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India
softens stand on tourism in Antarctica;
wants regulation
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India
on Monday went soft in its opposition
to tourism in Antarctica and number
of tourists visiting the icy continent
on Monday, even as the Global Forum
for Management of the region said
it was necessary to create awareness.
Voicing concern over the growth of
tourism in Antarctica, Minister of
Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal expressed
the hope that a consensus will emerge
at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative
Meeting (ATCM) on a framework of regulation
to control it. The 30th ATCM, that
began here today, is the annual meet
of the Antarctic Treaty system for
administration and management of the
icy continent. At a function to mark
"Earth day" recently, Sibal had strongly
opposed tourism in the icy continent
and favoured preservation of the continent
for scientific research. "Tourism
in Antarctica is growing very fast.
About 10,000 tourists used to visit
earlier, but in the last season over
30,000 people visited the region,"
Jan Huber, Executive Secretary of
the Antarctic treaty secretariat told
reporters. He said the growing number
of tourists in the region will have
an ecological impact on the region
but was not in favour of banning tourism
altogether. "Tourism helps in creating
awareness about the unique environment
of the Antarctic region," he said.
Tour operators active in the region
want the ATCM to approve rules for
tourism in the icy continent. "We
have formulated certain rules for
operating in the region. Operators
affiliated to us follow it but others
do not. If ATCM approves the rules,
it will be fantastic," Denise Landau
of International Association of Antarctica
Tour Operators (IAATO) said. Landau
said the IAATO has evolved guidelines
that include a ban on entry of ships
with a capacity to carry more than
500 tourists. "We also follow the
principle of one ship at one site
at one time," she said adding only
100 people are allowed to disembark
at a landing site in the Antarctic
at a time. She said the tourists who
go with IAATO affiliated tour operators
are not allowed to go very near to
the penguins. "We strictly ensure
that no tourists goes within five
metre range from the penguins," she
said adding there is a tourist guide
for a group of 20. "But there are
at least two large ships that operate
in the region and do not adhere to
our guidelines. If the same are adopted
by the ATCM, it would become mandatory
for all operators to follow it," Landau
said. Huber said there was no move
to entirely ban tourism in the Antarctic.
"The treaty does not allow it. It
only accords priority to science,"
he said. Sibal said those who crafted
the Antarctic treaty might not have
thought of the possibility of large
scale human activities in the icy
continent for recreational purposes.
"We share the concern of the global
community on growing environmental
pressures, which Antarctica is now
facing," he said. More than 300 delegates
and experts representing over 46 countries
and organisations are participating
in the meeting.
Courtesy:
www.zeeneww.com, April 30, 2007
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S.Korean
team cleared in cloned wolf probe
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South
Korean scientists, whose reputation
has been tainted by fraudulent stem
cell studies, committed errors in
a paper on producing the world`s first
cloned grey wolves but did not manipulate
data, an investigative panel said
on Friday. The Seoul National University
team, once hailed at home as heroes
but later seen as an embarrassment
after reports of stem cell fraud,
was being investigated on suspicion
of massaging data to increase the
cloning success rate for the wolves.
"We concluded the team did not need
or intend to inflate the success rate,"
said Kuk Yang, chief of Seoul National
University`s office of research affairs.
The error in the team`s work was limited
to a data entry in one table, but
an investigation of lab records and
computer files indicated it was an
honest mistake and not an attempt
at fraud, Kuk said. The team asked
to correct its paper upon discovering
its mistake, he added. "Cloning and
Stem Cells", the US periodical that
published the team`s report on cloning
wolves, had withdrawn the paper from
its Internet site earlier this month
pending the results of the university`s
investigation panel. The investigation
panel said independent testing also
verified that the team actually produced
cloned Korean grey wolves, an endangered
species. It added that since the team
produced the wolves named Snuwolf
and Snuwolffy, who were born about
a year and a half ago, it had produced
six more Korean grey wolves. Three
of those wolves have since died. The
team was once led by Hwang Woo-suk,
who resigned from his post in December
2005 after an interim investigation
found his team had fabricated data
on producing patient-specific embryonic
stem cells, a paper that was once
hailed as a breakthrough. A few weeks
later, the investigation panel said
another landmark paper on the creation
of cloned embryonic stem cells was
marred by serious fraud. Hwang is
on trial for fraud, embezzlement and
violating the country`s bioethics
laws. The team produced the world`s
first cloned dog in 2005, which has
been verified by independent testing.
Dogs are considered among the most
difficult mammals to clone because
of their reproductive cycle.
Courtesy:
www.zeeneww.com, April 28, 2007
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Scientists
find most earth-like planet yet
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THE
search for extraterrestrial life may
have a new focus after European astronomers
found the most habitable planet yet
outside the solar system. The so-called
exo-planet orbits the star Gliese
581, about 20,5 light years away in
the constellation Libra, the scientists
said yesterday. At about five times
the mass of earth, it was the smallest
planet found outside the solar system,
and the most likely to be able to
support life, said Stephane Udry,
the astronomer at Switzerland's Geneva
Observatory who led the team. "It's
the one that resembles the earth the
most, that's why we're so excited,"
Udry said. "We know it's not big,
we know that the temperature is good
for having water. "Also, if the planet
started to form a bit outward in comparison
to its actual position and migrated
a bit inward, which is a common feature
of planet formation, then it would
have rocky material, silicates and
ice as building blocks," he said.
Scientists consider liquid water a
prerequisite for living organisms
on other planets and smaller, rocky
planets, as opposed to gaseous planets,
are more likely to harbour life. While
more than 200 planets have been found
outside the solar system, most of
them have been "gas giants" like Jupiter
and Saturn. UK bookmaker William Hill
lowered the odds on intelligent extraterrestrial
life being found to 100-1 from a 1000-1
after the planet's discovery was announced.
"We would face a possible eight-figure
payout if it were to be confirmed
that intelligent life of extra-terrestrial
origin exists," said William Hill
spokesman Graham Sharpe. "So we felt
we had to react to the news that an
earth-like planet which could support
intelligent life has been discovered."
The new planet will be named Gliese
581 C, Udry said. It is smaller than
OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a planet 5,5
times the mass of the earth that was
found in 2005 and described in the
journal Nature in January. The latter
planet was deemed by its finders unlikely
to support life. Gliese 581 C was
discovered by scientists using the
European Southern Observatory in Chile.
They detected it by measuring periodic
changes in the velocity of the host
star of as little as 2m/s, about a
brisk walking pace. The star is a
so-called red dwarf, at least 50 times
fainter than the sun, say the astronomers.
Even so, the planet is 14 times closer
to the star than the earth is to the
sun, meaning it is within the red
dwarf's inhabitable zone, where temperatures
are likely to range from 0-40°C.
Courtesy:
www.businessday.co.za, April 26, 2007
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India
to set up space science institute
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India,
an acknowledged power in space science,
will launch from the next academic
year an Indian Institute of Space
Science & Technology (IIST) with an
initial investment of Rs.2.70 billion
($66.5 million) to address the manpower
shortage faced by the national space
agency. The union cabinet Thursday
gave its approval for the setting
up of IIST that will have an annual
recurring cost of Rs.400 million,
Information and Broadcasting Minister
Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters.
The Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) has been experiencing severe
shortage of highly talented graduate
and postgraduate scientists and engineers
during the last few years to take
up the challenges of research and
development in the areas of space
science and technology, an official
note said. The setting up of the IIST,
on the lines of the Indian Institutes
of Technology (IITs), will provide
high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate
education in space technology and
science and postgraduate and research
programmes and integrated Masters
in Space Science degree with customised
curriculum meeting the high technology
requirements of ISRO mitigating the
problem of acute shortage of quality
human resources the agency faces,
it said. Pending development of the
regular campus of the institute, the
courses will commence from the academic
year 2007-08 itself on an alternate
campus in the premises of the Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
The institute, to come up within 24
months, will be located close to the
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Liquid
Propulsion Systems Centre in Thiruvananthapuram
to enable close interaction with ISRO,
the minister said. It will have an
intake of 150-200 students a year.
The entire expenses of the course
will be supported by ISRO in the form
of scholarships and assistantships
and all its high-performing students
would be absorbed into ISRO.
Courtesy:
www.monstersandcritics.com, April
26, 2007
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Astronomers
spy an Earthlike planet, in theory
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For
the first time, astronomers have discovered
a planet outside our solar system
that is potentially habitable, with
Earth like temperatures, a find researchers
described yesterday as a big step
in the search for "life in the universe."
The planet is just the right size,
might have water in liquid form, and
in galactic terms is relatively nearby
at 120 trillion miles away. But the
star it closely orbits, known as a
red dwarf, is much smaller, dimmer,
and cooler than our sun. There's still
a lot that is unknown about the newly
discovered planet, which could be
deemed inhospitable to life once more
is known about it. And it's worth
noting that scientists' requirements
for habitability count Mars in that
category: a size relatively similar
to Earth's with temperatures that
would permit liquid water; however,
this is the first body outside our
solar system that meets those standards.
"It's a significant step on the way
to finding possible life in the universe,"
said Michel Mayor, an astronomer at
the University of Geneva and one of
11 European scientists on the team
that found the planet. "It's a nice
discovery. We still have a lot of
questions."
The
results of the discovery have not
been published but have been submitted
to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Alan Boss, who works at the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, where a
US team of astronomers competed in
the hunt for an Earth like planet,
called it "a major milestone in this
business." The planet was discovered
by the European Southern Observatory's
telescope in La Silla, Chile, which
has a special instrument that splits
light to find wobbles in different
wave lengths. Those wobbles can reveal
the existence of other worlds. What
they revealed is a planet circling
the red dwarf star Gliese 581. Red
dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars
that give off dim red light and last
longer than stars like our sun. Until
a few years ago, astronomers didn't
consider these stars to be possible
hosts of planets that might sustain
life. The discovery of the planet,
named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies
of planets circling similar dim stars.
About 80 percent of the stars near
Earth are red dwarfs. The new planet
is about five times heavier than Earth.
Its discoverers aren't certain whether
it is rocky like Earth or is a frozen
ice ball with liquid water on the
surface. If it is rocky, as the prevailing
theory proposes, it has a diameter
about 1.5 times that of Earth. Based
on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere.
The research team believes that its
average temperature is somewhere between
32 and 104 degrees, and that hypothesis
set off celebrations among astronomers.
Until now, all 220 planets that astronomers
have found outside our solar system
have had the "Goldilocks problem."
They've been too hot, too cold, or
too big and gaseous, like Jupiter.
The new planet seems just right --
or at least that's what scientists
think. The new planet's star system
is a mere 20.5 light-years away, making
Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest
stars to Earth. It's so dim, you can't
see it without a telescope, but it's
in the constellation Libra, which
is low in the southeastern sky at
midevening in the Northern Hemisphere.
Courtesy:
www.boston.com, April 25, 2007
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Dubai
to build world's first 'green' skyscraper
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Dubai
is planning to build the world's first
"green" skyscraper that will produce
more electricity than it actually
uses as part of the emirate's efforts
to remain an international trendsetter
in building technology. The 312-metre
high skyscraper will feature revolving
floors with the entire building equipped
with wind turbines and solar energy
panels that will make it independent
of outside energy sources, according
to the Italian architect David Fisher.
Environmental protection is one of
the emirate's main objectives in a
recently presented master plan that
includes protection of ecologically
important sites, water conservation,
energy and resources management, the
Dubai Department of Tourism said.
Dubai has in recent years diversified
its economy from oil export to service
and tourism, reflected by huge building
projects that include the Jumeirah
Palm, the world's largest man-made
island and super skyscrapers like
the Emirates Towers.
Courtesy:
www.sify.com, April 25, 2007
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Sun
3-D pictures help warn of solar flares
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The
first three-dimensional images of
the Sun from a pair of spacecraft
orbiting the planet were released
on Monday and can begin helping scientists
predict when and how hard dangerous
solar storms will hit, the US space
agency NASA said. Such storms can
disrupt satellites, communications
and sometimes the electricity supply,
and may endanger astronauts in Earth
orbit as well as commercial airline
flights. The twin Solar Terrestrial
Relations Observatory, or STEREO,
satellites can create more accurate,
real-time views of these storms, called
coronal mass ejections, project scientists
said. "The improvement with STEREO`s
3-D view is like going from a regular
X-ray to a 3-D CAT scan in the medical
field," said Michael Kaiser, STEREO
Project Scientist at NASA`s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland. The STEREO spacecraft were
launched in October and have now been
maneuvered into their orbits, one
slightly ahead of Earth and one slightly
behind. "Just as the slight offset
between a person`s eyes provides depth
perception, the separation of spacecraft
allow 3-D images of the sun," NASA
said in a statement. Solar storms
are a conglomeration of charged gases
and magnetic forces. When they hit
the Earth`s magnetic barrier they
cause the auroras, the dramatic Northern
and Southern lights. But they can
also disrupt satellites, radio communication,
and power grids. The radiation they
carry is a danger to astronauts. The
orbiting SOHO observatory is providing
some information, but the two STEREO
spacecraft will be able to triangulate
with SOHO and give a much better view
of these bursts as they bud off the
sun`s surface, NASA said. "In the
solar atmosphere, there are no clues
to help us judge distance. Everything
appears flat in the 2-D plane of the
sky. Having a stereo perspective just
makes it so much easier," said Russell
Howard of the Naval Research Laboratory.
"Knowing where the front of the coronal
mass ejection cloud is will improve
estimates of the arrival time from
within a day or so to just a few hours,"
Howard added. "STEREO also will help
forecasters estimate how severe the
resulting magnetic storm will be."
Courtesy:
www.zeenews.com, April 24, 2007
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Baby
Milk Formula That Fights Fat
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Infant
formula and other baby foods that
provide permanent protection from
obesity and diabetes into adulthood
could be on shop shelves soon, reports
Lisa Melton in Chemistry & Industry,
the magazine of the SCI. The foods,
under development at the Clore Laboratory
at the University of Buckingham, will
be supplemented with leptin, the hunger
hormone. Those who take the foods
early in life should remain permanently
slim. 'Like those people who are lean
by nature even though they overeat?
like we all do - they will tend to
be inefficient in terms of using energy,'
says Mike Cawthorne, who heads the
Metabolic Research group at Clore.
Cawthorne's group has already demonstrated
that supplementing infant rats' diets
with leptin means that they never
get fat or develop diabetes (AM J
Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol,
doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00676.2006).
Even animals fed a high-fat diet remained
slim. Leptin, the fat hormone that
turns off hunger in the brain, is
produced in the body throughout life.
Its discovery was heralded as a major
breakthrough, but research in adults
proved disappointing because individuals
soon seemed to resist its hunger-quenching
effect. But Cawthorne says this time
things are different. Providing leptin
earlier enough effectively hard-wires
the body's energy balance. In fact,
whether one is fat or thin may be
determined before birth. Feeding the
hormone to pregnant rats has been
found to have a lifelong impact on
their offspring's predisposition to
obesity. Animals born of leptin-treated
mothers remain lean even when fed
a fat-laden diet, while those from
untreated dams gained weight and developed
diabetes. The difference boils down
to energy expenditure. The offspring
of leptin-treated mothers burn up
more energy. 'The infants are permanently
inefficient in terms of using energy,'
says Cawthorne. Leptin-based products
may also find their way into the pet
obesity market. Edinburgh researcher
Jonathan Seckl says. 'We need to know
whether leptin is acting pre- and
post-natally, figure out how it works,
and dissect the possible side-effects
before this becomes a potential approach
for humans. Nonetheless, this is good
science,' he says
Courtesy:
www.playfuls.com, April 24, 2007
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Aussie
scientists find transplant virus
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Australian
scientists have discovered a new virus
that has the potential to kill recipients
of organ transplants. The Victorian
state Department of Human Services
says it is similar to a meningitis
virus that killed several transplant
patients in the United States last
year. The virus was discovered in
Melbourne after three hospital patients
died within weeks of receiving organs
from the same donor. Victoria`s acting
Chief Health Officer, Dr. John Carnie,
told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
that the virus does not pose a risk
to the community as a whole as it
was not believed to be an infectious
disease. He said organ transplant
recipients receive a variety of drugs
to suppress their immune system so
that they don`t reject the transplanted
organ. 'So, if you are immuno-depressed,
any kind of infection can have devastating
consequences whether it`s a common
cold or influenza ... anything like
that can have very severe consequences,'
he said.
Courtesy:
www.monstersandcritics.com, April
22, 2007
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Black
Holes might fill universe with seeds
of life
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New
research shows that black holes are
not the ultimate destroyers that are
often portrayed in popular culture.
An international team of astronomers
has found that hot winds from giant
black holes in galactic centers may
blow heavy elements like carbon and
oxygen into the vast tracts of space
between galaxies. They believe that
this escaping warm gas could be one
source of the chemical elements that
make life possible, and suggest that
black holes are not all-consuming
monsters. "One of the big questions
in cosmology is how much influence
massive black holes exert on their
surroundings," said co-author of the
study Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The
team, led by Yair Krongold of the
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico,
studied the super massive black hole
at the center of the galaxy NGC 4051.
They found that gas was escaping from
much closer to the black hole than
previously thought. The outflow source
was located about 2,000 Schwarzschild
radii from the black hole, or about
five times the size of Neptune's orbit.
(The Schwarzschild radius is the black
hole's "point of no return" - about
4 million miles for the black hole
in NGC 4051.) The team also determined
the fraction of gas that was avoiding
being swallowed. That fraction ended
up being smaller than earlier studies
suggested. Winds from black holes
have been clocked at speeds of up
to four million miles per hour. Over
thousands of years, the chemical elements
such as carbon and oxygen in those
winds can travel immense distances,
eventually becoming incorporated into
the cosmic clouds of gas and dust,
called nebulae, which forms new stars
and planets.
Courtesy:
www.zeenews.com, April 21, 2007
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Einstein
was right: space and time bend
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By
Anushka Asthana and David Smith
Ninety years after he expounded
his famous theory, a $700m Nasa probe
has proved that the universe behaves
as he said. Now the race is on to
show that the other half of relativity
also works
Under his name in the Oxford English
Dictionary is the simple definition:
genius. Yet for decades physicists
have been asking the question: did
Albert Einstein get it wrong? After
half a century, seven cancellations
and $700m, a mission to test his theory
about the universe has finally confirmed
that the man was a mastermind - or
at least half proved it. The early
results from Gravity Probe B, one
of Nasa's most complicated satellites,
has confirmed 'to a precision of better
than 1 per cent' the assertion Einstein
made 90 years ago - that an object
such as the Earth does indeed distort
the fabric of space and time. But
this - what is referred to as the
'geodetic' effect - is only half of
the theory. The other, 'frame-dragging',
stated that as the world spins it
drags the fabric of the universe behind
it. Francis Everitt, the Stanford
University professor who has devoted
his life to investigating Einstein's
theory of relativity, told scientists
at the American Physical Society it
would be another eight months before
he could measure the 'frame-dragging'
effect precisely. 'Understanding the
details is a bit like an archeological
dig,' said William Bencze, programme
manager for the mission. 'A scientist
starts with a bulldozer, follows with
a shovel, then finally uses dental
picks and toothbrushes to clear the
dust away. We're passing out the toothbrushes
now.' The Gravity Probe B project
was conceived in the late 1950s but
suffered decades of delays while other
scientists ran tests corroborating
Einstein's theory. It was Everitt's
determination that stopped it being
cancelled. The joint mission between
Nasa and Stanford University uses
four of the most perfect spheres -
ultra precise gyroscopes - to detect
minute distortions in the fabric of
the universe. Everitt's aim was to
prove to the highest precision yet
if Einstein was correct in the way
he described gravity. According to
Einstein, in the same way that a large
ball placed on a elasticated cloth
stretches the fabric and causes it
to sag, so planets and stars warp
space-time. A marble moving along
the sagging cloth will be drawn towards
the ball, as the Earth is to the Sun,
but not fall into it as long as it
keeps moving at speed. Gravity, argued
Einstein, was not an attractive force
between bodies as had been previously
thought. Few scientists need the final
results, which will be revealed in
December, to convince them of Einstein's
genius. 'From the most esoteric aspects
of time dilation through to the beautiful
and simple equation, e=mc2, the vast
bulk of Einstein's ideas about the
universe are standing up to the test
of time,' said Robert Massey, from
the Royal Astronomical Society. He
said the mission was 'legitimate science'
to test a theory and confirm its brilliance,
but others have criticised the costs
and length of the study, claiming
that what was announced had already
been shown. Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer
Royal, said the announcement would
'fork no lightning'.
Courtesy:
www.hindu.com, April 19, 2007
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ISRO
builds satellites for European clients
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Expanding
its foray in the international space
sector, ISRO said it was building
a communications satellite for a British
company for a possible 2009 launch.
"We are building a communications
satellite for a British company Avanti
Screen Media," said K R Sridhara Murthi,
Executive Director of Antrix Corporation,
the commercial arm of ISRO. He said
the transponders for the satellite
would be sourced from Europe, while
the satellite platform will be built
at ISRO facilities in Bangalore. The
space agency had signed a contract
with Eutelsat in February last year
to build a communications satellite,
marking its foray in the international
satellite building business. The satellite
for Eutelsat is being developed in
collaboration with European Aeronautic
Defence and Space company which is
providing transponders for the satellite
that will be built at ISRO. Each of
the satellites will weigh more than
four tonnes and Antrix will have to
scout for an international launch
vehicle as ISRO launch vehicles can
launch sub-four-tonne birds. ISRO
has launched six foreign satellites,
which rode piggyback on domestic payloads.
The space agency is launching an Italian
satellite 'Agile' using the indigenously
developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle,
the first exclusive launch for an
international satellite. It will also
launch six micro satellites with a
combined weight of 24 kg later this
year.
Courtesy:
www.zeenews.com, April 19, 2007
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Fossilised
trees mystery solved
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A
Cardiff fossil expert has identified
a pair of 385-million-year-old trees,
thought to be among the world's oldest.
American researchers found fossilised
remains in New York state two years
ago, but their identity was unknown.
They called in Dr Christopher Berry
from Cardiff University, who confirmed
the remains are from the Genus Wattieza,
a fern-like plant which formed earth's
first known forests. Dr Berry described
the discovery as a "spectacular" find.
The upright stumps of fossilised trees
were first uncovered after a flash
flood in Gilboa, New York, more than
a century ago. But until two further
fossils were found two years ago,
which had fallen sideways with their
trunk, branches, twigs and crown still
intact, no-one knew what the entire
trees looked like. The American team
called in Dr Berry, who has 17 years
of tree fossil expertise, to help.
Dr Berry, of Cardiff university's
School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary
Sciences, said it was a "spectacular
find" which had allowed scientists
to recreate early forest ecosystems.
"This was also a significant moment
in the history of the planet," he
said. "The rise of the forests removed
a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This caused temperatures to drop and
the planet became very similar to
its present-day condition. "Branches
from the trees would have fallen to
the floor and decayed, providing a
new food chain for the bugs living
below." Dr Berry worked with colleagues
from Binghamton University, New York
and from New York State Museum. Their
findings are published in the 19 April
edition of the scientific journal
Nature.
Courtesy:
www.bbc.co.uk, April 19, 2007
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Sunita
finishes Marathon in space
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Indian
American Astronaut Sunita Williams
acheived yet another milestone by
being 210 miles above earth and circiling
it at least twice, running as fast
as eight mph but flying more than
five miles each second, as she completed
the Boston Marathon on a International
Space station treadmill. Her unofficial
completion time was four hours and
24 minutes as she completed the race
at 2:24 p.M. EDT. Sunita, 41, an accomplished
marathoner, attempted something no
other astronaut has ever done. She
is now the first astronaut in space
to have ran a marathon while in orbit.
And, Sunita hopes her unique run will
serve as an inspiration. "I encourage
kids to start making physical fitness
part of their daily lives," Sunita
said. "I think a big goal like a marathon
will help get this message out there."
Sunita started the race on time at
10 a.M. EDT with race No. 14,000 taped
to the front of the treadmill. She
had placed two laptop computers on
either side of the treadmill and was
closely watching a live feed of the
race from Boston and keep track of
where the ISS was flying. Wearing
Boston Red Sox socks under her navy
shirt and shorts, Sunita woke up several
hours earlier than her crew mates
because of the marathon. Also at the
space station were US Astronaut Michael
Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonauts
Mikhail Tyurin, Fyodor Yurchikhin
and Oleg Kotov and space tourist Charles
Simonyi.
Courtesy:
www.msn.com, April 17, 2007
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Brain
Linked to Emotional Stress That Harms
Heart, Study Says
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A
newly discovered link between the
brain and the heart may give researchers
some insight on cardiac events induced
by emotional stress such as grief
and surprise, a study found. A complex
part of the brain that deals with
understanding, awareness and perception
sends and receives signals from the
heart, according to the study published
yesterday by Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. The brain's cortex
may participate in a feedback loop,
regulating and amplifying the cardiac
response to stress. The research expands
on previous studies that emotional
stress, particularly in people with
underlying heart conditions, can cause
irregular heart rhythms and sudden
death, primarily through the actions
of the primitive brain regions sending
messages to heart tissue. ``Our findings
highlight the dynamic interaction
of heart and brain in stress-induced
cardiovascular morbidity,'' lead author
Marcus Gray said in the study. Researchers
led by Gray of University College
London measured heart and brain activity
in patients with a pre-existing cardiac
condition while the patients performed
a mildly stressful task known to raise
heart rate: counting backward rapidly
by sevens. All patients experienced
enhanced cardiovascular activity.
Courtesy:
www.bloomberg.com, April 10, 2007
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Vitamin
supplements may shorten lifespan
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Taking
vitamin supplements may no longer
be a mantra to stay fit. New research
suggests that certain vitamins can
have adverse effects on human lifespan.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen
reviewed more than 815 clinical trials
into the benefits of commonly used
vitamin supplements, including vitamins
A, E and C besides beta-carotene and
selenium. They found that vitamin
supplements appeared to raise, not
lower, the risk of early death, reported
online edition of BBC News. Millions
worldwide use antioxidant supplements,
including vitamins A and E, believing
it improves health. Nutritionists
suggest a balanced diet instead. Food
contains a complex matrix of different
components, which could not be replicated
by supplements, British Dietetic Association
nutritionist Frankie Phillips said.
"Our advice is to eat a wide range
of foods in a balanced diet that can
provide all of the nutrients the body
needs to protect itself and combat
diseases."
Courtesy:
www.newindpress.com, April 09, 2007
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Scientists
herald 'pill' to rescue memory in
Alzheimer's patients
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For
those who struggle to remember birthdays
and the location of car keys, hopes
of a cure arrived yesterday. Scientists
announced that the world's first memory
pill could be developed after they
identified a gene mutation that affected
the memory of mice. The discovery
was made when researchers suppressed
the activity of the gene in mice before
they swam around a water maze, noting
that the altered mice performed better.
But when the gene's activity was increased,
the performance of the mice's memory
was worse. The scientists hope to
find molecules that target and inhibit
the gene, which is also thought to
exist in humans. Ultimately this could
lead to a memory-enhancing pill. Dr
Mauro Costa-Mattioli, from McGill
University, Montreal, said: "If such
a pill could be generated, it might
provide a new method for treating
people with memory-related diseases
such as Alzheimer's. "While a drug
that worked in this way wouldn't cure
the disease itself, it might rescue
the symptoms of memory loss." The
identified gene makes a regulatory
protein called eIF2a, which normally
keeps a check on memory. Mice that
were genetically engineered to carry
a defective version of the gene showed
an improved talent for spatial learning.
In the maze, the mice were trained
to swim to a hidden platform. After
several days the mutant mice were
able to find the platform significantly
faster than normal mice. "If a person
were reading a page of a textbook,
it might take several times to memorise
it," said Dr Costa-Mattioli, who published
his findings in the journal Cell.
"A human equivalent of these mice
would get the information right away."
Courtesy:
www.telegraph.co.uk, April 9, 2007
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Effort
to Catalog Species Tops 1 Million
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A
worldwide scientific effort to catalog
every living species has topped the
1 million milestone. Six years into
the program the total has reached
1,009,000, researchers report. They
hope to complete the listing by 2011,
reaching an expected total of about
1.75 million species. Thomas M. Orrell,
a biologist at the Smithsonian's National
Museum of Natural History, said the
finished catalog will include all
known living organisms, from plants
and animals to fungi and microorganisms
such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses.
Animals. "Many are surprised that,
despite over two centuries of work
by biologists and the current worldwide
interest in biodiversity, there is
presently no comprehensive catalog
of all known species of organisms
on Earth," Orrell said. The listing
does not include fossil species from
the past. The Integrated Taxonomic
Information System-Species 2000 Catalog
of Life provides access to data maintained
by a variety of scientific organizations,
each specializing in a certain area.
For example, information on dipteran
flies is maintained by the Agriculture
Department's Systematic Entomology
Laboratory at the Smithsonian's National
Museum of Natural History. Natural
history museums in London, the Netherlands
and New York maintain clothes moth,
dragonfly and spider data. Experts
in Canada and Paris keep the data
on Ichneumon wasps and longhorn beetles.
These
lists are peer-reviewed and checked
technically, and then integrated into
special software for the catalog.
The project, involving some 3,000
biologists, is led by Frank Bisby
of the University of Reading in England
and Orrell. "We tidy it up and do
a peer review to see which pieces
are the best ones to use, like putting
together a giant jigsaw puzzle," Bisby
said in a recent interview with The
Associated Press. "If you want to
do international comparisons, you
need a master list. It's a little
like if you were running a supermarket,
you would have to do an inventory."
Having internationally accepted standards
for species' names will help researchers
compare the diversity of life in various
regions of the world and produce uniform
catalogues of germs, packets of seeds
or genetic resources, he said. Only
rarely is there competition among
names, such as occurred with sea anemones,
hard corals and spiders, and occasionally
an element of subjective opinion plays
a role among the peer reviewers with
various taxonomic expertise, Bisby
said. "It can sometimes be very difficult
to decide," he said. Taxonomy, the
formal system of naming living things,
was launched by the Swedish scientist
Karl von Linne - known as Linnaeus
- in the 1700s and his name still
appears in the database. Look up gray
wolf in the ITIS catalog and it produces
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