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New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 30 November 2012 | 22.10

PTI Nov 25, 2012, 06.55PM IST

(New 'temperature-tolerant…)

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Autism reversible if detected early: Expert

Padmini Sivarajah, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.14AM IST

MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.

Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.

Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.

Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.

The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.

Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.

What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.

Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.

"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.

Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.

These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.

Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.

Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.

She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Has Curiosity found proof of life on Mars?

Srinivas Laxman, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.54AM IST

MUMBAI: Has Nasa's 900-kg Mars rover, Curiosity attained a major scientific breakthrough?

Just on the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity mission which is on November 26, 2012, is the buzz that it could have possibly found evidence that conditions existed in the Red Planet which could have supported microbial life.

Right now it seems pure speculation, but the theory is gathering weight following a recent remark made by none other than the mission's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, to the US National Public Radio saying, "We're getting data from the Sample Analysis At Mars (SAM) instrument and is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,'' he said. SAM is a miniature chemistry laboratory having the capability to analyse the contents of Martian soil and rocks.

Grotzinger declined to spell out the specifics saying that there would be no official announcement for several weeks since the data has to be rechecked and revalidated so that there was no slip this time. Indications are that there could be an announcement sometime between December 3 and 7, 2012 during a scientific meeting at San Fransisco.

He further added that the announcement regarding the discovery is also being delayed because scientists want to ensure that SAM was not measuring air brought along from Cape Canaveral in Florida during the MSL launch on November 26, 2011.

There is also a rule which stipulates that scientists cannot discuss their research until it is a officially published. This time, moreover , the scientific community is exercising considerable caution keeping in view the fiasco and controversy caused by the sensational announcement in August 1996 about finding organic compound in a Martian meteorite , ALH 84001, indicating that there could have been life on Mars. It was for this reason that Nasa is downplaying all talk of a major discovery by Curiosity.

After launch on November 26,2011, Curiosity touchdown on the Red Planet's Gale Crater after a nail biting manoeuvre at 11 a m (IST) on August 6,2012.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 29 November 2012 | 22.10

PTI Nov 25, 2012, 06.55PM IST

(New 'temperature-tolerant…)

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Autism reversible if detected early: Expert

Padmini Sivarajah, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.14AM IST

MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.

Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.

Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.

Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.

The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.

Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.

What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.

Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.

"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.

Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.

These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.

Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.

Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.

She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Has Curiosity found proof of life on Mars?

Srinivas Laxman, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.54AM IST

MUMBAI: Has Nasa's 900-kg Mars rover, Curiosity attained a major scientific breakthrough?

Just on the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity mission which is on November 26, 2012, is the buzz that it could have possibly found evidence that conditions existed in the Red Planet which could have supported microbial life.

Right now it seems pure speculation, but the theory is gathering weight following a recent remark made by none other than the mission's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, to the US National Public Radio saying, "We're getting data from the Sample Analysis At Mars (SAM) instrument and is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,'' he said. SAM is a miniature chemistry laboratory having the capability to analyse the contents of Martian soil and rocks.

Grotzinger declined to spell out the specifics saying that there would be no official announcement for several weeks since the data has to be rechecked and revalidated so that there was no slip this time. Indications are that there could be an announcement sometime between December 3 and 7, 2012 during a scientific meeting at San Fransisco.

He further added that the announcement regarding the discovery is also being delayed because scientists want to ensure that SAM was not measuring air brought along from Cape Canaveral in Florida during the MSL launch on November 26, 2011.

There is also a rule which stipulates that scientists cannot discuss their research until it is a officially published. This time, moreover , the scientific community is exercising considerable caution keeping in view the fiasco and controversy caused by the sensational announcement in August 1996 about finding organic compound in a Martian meteorite , ALH 84001, indicating that there could have been life on Mars. It was for this reason that Nasa is downplaying all talk of a major discovery by Curiosity.

After launch on November 26,2011, Curiosity touchdown on the Red Planet's Gale Crater after a nail biting manoeuvre at 11 a m (IST) on August 6,2012.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 28 November 2012 | 22.10

PTI Nov 25, 2012, 06.55PM IST

(New 'temperature-tolerant…)

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Autism reversible if detected early: Expert

Padmini Sivarajah, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.14AM IST

MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.

Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.

Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.

Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.

The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.

Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.

What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.

Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.

"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.

Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.

These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.

Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.

Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.

She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Has Curiosity found proof of life on Mars?

Srinivas Laxman, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.54AM IST

MUMBAI: Has Nasa's 900-kg Mars rover, Curiosity attained a major scientific breakthrough?

Just on the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity mission which is on November 26, 2012, is the buzz that it could have possibly found evidence that conditions existed in the Red Planet which could have supported microbial life.

Right now it seems pure speculation, but the theory is gathering weight following a recent remark made by none other than the mission's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, to the US National Public Radio saying, "We're getting data from the Sample Analysis At Mars (SAM) instrument and is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,'' he said. SAM is a miniature chemistry laboratory having the capability to analyse the contents of Martian soil and rocks.

Grotzinger declined to spell out the specifics saying that there would be no official announcement for several weeks since the data has to be rechecked and revalidated so that there was no slip this time. Indications are that there could be an announcement sometime between December 3 and 7, 2012 during a scientific meeting at San Fransisco.

He further added that the announcement regarding the discovery is also being delayed because scientists want to ensure that SAM was not measuring air brought along from Cape Canaveral in Florida during the MSL launch on November 26, 2011.

There is also a rule which stipulates that scientists cannot discuss their research until it is a officially published. This time, moreover , the scientific community is exercising considerable caution keeping in view the fiasco and controversy caused by the sensational announcement in August 1996 about finding organic compound in a Martian meteorite , ALH 84001, indicating that there could have been life on Mars. It was for this reason that Nasa is downplaying all talk of a major discovery by Curiosity.

After launch on November 26,2011, Curiosity touchdown on the Red Planet's Gale Crater after a nail biting manoeuvre at 11 a m (IST) on August 6,2012.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 27 November 2012 | 22.10

PTI Nov 25, 2012, 06.55PM IST

(New 'temperature-tolerant…)

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Autism reversible if detected early: Expert

Padmini Sivarajah, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.14AM IST

MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.

Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.

Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.

Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.

The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.

Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.

What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.

Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.

"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.

Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.

These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.

Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.

Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.

She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Has Curiosity found proof of life on Mars?

Srinivas Laxman, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.54AM IST

MUMBAI: Has Nasa's 900-kg Mars rover, Curiosity attained a major scientific breakthrough?

Just on the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity mission which is on November 26, 2012, is the buzz that it could have possibly found evidence that conditions existed in the Red Planet which could have supported microbial life.

Right now it seems pure speculation, but the theory is gathering weight following a recent remark made by none other than the mission's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, to the US National Public Radio saying, "We're getting data from the Sample Analysis At Mars (SAM) instrument and is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,'' he said. SAM is a miniature chemistry laboratory having the capability to analyse the contents of Martian soil and rocks.

Grotzinger declined to spell out the specifics saying that there would be no official announcement for several weeks since the data has to be rechecked and revalidated so that there was no slip this time. Indications are that there could be an announcement sometime between December 3 and 7, 2012 during a scientific meeting at San Fransisco.

He further added that the announcement regarding the discovery is also being delayed because scientists want to ensure that SAM was not measuring air brought along from Cape Canaveral in Florida during the MSL launch on November 26, 2011.

There is also a rule which stipulates that scientists cannot discuss their research until it is a officially published. This time, moreover , the scientific community is exercising considerable caution keeping in view the fiasco and controversy caused by the sensational announcement in August 1996 about finding organic compound in a Martian meteorite , ALH 84001, indicating that there could have been life on Mars. It was for this reason that Nasa is downplaying all talk of a major discovery by Curiosity.

After launch on November 26,2011, Curiosity touchdown on the Red Planet's Gale Crater after a nail biting manoeuvre at 11 a m (IST) on August 6,2012.


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New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

Written By Unknown on Senin, 26 November 2012 | 22.10

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


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Autism reversible if detected early: Expert

MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.

Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.

Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.

Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.

The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.

Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.

What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.

Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.

"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.

Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.

These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.

Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.

Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.

She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.


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Has Curiosity found proof of life on Mars?

MUMBAI: Has Nasa's 900-kg Mars rover, Curiosity attained a major scientific breakthrough?

Just on the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity mission which is on November 26, 2012, is the buzz that it could have possibly found evidence that conditions existed in the Red Planet which could have supported microbial life.

Right now it seems pure speculation, but the theory is gathering weight following a recent remark made by none other than the mission's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, to the US National Public Radio saying, "We're getting data from the Sample Analysis At Mars (SAM) instrument and is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,'' he said. SAM is a miniature chemistry laboratory having the capability to analyse the contents of Martian soil and rocks.

Grotzinger declined to spell out the specifics saying that there would be no official announcement for several weeks since the data has to be rechecked and revalidated so that there was no slip this time. Indications are that there could be an announcement sometime between December 3 and 7, 2012 during a scientific meeting at San Fransisco.

He further added that the announcement regarding the discovery is also being delayed because scientists want to ensure that SAM was not measuring air brought along from Cape Canaveral in Florida during the MSL launch on November 26, 2011.

There is also a rule which stipulates that scientists cannot discuss their research until it is a officially published. This time, moreover , the scientific community is exercising considerable caution keeping in view the fiasco and controversy caused by the sensational announcement in August 1996 about finding organic compound in a Martian meteorite , ALH 84001, indicating that there could have been life on Mars. It was for this reason that Nasa is downplaying all talk of a major discovery by Curiosity.

After launch on November 26,2011, Curiosity touchdown on the Red Planet's Gale Crater after a nail biting manoeuvre at 11 a m (IST) on August 6,2012.


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Children born in summer are behind peers in maths: Study

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 25 November 2012 | 22.10

LONDON: Children born in summer lag behind their classmates when it comes to maths, a new UK study has claimed.

Many summer born children are around 13 months behind the average for their year group in maths, according to the report produced by Every Child a Chance Trust.

Researchers studied 47,237 six and seven-year-olds who were among the weakest in their class in terms of numeracy.

They found that children born between May and August are around a third more likely to need extra numeracy tuition, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Children who struggled with maths were 35 per cent more likely to have been born between May 1 and August 31 and were more likely to be boys than girls.

The struggling pupils were also 35 per cent more likely to be from an ethnic minority and 50 per cent more likely to speak English as an additional language.

The study also found that with a short but intense tutoring scheme struggling children can catch up with their peers.

After just 3.7 months of support, the children made average gains of 15.7 months.

Children who were tutored in pairs and groups of three appeared to make just as much progress as those taught on a one-to-one basis.


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Ancient yogic practise used as stress-buster

DEHRADUN: The age-old yogic meditation Yog Nidra is top on the advice list of yoga teachers and psychologists for physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals leading a stressful life, says a new study.

"Yog Nidra has emerged as the best-known technique all over the world to induce complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation," says the study carried out by Haridwar- based Dev Sanskriti University.

It says yoga teachers and psychologists in India and abroad are prescribing the ancient practice as the best method of physical, mental and emotional healing in today's fast-paced and stressful lifestyle. It is practised in the flat lying position of 'Shavasana' and follows the spoken instruction of Yoga instructor. The practice includes resolve, body part awareness, breath awareness and visualisation.

The results of the study, conducted by well-known author in the area of yogic science Kamakhya Kumar, show that Yog Nidra positively decreases stress levels in both males and females. Yoga Nidra can be defined as a self-induced state of altered consciousness, which is neither total sleep nor total wakefulness, says the research. "It is a state of awakened sleep, a state of conscious sleep induced by oneself through complete relaxation of the mind in which it can record what is going on not just on the conscious level but also on the sub-conscious," it says.

Quoting from related studies carried out in the field by the University of Tel Aviv (Israel), the study says the yogic practise significantly lowered levels of serum cholesterol in cardiac patients in that country. Even otherwise, the value of the practice of yogic relaxation in prevention of cardiovascular disease has been fairly well recognised and accepted, Pro-vice Chancellor of Dev Sanskriti University Chinmay Pandya told PTI.

Gayatri Chetna Kendras set up in Russia, US, South Africa and Australia by Vedmata Gayatri Trust headquartered in Haridwar, are teaching hundreds of people to practise Yog Nidra with great results, he said.


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New Cadbury chocolates that dont melt even at 40 degrees celsius

LONDON: New 'temperature-tolerant chocolates' that don't melt even at 40 degree Celsius have been developed by confectionery giant Cadbury, which will soon be available in hot-weather countries like India.

Scientists at Cadbury's research and development plant in Bourneville, in the UK said the new chocolate bars stay completely solid even when exposed to temperatures of 40 degree Celsius for more than three hours.

Cadbury engineers have set out the method for making breakthrough "temperature-tolerant chocolate" in an 8,000-word patent application, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

While standard chocolate has a melting point of 34 degree Celsius, the new bars are ideal for warmer weather. The new recipe will be available in hot countries, likely to include India and Brazil.

The secret to the new bars is a change in the so-called 'conching step' - where a container filled with metal beads grinds the ingredients, which usually include cocoa butter, vegetable oils, milk and sugar.

Cadbury has developed a way of breaking down sugar particles into smaller pieces, reducing how much fat covers them and making the bar more resistant to heat.

"We have found that it is possible to instill temperature-tolerant properties by refining the conched chocolate after the conching step," Cadbury said in its patent application.

"Production of temperature-tolerant chocolate would allow production of chocolate-containing product more suitable for hot climates, particularly in less economically developed countries where the supply chain is ill-equipped to handle temperature fluctuations," it said.

However, professional chocolatiers are unimpressed with Cadbury's new invention, claiming it would not taste as good as original chocolate.

The company also admitted that the new bars would not have the same melt-in-the-mouth quality as normal chocolates, the report said.


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'Star Trek' desks boost math skills

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 24 November 2012 | 22.10

LONDON: Researchers are designing new interactive multi-touch 'smart' desk classrooms which have been found to boost pupils' mathematical skills. Using multi-user desks in the the "classroom of the future" the children were able to work together in new ways to solve questions and problems using inventive solutions.

Results from a 3-year project by the Durham University who worked with over 400 pupils, mostly 8-10 year olds, show that collaborative learning increases both fluency and flexibility in math.

It also shows that using an interactive 'smart' desk can have benefits over doing mathematics on paper. The 'Star Trek classroom' could also help learning and teaching in other subjects.

Seeing what your friends are doing, and being able to fully participate in group activities, offers new ways of working in class, the researchers say. The findings published in the journal Learning and Instruction, show that children using these SynergyNet classrooms improve in both mathematical flexibility and fluency, while children working on traditional paper-based activities only improve in flexibility.

Researchers found that 45% of students who used the desks increased in the number of unique mathematical expressions they created, compared to 16% in the traditional paper-based activity.

"Our aim was to encourage far higher levels of active student engagement, where knowledge is obtained by sharing, problem-solving and creating, rather than by passive listening. This classroom enables both active engagement and equal access," lead researcher, Liz Burd, said.

"We found our tables encouraged students to collaborate more effectively. We were delighted to observe groups of students enhancing others' understanding of mathematical concepts. Such collaboration just did not happen when students used paper-based approaches," said Burd.

Researchers designed software and desks that recognize multiple touches on the desktop using vision systems that see infrared light.


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Drinking tea can cut ovarian cancer risk in old age: Study

LONDON: A lifetime of tea drinking can significantly reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in old age, a study has found.

Health experts carried out a two-year study of 1,000 women with an average age of 59.

Half were diagnosed with ovarian cancer while 500 were free of the disease.

The researchers discovered that those women without cancer were more likely to be tea drinkers from an earlier age than those diagnosed with the illness, the Daily Express reported.

Flavonoids, powerful compounds with strong disease-fighting properties, were found in black tea in particular, according to the study at the School of Public Health, Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

"Tea consumption should be encouraged because of the potential benefit in preventing this common and deadly disease," study co-author Dr Andy Lee said.

Ovarian cancer affects around 7,000 women a year in the UK.


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Madras atomic plant to reach rated capacity in six months

CHENNAI: With the supply of fuel likely to improve in six months, the Madras Atomic Power Station's (MAPS) two atomic power reactors would be able to achieve their rated capacity, said a senior official.

"We are now generating 350 MW (first unit 180 MW, second unit 170 MW). There is no shortage of fuel for this level of power generation. In six months time, we hope the fuel supply position to improve so that both the units can operate at their optimum capacity which is 220 MW each," T J Kotteeswaran, station director told IANS.

The two pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) of MPAS, belonging to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), are located at Kalpakkam, around 70 km from here.

Kotteeswaran said fuel supplies are expected to improve next year from the uranium mine in Tumalapalli in Andhra Pradesh.

According to him, the difference between the generation and the two reactors' rated capacity is just 90 MW which could be easily bridged.

Meanwhile, MAPS will shutdown its second unit for around 35 days for bi-annual maintenance.

"We plan to shut down the second unit sometime next Jan/Feb for bi-annual maintenance. Certain things have to be done only when the reactor is shut down," Kotteeswaran added.


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Specs that can prevent jet lag, cure insomnia

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 23 November 2012 | 22.10

LONDON: In a good news for frequent flyers, researchers have developed new 'time-control ' spectacles which they claim reset the body clock to overcome jet lag and insomnia.

The high-tech glasses emit a soft green glow which works on the human body clock to change our sleep patterns. Using the device, called the Re-Timer , means long-haul air passengers can step off the plane feeling fresh, even after flying over long distances, say the sleep researchers who created it.

Inventor of the glasses, professor Leon Lack said the glasses could also help insomnia sufferers, keep shift workers more alert and get teenagers out of bed in the morning, the 'Daily Mail' reported. "The light from Re-Timer stimulates the part of the brain responsible for regulating the 24-hour body clock.

"Using a light device allows you to transition your body clock to a new time zone in small steps. This eliminates the sudden change people experience after flying and reduces the symptoms of jet lag," said Lack from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. Scientists say the light exposure changes the behaviour of a gland at the base of the brain which controls the body clock.

It sends signals to the rest of the body, triggering the production of hormones, which create daily cycles known as circadian rhythms. Those who want to sleep and wake up early should wear the device for 50 minutes in the morning, while those who want to sleep and wake late should wear them for 50 minutes before bed to delay the body clock. The battery powered glasses, on sale in the UK for £162, can be worn while completing daily tasks.


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New tech to help government eavesdrop on Skype chats?

LONDON: New eavesdropping technology could allow government agencies to 'silently record' conversations on internet chat services like Skype. Until now, so called voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services have been difficult to tap into, because of the way they send information over the web.

The services convert analogue audio signals into digital data packets, which are then sent in a way that is costly and complex for third parties to intercept, the 'Daily Mail' reported. But now a California businessman has obtained a patent for a 'legal intercept' technology he said "would allow governments to silently record" VoIP communications".

Dennis Chang, president of VoIP-PAL , a chat service similar to Skype, claims his system would allow authorities to identify and monitor suspects merely by accessing their username and subscriber data. According to the patent, they could also be tracked down by billing records that associate names and addresses with usernames.

This would make not only audio conversations but 'any other data streams such as pure data and/or video or multimedia data' open for interception.

A 'smart bag' to charge all gadgets

Researchers claim to have developed the 'world's first smart bag' that can charge your electronic devices like mobiles and laptops besides storing them. A Kickstarter project is helping to raise funds for the bag called 'Phorce' , website Mashable reported. The bag has a waterproof shell and specially designed pockets to safely hold all the big tablets on the market.


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This dwarf planet has no atmosphere

LONDON: Astronomers have discovered that a distant dwarf planet, about two thirds the size of Pluto, lacks atmosphere. The planet 'Makemake' travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies beyond that of Pluto but closer to the Sun than Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the solar system.

Previous observations of chilly Makemake have shown it to be similar to its fellow dwarf planets, leading some astronomers to expect its atmosphere, if present, to be similar to that of Pluto.

But astronomers led by Jose Luis Ortiz (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC, Spain) in a new study have found that like Eris, Makemake is not surrounded by a significant atmosphere. The team combined multiple observations using three telescopes at European Southern Observatory's La Silla and Paranal observing sites in Chile — the Very Large Telescope, New Technology Telescope, and TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope ) — with data from other small telescopes in South America , to look at Makemake as it passed in front of a distant star.

"As Makemake passed in front of the star and blocked it out, the star disappeared and reappeared very abruptly, rather than fading and brightening gradually. This means that the little dwarf planet has no significant atmospher," said Jose Luis Ortiz. "It was thought that Makemake had a good chance of having developed an atmosphere — that it has no sign of one at all shows just how much we have yet to learn about these mysterious bodies. Finding out about Makemake's properties for the first time is a big step forward in our study of select club of icy dwarf planets," Ortiz said.

The team's new observations add much more detail to the view of Makemake — determining its size more accurately , putting constraints on a possible atmosphere and estimating the dwarf planet's density for the first time.


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Why parrots mimic others' sounds

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 22 November 2012 | 22.10

WASHINGTON: Parrots have exceptional abilities to mimic the sounds they hear.

One species, the orange-fronted conure, may have evolved this ability in order to communicate with specific individuals in other flocks, according to Thorsten Balsby from the University of Aarhus, Denmark and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen.

In the wild, orange-fronted conures live in dynamic flocks where individuals flit in and out, so each parrot encounters many different individuals every day.

Each animal also has its own unique call. Both in the wild and in the researcher's experiments, parrots that heard an imitation of their own calls responded more frequently and faster to the calling individual than parrots that did not hear this imitation.

Based on these observations, the researchers suggested that the parrots may have evolved their abilities as mimics so they could 'begin a conversation' with a specific individual by mimicking their call.

The study has been published in the open access journal PLOS ONE.


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4D scans show fetuses yawn in the womb, say scientists

LONDON: Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too.

Researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses also said they think yawning is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors a new way to check on a baby's health.

While some scientists have previously suggested that fetuses yawn, others disagree and say it is nothing more than a developing baby opening and stretching its mouth.

But writing in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday, British researchers said their study was able to clearly distinguish yawning from "non-yawn mouth opening" based on how long the mouth was open.

The researchers did this by using 4D video footage to examine all the times when fetuses opened their mouths.

Nadja Reissland of Durham University's department of Psychology, who led the study, said the function and importance of yawning in fetuses is still unknown, but the findings suggest it may be linked to fetal development and could provide a further indication of the health of the unborn baby.

"Unlike us, fetuses do not yawn contagiously, nor do they yawn because they are sleepy," she said. "Instead, the frequency of yawning in the womb may be linked to the maturing of the brain early in gestation."

The study was carried out on eight female and seven male fetuses from 24 to 36 weeks gestation. The researchers found that yawning declined from 28 weeks and that there was no significant difference in how often boys and girls yawned.


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Japan's new nuclear-proof robot gets stage fright

YOKOHAMA: A Japanese robot designed to withstand high levels of radiation and extreme heat at damaged nuclear plants such as Fukushima froze on Wednesday on its first public demonstration.

Despite being home to the largest number of industrial robots in the world, Japan did not have a device capable of entering the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Instead, Japan brought in U.S. robots to survey the extent of the damage inside the reactor buildings.

Toshiba Corp unveiled Japan's own nuclear-proof robot on Wednesday, a four-legged device able to carry up to 20 kg of equipment and capable of lifting itself up if it falls over on uneven surfaces and amid debris.

During the demonstration, the robot experienced a case of stage fright. The shuffling Tetrapod locked up and suddenly froze after it tried to balance itself, forcing technicians to carry it away.

It is the second time such Japanese robotic technology has experienced problems. Last October, a crawling robot developed by the Chiba Institute of Technology lost connection with operators and was abandoned inside Fukushima's No. 2 reactor building.


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This planet is 13 times as big as Jupiter

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 21 November 2012 | 22.10

WASHINGTON: Astronomers have discovered a new 'super-Jupiter' planet, 13 times bigger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our own solar system. The planet orbits a star called Kappa Andromedae that is 2.5 times the mass of the Sun and is located 170 light-years away from Earth.

As the giant planet discovered is larger than Jupiter , it has classified as a "super-Jupiter".

Astrophysicists at the University of Toronto say the object, which could represent the first new observed exoplanet system in almost four years, has a mass at least 13 times that of Jupiter and an orbit somewhat larger than Neptune's.

The host star around which the planet orbits has a mass 2.5 times that of the Sun, making it the highest mass star to ever host a directly observed planet.

"Our research team identified a faint object located very close to Kappa Andromedae in January that looks much like other young, massive directly imaged planets but does not look like a star," said researcher Thayne Currie.


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Muscular teens likely to live longer: Study

LONDON: Boys, please take note! How muscular you are as a teenager may predict how long you live, a study has found.

Swedish experts who tracked more than a million teenage boys for 24 years found those with low muscle strength - weaker leg and arm muscles and a limp grip - were at increased risk of early death, the BBC reported.

The team behind the BMJ study believe muscle strength reflects general fitness, which would explain the link.

Experts stress that the findings do not mean muscle building makes you live longer.

The effect of poor muscular fitness in those tracked was similar to well established risk factors for early death, such as obesity and high blood pressure.

When the researchers took into account these better known risk factors, they found the link between early death and muscle power remained.

Thin and fat men alike fared worse in terms of life expectancy if they had weaker than average muscles, while more burly men had better survival odds even if they were overweight.

Over the course of the study, 26,145 (2.3 percent) of the men died. The leading single cause of death was accidental injury, followed by suicide, cancer, heart disease and stroke.

A third of the deaths were due to other causes and the researchers grouped these together for their calculations.

The teenagers who scored above average on muscular strength at the start of the study had a 20-35 percent lower risk of early death from any cause and also from cardiovascular diseases.

They also had a 20-30 percent lower risk of early death from suicide and were up to 65 percent less likely to have any psychiatric diagnosis, such as schizophrenia or depression.

In comparison, the 16- to 19-year-olds with the lowest level of muscular strength had the highest risk of dying before they reached their mid-50s.

The teenagers, who were all conscripts to the Swedish military, were asked to grip and to do some leg curls and arm push ups against resistance to measure muscle strength.

"The benefits of being physically active at any age are well established with studies showing it can prevent children from developing diseases later on in life, as well as improving their concentration at school, their overall mental health and well-being," a spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said.


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Sleeping pill increases risk of falling and getting hurt: Study

NEW DELHI: Sleeping pills may increase the chances of falling and getting hurting, a new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine says. Sleep specialists from the Mayo Clinic found that the fall rate among the 4,962 patients who took the commonly prescribed sedative zolpidem during their hospital stay was more than four times as high as the 11,358 who did not take the drug.

"Ensuring that people get enough sleep during their hospital stay is very important, but it can also prove very challenging," says the Clinic's Chief Patient Safety Officer Dr. Timothy I. Morgenthaler, who specializes in sleep disorders and pulmonary and critical care.

They also found that the risk posed by the drug was greater than the risks posed by factors such as age, cognitive impairment, delirium or insomnia, regardless of the dosage used.

Falling down is one of the most common injuries suffered, especially by the elderly. Each year, one in every three adults age 65 and older falls, according to the Centers for Disease Control in the US. Falls can cause moderate to severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head injuries, and can increase the risk of early death. Among senior citizens (those 65 or older), falls are the leading cause of injury death and the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma, according to studies.

CDC data from US shows that in 2010, 2.3 million nonfatal fall injuries among older adults were treated in emergency departments. Direct medical costs of falls, adjusted for inflation, was $30.0 billion.

The researchers reported that they studied 16,320 patients admitted to hospitals in 2010, of which just under 39 percent were prescribed zolpidem. Most of the prescriptions were "as needed basis".

Zolpidem was administered to 30.4 percent of patients who were prescribed it and to 11.8 percent of all Mayo Clinic admissions in 2010. Just over three percent of the patients on zolpidem fell during their in-patient hospital stay, compared with 0.7 percent of the patients who did not take the drug. Zolipdem use continued to be associated with an increased fall risk when other key factors, including health, length of hospital stay and assessed fall risk, were taken into consideration.

"Our hospitals have an overall fall rate of about 2.5 per 1000 patient days, which is lower than many national benchmarks. However, we have not been able to significantly reduce this rate in recent years. Now, we calculate that for every 55 patients who received zolpidem, there was one additional fall that may have been avoided by not administering the drug," says Dr. Morgenthaler.

As a result of our study, the doctors are now phasing out zolpidem and moving toward sleep enhancement techniques that are not based on drugs and which they believe are safer and probably as effective, he added.

"Discovering that zolpidem, which is commonly used in hospitals, is a significant risk factor for patient falls provides us with additional knowledge to help tackle this problem."


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Within two months, a new record for most distant galaxy: Nasa

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 20 November 2012 | 22.10

Subodh Varma, TNN Nov 16, 2012, 02.49PM IST

NEW DELHI: The record for the most distant galaxy from Earth has been broken just two months after it was set. What appeared as a tiny blob to Nasa scientists turned out to be a small infant galaxy 13.3 billion light years away, Nasa said in a statement yesterday. Since the Universe itself is 13.7 billion years old, this means that the newly discovered galaxy was just 420 million years old when the light that scientists saw, left it. So, it also becomes the oldest known galaxy. Currently, it is known as MACS0647-JD.

The previous record was set in September this year when the same team discovered a galaxy 13.2 billion light years away. It was 490 million old.

Scientists are now able to discover these uber-distant objects by combining the power of Nasa's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space. Light from very distant objects gets magnified by the gravity of massive galaxies that happen to be in its way. This effect is called "gravitational lensing".

This find is the latest discovery from a program called Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), an international group led by Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Along the way, 8 billion years into its journey, light from MACS0647-JD took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015. Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. Because of gravitational lensing, the CLASH research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope.

"This cluster does what no man-made telescope can do," said Postman. "Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy."

The newly discovered most distant galaxy is so small it may be in the first steps of forming a larger galaxy, Nasa said. Analysis shows the galaxy is less than 600 light-years wide. Based on observations of somewhat closer galaxies, astronomers estimate that a typical galaxy of a similar age should be about 2,000 light-years wide. For comparison, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy companion to the Milky Way, is 14,000 light-years wide. Our Milky Way is 150,000 light-years across.

"This object may be one of many building blocks of a galaxy," said the study's lead author, Dan Coe of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "Over the next 13 billion years, it may have dozens, hundreds or even thousands of merging events with other galaxies and galaxy fragments."

Coe and his collaborators spent months systematically ruling out these other alternative explanations for the object's identity, including red stars, brown dwarfs and red (old or dusty) galaxies at intermediate distances from Earth. They concluded that a very distant galaxy was the correct explanation.

The new galaxy may be too far away for any current telescope to confirm the distance based on spectroscopy, which spreads out an object's light into thousands of colors, Nasa said. Nevertheless, Coe is confident the fledgling galaxy is the new distance champion based on its unique colors and the research team's extensive analysis.


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Man began spear-hunting 200,000 years earlier than believed

PTI Nov 16, 2012, 08.57PM IST

(This undated image provided…)

LONDON: Man began hunting with stone-tipped spears half a million years ago â€" 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago â€" with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok, the Daily Mail reported.

Until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear â€" known as 'hafting' â€" started about 300,000 years ago.

However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting.

'Hafting' was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control.

Lead author Jayne Wilkins from the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals.

"This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species," she said.

"Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species," she added.

Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools require more effort and planning to manufacture, but a sharp stone point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power.

The new study â€" which examined stone points from the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 â€" shows that they were also used in the early middle pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis, the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, and modern humans.

Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the University of Cape Town, compared the ancient stone points to experimental points which they hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew before thrusting them into a springbok with a mounted crossbow.

The stone points exhibit certain types of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears compared to other uses.

"The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," Wilkins said.

This type of damage is not easily created through other processes, she added.

The findings were published in the journal Science.


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After a month, Curiosity set to hit the road again

Agencies Nov 17, 2012, 06.37AM IST

LOS ANGELES: After playing in the sand, the Curiosity rover is poised to trek across the Martian landscape in search of a rock to drill into , scientists reported.
The six-wheel rover has been parked for more than a month at a sand dune where it has been busy scooping up soil, sniffing the atmosphere and measuring radiation levels on the surface. Its next task is to zero in on a rock and that requires driving to a new location.

Mission deputy scientist Ashwin Vasavada expected Curiosity to be on the move in the "next few days" . "It's the bedrock which really gives you the story of ancient Mars," said Vasavada of the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission. "The soil is a little harder to interpret because we don't know how old it is or where it came from."

The car-size rover touched down in Gale Crater, an ancient depression near the Martian equator, in August on a two-year mission to probe whether the landing site once had conditions capable of supporting microbial life. Armed with a high-tech suite of instruments, it's the most sophisticated spacecraft to ever land on the red planet.

During the first three months, a weather station aboard Curiosity detected brief drops in air pressure , a sign of whirlwinds in the region. "These events are starting to occur more and more often," said Manuel de la Torre Juarez of Nasa JPL. "We expect to see more in the future."

Previous rovers have spotted and even recorded dust devils dancing across the Martian terrain , but scientists said Curiosity has not yet seen evidence that the swirling winds have lifted dust.

Curiosity's ultimate destination is a 5km-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor that's rich in mineral deposits. Scientists had hoped to drive to the base before the end of the year, but that doesn't look likely after the extended stay at its current spot.

Google has updated its coverage of Mars with high resolution images from a Nasa satellite orbiting the planet, as part of their freely downloadable Google Earth app. The Google Earth app has showed Mars since 2009, but up until now most areas of the red planet could only be seen in low-resolution .

Google Mars updated large amounts of the planet's surface with images from the Context Camera (CTX) on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with a resolution of around 20ft per pixel, the Daily Mail reported.


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Within two months, a new record for most distant galaxy: Nasa

Written By Unknown on Senin, 19 November 2012 | 22.10

Subodh Varma, TNN Nov 16, 2012, 02.49PM IST

NEW DELHI: The record for the most distant galaxy from Earth has been broken just two months after it was set. What appeared as a tiny blob to Nasa scientists turned out to be a small infant galaxy 13.3 billion light years away, Nasa said in a statement yesterday. Since the Universe itself is 13.7 billion years old, this means that the newly discovered galaxy was just 420 million years old when the light that scientists saw, left it. So, it also becomes the oldest known galaxy. Currently, it is known as MACS0647-JD.

The previous record was set in September this year when the same team discovered a galaxy 13.2 billion light years away. It was 490 million old.

Scientists are now able to discover these uber-distant objects by combining the power of Nasa's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space. Light from very distant objects gets magnified by the gravity of massive galaxies that happen to be in its way. This effect is called "gravitational lensing".

This find is the latest discovery from a program called Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), an international group led by Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Along the way, 8 billion years into its journey, light from MACS0647-JD took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015. Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. Because of gravitational lensing, the CLASH research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope.

"This cluster does what no man-made telescope can do," said Postman. "Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy."

The newly discovered most distant galaxy is so small it may be in the first steps of forming a larger galaxy, Nasa said. Analysis shows the galaxy is less than 600 light-years wide. Based on observations of somewhat closer galaxies, astronomers estimate that a typical galaxy of a similar age should be about 2,000 light-years wide. For comparison, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy companion to the Milky Way, is 14,000 light-years wide. Our Milky Way is 150,000 light-years across.

"This object may be one of many building blocks of a galaxy," said the study's lead author, Dan Coe of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "Over the next 13 billion years, it may have dozens, hundreds or even thousands of merging events with other galaxies and galaxy fragments."

Coe and his collaborators spent months systematically ruling out these other alternative explanations for the object's identity, including red stars, brown dwarfs and red (old or dusty) galaxies at intermediate distances from Earth. They concluded that a very distant galaxy was the correct explanation.

The new galaxy may be too far away for any current telescope to confirm the distance based on spectroscopy, which spreads out an object's light into thousands of colors, Nasa said. Nevertheless, Coe is confident the fledgling galaxy is the new distance champion based on its unique colors and the research team's extensive analysis.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man began spear-hunting 200,000 years earlier than believed

PTI Nov 16, 2012, 08.57PM IST

(This undated image provided…)

LONDON: Man began hunting with stone-tipped spears half a million years ago â€" 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago â€" with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok, the Daily Mail reported.

Until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear â€" known as 'hafting' â€" started about 300,000 years ago.

However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting.

'Hafting' was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control.

Lead author Jayne Wilkins from the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals.

"This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species," she said.

"Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species," she added.

Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools require more effort and planning to manufacture, but a sharp stone point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power.

The new study â€" which examined stone points from the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 â€" shows that they were also used in the early middle pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis, the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, and modern humans.

Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the University of Cape Town, compared the ancient stone points to experimental points which they hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew before thrusting them into a springbok with a mounted crossbow.

The stone points exhibit certain types of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears compared to other uses.

"The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," Wilkins said.

This type of damage is not easily created through other processes, she added.

The findings were published in the journal Science.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

After a month, Curiosity set to hit the road again

Agencies Nov 17, 2012, 06.37AM IST

LOS ANGELES: After playing in the sand, the Curiosity rover is poised to trek across the Martian landscape in search of a rock to drill into , scientists reported.
The six-wheel rover has been parked for more than a month at a sand dune where it has been busy scooping up soil, sniffing the atmosphere and measuring radiation levels on the surface. Its next task is to zero in on a rock and that requires driving to a new location.

Mission deputy scientist Ashwin Vasavada expected Curiosity to be on the move in the "next few days" . "It's the bedrock which really gives you the story of ancient Mars," said Vasavada of the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission. "The soil is a little harder to interpret because we don't know how old it is or where it came from."

The car-size rover touched down in Gale Crater, an ancient depression near the Martian equator, in August on a two-year mission to probe whether the landing site once had conditions capable of supporting microbial life. Armed with a high-tech suite of instruments, it's the most sophisticated spacecraft to ever land on the red planet.

During the first three months, a weather station aboard Curiosity detected brief drops in air pressure , a sign of whirlwinds in the region. "These events are starting to occur more and more often," said Manuel de la Torre Juarez of Nasa JPL. "We expect to see more in the future."

Previous rovers have spotted and even recorded dust devils dancing across the Martian terrain , but scientists said Curiosity has not yet seen evidence that the swirling winds have lifted dust.

Curiosity's ultimate destination is a 5km-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor that's rich in mineral deposits. Scientists had hoped to drive to the base before the end of the year, but that doesn't look likely after the extended stay at its current spot.

Google has updated its coverage of Mars with high resolution images from a Nasa satellite orbiting the planet, as part of their freely downloadable Google Earth app. The Google Earth app has showed Mars since 2009, but up until now most areas of the red planet could only be seen in low-resolution .

Google Mars updated large amounts of the planet's surface with images from the Context Camera (CTX) on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with a resolution of around 20ft per pixel, the Daily Mail reported.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Within two months, a new record for most distant galaxy: Nasa

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 18 November 2012 | 22.10

Subodh Varma, TNN Nov 16, 2012, 02.49PM IST

NEW DELHI: The record for the most distant galaxy from Earth has been broken just two months after it was set. What appeared as a tiny blob to Nasa scientists turned out to be a small infant galaxy 13.3 billion light years away, Nasa said in a statement yesterday. Since the Universe itself is 13.7 billion years old, this means that the newly discovered galaxy was just 420 million years old when the light that scientists saw, left it. So, it also becomes the oldest known galaxy. Currently, it is known as MACS0647-JD.

The previous record was set in September this year when the same team discovered a galaxy 13.2 billion light years away. It was 490 million old.

Scientists are now able to discover these uber-distant objects by combining the power of Nasa's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space. Light from very distant objects gets magnified by the gravity of massive galaxies that happen to be in its way. This effect is called "gravitational lensing".

This find is the latest discovery from a program called Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), an international group led by Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Along the way, 8 billion years into its journey, light from MACS0647-JD took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015. Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. Because of gravitational lensing, the CLASH research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope.

"This cluster does what no man-made telescope can do," said Postman. "Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy."

The newly discovered most distant galaxy is so small it may be in the first steps of forming a larger galaxy, Nasa said. Analysis shows the galaxy is less than 600 light-years wide. Based on observations of somewhat closer galaxies, astronomers estimate that a typical galaxy of a similar age should be about 2,000 light-years wide. For comparison, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy companion to the Milky Way, is 14,000 light-years wide. Our Milky Way is 150,000 light-years across.

"This object may be one of many building blocks of a galaxy," said the study's lead author, Dan Coe of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "Over the next 13 billion years, it may have dozens, hundreds or even thousands of merging events with other galaxies and galaxy fragments."

Coe and his collaborators spent months systematically ruling out these other alternative explanations for the object's identity, including red stars, brown dwarfs and red (old or dusty) galaxies at intermediate distances from Earth. They concluded that a very distant galaxy was the correct explanation.

The new galaxy may be too far away for any current telescope to confirm the distance based on spectroscopy, which spreads out an object's light into thousands of colors, Nasa said. Nevertheless, Coe is confident the fledgling galaxy is the new distance champion based on its unique colors and the research team's extensive analysis.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man began spear-hunting 200,000 years earlier than believed

PTI Nov 16, 2012, 08.57PM IST

(This undated image provided…)

LONDON: Man began hunting with stone-tipped spears half a million years ago â€" 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago â€" with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok, the Daily Mail reported.

Until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear â€" known as 'hafting' â€" started about 300,000 years ago.

However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting.

'Hafting' was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control.

Lead author Jayne Wilkins from the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals.

"This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species," she said.

"Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species," she added.

Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools require more effort and planning to manufacture, but a sharp stone point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power.

The new study â€" which examined stone points from the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 â€" shows that they were also used in the early middle pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis, the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, and modern humans.

Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the University of Cape Town, compared the ancient stone points to experimental points which they hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew before thrusting them into a springbok with a mounted crossbow.

The stone points exhibit certain types of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears compared to other uses.

"The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," Wilkins said.

This type of damage is not easily created through other processes, she added.

The findings were published in the journal Science.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

After a month, Curiosity set to hit the road again

Agencies Nov 17, 2012, 06.37AM IST

LOS ANGELES: After playing in the sand, the Curiosity rover is poised to trek across the Martian landscape in search of a rock to drill into , scientists reported.
The six-wheel rover has been parked for more than a month at a sand dune where it has been busy scooping up soil, sniffing the atmosphere and measuring radiation levels on the surface. Its next task is to zero in on a rock and that requires driving to a new location.

Mission deputy scientist Ashwin Vasavada expected Curiosity to be on the move in the "next few days" . "It's the bedrock which really gives you the story of ancient Mars," said Vasavada of the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission. "The soil is a little harder to interpret because we don't know how old it is or where it came from."

The car-size rover touched down in Gale Crater, an ancient depression near the Martian equator, in August on a two-year mission to probe whether the landing site once had conditions capable of supporting microbial life. Armed with a high-tech suite of instruments, it's the most sophisticated spacecraft to ever land on the red planet.

During the first three months, a weather station aboard Curiosity detected brief drops in air pressure , a sign of whirlwinds in the region. "These events are starting to occur more and more often," said Manuel de la Torre Juarez of Nasa JPL. "We expect to see more in the future."

Previous rovers have spotted and even recorded dust devils dancing across the Martian terrain , but scientists said Curiosity has not yet seen evidence that the swirling winds have lifted dust.

Curiosity's ultimate destination is a 5km-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor that's rich in mineral deposits. Scientists had hoped to drive to the base before the end of the year, but that doesn't look likely after the extended stay at its current spot.

Google has updated its coverage of Mars with high resolution images from a Nasa satellite orbiting the planet, as part of their freely downloadable Google Earth app. The Google Earth app has showed Mars since 2009, but up until now most areas of the red planet could only be seen in low-resolution .

Google Mars updated large amounts of the planet's surface with images from the Context Camera (CTX) on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with a resolution of around 20ft per pixel, the Daily Mail reported.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More
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