancreas and causes pancreatitis, was not doing so in Indians. Rather, mutations in an inhibitor or Cathepsin B (CTSB) which control the activation of
pancreas, were found to be responsible for the condition among Indians. In the latest study, a comprehensive analysis of chymotrypsin C (CTRC) gene was undertaken in 584 patients after genomic DNA was isola ted from all the individuals. A cohort of 598 ethnically matched individuals who had no complaints or evidence of pancreatitis were recruited as controls. The scientists found seven novel mutations and observed that subjects with the variants were at a higher risk for chronic pancreatitis. Dr. Chandak said the study revealed that the mutational spectrum of the disease in India was different from Europe and America. While there was no definite epidemiological data, it was estimated that chronic pancreatitis affects one in every 1600 people in the country. The clinical picture of the disease too was different as it gets presented five to 10 years earlier among Indians as compared to those in the Western countries. Similar was the case with diabetes , abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and cataract, all of which get manifested five to ten years earlier in Indians than in other groups. He said the study brought out two important issues — that the genetic basis of diseases in Indians was different and needed to be investigated rather than extrapolating results from international studies. Secondly, identification of these mutations would help in susceptibility screening and help develop therapeutic regimens or unique drug targets for Indians.

Bird Flu Viruses have Potential to cause a ‘Human Pandemic’

At last, the controversial paper by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on mammalian transmissibility of H5N1 (bird flu) virus through genetic manipulation is published today (May 3) in Nature. The study  looks at droplet transmission of the virus in a ferret animal model. Ferrets are chosen for such studies as they are the best animal models that mimic human influenza effects. The “principal scientific interest” of
the study “arises from the small number [four] of mutations found to be necessary” to make it transmissible, notes the Editorial accompanying the piece. The findings also clearly indicate that the viruses have potential to cause a “human pandemic.” And it was precisely for this reason that the paper, which was submitted to the journal in August 2011, faced many hurdles. The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity
(NSABB) wanted the journal to publish only a redacted (censored) version as it feared that the details in the paper could be used by some people for engaging in bioterr orism. The NSABB finally cleared the full publication of the paper in March end.

The Procedure

Dr. Kawaoka first introduced four mutations into the viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein of H5N1. He then combined the H5N1 virus with seven gene segments from the 2009 pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) virus. Genes of
influenza virus strains from one source (man/animal) combining with another animal occurs continually in nature, and the resultant virus is called a reassortant influenza virus. The reassortant virus that Dr. Kawaoka and his team produced was capable of droplet transmission. It was able to replicate “efficiently” in ferrets but did not kill them. Also, the virus “preferentially recognised humantype receptors.” It is worth noting that the binding of H5N1 virus to avian cells is very different from the way human influenza binds to human cells.

Occurs in Nature

“Natural emergence of an H5N1–H1N1 hybrid [reassortant] virus is plausible. Some H1N1 and H5N1 viruses readily swap genes with one another in vitro , generating hybrid viruses, states a News and Views piece accompanying the paper. “Pandemic H1N1 viruses are established in pigs in many parts of the world, and H5N1 viruses have been isolated from pigs, suggesting that opportunities exist for the viruses to combine in these
animals.”

Why the Concern

The team led by Dr. Kawaoka states that “recent studies” have shown “high genetic compatibility” between the pandemic H1N1 virus and the avian H5N1 virus. “These two viruses have been isolated from pigs, which have been considered as ‘mixing vessels’ for the reassortment of avian, swine and human strains,” they write. Their very presence together in pigs provides an ideal opportunity for transmissible H5N1 reassortants to emerge. Bird flu outbreaks in poultry occur quite frequently, and in some instances, such as in Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt, transmission to humans has been reported. But H5N1 is yet to acquire the ability to become
transmissible from one human to another. Humans “lack immunity” to H5N1 mutant viruses, and hence the possibility of a H5N1 pandemic cannot be ruled out. Hence it is “critical” to understand the “molecular changes” that might take place in the viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein that will make H5N1 virus transmissible in humans, they note. The only way of staying prepared of such an eventuality is by knowing in advance the possible
mechanism required for the emergence of such a strain. Though it is not clear if four mutations alone would have made the avian H5N1 virus transmissible, the study provides a window to the several possibilities.

Dinosaurs in Decline Before Asteroid Impact

Large, plant-eating dinosaurs were already in decline by the time a space rock smashed into Earth 65 million years ago and ended the re ptiles’ long r eign, a study published on Tuesday says. The findings by scientists in the U.S. and Germany do not dispute the mass extinction that so dramatically ended the Cretaceous era. But they suggest the dinosaur kingdom, or at least some of its species, was not struck down in its prime as is often
hypothesised. “A lot of the time people think of the dinosaurs going extinct: ‘oh, you know, an asteroid  did it ... the dinosaurs were doing just fine, an asteroid came along and killed them all off ’,” Steve Brusatte,  a palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, told AFP. “I think now we can say it was probably more complicated than that. You had some dinosaurs that were doing just fine, but you had others like these big plant eaters that were maybe in trouble. “This was a world that was undergoing a lot of changes before the asteroid hit.” The study compared the skeletal structure of 150 different species of land-bound dinosaurs  to see how they changed over time, the idea being to see if a species was up, down or stable in survival terms. By this benchmark, the large herbivores — specifically, horned and duckbilled dinosaurs — were becoming less and less diverse during the last 12 million years of the Cretaceous. The four-footed giants “were becoming more similar to each other, they were losing variability,” said Brusatte. Groups that show an increase in variety
boost their chances of survival because they can fill new habitat niches or adapt to changing conditions, he explained. But if big herbivores were on the skids towards the end of the Cretaceous, carnivorous dinosaurs and mediumsized herbivores were thriving, say the researchers. “What we can say for certain now is when the asteroid hit and when these volcanoes began erupting, they didn’t hit a world that was totally OK, they didn’t hit a
static world,” said Brusatte. “At the time, dinosaurs, at least some of them, were undoing major evolutionary changes and at least these plant eaters were declining.” The reason for their downward spiral is unclear but “was probably something ecological,” he said. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Clues to a Universal Flu Vaccine Found

Canadian researchers have found more clues that may help lead to the creation of a universal vaccine against the seasonal flu, according to a study published. Researchers discovered that the vaccine given against “swine flu,” or the 2009 H1N1 variety, triggered a series of antibodies that protect against many other types of flu, including the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu strain. The reason why these broadly protective antibodies are effective is
they bind to the stem of a flu protein called hemagglutinin (HA) instead of the head of the same protein like most flu vaccines do, said lead researcher John Schrader. “Current flu vaccines target the head of the HA to prevent infections, but because the flu virus mutates very quickly, this part of the HA changes rapidly, hence the need for different vaccines every flu season,” said Schrader, director of the Univer sity of British Columbia’s Biomedical Research Centre. “Rather than attacking the variable head of the HA, the antibodies attacked the stem of the HA, neutralizing the flu virus,” he said. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Immunolog y . Last year, US researchers reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine that people who recovered from the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic developed unusual antibodies that protect against a variety of different flu strains. The research was based on nine patients who fell ill in 2010, and found antibodies that when tested in mice could protect against a lethal dose of at least three other strains of flu, including bird flu.That finding also boosted hope for a universal vaccine against a series of strains that have existed for decades. First detected in the United  States and Mexico in 2009, swine flu was unusual because it was particular ly dangerous for young people and pregnant women, unlike most other strains of flu which tend to be more lethal in older populations.

Israel to Set up CoEs in India

Indian farmers will have a chance to learn to optimise crop production from Israeli agriculture experts who will come down to the country to guide them. Agritech  Israel international agricultural exhibition, which is held once every three years, has seen huge participation of farmers from India. The 20th year fair was held in Tel Aviv recently. A large number of Indian farmers from different parts of the country and several experts, scientists, bureaucrats and Agriculture Ministers of Haryana and Andhra Pradesh attended the fair.

Two Decades

After two decades of diplomatic goodwill, both the countries have mutually decided to help each other in agriculture and will set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for agriculture in several states of India. “Such CoEs have
already been set up in many states in India. This year, we are eyeing a few more states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Punjab among others, where we want to set up centres of excellence in agriculture technology,” said Mrs. Vani Rao, counsellor, embassy of India in Israel in an informal chat with several Indian journalists who were invited to the fair.

Exchange Programm

This Indo-Israel institute also has an exchange programme, under which Israeli experts will come to Gujarat to guide farmers on sowing, cultivation, harvesting and postharvesting processes, according to her. India accounts for huge wastage in agriculture as well. The country needs to learn and improve on post harvest management, cold storage technology, packaging and dairy products. “In coming years, India will experience huge scarcity of water. The technology used in Israel on recycling sewa ge water for agriculture can help India save water as well as improve overall productivity,” says Mrs. Rao. More than 2,000 farmers from India went to Israel to see and adopt new agriculture technology. In September 2012, Agritech Isr ael is being planned to be held at Gandhinagar in association with the Gujarat government

Anti-ageing Benefits of Tree Pulp

A Singapore-born teenager who recently moved to Canada won a national science award for her groundbreaking work on the antiaging properties of tree pulp, officials said. Janelle Tam, 16, showed that cellulose, the woody material found in trees that enables them to stand, also acts as a potent anti-oxidant. “Her super antioxidant compound could one day help improve health and anti-aging products by neutralizing more of the harmful free-radicals found in the body,” Bioscience Education Canada said in a statement. Tam’s work involved tiny particles in the tree pulp known as nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC), which is flexible, durable, and also stronger than steel. Tam, a student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, chemically bound NCC to a well-known nanoparticle called a buckminster fullerene, or buckyballs, which are already used in cosmetic and antiaging products. “The new NCC bucky ball  combination acted like a ‘nano-vacuum,’ sucking up free radicals and neutralizing them,” said Bioscience Education Canada. Since cellulose is already used as filler and stabilizer in many vitamin products, one day Tam hopes NCC will make those products into super-charged free radical neutralizers. “It would be really nice to commercialize this,” said Tam. “I envision it more as an ingredient that would be added to existing formulations, so it could be added to tablets or bandaids for a wound dressing or it could be added to cosmetic cream.”

World Wildlife Fund Released its Report on Global Environment

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its report Living Planet Report 2012, noted that Biodiversity has decreased by an average of 28 percent globally since 1970 and the world would have to be 50 percent bigger to have enough land and forests to provide for current levels of consumption and carbon emissions. The report further added  that unless the world addresses the problem, by 2030 even two planet Earths would not be enough to
sustain human activity. The WWF also urged the global community to take the issue of environmental degradation seriously. A summit on the global environment is to be held in the Brazilian city Rio De Janerio from
20 to 22 June 2012. The summit is expected to draw more than 50000 participants from different nations. Politicians in the summit will be under tremendous pressure from environmentalists to agree goals for sustainable development, in the spirit of the Rio Earth Summit that spawned the Kyoto Protocol 20 years ago.

Solar Storms Threaten High-tech Civilisation

The upper atmosphere suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree under infra-red radiation at the beginning of March. A violent solar storm was to blame, spewing out a huge cloud of charged solar particles that swept past the earth at high speed. This solar storm heated up the upper atmosphere with a huge blast of energy of 26 billion kilowatt hours, according to NASA. This was sufficient energy to power the homes of a city like New York for two years. “This was the biggest dose of heat we’ve received from a solar storm since 2005,” according to solar researcher Martin Mlynczak of Nasa’s Langley Research Centre. “It was a big event and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet.” Luckily in this case the effects were primarily spectacular polar lights, but these geomagnetic storms generated by the interaction between the electrically-charged solar particles and the earth’s own magnetic field could have more serious consequences. They are able to overload electricity supply networks and cause breakdowns, cause communications and navigation satellites to fail, and endanger astronauts and people in aircraft.

Geomagnetic storms are a serious hazard to a highly technological society in the view of British space weather researcher Mike Hapgood, writing in the journal Nature. In the view of the professor at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, we are ill  prepared for this threat and need to be able to assess better the probability of severe space weather disruptions and their effects. There have always been solar storms, but our increasingly technology dependent civilisation is becoming  more susceptible. There is evidence of damage caused by solar eruptions since the time electricity  first began to be harnessed. An exceptionally powerful solar storm knocked out the newly introduced telegraph cables in early September 1859, causing fires in telegraph stations and also generating polar  lights that wer e visible as far south as Rome and Havana. The effects today could be much worse. A study by the British electricity and gas supplier, UK National Grid,  indicated that an event of this kind could cut electrical supplies to certain regions for months. A solar storm in mid-March 1989 did in fact disrupt power supplies to millions of Canadians for  several hours and cut contact with around 1,600 satellites. Since then many electricity networks have improved their equipment, but preparations need to be made, not only for events similar to those in the past, but also for the extreme events that might arise only once in  a thousand years. The first need is to assess the risks better. This would be possible with the aid of numerous historical records, although these are largely not yet available in electronic form. In addition solar weather  forecasting needs to improve, Hapgood says. Nasa’s “STEREO” solar satellites indicate that reliable warning of at least six hours to an accuracy of one hour is possible. US aviation authorities are currently calling for international standards for space weather briefings for aviation. Passenger flights may need to avoid severe solar storms under
certain conditions, particularly on polar routes. Solar storms occur when the sun hurls large clouds of electrically charged particles into space and these strike the earth. The solar cycle tak es around 11 years to complete. “We are currently emerging from a deep solar minimum,” says James Russell, a colleague of Mlynczak’s at Hampton University. He predicts the cycle will rise in strength to a peak in 2013. In addition the sun is in a big maximum phase that has occurred 24 times over the past 9,300 years and is currently approaching its end. This “solar climate change” does not necessarily  mean a calmer period in space weather, as Luke Barnard of Reading University in Britain has deduced. According to his analysis, the chance of isolated extreme space weather events in the next 40 years has risen by around a half, as Barnard reported at a recent gathering of British astronomers. There is a precedent for this. The big solar storm of 1859 took place outside a large solar maximum.

Bacteria that do not Need Food to Live

They have not eaten for the past 86 million years, but these deep-sea bacteria found on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean are not  peckish either — as they don’t really need food to survive, scientists say. The hardy microbes, discovered when researchers drilled into a layer of soft red clay at the bottom of the Pacific Gyre, may have the world’s slowest metabolism, with barely enough oxygen and nutrients needed to keep them alive. Believed to have remained untouched for almost 86 million years — well  before dinosaurs went extinct — the microbes consume oxygen in quantities which are too small to be measured, the researchers said. “We normally cannot see what rate they  are working at,” Hans Roy, a geomicrobiologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, said of the microbes. “It’s so slow for us, it looked like suspended animation,” Roy was quoted as saying by the New York Times . For their study, published in the journal Science , Dr Roy and his colleagues measured the oxygen concentration in layers of sediment gathered from the sea bottom in the North Pacific Gyre, off Hawaii, 100 feet below the surface. They calculated how much oxygen should have diffused into each layer of the sediment. Any missing oxygen was likely to have been consumed by the microbes, Dr Roy said. The deepest microbes that the researchers observed used just 0.001 fem to moles of oxygen per day; to put it another way, it would take 10 years for a microbe to consume the amount that a human inhales in a single breath. “They are surviving on a minimum energy limit. The whole community seems to be hovering right at the hunger limit,” Dr Roy said. The deep-sea microbes still largely remain a mystery to scientists, he added. As they are so slow-moving they are difficult to study.

Large Solar Telescope Operational

A powerful solar telescope billed as the largest in Europe opened recently on Spain’s Canary Islands. Scientists say it will allow them to study the sun in unprecedented detail. With a mirror diameter of 1.5 metres, the  Gregor telescope will be able to show structures on the sun on scales as small as 70 kilometres. The telescope also features a retractable roof that prevents air turbulence in its optical path, which allows it to deliver “images of a sharpness that up until now no terrestrial solar telescope has ever obtained ,” according to an Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands statement. “Gregor was built mainly to study physical processes on the surface of the sun,” said Oskar von der Luhe, the director of the Kiepenheuer Institute. “In these layers we see how energy from its interior emerges and is launched into space, and sometimes, reaches the Earth,” he added.

Management of Soil Pathogens in Nursery

Soil is a complex habitat where a large number of different micro organisms including fungal pathogens interacting with plants. These soil pathogens always depend on host to survive and reproduce. They prefer to live within the soil and causing diseases in plants particularly tree seedlings.

Fungal Pathogens

Common soil borne fungal pathogens and the diseases caused by them in tree seedlings are as follows. Fusarium is a common soil fungal pathogen mainly cause root rots and wilt diseases in sever al tree seedlings in nursery. It reproduces very rapidly in the soil with adequate moisture. Phytophthora causes root rot, crown rot and leaf blight in oak, poplar and eucalyptus seedlings. It is mostly found in contaminated soils and easily spreads through water. Pythium is a fungal pathogen infects early stage of seedlings and causes damping off disease. Excessive moisture favours this pathogen to infect the seedlings. Rhizoctoniat causes leaf blight in teak and damping off in most of the native tree species. Verticillium fungi causes wilt disease at nursery stage in poplar, oak and shisham. Water stagnant in nurseries is one of the predisposing factors for the verticillium wilt disease.

Soil Solarization

Soil solarization is the possible way to control or prevent these soil pathogens through raising of soil temperature. Clean thin and transparent polythene sheet can be spread over the nurser y soil. Solar energy will be trapped in this method and heats the soil This removes all the soil pathogens. Soil fumigation with 4 per cent Formalin is also effective. The seed beds or nursery soils can be covered with thick polythene sheet and thereafter the Formalin solution sprayed on soil for fumigation. Overnight fumigation will give effective management of soil pathogens in nursery.

Preventive Measures

• Right location with good drainage and appropriate sun light must be chosen before establishment of nursery.

• Injuries in seedlings should be avoided.

Impact of Climate Change on Rainfall Cycle and Food Security

An Australian study published in the journal Science on 27 April 2012 revealed that climate change has accelerated the rainfall cycle. The study conducted by Australian and US scientists looked at ocean data from 1950 to 2000 and found that salinity levels had changed in oceans around the world over that time. The researchers found that the changing pattern in rainfall cycle is likely to impact the food security globally. The researchers revealed that change in rainfall and evaporation meant the rich are getting richer with wet areas experiencing higher rainfall and drier areas even less.

Why Elderly Urinate Often at Night

Scientists have pinpointed a protein that helps explain why the elderly frequently have to get up in the night to urinate, a problem that can badly interfere with sleep. The chronic need to urinate at night, a condition called nocturnal enuresis, also causes bedwetting by young children.

The Protein Factor

Deficient levels of protein called connexin43 trick the bladder into believing that it is full, which sends a “must urinate” warning to the brain, they report on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications . Connexin43 is part
of a cascade of proteins in the so called circadian clock — the complex mechanism by which body processes crank up during daylight and slow down at night. During sound sleep, a healthy person produces a smaller volume of urine from the kidneys than during daytime. At the same time, more urine is stored during sleep than during the active, daylight phase. But when there are lower levels of connexin43, the smooth muscles of the bladder become over sensitised to nerve signals that give a feeling of fullness, the study says. Researchers led by Osamu Ogawa of Kyoto University made the discovery among lab mice that had been genetically modified  to lack the gene that makes connexin43. The team developed an automated system, using a roll of filter paper that turned purple when exposed to even tiny amounts of fluid, to count how often the caged rodents urinated at night. The researchers say there are likely to be other circadian pathways that are involved in the problem. They include impairment of the cortex — part of the brain which is aroused by signals from the bladder — or overproduction of urine by the kidneys at night.

A New Service for Shipping Industry

In another first of its kind product, INCOIS scientists developed and released an “Ocean forecast system along the ship routes’ a tailor-made service for navigational and operational safety of the shipping industry. The
product would provide ocean state parameters such as wave, swell, wind, sea surface temperature and high wave alert along the ship’s route. A foreign company was currently providing only wind and wave forecast whereas the product of INCOIS covered other important parameters, including the swell, according to its Director S.S.C. Shenoi.

Swell Waves

Pointing out that swell waves were dangerous, he said that many a time the sea would appear to be calm but once in a while these high energy waves come along and bang the ship. He said INCOIS was at present providing a three-day forecast by updating the information on daily basis. The forecasts have been validated using a few methods. The forecast will be sent through e-mail to the captain of the ship, according to Dr. T.M.
Balakrishnan Nair, Head Information Services & Ocean Sciences Group. Apart from shipping industry, the service will be useful to dredging firms, oil industri

Did those Bacteria Really Dine on Lethal Arsenic?

It was research that appeared set to turn the biological world on its head. A paper published online by the journal Science in December 2010 described a strain of bacteria that not only thrived in high levels of arsenic but appeared to incorporate it in its biomolecules, including DNA, displacing phosphorus that all other known forms of life utilise. The U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which had funded the research, loudly trumpeted the discovery. “The definition of life has just expanded,” exulted a senior agency official in a press release. But the paper by Felisa Wolfe- Simon and others failed to convince their peers in the scientific community. Instead, what followed was an outcry from scientists about flaws in the research. There was good reason, they said, to doubt that the bacterium was using arsenic in its DNA. Science , according to its Editor - in-Chief, Bruce Alberts, received “a wide range of correspondence that raised specific concerns” about the paper’s research methods and interpretation of results. In May 2011, the journal took the unusual step of publishing online eight technical comments that raised a number of issues. But the question remained – shouldn’t someone else try to replicate the experiment using methods that avoided the pitfalls of the earlier work? It was not an alluring prospect, considering that the most likely outcome would be to merely corroborate the flaws that had already been pointed out. Rosemary Redfield, a microbiologist at University of British Columbia in Canada, decided to take on the task. In a post on her blog ‘RR Research’, which  received a good deal of attention,  she had criticised the Science paper as “lots of flim-flam, b ut very little reliable information.” “I’ve been saying that researchers shouldn’t invest the time and resources needed to test Wolfe- Simonet al ’s claims because of the vanishingly small probability that they are correct,” she remarked in a blog post in May last year. ”But I’m having second thoughts because the most important claims can, I think, be ver y easily tested.” Having got the bacterial strain from the original group of researchers, Dr. Redfield set about  planning and carrying out experiments in a remarkably different fashion. The experiments she wanted to do, the problems that cropped up and the results she got were all written up on her blog. “One of the thing that had always been unusual about my blog was that I was writing openly about the experiments that I was doing before they were published,” she said on a recent episode of the podcast ‘This Week in Microbiology’. It was important that the process of science be made much more open. It was also a useful way to clarify her thinking. By January this year, Dr. Redfield and her collaborators at Princeton University in the U.S. had finished the lab work and prepared a paper. The paper was submitted to Science . But she also did something that is common enough in physics but rare in biology. The full manuscript was posted on arXiv.org, the preprint server that
is freely accessible. “The advantage of arXiv is that the physicists all use it,” she remarked on the podcast. So Sciencewould have had to deal with physicists posting papers there before or after they submitted them for publication. Indeed, the editor at Science handling their paper said that the journal had no problem with the manuscript being put on arXiv. Science later responded with a provisional acceptance and comments from three reviewers. The manuscript was revised in the light of those comments and sent back to the journal. But Dr. Redfield has also posted the full reviewers’ comments on a web site and the revised manuscript was made available on arXiv. Asked on the podcast whether the reviewers’ comments could be released publicly, she responded, “I don’t see why not.” There was nothing to indicate that those comments were to be kept in confidence. As for their finding, the  manuscript declares that there was no sign that the bacterium was able to grow by using arsenic or that the element had been incorporated in its DNA. “On April 13, we submitted the revised version [of the manuscript to Science ], and we’re waiting with fingers crossed for final acceptance,” said Dr. Redfield on her blog.

Colourful Birds Evolve Faster

Researchers have discovered that bird species with multiple plumage evolve into new species faster than those with only one colour form, confirming a 60-yearold evolution theory. The link between having more than one colour variation (colour polymorphism) like the iconic red, black or yellow headed Gouldian finches, and the faster evolution of new species was predicted in the 1950s by famous scientist Julian Huxley. The global study used information from birdwatchers and geneticists accumulated over decades and was conducted by University of Melbourne scientists Devi Stuart-Fox and Andrew Hugall, the journal Nature reported. By this confirmation we are able to understand a lot more about the processes that create bio-diver sity said Stuart-Fox, zoologist from Melbourne. “We found that in three families of birds of prey, the presence of multiple colour forms leads to rapid generation of new species,” Stuart-Fox said. “Well known examples of colour polymorphic species in these families include the Australian grey goshawk which has a grey and pure white form, the North American eastern screech owl and the Antillean nighthawk, each with grey and red forms,” said Stuart-Fox. “We looked a t five bird families with a high proportion of colour polymorphism and compared their rates of evolution with those with only one colour form,” Stuart-Fox said. Study co-author Andrew Hugall said: “Using many decades of natural history information and 25 years of genetic sequence information we were able to
generate the massive family trees, such as a tree of more than four thousand songbirds, needed to model rates of bird evolution in this study.”

The Safest Way for Plutonium Disposal

There are 500 tonnes of separated plutonium (Pu) worldwide that can be used for making one lakh nuclear weapons, claim four scientists in a paper published today (May 10) in Nature . So if this huge stock is not required for making weapons, which route should nations opt to dispose them? The options are limited to just two — direct disposal by immobilising the element in ceramic and burying it in repositories or using it in fast breeder reactors. Incidentally, the second option will end up producing more plutonium! In fact, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) depends on fast breeder reactors to produce additional plutonium, which will become the source of fuel for future  fast breeder reactors. India is not alone. France is a leader in fast breeder nuclear reactor technology and produces its bulk of energy through the nuclear reactor route. The United Kingdom last December decided to use separated plutonium in water-cooled nuclear power plants, quite similar to those of the U.S. The four researchers, however, make a strong case why U.K. should desist from taking this route. It is a “dangerous and costly” proposition that actually “prolongs the associated international security risks,” they state. They make a fervent plea for the government to “seriously evaluate the less costly and less risky” option of direct disposal of the man-made element. But Britain’s decommissioning authority in 2009 found that such direct disposal, though less expensive than converting into MOX fuel (used in fast breeder reactors), is “technologically less mature.” Though in 1999 the U.S. initially opted to go in for direct disposal, it reconsidered its decision owing to Russia’s objection — the plutonium so disposed (direct disposal) “could be made into weapons if it were recovered.” But the authors suggest a ‘solution’ to this vexing problem — mixing plutonium with gammaemitting waste to “ward off any thieves or terrorists for a century.”

Dragon Capsule to dock with the ISS

The U.S. space company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), started by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk will attempt to send its unmanned Dragon capsule to dock with the International Space Station. The success of that mission will profoundly affect American access to space. For one thing, it will mean that the U.S. can once again use one of its own spacecraft to transport goods to and from the space station. After the Space Shuttle was retired, Russia’s Progress spacecraft, along with Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and Japan’s H-II  Transfer Vehicle (HTV), have been carr ying fuel, food and other supplies needed on the space station. But once their task was completed, those craft were simply filled with rubbish from the space station and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry. Dragon, on the other hand, will be able to bring cargo safely back to the earth as well. In the forthcoming mission, for instance, it will return over 600 kg of goods, including some used hardware and samples from a materials processing experiment. For the U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a successful Dragon mission will vindicate its efforts to let private  companies take on the task of transporting humans and cargo to orbits around Earth. Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket that will launch it have both been designed to meet NASA safety requirements for taking astronauts as well. A common design for the capsule’s cargo and manned configurations meant that critical safety features could be tested in the course of unmanned missions, the company pointed out. Currently, crews are wholly dependent on Russia’s Soyuz capsule and rocket to reach the orbiting outpost.
But SpaceX’s vision goes beyond providing transportation ser vices for the International Space Station. “The cost and reliability of access to space have barely changed since the Apollo era over three decades ago,” observed Mr. Musk, who is the company’s CEO and also its chief designer, when he addressed a Presidential commission in 2004. SpaceX believes that its rockets will provide “breakthrough advances in reliability, cost, and time to launch.” To meet those goals, the company has configured its rockets around a single engine that can then be turned out in large numbers. Such high-volume engine production allowed better process control, resulting in much higher quality, it said. To this end, it developed the Merlin engine that runs on liquid oxygen and kerosene. It also took a design concept from the Soviet space programme – the use of large numbers of a less powerful engine that can be developed more easily. Falcon 9’s first stage uses a cluster of nine Merlin engines. Even if one of those engines failed during flight, the company claims that the rocket will be able to successfully complete its mission. When Falcon 9 lifts off, those engines together produce more thrust than four Boeing 747s. But even so they do not match the power of just one of Saturn V’s F-1 engines, five of which fired in unison to take men to the Moon. In addition, Falcon 9’s second stage uses a single Merlin engine. In April last year, SpaceX unveiled its Falcon Heavy configuration. This rocket will have “more payload capability
that any [launch] vehicle in history apart from the Saturn V,” said Mr. Musk at a press conference. The rocket could see its first flight next year. Falcon Heavy will cluster three of its predecessor’s first stages. A total of 27 upgraded Merlin engines will therefore fire at lift-of f. As the rocket climbs, propellants from boosters on either side will be fed to the core, keeping the latter’s tanks filled. Once empty, the boosters separate and fall back to earth while the engines of the core stage continue to operate. Mr. Musk believes that the company could launch about 10 each of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy annually in the coming years. With Falcon Heavy, a return to the Moon, a Mars sample return mission or a visit to an asteroid would become possible, Mr. Musk remarked.

Now, Coastal Vulnerability is Classified

A large extent of Kancheepuram district and parts of Chennai along the 1,000 km-long Tamil Nadu coastline have been classified as “very high risk” areas in relation to future sea-level rise. At least 6.38 per cent of the  Tamil Nadu coastline has been bracketed as “very high risk,” seven per cent as “high risk” and the rest at medium and low risk. In Andhra Pradesh, a stretch of 37 km (7.51 per cent of the total coastline) between East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts has been classified as very high risk. This classification emerges from a comprehensive ‘Coastal Vulnerability Index’ (CVI) Atlas brought out by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). Using data from satellites, simulated models, tide gauges and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of the United States, INCOIS prepared this Atlas, which determines the
relative risk to coastline due to future sea-level rise. “For the first time, such an Atlas has been done at the national level,” said T. Srinivasa Kumar, Head, Advisory  Services and Satellite Oceanography Group, INCOIS, Hyderabad.The Atlas, containing as many as 156 maps, covering all Indian coastal areas on 1:100000 scale will be useful to planners of coastal infrastructure and those involved in disaster mitigation. Based on seven physical and geological parameters, the Atlas has classified the areas along the coastline in terms of very high risk, high risk, medium and low risk to future sea-level rise. The seven parameters used are: tidal range, wave height, coastal slope, coastal elevation, shoreline change, geomorphology and historical rate of sea-level change. Mr. Srinivasa Kumar said the shoreline change rate from satellite data was estimated for the past 40 years. If
data showed shoreline erosion, it meant that it was at high risk. In contrast, if there was accretion to the shore, the risk obviously was low. Similarly, the risk levels were estimated based on geomorphological features. For
instance, the presence of coastal cliffs indica tes relatively low risk to that place. INCOIS is planning to come out with better maps having a scale of 1:50,000 based on high resolution input data sets.

Bees may Help Improve Robotic Vision

Scientists have unravelled how the bee brain uses multiple rules to process visual problems, a  breakthrough that could enable robots see as clearly as humans, says a study. The study co-author, Adrian Dyer of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia, said that rule learning was a fundamental cognitive task that allowed humans to operate in complex environments. “For example, if a driver wants to turn right at an intersection, then he or she needs to simultaneously observe the traffic light colour, the flow of oncoming cars and pedestrians to make a decision,” Dyer said, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences reports. “With experience, our brains can conduct these complex decision-making processes, but this is beyond robot vision,” adds Dyer. “We wanted to understand whether a honeybee might also demonstrate rule learning,” adds Dyer. Trained individual honeybees flew into a Yshaped maze which presented different elements in specific relationships such as above/below,  or left/right. With extendedtraining, the bees were able to learn that the elements had to have two sets of rules including being in a specific relationship like above/ below, while also possessing elements differing from each other.

India Successfully launched Its First Radar Imaging Satellite

India on 26 April 2012  launched it’s first indigenous all weather Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1). The satellite, whose images will facilitate agriculture and disaster management, was launched successfully on board the PSLV-C19 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the satellite took ten years to be functional. The newly launched satellite can capture images of the earth during day and night as well as in cloudy conditions. Thus far, India was dependent on a Canadian satellite for images as existing domestic remote sensing spacecraft are not able to capture images of earth during cloud cover. Besides use in the agriculture sector, RISAT- 1 could also be used to keep round the- clock vigil on the country’s borders, but this satellite would not be used for defence applications as RISAT-2, primarily a spy spacecraft, is already doing that job. RISAT-1 was launched using the state-of-the art new Mission Control Centre for the first time after its inauguration by President Pratibha Patil in January 2012. ISRO used PSLV-XL, high end version, only third such instance, for the launch of RISAT- 1. The XL version was earlier used for Chandrayaan-1 and GSAT-12 missions. The RISAT – 1 Launch is the 20th successive successful flight of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). India in April 2009 had launched an imported Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) with all weather capability. The satellite was bought from Israel for 110 million dollar largely for surveillance purposes. A whopping  498 crore rupees were spent on the  project. While the development ofsatellite took 378 crore rupees, 120 crore rupees were spent on building the rocket (PSLV-C19).

Do food items kept inside bags become radioactive when exposed to X-rays?

X-rays form a part of the electromagnetic spectrum which consist of gamma-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible light, infrared, microwaves and radio-waves. They differ in their energy. All food stuffs (cereals, fruit, eggs, vegetables, dairy products, fish, meat, minerals etc) are made up of atoms of light elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen and heavier elements such as iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, sodium and potassium etc. These elements consist of atoms. Atoms have a nucleus made up of neutrons and protons. These are bound together firmly. We can make a non radioactive element radioactive by making changes in the nucleus. Normal X-rays do not have enough energy to make changes in the nucleus Food items kept inside bags will not become radioactive when exposed to x-rays. Food Irradiation is a very useful process employed in preservation of food, control of sprouting of items such as potato and onion and control of food-borne diseases. Irradiation destroys or inactivates organisms that cause spoilage thereby extending shelf life of certain foods. One of the reasons for the unpopularity of food ir radiation is the mistaken notion that ir radiated food is radioactive. Gamma rays from Cobalt 60, electron of 10 million electron volts or X-rays of 5 million electron volts are the only types of radiation approved for use in the process. These radiations do not have sufficient energy to make food radioactive. No radioactivity is produced or released during the process.

Why do we find finger prints clearly on smooth surfaces but not on rough surfaces?

Take a magnifying lens (convex lens), see through it carefully, the palm and fingers on their catching (ventral) side. You will see a thick, curved, close and fine ranges of lines and groves spread all over them, in their  multitudes. The texture of these lines and groves on the fingers is generally called the fingerprints of that individual. To keep the skin clean and deterrent for microbial attack, the sebaceous glands present in the dermis layer and the sweat glands present in the subcutaneous layer underneath the skin’s upper layer, epidermis, secret fine oil (wax) droplets, called sebum and sweat respectively that move onto the outer surface of the skin to form
and spread lik e a fine and wafer-thin wet emulsion film on the skin. A live and healthy person’s hands have this fine layer over the surface of the palms and fingers also. When we touch any object intimately, we leave some traces of this emulsion on the surface of the objects, we have handled or touched. Like a rubber stamp leaves the (mirror image) impressions of the protruded text or graphics on a sheet of paper rather than the etched
out basal parts, so do we leave the wet prints of the pr otruded lines of  the fingers and palms of our hands than the wetness of the groves which do not come in contact to the surface. Thus, the fingerprints are the wet (mirror image) prints of the lines of our palm and fingers than continuous painting of the hand’s wetness. If the surface of the object is very smooth and clean, the lines of the fingers and palm would have a more coherent, complete and intimate contact with the surface and leave a definite and truer image of the fingerprints and palm prints. If the surface of the object is uneven, rough and highly coarse, then its low-lying contour dips and
rutted topographic zones would not come in physical contact with the lines of the fingers and palms which only bridge-over these pitted parts. Hence, finger prints at those parts of the surface are discontinuous and left with blanks. This is why we find finger prints clearly on smooth surfaces but not on a rough surface.

Why do we develop dark circles around our eyes when we have had insufficient sleep?

Skin under the eye lids is very thin and delicate. This makes it prone to show both dehydration and water-logging in an exaggerated fashion. ‘Sleeping less’ also usually implies overwork and poor eating. This results in a
generalised dehydration causing the thin under eye skin to g o into a fine wrinkling pattern which gives the appearance of dark circles under the eye. On the other hand, it is common to have puffy eyes after a long bout of sleep. This can be explained by the fact that when we lie flat the excess fluid that normally pools in the lower limbs gets distributed all over the body. Excess fluid will collect easily in the under eye region as the skin there is very thin and offers very little resistance, this will result in ‘bags under the eye’ appearance. More over , the under eye area is prone to pigment accumulation by nature and this tends to exaggerate the ‘dark circles’.

Scientists used Supercomputer to fight Alzheimer’s and other Brain Diseases

Scientists are building a human brain. For that they are using the world’s most powerful supercomputer. It will stimula te the entire human mind to fight against Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. The human brain thus
designed will combine all the information and will replicate them down to the level of individual cells and molecules. The technology will help in understanding diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Supreme Court Stayed Union Government’s Decision to reintroduce the Cheetah in India

The Supreme Court of India, directed the union government to put off its decision to reintroduce the cheetah in India. The big cats  faced extinction in the sub-continent nearly a decade ago. The government was planning to import Cheetah from Africa, while the plan was not discussed with the National Board f or Wildlife, a statutory body for the enforcement of wildlife laws in India. The court, while pronouncing its order, took note of the scientific studies, which showed that the Asian cheetahs and African cheetahs are completely different, both genetically and also in their characteristics. Wild life sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and Rajsthan were slated to be the two spots where the imported Cheetahs were to be kept. The big cats were hunted to extinction from India decades ago, conservationists say that fewer than 100 of cheetahs remain in Iran while the vast majority of the 10000 cheetahs left in the world are in Africa.