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1PTI Science Service June 16 -30, 2017Material reproduced should be credited to the PTI Science Service

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ISSN 0970-6488

Vol 36 No. 12 (24 pages including cover)CONTENTS

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NATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:

*DELHI TO GET 20 MORE AIR QUALITY MONITORING STATIONS BY OCT *TOBACCO USE IN INDIA DOWN FROM34.6% OF ADULT POPULATION TO 28.6% *TEXTBOOKS TELLS STUDENTS TO WRITE EMAILS AS SHORT AS SKIRTS,SPARKS ROW* CENTRE’S NEW HEALTH INITIATIVE TO TRAIN COMMONERS IN MEDICAL EMERGENCIES*‘CLIMATE CHANGE LED TO WARMEST YEARS IN INDIA OVER LAST ONE- *OZONE POLLUTION AT ALARMINGLEVELS IN DELHI, NCR: CSE*GURGAON TO BECOME LIVING HELL IF GROWTH PANGS NOT TACKLED: CSE*LIGODETECTS GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FOR A THIRD TIME *DELHI AMONG LEAST ABUSIVE CITIES TOWARDS THEELDERLY: REPORT *COAL POWER PLANTS USING SEWAGE WON’T RESOLVE WATER CONFLICT *DRDOSUCCESSFULLY TEST FIRES ‘NAG’ MISSILE *DIABETES ON THE RISE AMONG POORER INDIANS: LANCET STUDY*WHO URGES GOVTS TO CREATE GREEN PUBLIC SPACES *JNU’S INCUBATION CENTRE AIMS TOCOMMERCIALISE PROJECTS BY FACULTY *JT IIT-KGP, PENNSYLVANIA VARSITY STUDY ABOUT CLIMATE EFFECTON DARJEELING TEA *MAMATA WISHES PEOPLE ON WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY, EXPERTS POINT AT GLOBALWARMING*

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:

*BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS MADE FROM SUGAR AND CARBON DIOXIDE *SEAL OIL MAY HELP TREAT NERVEDAMAGE IN DIABETICS: STUDY *JUPITER IS THE OLDEST PLANET IN SOLAR SYSTEM: STUDY*SOON, NEWTOOL TO TACKLE TWITTER BOTS SPREADING FAKE NEWS*‘SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES MAY BE WORSE FORCLIMATE THAN THOUGHT’*SCIENTISTS DEVELOP MOLECULAR CODE FOR MELANIN-LIKE MATERIALS*TWOMASSIVE PLANETS DISCOVERED 138 LIGHT YEARS AWAY*NEW SYSTEM PRODUCES FUEL FROM CARBONDIOXIDE*EMPEROR PENGUINS MAY NOT COPE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE: STUDY*NASA CURIOSITY ROVERFINDS DIVERSE MINERALS IN MARS ROCKS*CHINA DEVELOPING WORLD’S FASTEST AMPHIBIOUS FIGHTINGVEHICLE *TINY, FEATHERY BIRD TRAPPED IN 98-MILLION-YEAR-OLD AMBER FOUND *ROBOTIC DEVICE MAYHELP RESTORE MOVEMENT IN STROKE PATIENTS *MYSTERIOUS FIRE MONUMENT IN UK PREDATESSTONEHENGE: STUDY *LARGEST VIRTUAL UNIVERSE MAY HELP SOLVE DARK MATTER MYSTERY*WORMREGENERATES INTO RARE TWO-HEADED CREATURE IN SPACE*CRUMB-FREE ‘SPACE BREAD’ IN THE OFFING *

GLOBE SCAN:

*2D MAGNETS DISCOVERED FOR FIRST TIME *CLIMATE CHANGE MAY CAUSE MORE RAINFALL IN TROPICALAREAS: NASA *NASA’S UNDERSEA MISSION TO SIMULATE LIFE ON MARS *NEW FORM OF HARD, ELASTIC ‘SUPER’CARBON DEVELOPED *NASA UNVEILS ‘OUT-OF-THE-WORLD’ MARS ROVER CONCEPT * NOW, ‘ARTIFICIALTONGUE’ TO DETECT FAKE WHISKY*‘SPACE MAY HOLD KEY TO BEATING CANCER’ *INGREDIENTS OFLIFE FOUND AROUND STARS 400 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY*BABIES CAN RECOGNISE FACES WHILE IN WOMB:STUDY*OVER 66-MILLION-YEAR-OLD CROCODILE FOSSIL FOUND IN CHINA*AI ROBOT GETS BELOWAVERAGE SCORES IN UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM*

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DELHI TO GET 20 MORE AIR QUALITYMONITORING STATIONS BY OCT

Monitoring of air quality in the national capital willexpand by this October with the Delhi government informingthat work related to the setting up of 20 new monitoring stationsis in “advanced stage”.

The Environment Department today announced thatit will complete the tendering process by April and open thestations by October.

Currently, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee(DPCC) operates six monitoring stations.

The new stations will monitor eight parameters —ultrafine particulates PM 2.5, PM 10 and SO2 (sulfur dioxide),NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), CO (carbon monoxide), benzene,ammonia and ozone, similar to the existing monitoring stations.

“The network is so designed that it will cover the existinggaps in measuring ambient air quality and will give representativestatus of pollution levels in Delhi,” the government stated.

These stations will be installed in different land useareas such as residential, industrial, commercial, institutional et alin order to give true representative character of air pollution inthe city, it said.

Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 and PM 10 are microscopicparticles, multiple times smaller than the average width of a humanhair. They can damage the respiratory system and also enter thebloodstream causing further complications.

Apart from DPCC, Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) runs 10 monitoring stations, although there are overlapsin terms of locations. SAFAR, that falls under the Ministry ofEarth Sciences, operates another eight stations in the city.

TOBACCO USE IN INDIA DOWN FROM 34.6% OFADULT POPULATION TO 28.6%

The prevalence of tobacco use has gone down by sixpercentage points from 34.6 per cent of the country’s adultpopulation in 2009-10 to 28.6 per cent in 2016-17, a global surveyhas claimed.

The second Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-2)report pegged that the number of tobacco users in India hadgone down by 81 lakh.

Tobacco use among the young population (aged between15 and 24 years) reduced from 18.4 per cent in GATS-1 to 12.4per cent in GATS-2.

Also, there is an increase of one year in the mean age atinitiation of tobacco use from 17.9 years in 2009-10 to 18.9 yearsin 2016-17, the report stated.

The survey revealed that 19 per cent of men, 2 per centof women and 10.7 per cent of all adults currently smoke tobacco,while 29.6 per cent of men, 12.8 per cent of women and 21.4 percent of all adults use smokeless tobacco.

It also mentioned that 28.6 per cent of all adults (26.7crore) use tobacco in some form or other.

‘Khaini’ and bidi emerged as the most commonly usedtobacco products with 11 per cent of the adult populationconsuming ‘khaini’ and 8 per cent smoking bidis.

A total of 74,037 individuals were interviewed for thesurvey between August 2016 and February 2017.

The National Health Policy, 2017, has set the target of“relative reduction in prevalence of current tobacco use by 15 percent by 2020 and 30 per cent by 2025".

The survey further stated that 61.9 per cent of adultsthought of quitting cigarettes because of warnings on tobaccoproduct packs, 53.8 per cent thought of quitting bidi because ofwarnings, while 46.2 per cent thought of quitting smokelesstobacco because of warnings on tobacco product packs.

The average expenditure incurred on last purchase ofcigarette, bidi and smokeless tobacco is Rs 30, Rs 12.5 and Rs 12.8respectively. The expenditure on cigarette has tripledand that on bidi and smokeless tobacco has doubled since GATS-1, the report pointed out.

The GATS is a global standard for systematicallymonitoring adult tobacco use and tracking key tobacco controlindicators.

It was a household survey of persons aged 15 andabove and was conducted in all states and two Union Territories.The first round of GATS was conducted in 2009-10. The secondround of GATS was conducted in 2016-2017 by Tata Instituteof Social Sciences, Mumbai.

The survey was conducted under the stewardship ofthe Ministry of Health and technical assistance was provided bythe World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centres forDisease Control and Prevention (CDC).

TEXTBOOKS TELLS STUDENTS TO WRITEEMAILS AS SHORT AS SKIRTS,

SPARKS ROW

A BCom (Honours) textbook advising students towrite emails short enough to be interesting like skirts has createdan outrage on social media.

The book ‘Basic Business Communication’ has beenauthored by C B Gupta, a former head of the commercedepartment of a Delhi University-affiliated college.

The textbook is widely prescribed by professors to BCom (Honours) students in most DU-affiliated colleges.

The book, which has been in print since over a decade,said, “Email messages should be like skirts—short enough to be


interesting and long enough to cover all the vital points.”A student, who did not want to be named, said, “Some

students from socially and economically weaker sections have atendency to memorise everything written in the textbooks,without realising that such analogies may legitimise casual sexismin our society.”

“Thankfully, we are able to realise and question thereliability of such textbooks in our course. Why didn’t anyonequestion this statement in this book which is being reprinted foryears?” she asked.

Now, a septuagenarian, professor C B Gupta expressedregret for hurting people’s sentiments and said that the analogywas taken from an article by a foreign author.

“I have already deleted the statement from my book. Iwill also advise the publisher to remove the content beforepublishing the latest edition,” Gupta told PTI.

To a question on why such an analogy was made, hesaid it was a mistake on his part. “It was not to hurt anyone. Itook the analogy from an article written by a foreign author,”Gupta said.

Comments on a Facebook page—DU Updates—thatreleased the pictures of the textbook and the content initially,attracted mixed responses.

The pictures were accompanied by a post which read,“Words have power, and to impose such kind of a learning onan impressionable youth will never lead to gender equality. As astudent I have the power to fight this casual sexism in my ownuniversity prescribed textbook and if I don’t exercise this power,shame on me.”

While a user commented on it saying it was a greatmetaphor and not a sexist remark, another Facebook userslammed the former for an attitude of taking it easy.

“And people are reacting (to the post) with laughingemoticons,” said another irate commentator.

The post was widely circulated in the social media.Recently, a class XII physical education textbook defining

36-24-36 as the “best body shape for females” had created anoutrage on social media with critics demanding that it bewithdrawn.

In another instance, a book which forms part of theDelhi University’s history curriculum had called Bhagat Singh a“revolutionary terrorist”, prompting the freedom fighter’s familyto raise the issue with university authorities as well as the HRDministry.

“A textbook should be neutral and provide balancedviewpoints and leave the rest to the student to form an opinion.Such controversies will create more awareness among textbookauthors,” said a DU professor who wished to remainanonymous.

The Madras High Court had directed the CBSE toremove alleged objectionable content in class IX social sciencetextbook about the Nadar community.

CENTRE’S NEW HEALTH INITIATIVE TO TRAINCOMMONERS IN MEDICAL

EMERGENCIES

Union Health Minister J P Nadda launched an initiativeaimed at training the common man to respond to medicalemergencies besides taking care of the elderly and sanitary issuesamong others.

The ‘Skill for Life, Save a Life’ initiative looks at creatinga force of first responders, sanitary health inspectors, geriatric careassistants and home health aids.

The minister said the move is aimed at augmentationof trained healthcare workers at all levels to ensure quality andimproved access to healthcare services.

India enjoys a demographic dividend as more than 65per cent youths are below the age of 35 years and the governmentis determined to seize this opportunity by providing adequateskills and employability to them, he said.

Under the initiative, various courses have been designedby the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW)and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.Any person, be it a teacher, student, housewife etc can enrolthemselves for the training.

Inaugurating the training programme of the firstresponder course, Nadda said in an emergency, the first fewminutes are the most important for a patient and the care he orshe receives in that time may help save his life.

“Such a person is a first responder, someone who ispresent at the scene and could be of immediate assistance,” hesaid, adding training for the same will be provided at Central andstate government training institutes across the country in eachdistrict.

The Health Minister further noted that in India, 1,324road accidents occur every day and a life is lost every four minutes,and that the measures taken in the first ten minutes can save a life.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship, said his ministry providesa platform for lakhs of youths in the country, especially thosewithout any formal education, to get trained for employment.

‘CLIMATE CHANGE LED TO WARMEST YEARS ININDIA OVER LAST ONE-

India has witnessed the warmest years in the last fifteenyears due to climate change, according to a data released by theCentre for Science and Environment.


An analysis which looks at temperature trends in thecountry, both annual and seasonal, from 1901 till 2017, has foundthat the country has been getting warmer continuously,consistently and rapidly.

Citing the data, CSE Director General Sunita Narainexpressed concern over US President Donald Trump pulling hiscountry out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“With the US exiting the Paris Agreement, controllingemissions and temperature is now a tougher task for the world.With the increasing temperature, we are moving towards a disasterand we appeal to the global community to come together andtake strong actions,” Narain said in a Facebook live while releasingthe data.

“India is warming and warming rapidly. Theimplications of this fundamental fact are serious for economic,social and ecological well-being of the country.

“We are experiencing frequent extreme weather events,and our weather is becoming unpredictable. Losses due toextreme weather events are mounting and it is our poor who aresuffering the pains of climate change,” said Chandra Bhushan,Deputy Director General, CSE.

According to the report, the annual mean temperaturein India has increased by about 1.2 degrees Celsius since thebeginning of the 20th century.

“Annual mean temperature in India has rapidly increasedsince 1995. At this rate of increase, it will breach the 1.5 degreesCelsius mark within the next two decades. 1.5 degrees is theaspirational target set under the Paris Agreement,” the reportsaid.

13 out of the 15 warmest years were during the past 15years (2002-2016). The last decade (2001-2010/ 2007-2016) wasalso the warmest on record, the report revealed.

OZONE POLLUTION AT ALARMING LEVELS INDELHI, NCR: CSE

Ozone pollution has reached alarming levels in Delhiand the National Capital Region (NCR) which are in the grip ofa multi-pollutant crisis, adding to the public health risk, a greenbody today said.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) notedthat due to high pollution levels and growing heat stress owingto climate change, the ozone level is frequently exceeding thestandards and rising to poor and very poor levels – as classifiedby the National Air Quality Index (NAQI).

“Delhi-NCR are in the grip of multi-pollutant crisis.Even before the health risk from particulate matter could beaddressed, deadly ozone has raised its ugly head in Delhi andNCR.

“Without a time-bound implementation strategy and

preventive action, this can deepen into serious public health crisis.This will spare neither the rich nor the poor,” said AnumitaRoychowdhury, head of CSE’s air pollution programme.

Building up to World Environment Day on June 5,CSE has analysed the real-time air quality data available from thekey monitoring locations of Delhi Pollution Control Committeefor the summer months of 2016 and 2017.

CSE’s analysis also showed that heat waves andsunshine have increased the frequency of days with unhealthylevels of ozone and this has become worse this summer.

It said ground-level ozone is not directly emitted byany source and this is formed when oxides of nitrogen (NOx)and a range of volatile gases, primarily from vehicles and othersources, are exposed to each other in sunlight.

“Warm and stagnant air increases the formation ofozone. Ozone is extremely hazardous for human health. Allneighbourhoods in Delhi – rich and poor – are at risk,” CSEsaid.

A recent report - ‘State of Global Air 2017’ said thatsurpassing China, India now accounts for the maximum numberof premature deaths from ozone air pollution in the world.

As summer progressed from February to May this year,the ozone built up rapidly and the number of days exceeding theozone standard increased, the analysis found.

The share of days violating the 8-hour Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) standard of 100 microgramme per cubicmetre in February was 12 per cent – this increased to 19 per cent inMarch, 52 per cent in April and finally a whopping 77 per cent inMay, the analysis found.

“While ozone levels have increased steadily with theonset of summer, it doubled up very quickly in most locations assoon as the heat wave hit Delhi in May.

“On several occasions and several locations, very highpeak levels — 3.4 times the standards — have been noted,” CSEsaid.

This, it said is of “serious concern” as even shortduration exposure to high ozone levels can cause great harm.

The analysis found that not only have the total numbersof days that have violated the standards increased this year, theseverity of the problem has also grown.

This summer (April-May), 8 per cent of days are in‘very poor’ category – which is up to 4.2 times the standards, asopposed to 4 per cent during the same months in 2016.

However, the summer of 2016 had higher number ofdays in the ‘poor’ category, it said.

Due to higher temperature and solar radiation, ozoneconcentration has also increased, CSE said.

In April 2017, as the temperature increased from 27°Con April 9 to 32°C on April 14, the daytime ozone levels increasedby 134 per cent or 2.34 times - rising from 90 to 211 microgrammeper cubic metre.


Residential areas of R K Puram and Punjabi Bagh havehigh ozone concentrations – much higher than the commercialand transport hub of Anand Vihar. This is a very serious healthconcern, it said.

The new burden of disease study from Health EffectInstitute has shown that early deaths due to ozone have jumpedby 148 per cent in India, the body said.

Ozone aggravates respiratory problems, especiallychronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

“Delhi and NCR needs much high degree of healthprotection for all and especially the high risk groups including theelderly, children, outdoor workers and people with asthma andlung disease.

“Cost of inaction can be very high. Government musthave implementation strategy for priority measures in place beforethe next winter,” CSE said.

It recommended finalisation and implementation ofpollution source-wise comprehensive action plan directed by theSupreme Court in Delhi and NCR.

This should include targeted reduction of gaseousemissions from vehicles, industry and power plants and stringentmeasures are needed to reduce nitrogen oxide and a range ofvolatile hydrocarbons, it said.

It also recommended timely implementation of BS VIemissions standards and control dieselisation of vehicles segmentto control NOx emissions.

GURGAON TO BECOME LIVING HELL IF GROWTHPANGS NOT TACKLED: CSE

The Millennium City may turn into a “living hell” ifsteps are not taken to make its growth model more sustainable,as “explosive urbanisation” is stretching the NCR town’s resourcesto the limit, the CSE has said.

The observation is part of a report on challenges staringat Gurgaon and possible solutions prepared by the Delhi-basedCentre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Gurgaon First –under the aegis of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram.

“This kind of unprecedented growth has madeenormous demands on resources including water, energy, land,mobility and biodiversity, and is generating mountains of waste.If not addressed at the early stages of growth, this can turnGurugram into a living hell,” the report says.

The document, titled ‘Gurugram: A framework forsustainable development’, notes that rapid urbanisation has ledto a five-time increase in population of Gurgaon since 2001.

In terms of water, the gap between demand and supplymay jump from 34 per cent to 57 per cent in the years to come, itsaid, adding that due to unchecked use of groundwater, watertable of the city is falling at a rate of 1-3 metres every year.

The framework document bases much of itsrecommendations and action agenda on the UN SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs), which India has committed to meet,relating to improving health and education, making citiessustainable, combating climate change and protecting forests.

It also expressed concern on the level of air pollutionin the city, which is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR),and identified rising number of vehicles, high use of diesel vehiclesand diesel generator sets as the key factors.

“There is a growing dependence on personal vehicles.Between 2008 and 2015 car registration increased by 352 per cent.Bus registration is down by 300 per cent, while para- transit hasdeclined by 39 per cent.

“There are four times more cars per 1,000 people thanin Delhi. Share of public transport, walk and cycles has droppedfrom 58 per cent to 40 per cent,” it says.

The report identified National Highway 8, whichconnects Delhi to Jaipur via Gurgaon, as an accident hotspot,where “60 per cent” of road accidents occur.

The draft document recommends that water demandshould be reduced by at least 25 per cent from current levelsthrough water efficiency and conservation measures, to ensureequitable access to clean water for all.

“Promote zero landfill development – minimise andreuse solid waste. Not more than 10 per cent of waste should goto landfill sites. Promote mandatory decentralised segregationand collection in all residential colonies and institutions, withcomposting sites at colony and ward levels,” it says.

LIGO DETECTS GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FOR ATHIRD TIME

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-waveObservatory (LIGO) said that it had made another successfuldetection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, fromthe merger of two massive black holes that happened three billionlight years away.

The new detection occurred on January 4 this year duringthe ongoing second observing run of the Advanced LIGOdetectors in the US, which began on November 30, 2016.

The third event was produced by the merger of twoblack holes, 31 and 19 times as massive as the Sun, forming alarger black hole of about 49 solar masses.

Also, data suggests that at least one of the black holesin this binary system might have been spinning in a direction thatis not completely aligned with the orbital rotation of the binary,providing potential clues on how these binaries might haveformed.

“The new event also provides new opportunities totest Einstein’s theory of general relativity.


“For example, this allowed us to confirm Einstein’sprediction that gravitational waves should not undergo dispersion— the phenomena of waves travelling at different speedsdepending on their wavelength. Indian scientists played a leadingrole in deriving this result,” said Sanjit Mitra from the Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics(IUCAA), researchers of which have participated in the LIGOdiscoveries.

Mitra, Anirban Ain, Sukanta Bose, Sanjeev Dhurandhar,Bhooshan U Gadre, Sharad G Gaonkar, Nikhil Mukund, JayantiPrasad and Tarun Souradeep — all from IUCAA — were part ofthe team. Sixty-seven scientists from 13 Indian institutions arepart of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, under the umbrellaof the Indian Initiative in Gravitational-Wave Observations(IndIGO).

The Indian team in LIGO includes scientists from CMIChennai, ICTS-TIFR Bengaluru, IISER-Kolkata, IISER-Trivandrum, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Madras, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Hyderabad, IPR Gandhinagar, IUCAA Pune, RRCAT Indore,TIFR Mumbai and UAIR Gandhinagar.

Indian scientists have done foundational work overthe last three decades in modelling the signal waveforms anddeveloping mathematical techniques to search for gravitationalwave signals in noisy data.

A new generation of Indian scientists are expandingthese contributions on several other frontiers. The publicationhas 40 authors from 11 Indian institutions.

The first direct observation of gravitational waves wasmade in September 2015 during the first observing run. A seconddetection was made in December 2015.

These detections were made possible by contributionsfrom more than thousand researchers from many differentcountries, setting a great example in collaborative science.

There are only two LIGO laboratories in the world,both located in the US. The third laboratory is to come up inHingoli district in Maharashtra.

Describing the achievements to be really satisfying,IUCAA Director said, “The continuing discoveries of GW eventsas expected shows how this subject is rapidly evolving into adistinct field of Science. I am proud that scientists in India, inparticular at IUCAA, continue to play leading roles.”

DELHI AMONG LEAST ABUSIVE CITIES TOWARDSTHE ELDERLY: REPORT

Nearly 1 in every 2 elderly people faced abuse in publicspaces across India and Delhi was among the least abusive cities,a report by HelpAge India has claimed.

According to the report, ‘How India treats its elderly’,23 per cent of the elderly in the national capital faced abuse asagainst 70 per cent in Bangalore, which recorded the maximum

abuse, followed by 60 per cent in Hyderabad, 59 per cent inGuwahati, 52 per cent in Kolkata, 49 per cent in Chennai and 33per cent in Mumbai. The national average was 44 per cent.

“We had conversations with more than 4,000 people indifferent cities across the country. They have shared their storiesof discrimination in society. From pushing and ignoring tomisbehaving with them, there have been horrific incidents whichelderly people have gone through,” says Manjira Khurana, theCountry Head-Communication and Advocacy of HelpAge India.

Noting that mistreatment of the elderly in public spaceswas “inexcusable”, the report that was released here today, alsofeatures first-hand accounts of the rampant abuse faced by seniorcitizens in public transport, hospitals and malls.

Sixteen per cent of those who travel by public busmention incidents of misbehaviour by bus conductor, while 17per cent of mall staff is reported to have behaved badly with theelderly.

Columnist and author Santosh Desai termed thefindings of the data “alarming”, and said that improving thebehaviour of people toward the elderly was one of the primarysteps towards achieving a progressive society.

“The most disturbing thing is that we have made animage of ourselves that we respect elders. Whereas the reality onthe ground is somewhat different. You can’t quote the growthof GDP as the only contributing factor to make a progressivesociety. Improvement of people plays an important role andunfortunately this is not happening,” said Desai.

Quoting several people who feel threatened to evenmove out of their homes due to experiences of abuse, the reportnotes how many feel stepping out as a “necessary evil”.

An awareness drive among the youth was alsoconducted.

“During our campaigns we talked to youth about thisproblem. They agree that they are aware of such incidents butmost of them refrain from intervening when they come acrosssuch situations,” Khurana said.

Talking about the importance of the research report,Mathew Cherian, CEO of HelpAge India, says, “Elderly abuse isa sensitive topic. Over the past few years we have been studyingand researching elderly abuse within closed doors of one’s home.

“We have surveyed the elders as well as the youthperspective. This year we have moved out of the home into thebroader area of public space.”

COAL POWER PLANTS USING SEWAGE WON’TRESOLVE WATER CONFLICT

The use of sewage water to meet cooling needs of coal-based power plants will not resolve the conflict over water betweenthermal projects, farmers and urban communities, a GreenpeaceIndia report said today.


In 2016, the government had made mandatory theutilisation of treated wastewater for coal power plants locatedwithin 50 km of a sewage treatment facility.

“Switching from fresh water to sewage will not reducethe impact of coal power plants on water scarcity in the country,”the report, titled ‘Pipe Dreams’, said.

It said that a more timely and cost-effective solution tothe coal-water conflict could lie in a phase out of older, less-efficient power plants, which consume most of the water andcause air pollution.

The report said that another solution is timely adoptionof the water consumption target set for power plants by theenvironment ministry in its notification, dated December 7, 2015.

It recommended that all permits for new coal plantsmust be halted, as they are in any event not required at least till2027, per the Central Electricity Authority’s draft NationalElectricity Plan.

After the government made the use of wastewatermandatory, Power Minister Piyush Goyal urged the Mouda plantof the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to usetreated sewage from Nagpur in Maharashtra, it said.

Additional costs incurred on it were to be passed on toconsumers in the electricity tariff.

Greenpeace India said that the drought in early 2016 ledto severe water shortage for coal power, with several plantsshutting down for months amid protests by farmingcommunities over water.

The treated sewage policy was meant to tackle thisproblem, but GIS-based analysis shows that less than eight percent (18 GW) of the country’s coal plants can actually utilise treatedsewage water, about 87 per cent (200 GW) of the plants have noaccess to treated sewage water at all, making the efficacy of thepolicy questionable.

The report said that a 1,000 MW coal power plantrequires a treatment capacity that can supply 84 million litres ofwater a day, but sewage treatment facilities are mostly in metrosfar away from power plants, with almost 40 per cent of the capacityin Delhi and Mumbai.

Giving an example, it said Chhattisgarh, Odisha andMadhya Pradesh together account for 77 GW of coal power butcan supply treated sewage water sufficient for just 1.5 GW of coalpower.

“To claim that the use of sewage would solve coalpower’s water problem would be like claiming a drop of waterwill save a man dying of thirst.

“A more effective solution to the water conflict wouldbe to phase out old, inefficient power plants which tend toconsume the most water and emit the most pollutants, whilealso halting permits for new coal power plants.

“Speedy adoption of the new water consumptiontargets will also help alleviate the crisis,” said Jai Krishna,Greenpeace researcher and the author of the report.

The report also found that those power plants that areable to use treated sewage could see a 300-600 per cent increase inwater costs, apart from hundreds of crores in capital investmentsfor treatment facilities.

The resulting costs will be included in the tariff,increasing the burden on distribution companies and consumers,the report said.

According to data from Manthan Adhyayan Kendraand Greenpeace India, India lost over 15 billion units of powergeneration due to raw water shortage at coal power stationsbetween January 2016 and April 2017.

Coal power plants require as much as 3.5 litres of waterfor each unit of power generated and the 230 GW of coal powerplants included in this analysis would need about 19 billion litresof water each day for their operations.

It is also important to note that treated sewage isimportant for downstream water flows. Sewage consumed bycoal power plants is taken out of the local ecosystem and is notavailable for any use, the report said.

“With climate change and monsoon variability hittingIndia hard, we must act swiftly to mitigate the water crisis beingcaused by coal power. The CEA in its draft national electricitypolicy has projected that no new coal power plants are needed till2027 at least.

“Solar power is already cheaper than coal. Despite this,the environment ministry is still granting clearances to new coalpower plants. This is illogical and a waste of scarce resources,”said Jai Krishna. P

DRDO SUCCESSFULLY TEST FIRES ‘NAG’ MISSILE

The Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) today successfully test fired anti-tank missile ‘Nag’ in adesert in the western sector of Rajasthan.

“The missile successfully destroyed the target in today’smission,” defence sources said.

The “fire and forget” third generation anti-tank guidedmissile ‘Nag’ is equipped with the highly advanced ImagingInfrared Radar (IRR) seeker with integrated avionics, technologywhich is possessed by very few nations, sources said.

The tests, which were witnessed by scientists from theDRDO, Defence Lab, Jodhpur, senior officials from armed forcesamong others, concluded today.

G Satheesh Reddy, the scientific adviser to the defenceminister and DG (missiles and strategic systems), who alsowitnessed the launch, said the successful flight test hasstrengthened the country’s defence capabilities.


DIABETES ON THE RISE AMONG POORERINDIANS: LANCET STUDY

India — the world’s diabetes capital — has to combatwhat health experts call a new and worrying trend: that poorersections of people are increasingly falling prey to the debilitatingdisease.

A study released yesterday said people belonging tolower socio-economic groups living in urban regions of thecountry’s more developed states were more prone to diabetesthan those in the states who were socially and economically betteroff.

Published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinologyjournal, it said the findings were a matter of concern for India,where most people pay the cost of treatment out of their ownpockets.

The study, funded by the Indian Council of MedicalResearch and the Department of Health Research in the Ministryof Health, covered 57,000 people across 15 states and UnionTerritories.

The mean prevalence of diabetes across all 15 statesand UTs was 7.3 per cent, with the rates varying from 4.3 per centin Bihar to 13.6 per cent in Chandigarh.

In the urban areas of seven states, most of which rankamong the more economically advanced regions, it was found tobe higher among people from low socio-economic groups thanthose from higher socio-economic groups, the report highlighted.

For example, in Chandigarh’s urban areas, the rate ofdiabetes was 26.9 per cent among people from low socio- economicgroups, considerably higher than the 12.9 per cent among peoplefrom high socio-economic backgrounds.

In the urban areas of Punjab, the rates were 16.1 and11.9 per cent, respectively.

According to Dr Nikhil Tandon, head of the departmentof Endocrinology and Metabolism at AIIMS, living in a stressfulurban environment, dietary practices and relative sedentarinessalong with consequent weight gain and body fat were the factorscontributing to the increasing risk of diabetes.

“Even those who belong to lower income groups haveaccess to junk food,” he said.

The body weight, height, waist circumference and bloodpressure of each person was measured and glucose tolerancetests were performed to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes forthe study.

Almost half of the people in the study did not knowthey had diabetes until they were tested, it said.

On an average, diabetes was twice as common in urbanareas (11.2 per cent) than in rural areas (5.2 per cent).

Overall, diabetes was more common among peoplewith a higher socio-economic status, compared to people with alow socio-economic status.

“The other reasons for this shift could be the increasedawareness of healthy practices among affluent sections, whichmeans they are engaging in physical activity and making necessarydietary changes to keep non communicable diseases at bay,” DrTandon said.

Additionally, the number of people with diabetes inrural areas was much higher than that identified in previousstudies.

Since 70 per cent of the population in India lives inrural areas, even a small increase can translate into several millionmore people requiring chronic care in areas with poor access tohealth care, it said.

“As the overall prosperity of individual states and thecountry as a whole increases, the diabetes epidemic is likely todisproportionately affect the poorer sections of society, a transitionthat has already been seen in high income countries,” explainedthe study’s senior author, Dr Viswanathan Mohan, president,Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai.

According to the study, the prevalence of pre-diabeteswas 10.3 per cent across all 15 states, varying from 6.0 per cent inMizoram to 14.7 per cent in Tripura. In most states, the rate ofpre-diabetes exceeded the rate of diabetes.

The authors noted that the study did not differentiatebetween type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Addressing the increasing prevalence of diabetes in Indiawill require solutions at many levels, including increased awarenessof the disease and its complications throughout the country andespecially in rural areas - as well as the establishment of cost-effective prevention programmes, said Dr Vijay Viswanathan ofM V Hospital for Diabetes, Chennai.

WHO URGES GOVTS TO CREATE GREEN PUBLICSPACES

The World Health Organisation (WHO) today urgedgovernments to focus on creating green public spaces such asparks and wetlands, saying they offer numerous health benefits.

Emphasising on the connection between human healthand natural and man-made environments on World EnvironmentDay, WHO Regional Director for South East Asia, PoonamKhetrapal Singh said rapid urbanisation was challenging theecosystem, severely affecting physical and mental health being.

With more than a third of all people in the South EastAsia Region living in towns, the poorly managed urbanisationwas resulting in increased levels of ambient air pollution,contaminated food and drinking water, poor sanitation, noisepollution from traffic and cramped living conditions, Singh said.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—many of them


environment-related—account for around 8.5 million deaths inthe region every year while consumption of food containing tracesof heavy metals and other detritus was causing health issuesincluding neurological and kidney damage, she said.

Contaminated water sources were contributing toantimicrobial resistance (AMR) among other effects, while a lackof space was creating a sense of physical and mental confinement.Globally, these and other environmental risks cause an estimated12.6 million deaths a year, she said.

“By creating and promoting green public spaces inurban settings, governments across the region can mitigate theseoutcomes and advance public health and sustainabledevelopment,” she said.

She outlined WHO’s Healthy Cities Initiative whichstates that green public spaces such as parks and sports fields,woods and natural meadows and wetlands have multiplebenefits.

Referring to research, Singh said people who used openspaces were more likely to get the physical activity needed to keepNCDs at bay throughout the life-course.

This would prove pivotal to achieving the region’s 2030goal of reducing premature NCD-related deaths by a third.

Singh said green public spaces would help tackle airpollution as trees not only produce oxygen, they also filter outharmful air pollution, including airborne particulate matter.

Well-managed natural water sources would help makeclean and safe water accessible to all, while improved wastewatermanagement will enhance the aquatic environment.

This in turn would aid the battle against AMR bykeeping antibiotic residues out of the ecosystem, she said.

More generally, better management of open spaceswould help protect against e-waste dumping and other forms oftoxic pollution that can contaminate soil and enter the food chain.

Besides, the creation of green public spaces should beconsidered essential, especially when countries were looking toaddress mental health issues as analysis suggested that physicalactivity in a natural environment could help remedy milddepression and reduce physiological stress indicators, she said.

JNU’S INCUBATION CENTRE AIMS TOCOMMERCIALISE PROJECTS BY

FACULTY

The Jawaharlal Nehru University will start its ownincubation centre within three months with an aim to translatethe research projects of its faculty members into commercialventures and startups are born out of it.

Out of the 30 proposals the university received fromits faculty members, eight projects have been selected forincubation and each of these will be given Rs 5 lakh annually forits further development.

The incubation centre will tie-up with various investorsas well as technical experts so that exceptional projects get moresupport and funding.

“As of now, two venture capitalists have shown interestto associate themselves with the JNU Incubation Centre,” directorof JNU’s Research and Development Department RupeshChaturvedi told PTI.

The university plans to have equities in those startupsthat do well commercially and thus help the institute fund moresuch ideas at its incubation centre.

“By August, eight projects will get into the incubationcentre. As of now these projects are just by the faculties. But,gradually students’ projects will also be incubated at the centre,”he said.

The eight projects that have been selected in the firstphase range from health sciences to language translationplatforms.

“The projects at the incubation centre will get all kindsof support, right from development stage to marketing theproduct. Our aim is to incubate 20 projects at a time,” Chaturvedisaid.

“Teachers will be given sabbatical, allowed to take leavesand get involved on consultancy basis in projects whichsuccessfully turn into startups,” Chaturvedi said.

These startups will also create job opportunities forstudents.

“Teachers can apply for intellectual property rights fortheir projects. Students too can become co-founders or boardmembers of such startups,” he said.

“Once the centre starts functioning, we will approachthe Centre’s Department of Science and Technology and the NITIAayog for more funds,” Chaturvedi said.

JT IIT-KGP, PENNSYLVANIA VARSITY STUDYABOUT CLIMATE EFFECT ON

DARJEELING TEA

A team from IIT Kharagpur and Indiana University ofPennsylvania (IUP) is jointly conducting a study to find whetherclimate change is having any effect on the quality of Darjeeling teaand its production process.

The Department of Architecture and Regional Planningof IIT-KGP and the Department of Geography and RegionalPlanning of IUP have come together to collaborate on the topicfor the Summer Study Abroad Programme in India, 2017.

“Through this study we are taking a look at what arethe special factors responsible to give Darjeeling tea its uniqueness.From environmental perspectives, we would analyse what changesor climate change impacts have been affecting the tea industries,”Principal Coordinator of the programme for IIT-KGP HaimantiBanerji said.


“We would also try to take a look at how the tea gardensare evolving or changing their production process as a responseto the changes,” Banerjee, who was present at a workshop atAmericn Center with head of department, Prof. SubrataChattopadhyay said.

Seven students and two faculty members of IUP havealready arrived in Kolkata.

“Tea is something that the entire world can relate to,even Starbucks has introduced Chai Latte in their menu. Andwhen we talk about tea it is the world famous Darjeeling teawhich comes to the mind,” Principal Coordinator of the programfor IUP, Sudeshna Ghosh said.

“This research will focus on the socio-economic andgeographic issues of tea -plantations and how they are impactedby climate change. Darjeeling has been selected as the test bed forthis year,” Ghosh, who was present at the workshop along withBrian Okey, said.

The students from both IIT-KGP and IUP would bevisiting Makaibari Tea Estate and Darjeeling Tea Research &Development Centre at Kurseong this month to conduct theirfield study.

“We would also be collecting weather related data ofthe region for the past 50 years, to understand the extent ofclimate change and how it gave Darjeeling tea its unique aroma,”Ghosh said.

The study will lead to a joint report production at theend of the three weeks programme which would include possiblepolicy intervention.

MAMATA WISHES PEOPLE ON WORLDENVIRONMENT DAY, EXPERTS POINT AT

GLOBAL WARMING

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeecongratulated people on the occasion of World EnvironmentDay today even as a top environmentalist expressed apprehensionthat the present century is poised to be the warmest.

“Sabuj Bangla Biswa Bangla.... Biswa Paribesh DibaseObhinandan” (Green Bengal, Global Bengal. Congratulations

on World Environment Day), Banerjee said in a message on herFacebook page.

Pressing the alarm button, eminent environmentalistand state-run West Bengal Pollution Control Board chairmanKalyan Rudra said “This century is poised to be the warmest onein the world where cities will turn into heat islands duringsummer.”

“We have to find ways to come out of this. Since 1950,the global weather has been changing rapidly,” he said.

On the Sunderbans, Rudra said “In the past one centurythe Sunderbans has seen 420 km land erosion as the sea isapproaching steadily.”

In Gangasagar area the sea has advanced by 12 km since19th century and the trend continues though we may not noticeit immediately, he said.

“All over the world in the past century, the sea level hasrisen by 19 cm and the sea level rise rate is 1.7-2mm every year,” hesaid urging everyone to sit up and take note.

Rudra and other speakers at the programme attributedthe gradual isolation of man from nature as the root cause behindthis and said people should work towards saving the fourcomponents of eco-system - air, water, land and bio-diversity - intheir own way.

About WBPCB projects, a spokesperson said 30rainwater harvesting facilities have been made in the state.

“We have brought 4,400 schools under our green drive,which includes organising eco-tourism camps involving schoolstudents.

“We have also set up solar power units in 100 differentlocations in various buildings in collaboration with the WestBengal Power Development Corporation Ltd,” he said.

State Environment minister Sovan Chatterjee, presenton the occasion, handed over LED solar lanterns to students ofBhalo Pahar school in Purulia.

A one-day workshop was also held at the AmericanCentre on the issue of Sustainable Development of Tea-gardensand Issues of Urban Wetland in which US Consul General CraigL Hall, IIT-KGP Professor A K Datta, Tea Board Director(Research) Dr Biswajit Bera and others took part.


BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS MADE FROM SUGARAND CARBON DIOXIDE

Scientists have developed low-cost biodegradable plasticsusing sugar and carbon dioxide, an advance that may spell theend for unsustainable products that choke the environment.

Polycarbonate is used to make drinks bottles, lenses forglasses and in scratch-resistant coatings for phones, CDs andDVDs. Current manufacture processes for polycarbonate use BPA(banned from use in baby bottles) and highly toxic phosgene,used as a chemical weapon in the First World War.

Scientists at the University of Bath in the UK have madealternative polycarbonates from sugars and carbon dioxide in anew process that also uses low pressures and room temperature,making it cheaper and safer to produce.

These polycarbonates can be biodegraded back intocarbon dioxide and sugar using enzymes from soil bacteria. Thisnew plastic is bio-compatible so could in the future be used formedical implants or as scaffolds for growing replacement organsfor transplant, researchers said.

Polycarbonates from sugars offer a more sustainablealternative to traditional polycarbonate from BPA, however theprocess uses a highly toxic chemical called phosgene.

Scientists developed a much safer, even more sustainablealternative which adds carbon dioxide to the sugar at low pressuresand at room temperature.

The resulting plastic has similar physical properties tothose derived from petrochemicals, being strong, transparent andscratch-resistant. The crucial difference is that they can be degradedback into carbon dioxide and sugar using the enzymes found insoil bacteria.

The new BPA-free plastic could potentially replace currentpolycarbonates in items such as baby bottles and food containers,and since the plastic is bio-compatible, it could also be used formedical implants or as scaffolds for growing tissues or organs fortransplant.

“With an ever-growing population, there is an increasingdemand for plastics. This new plastic is a renewable alternative tofossil-fuel based polymers, potentially inexpensive, and, becauseit is biodegradable, will not contribute to growing ocean andlandfill waste,” said Antoine Buchard, from the university’sDepartment of Chemistry.

“Our process uses carbon dioxide instead of the highlytoxic chemical phosgene, and produces a plastic that is free fromBPA, so not only is the plastic safer, but the manufacture processis cleaner too,” said Buchard.

Researchers used nature as inspiration for the process,using the sugar found in DNA called thymidine as a buildingblock to make a novel polycarbonate plastic with a lot of potential.

“Thymidine is one of the units that makes up DNA.Because it is already present in the body, it means this plastic willbe bio-compatible and can be used safely for tissue engineeringapplications,” said Georgina Gregory, PhD student at Bath.

“The properties of this new plastic can be fine-tunedby tweaking the chemical structure - for example we can make theplastic positively charged so that cells can stick to it, making ituseful as a scaffold for tissue engineering,” Gregory said.

SEAL OIL MAY HELP TREAT NERVE DAMAGE INDIABETICS: STUDY

Seal oil supplement can help stop and reverse nervedamaged in diabetes patients, a new study claims.

Diabetic neuropathy is a form of nerve damage causedby diabetes. Symptoms vary from patient to patient, but caninclude tingling, numbness, loss of sensation, a feeling of burningin the hands and feet, constant pain and difficulty walking,researchers said.

Researchers including those from Krembil NeuroscienceCentre in Canada found that patients who ingested an omega-3supplement derived from seal oil twice a day over a 12-monthperiod reported an increase in corneal nerve fibre length.

“This study is the first to show that targeted nutritionalinvention can stop and reverse small fibre damage,” said Vera Brilfrom University Health Network in Canada.

Researchers studied about 40 patients focusing primarilyon corneal nerve fibre length. Located at the front of the eye, thecornea has the highest density of nerves in the body.

Damage to these nerves, or loss of corneal nerve fibrelength, is considered a biomarker for the progression of Type 1diabetes, researchers said.

Researchers investigated the effects of the omega-3 sealoil supplement on nerve structure and found that patients onaverage experienced a 29 per cent increase in corneal nerve fibrelength, which is considered to be representative of small nervefibre regeneration in other parts of the body.

“These findings suggest that use of this supplementmay have the potential to have a regenerative effect,” said EvanLewis from Krembil Neuroscience Centre.

JUPITER IS THE OLDEST PLANET IN SOLARSYSTEM: STUDY

Jupiter - the largest planet in our solar system - is alsothe oldest, say scientists who found that the gas giant formedwithin four million years after the formation of the Sun.

Knowing the age of Jupiter is key for understandinghow the solar system evolved towards its present-day architecture.Although models predict that Jupiter formed relatively early, untilnow, its formation has never been dated.


“We do not have any samples from Jupiter (in contrastto other bodies like the Earth, Mars, the moon and asteroids),”said Thomas Kruijer, from Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory (LLNL) in the US.

“In our study, we use isotope signatures of meteorites(which are derived from asteroids) to infer Jupiter’s age,” saidKruijer lead author of the study published in the Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences.

By looking at tungsten and molybdenum isotopes oniron meteorites, scientists found that meteorites are made upfrom two genetically distinct nebular reservoirs that coexistedbut remained separated between one million and 3-4 millionyears after the solar system formed.

“The most plausible mechanism for this efficientseparation is the formation of Jupiter, opening a gap in the discand preventing the exchange of material between the tworeservoirs,” said Kruijer.

“Jupiter is the oldest planet of the solar system, and itssolid core formed well before the solar nebula gas dissipated,consistent with the core accretion model for giant planetformation,” he said.

Jupiter is the most massive planet of the solar systemand its presence had an immense effect on the dynamics of thesolar accretion disk.

Scientists showed through isotope analyses ofmeteorites that Jupiter’s solid core formed within only aboutone million years after the start of the solar system history, makingit the oldest planet.

Through its rapid formation, Jupiter acted as an effectivebarrier against inward transport of material across the disk,potentially explaining why our solar system lacks any super-Earths(an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth’s).

The team found that Jupiter’s core grew to about 20Earth masses within one million years, followed by a moreprolonged growth to 50 Earth masses until at least 3-4 millionyears after the solar system formed.

The earlier theories proposed that gas-giant planets suchas Jupiter and Saturn involved the growth of large solid cores ofabout 10 to 20 Earth masses, followed by the accumulation ofgas onto these cores.

So the conclusion was the gas-giant cores must haveformed before dissipation of the solar nebula - the gaseouscircumstellar disk surrounding the young sun - which likelyoccurred between 1 million years and 10 million years after thesolar system formed.

“We’re able to date Jupiter much more precisely within1 million years using the isotopic signatures of meteorites,”researchers said.

Although this rapid accretion of the cores has beenmodelled, it had not been possible to date their formation.

“Our measurements show that the growth of Jupitercan be dated using the distinct genetic heritage and formationtimes of meteorites,” Kruijer said.

SOON, NEW TOOL TO TACKLE TWITTER BOTSSPREADING FAKE NEWS

Scientists are developing a new computer tool that candetect Twitter bots which create and spread false information, anadvance that may help counter the growing menace of fake news.

Bots, in the context of Twitter, are accounts run bycomputer programmes that automatically publish and forwardcontent, follow other accounts, leave comments and conductseemingly “real” activity.

“Right now, you don’t know what is coming from areal person and what’s coming from a computer, sometimes formalicious, or at least, misleading reasons,” said Chengkai Li, fromthe University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in the US.

Researchers aim to create computer programmes thatdistinguish bot from human.

“For example, even if a bot uses high-end artificialintelligence and massive processing power, an extremely simpledetection technique may be enough if the bot always posts at thesame time of day or has some other trait that makes it easy todistinguish the bot from humans,” said Christoph Csallner,associate professor at UTA.

Researchers said that what makes the task especiallydifficult is that many times fake news’ birth has some real factscontained in a report.

“You might find that a bot takes a piece of real and trueinformation, then adds an element that isn’t true. So, in the end,you have different levels of fake news,” said Mark Tremayne,assistant professor at UTA.

“We will leverage our research expertise in computationalfact-checking, static and dynamic code analysis, data mining andsecurity,” Li said.

“We will conduct experiments to better understand theinteraction between bots and news consumption behaviours andeffects,” he said.

“By putting together a team of computer scientists andsocial science scholars, this project, seeks to advance ourunderstanding of fake-news bots and our capability of counteringit,” he added.

‘SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES MAY BE WORSE FORCLIMATE THAN THOUGHT’

Wildfire smoke harm the climate and atmosphere muchmore than previously estimated, a new study based on datacollected by a NASA aircraft warns.


Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology inthe US found that carbon particles released into the air fromburning trees and other organic matter are much more likely totravel to the upper levels of the atmosphere, where they caninterfere with rays from the Sun - sometimes cooling the air andat other times warming it.

The team analysed air samples collected in 2012 and2013 by NASA aircraft from the upper troposphere - about 11kilometres above the Earth’s surface - at locations across the US.They found surprising levels of brown carbon in the samplesbut much less black carbon.

Black carbon can be seen in the dark smoke plumesrising above burning fossil or biomass fuels at high temperature,researchers said.

While brown carbon is produced from the incompletecombustion that occurs when grasses, wood or other biologicalmatter smolders, as is typical for wildfires.

As particulate matter in the atmosphere, both caninterfere with solar radiation by absorbing and scattering the Sun’srays. The climate is more sensitive to thoseparticulates as their altitude increases.

The team found that brown carbon appears much morelikely than black carbon to travel through the air to the higherlevels of the atmosphere where it can have a greater impact onclimate.

After the brown carbon is carried by smoke plumesinto the lower atmosphere, it mixes with clouds. Then it hitchesa ride on the deep convection forces that exist in clouds to travelto the upper atmosphere, researchers said.

“Most of the brown carbon released into the air staysin the lower atmosphere, but a fraction of it does get up into theupper atmosphere, where it has a disproportionately large effecton the planetary radiation balance - much stronger than if it wasall at the surface,” said Rodney Weber, professor at Georgia Tech.

“The surprise here is that the brown carbon getspromoted when you go through the cloud, compared to blackcarbon. This suggests that there may be in-cloud production ofbrown carbon that we were not aware of before,” said AthanasiosNenes, professor at Georgia Tech.

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP MOLECULAR CODE FORMELANIN-LIKE MATERIALS

A new approach for producing materials that mimic theproperties of melanin has been developed by researchers, whichcould enable the development of a range of new cosmetic, skincare and biomedical products.

Scientists have long known melanin – the pigmentsthat give colour to skin, hair and eyes – has numerous usefulqualities, including providing protection from cancer-causingultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Due to its inherently disordered structure, however,attempts at recreating it in the laboratory have been thwarted.

A group of scientists, including researchers from theUniversity of Strathclyde in the UK and City University of NewYork (CUNY), have developed a new approach for producingmaterials that not only mimic the properties of melanin, but alsoprovide unprecedented control over them.

Melanin is best-known for its role in giving colour tothe skin and protecting it against the sun’s harmful rays but italso has other qualities, including electronic conductance,adhesiveness and the capacity to store energy.

Unlike other biopolymers, such as DNA and proteins,where a direct link exists between the polymers’ ordered structuresand their properties, the structure of melanin is inherentlydisordered.

As a result directly relating structure to function is notpossible, meaning researchers have been unable to fully exploitmelanin’s properties.

To overcome this, the research team used simple versionof proteins – tripeptides consisting of just three amino acids –to produce molecular architectures with precisely controlled levelsof order and disorder.

Lead researcher Professor of the group Rein V Ulijn,director of the Nanoscience Initiative at the Advanced ScienceResearch Center (ASRC) at the Graduate Center, CUNY, said:“We were amazed to see that, upon oxidation of these peptidestructures, polymeric pigments with a range of colours – fromlight beige to deep brown – were formed.”

Subsequently, in-depth characterisation of the approachdemonstrated that further properties, such as UV absorbanceand nanoscale morphology of the melanin-like materials, couldalso be systematically controlled by the amino acid sequence ofthe tripeptide. Tell Tuttle, Director of Research in the Departmentof Pure and Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde, employedcomputational technologies to characterise these materials andunderstand how these different structures could be created fromthe smaller building blocks of tripeptides.

He said: “Through our ability to control the structuresformed by tripeptides we’ve created materials that display thevarious properties of melanin but which we can shape as wewish.

“This project combined the ASRC’s world-class facilitiesand experimental expertise with our computational expertiseand the ARCHIE-WeSt supercomputer based at Strathclyde toproduce materials that in many ways are better than melanindue to the control that we can exercise over them.”

The researchers are also pursuing commercialisation ofthis new technology, which includes near-term possibilities incosmetics and biomedicine.

The discovery was published today in the journal“Science”.


TWO MASSIVE PLANETS DISCOVERED 138 LIGHTYEARS AWAY

Astronomers have discovered two new gas giantplanets, orbiting a star located about 138 light years away fromthe Earth.

One of the two worlds is a Saturn-mass planet, whilethe other one is a cold exoplanet several times more massive thanJupiter, researchers said.

The two planets orbit a star HD 27894, which was firstdetected in 2005 and is about 20 per cent less massive than theSun.

Researchers led by Trifon Trifonov of the Max PlanckInstitute for Astronomy in Germany analysed the archival andnew data to find additional planets in the HD 27894 system.

The study detected the presence of two gas giantexoplanets, which received designations HD 27894 c and HD27894 d.

HD 27894 c has a mass of about 0.16 Jupiter masses,an orbital period of 36 days and is circling its host at a distance of0.2 Astronomical Units (AU), ‘Phys.org’ reported.

HD 27894 d has a mass of about 5.4 Jupiter masses. Ittakes the planet over 14 years to complete one full orbit, as it islocated almost 5.5 AU from the host.

“The co-existence of a massive, distant, and moderatelyeccentric Jovian planet and a possibly resonant inner pair ofmassive planets makes the HD 27984 system truly unique,” theresearchers said.

“The planetary system around HD 27894 is importantfor probing planetary formation and evolution scenarios andillustrates the importance of further follow-up of radial velocityplanet hosts,” they said.

NEW SYSTEM PRODUCES FUEL FROM CARBONDIOXIDE

Scientists have developed a plant that uses carbondioxide in the air to produce renewable fuels and chemicals, anadvance that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions andreliance on fossil fuels.

The unique Soletair plant, developed by LappeenrantaUniversity of Technology (LUT) and VTT Technical ResearchCentre of Finland, aims to produce 200 litres of fuels andotherhydrocarbons for research purposes.

The one-of-a-kind demo plant has the entire processchain, from solar power generation to hydrocarbon production,is in the same place.

The demo plant comprises four separate units: a solarpower plant; equipment for separating carbon dioxide and waterfrom the air; a section that uses electrolysis to produce hydrogen;

and synthesis equipment for producing a crude-oil substitutefrom carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Pilot-scale plant units have been designed fordistributed, small-scale production. Production capacity can beincreased by adding more units.

“The concept we are exploring is an example of howthe chemical industry could be electrified in the future. The burningof fossil fuels must end by 2050, but people will continue toneed some hydrocarbons,” said Jero Ahola of LUT.

“The result will be multi-sectoral industrial integration.Finnish industry’s expertise in this area is being reinforced bycollaboration,” said Pekka Simell of VTT.

After the piloting phase, synthesis units will be used ina number of projects over the coming years. It will provide aplatform for conducting research with international companies.

Information gathered during the project will be usefulfor the commercialisation of the technologies.

EMPEROR PENGUINS MAY NOT COPE WITHCLIMATE CHANGE: STUDY

The iconic Emperor penguins may see devastatingdecline in their populations by the end of this century, ifprojections for melting Antarctic sea ice are correct, a new studysuggests.

Researchers said that the Emperor penguin should belisted as an endangered species, as the vanishing landscape due toclimate change will strip the animals of their breeding and feedinggrounds.

The study led by researchers at Woods HoleOceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the US, found that theiconic animals will not be spared by moving to new locations likeother species that migrate to escape the wrath of climate change.

Dispersal may help sustain global Emperor penguinpopulations for a limited time, but, as sea ice conditions continueto deteriorate, the 54 colonies that exist today will face devastatingdeclines by the end of this century, researchers said.

“The prospects look grim at the end of 2100, with aprojected global population decline as low as 40 per cent and upto 99 per cent over three generations,” said Stephanie Jenouvrier,WHOI biologist.

“Given this outlook, we argue that the Emperorpenguin is deserving of protection under the Endangered SpeciesAct,” said Jenouvrier, lead author of the study published in thejournal Biological Conservation.

The relationship between Emperor penguins and seaice is a fragile one: Too little sea ice reduces the availability ofbreeding sites and prey; too much sea ice means longer huntingtrips for adults, which in turn means lower feeding rates forchicks.


To determine whether migration will ultimately helpEmperor penguins defend against population decline, researchersdeveloped a sophisticated demographic model of penguincolonies based on data collected at Pointe Geologie, one of thefew places where long-term Emperor penguin studies have beenconducted.

The model tracks the population connectivity betweenpenguins as they take their chances moving to new habitatsoffering better sea ice conditions.

A range of model inputs were used, including penguindispersal distance, behaviour and rate of migration. The modelalso factors in end-of-century sea ice forecasts from climateprojection models to predict the fate of each colony.

According to Shaye Wolf, climate science director for theCentre for Biological Diversity, the new modelling technique iskey to informing policy around “much-needed protections” forthe Emperor penguin.

One surprising aspect of the study, according toJenouvrier, was the wide range of penguin responses to variousdispersal scenarios represented in the model.

In some cases, dispersal boosted populations whereasin other cases, it led to dramatic declines.

“We saw sustained populations through 2036, at whichpoint there was an ‘ecological rescue’ that reversed the anticipateddecline expected without dispersion for about a ten-year period,”she said.

“During that time, the penguins made wise choices interms of selecting the highest-quality habitat they could reach.But the ‘rescue’ was only short-lived, and started plummeting in2046.

“When we averaged out all the scenarios, the modelpainted a very grim picture through 2100, regardless of how farpenguins travelled or how wise their habitat selections were,”said Jenouvrier.

NASA CURIOSITY ROVER FINDS DIVERSEMINERALS IN MARS ROCKS

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found a wide diversity ofminerals in rock samples from Mars, which suggests thatconditions changed in the water environments on the red planetover time.

Layers of rocks at the base of Mount Sharp on Marsaccumulated as sediment within ancient lakes around 3.5 billionyears ago.

Previous research has shown that the mountain’slowermost layers have variations in minerals that suggest changesin the area have occurred.

In a study published in the journal Earth and PlanetaryScience Letters, scientists from NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in

the US described on the first four samples collected from thelower layers of Mount Sharp.

“We went to Gale Crater to investigate these lower layersof Mount Sharp that have these minerals that precipitated fromwater and suggest different environments,” said Elizabeth Rampefrom NASA.

“These layers were deposited about 3.5 billion yearsago, coinciding with a time on Earth when life was beginning totake hold. We think early Mars may have been similar to earlyEarth, and so these environments might have been habitable,”said Rampe.

The minerals found in the four samples drilled near thebase of Mount Sharp suggest several different environmentswere present in ancient Gale Crater. There is evidence for waterswith different pH and variably oxidising conditions.

Studying such rock layers can yield information aboutMars’ past habitability, and determining minerals found in thelayers of sedimentary rock yields much data about theenvironment in which they formed.

At the base are minerals from a primitive magma source;they are rich in iron and magnesium. Moving higher in the section,scientists saw more silica-rich minerals.

In the “Telegraph Peak” sample, scientists foundminerals similar to quartz. In the “Buckskin” sample, scientistsfound tridymite.

Tridymite is found on Earth in rocks that formed frompartial melting of Earth’s crust or in the continental crust - astrange finding because Mars never had plate tectonics.

In the “Confidence Hills” and “Mojave 2” samples,scientists found clay minerals, which generally form in the presenceof liquid water with a near-neutral pH, and therefore could begood indicators of past environments that were conducive tolife.

The other mineral discovered here was jarosite, a saltthat forms in acidic solutions. The jarosite finding indicates thatthere were acidic fluids at some point.

There are different iron-oxide minerals in the samplesas well. Hematite was found near the base; only magnetite wasfound at the top.

Hematite contains oxidised iron, whereas magnetitecontains both oxidised and reduced forms of iron. The type ofiron-oxide mineral present may tell scientists about the oxidationpotential of the ancient waters.

“We have all this evidence that Mars was once really wetbut now is dry and cold,” Rampe said.

“Today, much of the water is locked up in the polesand in the ground at high latitudes as ice,” he said.

“We think that the rocks Curiosity has studied revealancient environmental changes that occurred as Mars started tolose its atmosphere and water was lost to space,” he added.


CHINA DEVELOPING WORLD’S FASTESTAMPHIBIOUS FIGHTING VEHICLE

China is developing the world’s fastest amphibiousarmoured vehicle that reach a top speed of 50 kilometres perhour when travelling in calm waters.

While there are many amphibious armoured vehicles inthe world, most of them move very slowly in the water.

The North China Institute of Vehicle Research has builtthe armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) that can attain a top speedof 50 kilometres per hour on calm waters.

That speed would make the amphibious AFV the fastestamphibious military in the vehicle in the world.

Even with armour and weapons on a productionversion, it would still likely reach amphibious speeds of at least19 to 28 kilometres per hour.

By comparison, the Iveco/BAE SuperAV, anamphibious AFV proposed by the US Marine Corps, has a topamphibious speed of about 9 kilometres per hour.

The Chinese amphibious AFV can retract its wheelsagainst the underside of its hull. It has a v-shaped hull to reducewater drag.

It achieves its record-high speed with compactpumpjets, as well as retracting its wheels toward the hull to reducedrag, ‘PopSci’ reported.

The proof-of-concept vehicle has a light weight (about5.5 tonnes without armour or installed weapons) that allows itto be particularly speedy.

TINY, FEATHERY BIRD TRAPPED IN 98-MILLION-YEAR-OLD AMBER FOUND

Scientists have discovered the most complete specimenof a tiny dinosaur-era bird, trapped in 98 million-year-old amber,that has exceptionally well preserved feathers, talons and otherfeatures.

Excavated from a mine in Myanmar, the piece of amberholds the specimen of a group of extinct toothed birds calledenantiornithines, which died out at the end of the Cretaceousperiod (about 145 million to 65.5 million years ago).

Body proportions and plumage development in thetiny specimen indicated that it was very young.

The feathers’ structures and distribution highlight somekey differences between the ancient avians and modern-day birds,according to the study published in the journal GondwanaResearch.

The fossils’ exceptional preservation of plumage helpspaleontologists understand the diversity of feathers and the rolethey played for early avians, said Jingmai O’Connor, professor atthe Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Feathers can never be well understood in normalfossils,” O’Connor said.

“But in amber, we get crystal-clear views of whatprimitive feathers were like, and they reveal all sorts of bizarremorphologies,” she said.

Though scientists had previously found specimens ofthis bird group in amber, the new find included features neverseen before, such as the ear opening, the eyelid and skin on thefeet.

Its body measured about six centimetres in length.Scientists used micro-CT scans and digital 3D reconstruction tofurther analyse the specimen, ‘Live Science’ reported.

The amber chunk - which measured around 8.6 cmlong, 3 cm wide and 5.7 cm thick - had been divided down themiddle into two pieces.

This cut sliced through the specimen’s skull, damagingsome of the bones and separating the chick’s beak from itsbraincase and neck.

However, the body was near-complete, with the ambercontaining the tiny bird’s head and neck, part of its wings, feetand tail; and plenty of soft tissue and attached feathers.

ROBOTIC DEVICE MAY HELP RESTOREMOVEMENT IN STROKE PATIENTS

Scientists have developed a new robotic tool that canhelp restore movement in paralysed patients, such as those whohave survived stroke.

The rehabilitation robotic system, developed at UlsanNational Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in SouthKorea, measures the 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) impedance ofhuman forearm and wrist in minutes.

Using the device, called the distal internal model basedimpedance control (dIMBIC)-based method, the team was ableto accurately characterise the 3 DOF forearm and wrist impedance,including inertia, damping, and stiffness, for the first time.

Combined with standard rehabilitation, the robotic-assisted rehabilitation therapy is expected to improve the mobilityof stroke patients.

Stroke, known as a leading cause of long-term disability,is a sudden loss of brain function, caused by the interruption ofblood flow to the brain or the rupture of a blood vessels in thebrain and an estimated 150,000 people die from it, each year.

As a consequence of stroke, stroke survivors are oftenleft with muscle overactivity, including spasticity.

Spasticity is a muscle control disorder that is characterisedby tight or stiff muscles and an inability to control those muscles.

It is often manifested by increased stretch reflex activityand mechanical joint resistance.

“The dIMBIC-based method can be used to assist inthe quantitative and objective evaluation of neurological disorders,


like stroke,” said Sang Hoon Kang at UNIST.“Findings from this study will open a new chapter in

robot-assisted rehabilitation in the workplace accidentrehabilitation hospitals, as well as in nursing homes and assistedliving facilities,” he said.

The research team expects that, in the long run, theproposed 3 DOF impedance estimation may promote wrist andforearm motor control studies and complement the diagnosisof the alteration in wrist and forearm resistance post-stroke byproviding objective impedance values including cross-coupledterms.

The study was published in the journal IEEETransactions on Neural Systems.

MYSTERIOUS FIRE MONUMENT IN UKPREDATES STONEHENGE: STUDY

A massive, wooden monument in the UK, that was setalight in ancient ceremonies, predates the iconic Stonehenge by800 years, a new study has found.

The eyeglass-shaped monument in Avebury consistsof two huge, circular enclosures - each outlined by tall, woodenposts.

The wooden circles, located about 37 kilometres fromthe mysterious stone circle at Stonehenge, were discovered whena pipeline was being laid in the 1960s and 1970s.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire,that consists of a ring of standing stones. One of the mostfamous landmarks in the UK, Stonehenge is regarded as a Britishcultural icon.

Researchers used modern carbon-dating techniques onthe charred remains in the post holes, along with animal bones atthe site and fragments of pottery.

They found that the monument id about 800 yearsolder than the prior research had suggested, ‘Live Science’ reported.

Though the exact purpose of the Avebury monumentis still shrouded in mystery, archaeologists think the two woodencircles were used for only a short time for a ceremony or festivalbefore burning to the ground.

“It is much too large to be a stock enclosure; it has gotto be a ceremonial enclosure,” said Alex Bayliss, an archaeologistwith Historic England.

“It is completely unlike anything we have ever found inthe British prehistory,” said Bayliss.

LARGEST VIRTUAL UNIVERSE MAY HELP SOLVEDARK MATTER MYSTERY

Scientists have created the largest-ever virtual universethat simulates the formation galaxies and may hold clues to the

nature of the elusive dark matter that is believed to make upmajority of the cosmos.

The gigantic catalogue of about 25 billion virtual galaxiesgenerated from 2 trillion digital particles using a super computeris being used to calibrate the experiments on board the Euclidsatellite, that will be launched in 2020.

The satellite will investigate the nature of dark matterand dark energy.

The computer code called PKDGRAV3 took three yearsto complete was executed on the world-leading machine for only80 hours, and generated a virtual universe of two trillion macro-particles representing the dark matter fluid, from which a catalogueof 25 billion virtual galaxies was extracted, researchers said.

Due to the high precision of their calculation, featuringa dark matter fluid evolving under its own gravity, researcherssimulated the formation of small concentration of matter, calleddark matter halos in which they believe galaxies like the Milky Wayform.

About 95 per cent of the universe is dark. The cosmosconsists of 23 per cent of dark matter and 72 per cent of darkenergy, researchers said.

“The nature of dark energy remains one of the mainunsolved puzzles in modern science,” said Romain Teyssier,professor at UZH.

This new virtual galaxy catalogue will help optimise theobservational strategy of the Euclid experiment and minimisevarious sources of error, before the satellite embarks on its six-year data collecting mission in 2020.

“Euclid will perform a tomographic map of ourUniverse, tracing back in time more than 10-billion-year ofevolution in the cosmos,” said Joachim Stadel from UZH.

From the Euclid data, researchers will obtain newinformation on the nature of this mysterious dark energy, butalso hope to discover new physics beyond the standard model,such as a modified version of general relativity or a new type ofparticle.

Researchers designed the code to use optimally theavailable memory and processing power of modernsupercomputing architectures, such as the “Piz Daint”supercomputer of the Swiss National Computing Centre (CSCS).

WORM REGENERATES INTO RARE TWO-HEADEDCREATURE IN SPACE

In a first, an amputated worm regenerated into a double-head creature after spending five weeks aboard the InternationalSpace Station (ISS), scientists said.

Flatworms in space are helping researchers to study howan absence of normal gravity and geomagnetic fields can haveanatomical, behavioural, and bacteriological consequences.


The research has implications for human and animalspace travellers and for regenerative and bioengineering science.

Researchers, including those from Tufts University inthe US, sought to determine how microgravity and micro-geomagnetic fields would affect the growth and regeneration ofplanarian flatworms (D japonica).

They discovered that one of the amputated fragmentssent to space regenerated into a double-headed worm.

In more than 18 years of maintaining a colony of Djaponica that involves more than 15,000 control worms in justthe last five years alone, researchers have never observed aspontaneous occurrence of double-headedness.

Moreover, when they amputated both heads from thespace- exposed worm, the headless middle fragment regeneratedinto a double-headed worm, demonstrating that the body planmodification that occurred in the worm was permanent.

Planaria are frequently used for studies because of theirability to regenerate amputated body parts.

“During regeneration, development and cancersuppression, body patterning is subject to the influence of physicalforces, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, electromagnetic fields,and other biophysical factors,” said Michael Levin, professor atTufts University.

“We want to learn more about how these forces affectanatomy, behaviour and microbiology,” said Levin.

“As humans transition toward becoming a space-faringspecies, it is important that we deduce the impact of space flighton regenerative health for the sake of medicine and the future ofspace laboratory research,” said Junji Morokuma, research associatein Levin’s lab.

Researchers launched a set of flatworms into space in2015. The flatworms were either left whole or amputated andsealed in tubes filled half with water and half with air.

They also created two sets of control worms. Oneconsisted of live worms sealed in spring water in the same manneras their space counterparts and kept in darkness at 20 degreesCelsius for the same amount of time.

After the space-exposed worms returned to Earth,researchers prepared a second set of worms that were thenexposed to the same changes in temperature as the space- exposedworms.

After five weeks in space, the samples were evaluatedupon their return. Researchers identified a number of differencesbetween the space and terrestrial worms.

Apart from a rare worm sprouting an extra head, wholeworms sent into space underwent spontaneous fission - division

of the body into two or more identical individuals - while theirearth-bound counterparts did not.

Researchers suggest that the worms had altered theirbiological state to accommodate the environmental change ofbeing in space, reacting strongly to a return to normal aqueousconditions.

CRUMB-FREE ‘SPACE BREAD’ IN THE OFFING

Scientists are developing a new process of baking crumb-free bread in space that will allow astronauts to enjoy freshsandwiches aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Bread, although a staple food on Earth, can be lifethreatening in space as the crumbs fly in the microgravity andcould get into the eyes of the astronauts or into the electricalpanels, where they can start a fire.

Researchers including those from German AerospaceCentre are trying to develop a dough mixture and baking processthat produces a crumb-free bread.

The hardest part is coming up with the right texture,they said. Bread that is tough and chewy would not producecrumbs but it is also unpalatable.

Researchers are trying to adapt a convection oven to theconstraints of the ISS.

Since electricity is limited, the oven must work on just250 watts – a tenth of the power used by a standard oven onEarth - and exterior surfaces cannot exceed 45 degree Celsius,‘Newscientist’ reported.

Researchers will test various approaches on board theISS during the European Space Agency’s Horizon mission inApril next year.

The team plans to control the entire baking processfrom the ground via video feeds from inside the oven. To seehow microgravity affects a finished loaf, initial batches will alsouse dough pre-baked on Earth.

They also plan to experiment with sourdough, creatingstarters – fermented batter-like dough for sourdough bread – inspace.

“The comforts of home, like the smell of fresh bakedbread, could energise astronauts physically and psychologically,”said Jennifer Levasseur from the Smithsonian National Air andSpace Museum in the US.

“As space tourism takes off and people spend moretime in space we need to allow bread to be made from scratch,”said Sebastian Marcu, founder of Bake In Space, the Germancompany behind the project.


2D MAGNETS DISCOVERED FOR FIRST TIME

Scientists have for the first time discovered two-dimmensional magnets that are formed by a single layer of atomsand may pave the way for more compact and efficient devices.

Magnetic materials form the basis of technologies thatplay increasingly pivotal roles in our lives today, including sensingand hard-disk data storage.

For smaller and faster devices, researchers are seekingnew magnetic materials that are more compact, more efficientand can be controlled using precise, reliable methods.

A team led by the University of Washington (UW) andthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US hasfor the first time discovered magnetism in the 2D world ofmonolayers, or materials that are formed by a single atomic layer.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, showthat magnetic properties can exist even in the 2D realm - openinga world of potential applications.

“What we have discovered here is an isolated 2D materialwith intrinsic magnetism, and the magnetism in the system ishighly robust,” said Xiaodong Xu, a professor at UW.

“We envision that new information technologies mayemerge based on these new 2D magnets,” said Xu.

Researchers have previously shown that CrI3 - in itsmultilayered, 3D, bulk crystal form - is ferromagnetic, that is, ithas some magnetic properties.

However, no 3D magnetic substance had previouslyretained its magnetic properties when thinned down to a singleatomic sheet. In fact, monolayer materials can demonstrate uniqueproperties not seen in their multilayered, 3D forms.

“You simply cannot accurately predict what the electric,magnetic, physical or chemical properties of a 2D monolayer crystalwill be based on the behavior of its 3D bulk counterpart,” saidBevin Huang, doctoral student at UW.

Atoms within monolayer materials are considered two-dimensional because the electrons can only travel within the atomicsheet, like pieces on a chessboard.

To discover the properties of CrI3 in its 2D form, theteam simply used Scotch tape to shave a monolayer of CrI3 offthe larger, 3D crystal form.

“Using Scotch tape to exfoliate a monolayer from its3D bulk crystal is surprisingly effective,” said Genevieve Clark,doctoral student at UW.

The researchers detected magnetic properties in CrI3using a special type of microscopy.

In CrI3 flakes that are two layers thick, the magneticproperties disappeared, and returned in three-layer CrI3.

The scientists will need to conduct further studies tounderstand why CrI3 displayed these remarkable layer-dependentmagnetic phases.

“2D monolayers alone offer exciting opportunities tostudy the drastic and precise electrical control of magneticproperties, which has been a challenge to realise using their 3Dbulk crystals,” said Xu.

“But an even greater opportunity can arise when youstack monolayers with different physical properties together.There, you can get even more exotic phenomena not seen in themonolayer alone or in the 3D bulk crystal,” Xu added.

CLIMATE CHANGE MAY CAUSE MORE RAINFALLIN TROPICAL AREAS: NASA

The amount of rainfall in the Earth’s tropical regionswill significantly increase as our planet continues to warm, a newNASA study warns.

Most global climate models underestimate decreases inhigh clouds over the tropics seen in recent NASA observations,according to research led by scientist Hui Su of NASA’s JetPropulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US.

Globally, rainfall is not related just to the clouds that areavailable to make rain but also to Earth’s “energy budget” -incoming energy from the Sun compared to outgoing heat energy.

High-altitude tropical clouds trap heat in theatmosphere. If there are fewer of these clouds in the future, thetropical atmosphere will cool.

Judging from observed changes in clouds over recentdecades, it appears that the atmosphere would create fewer highclouds in response to surface warming.

It would also increase tropical rainfall, which wouldwarm the air to balance the cooling from the high cloud shrinkage.

Rainfall warming the air also sounds counterintuitive -people are used to rain cooling the air around them, not warmingit. Several miles up in the atmosphere, however, a different processprevails.

When water evaporates into water vapour here on Earth’ssurface and rises into the atmosphere, it carries with it the heatenergy that made it evaporate.

In the cold upper atmosphere, when the water vapourcondenses into liquid droplets or ice particles, it releases its heatand warms the atmosphere.

It puts the decrease in high tropical cloud cover incontext as one result of a planet-wide shift in large-scale air flowsthat is occurring as Earth’s surface temperature warms.

These large-scale flows are called the atmospheric generalcirculation, and they include a wide zone of rising air centred onthe equator. Observations over the last 30 to 40 years have shownthat this zone is narrowing as the climate warms, causing thedecrease in high clouds.

Researchers at JPL and four universities comparedclimate data from the past few decades with 23 climate modelsimulations of the same period.


Climate modellers use retrospective simulations likethese to check how well their numerical models are able toreproduce observations.

For data, the team used observations of outgoingthermal radiation from NASA’s spaceborne Clouds and theEarth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and other satelliteinstruments, as well as ground-level observations.

They found that most of the climate modelsunderestimated the rate of increase in precipitation for each degreeof surface warming that has occurred in recent decades.

The models that came closest to matching observationsof clouds in the present-day climate showed a greater precipitationincrease for the future than the other models.

“This study provides a pathway for improvingpredictions of future precipitation change,” Su said.

NASA’S UNDERSEA MISSION TO SIMULATE LIFEON MARS

NASA is sending a team of four crew members to thebottom of the Atlantic Ocean, which will spend 10 dayssimulating a deep space mission with similar objectives toexploration on Mars.

Living and working at the bottom of the ocean mimicsthe micro-gravity (or harsh) environment that humans willexperience in space, researchers at the University of South Florida(USF) in the US said.

The crew will conduct simulated spacewalks, test timedelays in communication, evaluate a variety of tools andprocedures to be used in future space missions, they said.

The NASA Extreme Environment MissionOperations (NEEMO) 22 expedition will begin on June 18 whenthe crew will splashdown to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the Florida KeysNational Marine Sanctuary.

Dominic D’Agostino, Associate Professor at theUniversity of South Florida is one of the four crew membersselected for the NEEMO 22 mission.

D’Agostino was selected for his research conducted onhow extreme environments impact the human body.

One of the counter-measures developed is a methodto induce and sustain nutritional ketosis with ketone supplementformulations. Nutritional ketosis shifts the body’s metabolic stateto burn fat rather than glucose as its primary fuel.

The USF-patented method will play a pivotal role inadvancing the objectives of the NEEMO 22 mission, researcherssaid.

D’Agostino will be in a constant state of nutritionalketosis, which is proven to preserve the genome, protecting DNA.

“This is beneficial to NASA as it can counter-measureneurological risks that come with space travel such as space

radiation, lack of oxygen and stress of small spaces,” researcherssaid.

No other crew members will be in this metabolic state,creating a baseline for how environmental factors impact thehuman body in such extreme conditions.

Data will also be collected from the other crew memberson gut microbiome, body composition, cognitive tasks, visionassessment, sleep quality and a variety of other physiologicalparameters.

Other objectives of the NEEMO 22 crew include testingcounter measure equipment, technology for precisely trackingassets and assess hardware sponsored by the European SpaceAgency (ESA) that will help crew members evacuate someonewho has been injured on a lunar spacewalk.

NEW FORM OF HARD, ELASTIC ‘SUPER’ CARBONDEVELOPED

Scientists have developed a new form of ultra strong,lightweight carbon that is elastic and electrically conductive, andmay serve a wide variety of applications from aerospaceengineering to military armour.

Researchers, including those from Carnegie Institutionfor Science in the US, pressurised and heated a structurallydisordered form of carbon called glassy carbon.

They brought the glassy carbon starting material toabout 250,000 times normal atmospheric pressure and heated toover 980 degrees Celsius to create the new strong and elastic carbon.

The newly created carbon is comprised of both graphite-like and diamond-like bonding motifs, which gives rise to theunique combination of properties, researchers said.

Under the high-pressure synthesis conditions,disordered layers within the glassy carbon buckle, merge andconnect in various ways, they said.

This process creates an overall structure that lacks a long-range spatial order, but has a short-range spatial organisation onthe nanometre scale.

“Light materials with high strength and robust elasticitylike this are very desirable for applications where weight savingsare of the utmost importance, even more than material cost,”said Zhisheng Zhao, professor at Yanshan University in China.

“What is more, we believe that this synthesis methodcould be honed to create other extraordinary forms of carbonand entirely different classes of materials,” Zhao added.

NASA UNVEILS ‘OUT-OF-THE-WORLD’ MARSROVER CONCEPT

NASA has unveiled a futuristic Mars rover concept thatmay help the US space agency develop plans for its mission to thered planet scheduled for 2020.


NASA’s next robotic Mars rover is set to land on the redplanet in 2020. The rover will search for signs of past microbiallife and collect core samples for a potentially future return toEarth.

The Mars rover concept vehicle was unveiled at theKennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex in the US with a goal ofinspiration and education as NASA continues developing plansfor its journey to the red planet.

The visitor complex kicked off its “Summer of Mars”promotion which included former astronaut Scott Kelly.

Kelly shared some of his experiences during a one-yearstay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The Summer of Mars programme will provide a surveyof NASA’s studies of the red planet, said Rebecca Shireman,assistant manager of public relations for the Kennedy visitorcomplex.

“We hope this will encourage young people to want tolearn more about being a part of the effort to go to Mars,” shesaid.

The builders of the scientifically-themed Mars roverconcept vehicle, Parker Brothers Concepts of Florida, incorporatedinput into its design from NASA subject matter experts.

The rover operates on an electric motor, powered bysolar panels and a 700-volt battery.

The rover separates in the middle with the front areadesigned for scouting and equipped with a radio and navigationprovided by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The back section serves as a laboratory which candisconnect for autonomous research.

While this exact rover is not expected to operate onMars, one or more of its elements could make its way into a roverastronauts will drive on the red planet.

NOW, ‘ARTIFICIAL TONGUE’ TO DETECT FAKEWHISKY

Scientists have developed an ‘artificial tongue’ whichcan help novice drinkers determine the difference between aScottish malt whisky and an Irish blend.

The synthetic tongue can pick out different qualities inwhiskies, such as their brand, age and country of origin usingfluorescent dyes.

The process is quicker and cheaper than many of theexisting methods, researchers said.

“We can use this to detect fake whiskies. If you buy acrate of expensive whiskies, you can test if they are actually whatyou think they are,” said Uwe Bunz at Heidelberg University inGermany.

Current techniques use mass spectroscopy to identifythe chemical composition of a whisky. However, the new synthetictongue uses a combination of 22 different fluorescent dyes.

When mixed with a whisky, the brightness of each dyesubtly changes, revealing a specific flavour profile for that drink.

Testing the dyes on 33 different whiskies, researchersfound that their approach could accurately tell them apart, ‘NewScientist’ reported.

Distillations from Scotland looked different to thosefrom Ireland or the US, and blended whiskies had a differentfingerprint to single malts. The dyes also distinguished betweenwhiskies that had been aged for different lengths of time.

By building up an overall flavour profile in much thesame way as our tongues do, the approach is good at telling iftwo bottles of whisky are the same.

‘SPACE MAY HOLD KEY TO BEATING CANCER’

Scientists are growing human lung cancer cells with goldnanoparticles aboard the International Space Station (ISS), anadvance that may hold the key to beating cancer.

The Magnetic 3D Cell Culturing investigation appliesthe Earth-based technique of using magnetic forces to handle cellcultures in the micro-gravity environment of the space station.

Researchers add gold atoms in a polymer matrix to aculture of human lung cancer cells. These atoms bind strongly tothe membrane of the cells, which then makes it possible tomanipulate them with magnets.

“This technology may enable us to handle cells in spacein a way currently not possible,” said project manager Luis Zea,from University of Colorado, Boulder in the US.

“We can use it to manipulate cells and make sure theyare where we want them,” said Zea.

The technique, known as bioprinting, also makes itpossible to grow cell cultures in two dimensions on a surface inspace, the way they naturally grow on Earth.

“On Earth, you put cells on a biofilm medium andthey grow on its surface,” Zea said.

“That does not happen in space, because there is notenough gravity to hold them to that surface. So currently, we startgrowing cells on a medium on the ground, launch to space, andthen start the experiment

“With the magnetic particles, we can start growing cellcultures in space the same as on Earth,” said Zea.

These two-dimensional cell cultures provide controlsfor space-based cell culture research and comparisons with groundstudies.

That enhances the cell and tissue culture capabilities ofthe orbiting lab and enables biological research previously deemedunfeasible in space.

Glauco Souza, principle investigator at Nano3DBiosciences in Houston and colleagues have done researchindicating the gold nanoparticles do not interfere with biologicalprocesses when tested on Earth.


The technology also has potential applications forinvestigations requiring 3D cell cultures.

In space, cell cultures grow in 3D, which decades ofresearch have shown is more representative of how cells growand function in living organisms.

Researchers may be able to use this technology to directthe shape of 3D cultures to resemble a specific target of study,such as a particular type of cancer, Zea said.

Creating cultures that better capture the characteristicsof tissue in living organisms almost as easily on the ground as inspace could, for example, reduce drug development costs.

“This investigation tests a new technology and otherscientists can then identify how it may apply to their field ofresearch,” Zea added.

INGREDIENTS OF LIFE FOUND AROUND STARS400 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY

Scientists have discovered traces of building blocks oflife around a young star system located 400 light-years away, afinding that may help understand how living beings evolved onEarth.

This is the first ever detection of this prebiotic moleculetowards solar-type protostars, the sort from which our solarsystem evolved, researchers said.

Astronomers harnessed the power of the Atacama LargeMillimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile to detect theprebiotic complex organic molecule methyl isocyanate in themultiple star system IRAS 16293-2422.

“This family of organic molecules is involved in thesynthesis of peptides and amino acids, which, in the form ofproteins, are the biological basis for life as we know it,” said NielsLigterink, from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.

ALMA’s capabilities allowed both teams to observe themolecule at several different and characteristic wavelengths acrossthe radio spectrum.

They found the unique chemical fingerprints located inthe warm, dense inner regions of the cocoon of dust and gassurrounding young stars in their earliest stages of evolution.

Each team identified and isolated the signatures of thecomplex organic molecule methyl isocyanate.

They then followed this up with computer chemicalmodell ing and laboratory experiments to refine ourunderstanding of the molecule’s origin.

IRAS 16293-2422 is a multiple system of very youngstars, around 400 light-years away in a large star-forming regioncalled Rho Ophiuchi in the constellation of Ophiuchus.

The new results from ALMA show that methylisocyanate gas surrounds each of these young stars.

Earth and the other planets in our solar system formedfrom the material left over after the formation of the Sun.

Studying solar-type protostars can therefore open awindow to the past for astronomers and allow them to observeconditions similar to those that led to the formation of our SolarSystem over 4.5 billion years ago.

“We are particularly excited about the result because theseprotostars are very similar to the Sun at the beginning of itslifetime, with the sort of conditions that are well suited for Earth-sized planets to form,” said Rafael Martin- Domenech from theCentro de Astrobiologia in Spain.

“By finding prebiotic molecules in this study, we maynow have another piece of the puzzle in understanding how lifecame about on our planet,” said Martin-Domenech.

“Our laboratory experiments show that methylisocyanate can indeed be produced on icy particles under very coldconditions that are similar to those in interstellar space,” saidLigterink.

“This implies that this molecule - and thus the basisfor peptide bonds - is indeed likely to be present near most newyoung solar-type stars,” he said.

BABIES CAN RECOGNISE FACES WHILE INWOMB: STUDY

Babies can recognise faces even inside the womb, sayscientists who found that 34-week-old foetuses turn their headsto look at face-like images when light is projected through theuterine wall of their mother.

The findings are the first to show that it is possible toexplore visual perception and cognition in babies before they areborn, researchers said.

“We have shown the foetus can distinguish betweendifferent shapes, preferring to track face-like over non- face-likeshapes,” said Vincent Reid of Lancaster University in the UK.

“This preference has been recognised in babies for manydecades, but until now exploring foetal vision has not beenattempted,” said Reid.

Reid said that technical barriers had prevented earlierstudies of foetal vision and behaviour in the womb. The newstudy was made possible with high-quality 4D ultrasound.

Scientists had also realised that it is possible for light topenetrate through human tissue and into the uterus, where afoetus could see it.

The researchers tested the responses of 39 foetuses toface-like patterns of light presented to them in both upright andinverted orientations. The projected light moved across their fieldof vision while researchers watched the foetuses’ reactions using4D ultrasound.

Those ultrasound movies showed that the developingbabies turned their heads to look more often at face-like stimulithat were upright than those that were presented to them upsidedown.


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“There was the possibility that the foetus would findany shape interesting due to the novelty of the stimulus,” Reidsaid.

“If this was the case, we would have seen no differencein how they responded to the upright and upside-down versionsof the stimuli. But it turned out that they responded in a waythat was very similar to infants,” he said.

The findings suggest that babies’ preference for facesbegins in the womb. There is no learning or experience after birthrequired.

The findings also confirm that foetuses have enoughlight to see and have visual experiences in the womb. However,Reid said that he discourages pregnant mothers from shiningbright lights into their bellies.

OVER 66-MILLION-YEAR-OLD CROCODILE FOSSILFOUND IN CHINA

Fossils of a completely preserved crocodile and bonesbelonging to at least six different dinosaurs, dating back 145 to66 million years, have been unearthed in northeast China.

Paleontologists from Chinese Academy of Sciencesbegan the excavation in late May, following the discovery ofdinosaur fossils last year at Longshan Mountain in the city ofYanji in Jilin Province.

A 1.5-meter-long crocodile fossil was found on June 1,researchers said.

The fossil was well preserved from head to tail, withclear skin, which is quite rare among Cretaceous strata findings inChina, they said.

“Crocodiles and dinosaurs lived together, which meansthere are probably more fossils buried underneath,” said JinChangzhu, a research fellow at the Institute of VertebratePaleontology and Paleoanthropology.

Archaeologists also found a large amount of teeth, arm,pelvis and rib bones belonging to at least six different dinosaurs,most of which were in good condition, Xinhua reported.

Yanji has been identified as the easternmost site ofCretaceous dinosaur fossils in China, said Sun Ge, curator ofPaleontological Museum of Liaoning.

Cretaceous turtle fossils and petrified wood were alsounearthed.

AI ROBOT GETS BELOW AVERAGE SCORES INUNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM

An artificial intelligence robot that took a college entranceexam in China has managed to scrape a below average grade,although it finished the test much faster than humans.

The robot, AI-MATHS, completed two versions ofthe exam’s math test. It finished the test in 22 minutes, scoring105 points out of 150 points, without Internet support. It scored100 points on another version of the test.

“It would take two hours for a human to finish thetest. I hope next year the machine can improve its performanceon logical reasoning and computer algorithms and score over130,” said Lin Hui, CEO of Chengdu ZhunxingyunxueTechnology, the company which developed the robot.

In February, the robot scored 93 on one math test,slightly higher than the passing grade of 90.

China’s Ministry of Science and Technology plans tobuild AI robots by 2020 that would be smart enough to gainadmission to leading universities through the entrance exam, thestate- run news agency Xinhua reported.

“This is not a make-or-break test for a robot. The aimis to train artificial intelligence to learn the way humans reasonand deal with numbers,” said Hui.

The robot has attempted 12,000 math questions, butan average high school student needs to solve 30,000 questionsbefore taking the exam, he said.

AI may be faster than humans in dealing with numbers,but they are not good at processing language.

issn 0970-6488 science service - ifcpar/cefipracefipra.org/document/jun_2017.pdf · pti science...

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