Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

INSAT-3D reaches closer to its orbital home

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 31 Juli 2013 | 22.11

TNN Jul 29, 2013, 05.12AM IST

(In the critical first orbit…)


BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has confirmed that INSAT-3D, the most advanced weather satellite, has reached an intermediate orbit which is much closer to the 36,000 km outside the atmosphere of Earth. This is its final orbital home36,000 km high geostationary orbit, its final orbital home,

INSAT-3D was launched by Ariane-5 launch vehicle in the early hours of July 26 into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,923 km. The inclination of INSAT-3D's orbit with respect to the equatorial plane was 3.495 degrees.

Following this, two major orbit raising manoeuvres were performed on INSAT-3D from Isro's Master Control Facility at Hassan on Saturday and Sunday by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM).

In the critical first orbit manoeuvre performed on July 27, INSAT-3D's LAM was fired for a duration of 65 minutes, which resulted in the rising of the perigee to 15,780 km while the apogee was at 35,800 km.

In the second orbit raising manoeuvre performed on Sunday, the satellite's LAM was fired for 24 minutes; the perigee further rose to 31,800 km and the apogee remained at 35,795 km. The third orbit raising manoeuvre of INSAT-3D is scheduled on Monday which will touch the highest geostationary altitude of about 36,000 km.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

World’s fastest switch created

Kounteya Sinha, TNN Jul 30, 2013, 07.31AM IST

LONDON: US department of energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have clocked the fastest-possible electrical switching in magnetite, a naturally magnetic mineral.

Their results could drive innovations in the tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips, enabling faster , more powerful computing devices. Scientists using SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser found that it takes only 1 trillionth of a second to flip the on-off electrical switch in samples of magnetite, which is thousands of times faster than in transistors being used now.

While magnetite's basic magnetic properties have been known for thousands of years, the experiment shows how much still can be learned about the electronic properties of magnetite.

"This breakthrough research reveals for the first time the speed limit for electrical switching in this material," said Roopali Kukreja, a materials science researcher at SLAC and Stanford University, who is a lead author of the study.

The study shows how such conducting and non-conducting states can co-exist and create electrical pathways in next-generation transistors. Scientists first hit each sample with a visiblelight laser, which fragmented the material's electronic structure at an atomic scale, rearranging it to form the islands. The laser blast was followed closely by an ultra bright, ultra short X-ray pulse that allowed researchers to study, for the first time, the timing and details of changes in the sample excited by the initial laser strike.
By slightly adjusting the interval of the X-ray pulses, they precisely measured how long it took the material to shift from a non-conducting to an electrically conducting state, and observed the structural changes during this switch.

The magnetite had to be cooled to minus 190 degrees Celsius to lock its electrical charges in place, so the next step is to study more complex materials and room-temperature applications, Kukreja said. The researchers have already conducted follow-up studies focusing on a hybrid material that exhibits similar ultrafast switching properties at near room temperature , which makes it a better candidate for commercial use than magnetite.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘Happiness can affect your genes’

WASHINGTON: Happiness can affect your genes in a healthy or unhealthy way depending on what causes you to feel pleasure , a first-of-its-kind study has found.

US researchers found that human bodies recognize at the molecular level that not all happiness is created equal and respond in ways that can help or hinder physical health. They found that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome. People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being — the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life — showed very favourable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells.

They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes.

However, people who had relatively high levels of hedonic well-being — the type of happiness that comes from consummatory self-gratification — actually showed just the opposite . They had an adverse expression profile involving high inflammation and low antiviral and antibody gene expression .

Steven Cole, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of medicine, and his colleagues , including first author Barbara L Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, have been examining how the human genome responds to stress, misery, fear and all kinds of negative psychology.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cancer risk increases with height

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 30 Juli 2013 | 22.10

A woman's cancer risk appears to increase with her height, a new study shows.

An analysis of 20,928 postmenopausal women showed that the taller a woman is, the greater her risk for a number of cancers, including breast, colon and skin cancer, among others. Scientists say the association between height and cancer may help guide researchers to study hormones and growth factors that influence height and may also play a role in cancer.

"We know that cancer is a disease in which hormones and growth factors modify things," said Geoffrey C Kabat, a senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York. "Height itself is not a risk factor, but it really appears to be a marker for one or more exposures that influence cancer risk."

Nobody really knows why cancer risk is associated with a taller stature. It may have to do with hormones and growth factors that spur both height and cancer cells. It may be that height simply increases the surface area of the body's organs, resulting in a greater number of overall cells and higher subsequent risk of malignancy.

While the current study focused only on women, other research has also found an association between height and cancer among men. One study found that taller men were at slightly higher risk for aggressive prostate cancer. In May, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that height differences between men and women may help explain why men have an overall greater risk of developing cancer in nonsex specific organs like kidneys and lungs.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

INSAT-3D reaches closer to its orbital home

TNN Jul 29, 2013, 05.12AM IST

(In the critical first orbit…)


BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has confirmed that INSAT-3D, the most advanced weather satellite, has reached an intermediate orbit which is much closer to the 36,000 km outside the atmosphere of Earth. This is its final orbital home36,000 km high geostationary orbit, its final orbital home,

INSAT-3D was launched by Ariane-5 launch vehicle in the early hours of July 26 into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,923 km. The inclination of INSAT-3D's orbit with respect to the equatorial plane was 3.495 degrees.

Following this, two major orbit raising manoeuvres were performed on INSAT-3D from Isro's Master Control Facility at Hassan on Saturday and Sunday by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM).

In the critical first orbit manoeuvre performed on July 27, INSAT-3D's LAM was fired for a duration of 65 minutes, which resulted in the rising of the perigee to 15,780 km while the apogee was at 35,800 km.

In the second orbit raising manoeuvre performed on Sunday, the satellite's LAM was fired for 24 minutes; the perigee further rose to 31,800 km and the apogee remained at 35,795 km. The third orbit raising manoeuvre of INSAT-3D is scheduled on Monday which will touch the highest geostationary altitude of about 36,000 km.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

World’s fastest switch created

LONDON: US department of energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have clocked the fastest-possible electrical switching in magnetite, a naturally magnetic mineral.

Their results could drive innovations in the tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips, enabling faster , more powerful computing devices. Scientists using SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser found that it takes only 1 trillionth of a second to flip the on-off electrical switch in samples of magnetite, which is thousands of times faster than in transistors being used now.

While magnetite's basic magnetic properties have been known for thousands of years, the experiment shows how much still can be learned about the electronic properties of magnetite.

"This breakthrough research reveals for the first time the speed limit for electrical switching in this material," said Roopali Kukreja, a materials science researcher at SLAC and Stanford University, who is a lead author of the study.

The study shows how such conducting and non-conducting states can co-exist and create electrical pathways in next-generation transistors. Scientists first hit each sample with a visiblelight laser, which fragmented the material's electronic structure at an atomic scale, rearranging it to form the islands. The laser blast was followed closely by an ultra bright, ultra short X-ray pulse that allowed researchers to study, for the first time, the timing and details of changes in the sample excited by the initial laser strike.
By slightly adjusting the interval of the X-ray pulses, they precisely measured how long it took the material to shift from a non-conducting to an electrically conducting state, and observed the structural changes during this switch.

The magnetite had to be cooled to minus 190 degrees Celsius to lock its electrical charges in place, so the next step is to study more complex materials and room-temperature applications, Kukreja said. The researchers have already conducted follow-up studies focusing on a hybrid material that exhibits similar ultrafast switching properties at near room temperature , which makes it a better candidate for commercial use than magnetite.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

On rooftops, a rival for utilities

Written By Unknown on Senin, 29 Juli 2013 | 22.10

Diane Cardwell, New York Times Jul 27, 2013, 07.50PM IST

(Solar panels north of Los…)

For years, power companies have watched warily as solar panels have sprouted across the nation's rooftops. Now, in almost panicked tones, they are fighting hard to slow the spread.

Alarmed by what they say has become an existential threat to their business, utility companies are moving to roll back government incentives aimed at promoting solar energy and other renewable sources of power. At stake, the companies say, is nothing less than the future of the American electricity industry.

According to the Energy Information Administration, rooftop solar electricity â€" the economics of which often depend on government incentives and mandates â€" accounts for less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the nation's power generation.

And yet, to hear executives tell it, such power sources could ultimately threaten traditional utilities' ability to maintain the nation's grid.

"We did not get in front of this disruption," Clark Gellings, a fellow at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit arm of the industry, said during a panel discussion at the annual utility convention last month. "It may be too late."

Advocates of renewable energy â€" not least solar industry executives who stand to get rich from the transformation â€" say such statements are wildly overblown. For now, they say, the government needs to help make the economics of renewable power work for ordinary Americans. Without incentives, the young industry might wither â€" and with it, their own potential profits.

The battle is playing out among energy executives, lawmakers and regulators across the country.

In Arizona, for example, the country's second-largest solar market, the state's largest utility is pressuring the Arizona Corporation Commission, which sets utility rates, to reconsider a generous residential credit and impose new fees on customers, months after the agency eliminated a commercial solar incentive. In North Carolina, Duke Energy is pushing to institute a new set of charges for solar customers as well.

Nowhere, though, is the battle more heated than in California, home to the nation's largest solar market and some of the most aggressive subsidies. The outcome has the potential to set the course for solar and other renewable energies for decades to come.

At the heart of the fight is a credit system called net metering, which pays residential and commercial customers for excess renewable energy they sell back to utilities. Currently, 43 states, the District of Columbia and 4 territories offer a form of the incentive, according to the Energy Department.

Some keep the credit in line with the wholesale prices that utilities pay large power producers, which can be a few cents a kilowatt-hour. But in California, those payments are among the most generous because they are tied to the daytime retail rates customers pay for electricity, which include utility costs for maintaining the grid.

California's three major utilities estimate that by the time the subsidy program fills up under its current limits, they could have to make up almost $1.4 billion a year in revenue lost to solar customers, and shift that burden to roughly $7.6 million nonsolar customers â€" an extra $185 a year if evenly spread. Some studies cited by solar advocates have shown, though, that the credit system can result in a net savings for the utilities.

Utilities in California have appealed to lawmakers and regulators to reduce the credits and limit the number of people who can participate. It has been an uphill fight.

About a year ago, the utilities pushed regulators to keep the amount of rooftop solar that would qualify for the net metering program at a low level; instead, regulators effectively raised it. Still, the utilities won a concession from the Legislature, which ordered the California Public Utilities Commission to conduct a study to determine the costs and benefits of rooftop solar to both customers and the power grid with an eye toward retooling the policy.

Edward Randolph, director of the commission's energy division, said that the study, due in the fall, was a step toward figuring out how to make the economics work for customers who want to install solar systems as well as for the nonsolar customers and the utilities. The commission wants to ensure, he said, that, "we aren't creating a system that 15 years from now has the utility going, 'We don't have customers anymore but we still have an obligation to provide a distribution system â€" how do we do that?'"

The struggle over the California incentives is only the most recent and visible dust-up as many utilities cling to their established business, and its centralized distribution of energy, until they can figure out a new way to make money. It is a question the Obama administration is grappling with as well as it promotes the integration of more renewable energy into the grid.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

INSAT-3D reaches closer to its orbital home


BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has confirmed that INSAT-3D, the most advanced weather satellite, has reached an intermediate orbit which is much closer to the 36,000 km outside the atmosphere of Earth. This is its final orbital home36,000 km high geostationary orbit, its final orbital home,

INSAT-3D was launched by Ariane-5 launch vehicle in the early hours of July 26 into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,923 km. The inclination of INSAT-3D's orbit with respect to the equatorial plane was 3.495 degrees.

Following this, two major orbit raising manoeuvres were performed on INSAT-3D from Isro's Master Control Facility at Hassan on Saturday and Sunday by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM).

In the critical first orbit manoeuvre performed on July 27, INSAT-3D's LAM was fired for a duration of 65 minutes, which resulted in the rising of the perigee to 15,780 km while the apogee was at 35,800 km.

In the second orbit raising manoeuvre performed on Sunday, the satellite's LAM was fired for 24 minutes; the perigee further rose to 31,800 km and the apogee remained at 35,795 km. The third orbit raising manoeuvre of INSAT-3D is scheduled on Monday which will touch the highest geostationary altitude of about 36,000 km.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mysterious centaurs orbiting sun may be comets: Nasa

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 28 Juli 2013 | 22.10

PTI Jul 27, 2013, 11.29AM IST

(The findings come from the…)

WASHINGTON: The mysterious celestial centaurs â€" small sub-planetary bodies found orbiting the Sun somewhere between Jupiter and Neptune â€" may actually be comets, a new Nasa study suggests.

The true identity of centaurs is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics.

Observations from Nasa's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) find that most centaurs are comets.

Until now, astronomers were not certain whether centaurs are asteroids flung out from the inner solar system or comets travelling in toward the Sun from afar.

"Our data point to a cometary origin for most of the objects, suggesting they are coming from deeper out in the solar system," said James Bauer of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Cometary origin" means an object likely is made from the same material as a comet, may have been an active comet in the past, and may be active again in the future, researchers said.

The findings come from the largest infrared survey to date of centaurs and their more distant cousins, called scattered disk objects.

NEOWISE, the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, gathered infrared images of 52 centaurs and scattered disk objects.

Fifteen of the 52 are new discoveries. Centaurs and scattered disk objects orbit in an unstable belt. Ultimately, gravity from the giant planets will fling them either closer to the sun or farther away from their current locations.

Infrared data from NEOWISE provided information on the objects' albedos, or reflectivity, to help astronomers sort the population.

NEOWISE can tell whether a centaur has a matte and dark surface or a shiny one that reflects more light.

The puzzle pieces fell into place when astronomers combined the albedo information with what was already known about the colours of the objects.

Visible-light observations have shown centaurs generally to be either blue-grey or reddish in hue. A blue-grey object could be an asteroid or comet. NEOWISE showed that most of the blue-grey objects are dark, a telltale sign of comets. A reddish object is more likely to be an asteroid.

"Comets have a dark, soot-like coating on their icy surfaces, making them darker than most asteroids," said the study's co-author, Tommy Grav of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

"Comet surfaces tend to be more like charcoal, while asteroids are usually shinier like the moon," said Grav.

The results indicate that roughly two-thirds of the centaur population are comets, which come from the frigid outer reaches of our solar system.

It is not clear whether the rest are asteroids. The centaur bodies have not lost their mystique entirely, but future research from NEOWISE may reveal their secrets further.

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

On rooftops, a rival for utilities

For years, power companies have watched warily as solar panels have sprouted across the nation's rooftops. Now, in almost panicked tones, they are fighting hard to slow the spread.

Alarmed by what they say has become an existential threat to their business, utility companies are moving to roll back government incentives aimed at promoting solar energy and other renewable sources of power. At stake, the companies say, is nothing less than the future of the American electricity industry.

According to the Energy Information Administration, rooftop solar electricity — the economics of which often depend on government incentives and mandates — accounts for less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the nation's power generation.

And yet, to hear executives tell it, such power sources could ultimately threaten traditional utilities' ability to maintain the nation's grid.

"We did not get in front of this disruption," Clark Gellings, a fellow at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit arm of the industry, said during a panel discussion at the annual utility convention last month. "It may be too late."

Advocates of renewable energy — not least solar industry executives who stand to get rich from the transformation — say such statements are wildly overblown. For now, they say, the government needs to help make the economics of renewable power work for ordinary Americans. Without incentives, the young industry might wither — and with it, their own potential profits.

The battle is playing out among energy executives, lawmakers and regulators across the country.

In Arizona, for example, the country's second-largest solar market, the state's largest utility is pressuring the Arizona Corporation Commission, which sets utility rates, to reconsider a generous residential credit and impose new fees on customers, months after the agency eliminated a commercial solar incentive. In North Carolina, Duke Energy is pushing to institute a new set of charges for solar customers as well.

Nowhere, though, is the battle more heated than in California, home to the nation's largest solar market and some of the most aggressive subsidies. The outcome has the potential to set the course for solar and other renewable energies for decades to come.

At the heart of the fight is a credit system called net metering, which pays residential and commercial customers for excess renewable energy they sell back to utilities. Currently, 43 states, the District of Columbia and 4 territories offer a form of the incentive, according to the Energy Department.

Some keep the credit in line with the wholesale prices that utilities pay large power producers, which can be a few cents a kilowatt-hour. But in California, those payments are among the most generous because they are tied to the daytime retail rates customers pay for electricity, which include utility costs for maintaining the grid.

California's three major utilities estimate that by the time the subsidy program fills up under its current limits, they could have to make up almost $1.4 billion a year in revenue lost to solar customers, and shift that burden to roughly $7.6 million nonsolar customers — an extra $185 a year if evenly spread. Some studies cited by solar advocates have shown, though, that the credit system can result in a net savings for the utilities.

Utilities in California have appealed to lawmakers and regulators to reduce the credits and limit the number of people who can participate. It has been an uphill fight.

About a year ago, the utilities pushed regulators to keep the amount of rooftop solar that would qualify for the net metering program at a low level; instead, regulators effectively raised it. Still, the utilities won a concession from the Legislature, which ordered the California Public Utilities Commission to conduct a study to determine the costs and benefits of rooftop solar to both customers and the power grid with an eye toward retooling the policy.

Edward Randolph, director of the commission's energy division, said that the study, due in the fall, was a step toward figuring out how to make the economics work for customers who want to install solar systems as well as for the nonsolar customers and the utilities. The commission wants to ensure, he said, that, "we aren't creating a system that 15 years from now has the utility going, 'We don't have customers anymore but we still have an obligation to provide a distribution system — how do we do that?'"

The struggle over the California incentives is only the most recent and visible dust-up as many utilities cling to their established business, and its centralized distribution of energy, until they can figure out a new way to make money. It is a question the Obama administration is grappling with as well as it promotes the integration of more renewable energy into the grid.

Utility executives have watched disruptive technologies cause businesses in other industries to founder — just as cellphones upended the traditional land-based telephone business, producing many a management shake-up — and they want to stay ahead of a fundamental shift in the way electricity is bought, sold and delivered.

"I see an opportunity for us to recreate ourselves, just like the telecommunications industry did," Michael W. Yackira, chief executive of NV Energy, a Nevada utility, and chairman of the industry group the Edison Electric Institute, said at the group's convention.

The fight in California has become increasingly public, with the two sides releasing reports and counter-reports. A group of fast-growing young companies that install rooftop systems, including SolarCity, Sungevity, Sunrun and Verengo, recently formed their own lobbying group, the Alliance for Solar Choice, to battle efforts to weaken the subsidies and credit systems.

They have good reason. In California, as intended, net metering has proved a strong draw for customers. From 2010 to 2012, the amount of solar installed each year has increased by 160 percent, almost doubling the amount of electricity that rooftop systems can make, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. With federal tax credits and a rebate program for installation costs under the California Solar Initiative phasing out, determining how much to pay customers has become even more critical.

"Net metering right now is the only way for customers to get value for their rooftop solar systems," said Adam Browning, executive director of the advocacy group Vote Solar.

Mr. Browning and other proponents say that solar customers deserve fair payment not only for the electricity they transmit but for the value that smaller, more dispersed power generators give to utilities. Making more power closer to where it is used, advocates say, can reduce stress on the grid and make it more reliable, as well as save utilities from having to build and maintain more infrastructure and large, centralized generators.

But utility executives say that when solar customers no longer pay for electricity, they also stop paying for the grid, shifting those costs to other customers. Utilities generally make their profits by making investments in infrastructure and designing customer rates to earn that money back with a guaranteed return, set on average at about 10 percent.

"If the costs to maintain the grid are not being borne by some customers, then other customers have to bear a bigger and bigger portion," said Steve Malnight, a vice president at Pacific Gas and Electric. "As those costs get shifted, that leads to higher and higher rates for customers who don't take advantage of solar."

Utility executives call this a "death spiral." As utilities put a heavier burden on fewer customers, it increases the appeal for them to turn their roofs over to solar panels.

A handful of utilities have taken a different approach and are instead getting into the business of developing rooftop systems themselves. Dominion, for example, is running a pilot program in Virginia in which it leases roof space from commercial customers and installs its own panels to study the benefits of a decentralized generation.

Last month, Clean Power Finance, a San Francisco-based start-up that provides financial services and software to the rooftop solar industry, announced that it had backing from Duke Energy and other utilities, including Edison International. And in May, NextEra Energy Resources bought Smart Energy Capital, a commercial solar developer.

But those are exceptions.

"The next six to 12 months are the watershed moment for distributed energy in this country," said Edward Fenster, a chief executive of Sunrun, adding that if their side prevailed in California and Arizona, it would dissuade utilities with net metering programs elsewhere from undoing them. "If we don't succeed, the opposite will be the case and in two years we'll be fighting 41 of these battles."


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cancer risk increases with height

A woman's cancer risk appears to increase with her height, a new study shows.

An analysis of 20,928 postmenopausal women showed that the taller a woman is, the greater her risk for a number of cancers, including breast, colon and skin cancer, among others. Scientists say the association between height and cancer may help guide researchers to study hormones and growth factors that influence height and may also play a role in cancer.

"We know that cancer is a disease in which hormones and growth factors modify things," said Geoffrey C Kabat, a senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York. "Height itself is not a risk factor, but it really appears to be a marker for one or more exposures that influence cancer risk."

Nobody really knows why cancer risk is associated with a taller stature. It may have to do with hormones and growth factors that spur both height and cancer cells. It may be that height simply increases the surface area of the body's organs, resulting in a greater number of overall cells and higher subsequent risk of malignancy.

While the current study focused only on women, other research has also found an association between height and cancer among men. One study found that taller men were at slightly higher risk for aggressive prostate cancer. In May, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that height differences between men and women may help explain why men have an overall greater risk of developing cancer in nonsex specific organs like kidneys and lungs.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Girl born with no nose or eyes gears up for operation

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 27 Juli 2013 | 22.10

A girl who was born without eyes or a nose has begun a final series of operations and skin grafts, in the hope that doctors in America will be able to construct a nose for her.

Cassidy Hooper began a two-year process involving multiple surgical procedures at the age of 14. Now, the 17-year-old is preparing for complex surgery that will see a nose attached to her face. Cassidy has baffled doctors with her condition since her birth, particularly as she is otherwise fit and healthy.

In an interview with American news broadcasters WBTV, the teenager described her excitement at approaching the final bout of surgery, saying: "I'm going to be one step closer to having a nose, just like everyone else."

It has taken six years for doctors to prepare Cassidy's face for receiving a nose. The teenager underwent an operation in July to move the upper half of her face closer together whilst pulling skin further down from her forehead in order to gather enough to build a nose.

In her next operation, bones from her rib cage will then be implanted to provide a bridge. Friends and family have set up a website to help provide funds for the cost of surgery. The family's medical insurance only covers 80%, leaving the Hoopers to front the rest.

To create the nose, Dr David Matthews, Cassidy's surgeon of six years will use a layered approach, by starting with placing the membrane , before using cartilage and bone to construct the nose. The nose will then be covered in skin.

Speaking to ABC news, experts explained how the surgical procedure would be carried out. "The nose is a little like the ear — what you see isn't functional," said Dr Sherard A Tatum III, director of facial and reconstructive surgery at Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital in New York. "A lot of people have noses they lost to trauma and cancer and breathe fine and have a sense of smell. The nose is something we expect to see, but it's not necessary."

-The Independent


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mysterious centaurs orbiting sun may be comets: Nasa

WASHINGTON: The mysterious celestial centaurs — small sub-planetary bodies found orbiting the Sun somewhere between Jupiter and Neptune — may actually be comets, a new Nasa study suggests.

The true identity of centaurs is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics.

Observations from Nasa's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) find that most centaurs are comets.

Until now, astronomers were not certain whether centaurs are asteroids flung out from the inner solar system or comets travelling in toward the Sun from afar.

"Our data point to a cometary origin for most of the objects, suggesting they are coming from deeper out in the solar system," said James Bauer of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Cometary origin" means an object likely is made from the same material as a comet, may have been an active comet in the past, and may be active again in the future, researchers said.

The findings come from the largest infrared survey to date of centaurs and their more distant cousins, called scattered disk objects.

NEOWISE, the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, gathered infrared images of 52 centaurs and scattered disk objects.

Fifteen of the 52 are new discoveries. Centaurs and scattered disk objects orbit in an unstable belt. Ultimately, gravity from the giant planets will fling them either closer to the sun or farther away from their current locations.

Infrared data from NEOWISE provided information on the objects' albedos, or reflectivity, to help astronomers sort the population.

NEOWISE can tell whether a centaur has a matte and dark surface or a shiny one that reflects more light.

The puzzle pieces fell into place when astronomers combined the albedo information with what was already known about the colours of the objects.

Visible-light observations have shown centaurs generally to be either blue-grey or reddish in hue. A blue-grey object could be an asteroid or comet. NEOWISE showed that most of the blue-grey objects are dark, a telltale sign of comets. A reddish object is more likely to be an asteroid.

"Comets have a dark, soot-like coating on their icy surfaces, making them darker than most asteroids," said the study's co-author, Tommy Grav of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

"Comet surfaces tend to be more like charcoal, while asteroids are usually shinier like the moon," said Grav.

The results indicate that roughly two-thirds of the centaur population are comets, which come from the frigid outer reaches of our solar system.

It is not clear whether the rest are asteroids. The centaur bodies have not lost their mystique entirely, but future research from NEOWISE may reveal their secrets further.

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

On rooftops, a rival for utilities

For years, power companies have watched warily as solar panels have sprouted across the nation's rooftops. Now, in almost panicked tones, they are fighting hard to slow the spread.

Alarmed by what they say has become an existential threat to their business, utility companies are moving to roll back government incentives aimed at promoting solar energy and other renewable sources of power. At stake, the companies say, is nothing less than the future of the American electricity industry.

According to the Energy Information Administration, rooftop solar electricity — the economics of which often depend on government incentives and mandates — accounts for less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the nation's power generation.

And yet, to hear executives tell it, such power sources could ultimately threaten traditional utilities' ability to maintain the nation's grid.

"We did not get in front of this disruption," Clark Gellings, a fellow at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit arm of the industry, said during a panel discussion at the annual utility convention last month. "It may be too late."

Advocates of renewable energy — not least solar industry executives who stand to get rich from the transformation — say such statements are wildly overblown. For now, they say, the government needs to help make the economics of renewable power work for ordinary Americans. Without incentives, the young industry might wither — and with it, their own potential profits.

The battle is playing out among energy executives, lawmakers and regulators across the country.

In Arizona, for example, the country's second-largest solar market, the state's largest utility is pressuring the Arizona Corporation Commission, which sets utility rates, to reconsider a generous residential credit and impose new fees on customers, months after the agency eliminated a commercial solar incentive. In North Carolina, Duke Energy is pushing to institute a new set of charges for solar customers as well.

Nowhere, though, is the battle more heated than in California, home to the nation's largest solar market and some of the most aggressive subsidies. The outcome has the potential to set the course for solar and other renewable energies for decades to come.

At the heart of the fight is a credit system called net metering, which pays residential and commercial customers for excess renewable energy they sell back to utilities. Currently, 43 states, the District of Columbia and 4 territories offer a form of the incentive, according to the Energy Department.

Some keep the credit in line with the wholesale prices that utilities pay large power producers, which can be a few cents a kilowatt-hour. But in California, those payments are among the most generous because they are tied to the daytime retail rates customers pay for electricity, which include utility costs for maintaining the grid.

California's three major utilities estimate that by the time the subsidy program fills up under its current limits, they could have to make up almost $1.4 billion a year in revenue lost to solar customers, and shift that burden to roughly $7.6 million nonsolar customers — an extra $185 a year if evenly spread. Some studies cited by solar advocates have shown, though, that the credit system can result in a net savings for the utilities.

Utilities in California have appealed to lawmakers and regulators to reduce the credits and limit the number of people who can participate. It has been an uphill fight.

About a year ago, the utilities pushed regulators to keep the amount of rooftop solar that would qualify for the net metering program at a low level; instead, regulators effectively raised it. Still, the utilities won a concession from the Legislature, which ordered the California Public Utilities Commission to conduct a study to determine the costs and benefits of rooftop solar to both customers and the power grid with an eye toward retooling the policy.

Edward Randolph, director of the commission's energy division, said that the study, due in the fall, was a step toward figuring out how to make the economics work for customers who want to install solar systems as well as for the nonsolar customers and the utilities. The commission wants to ensure, he said, that, "we aren't creating a system that 15 years from now has the utility going, 'We don't have customers anymore but we still have an obligation to provide a distribution system — how do we do that?'"

The struggle over the California incentives is only the most recent and visible dust-up as many utilities cling to their established business, and its centralized distribution of energy, until they can figure out a new way to make money. It is a question the Obama administration is grappling with as well as it promotes the integration of more renewable energy into the grid.

Utility executives have watched disruptive technologies cause businesses in other industries to founder — just as cellphones upended the traditional land-based telephone business, producing many a management shake-up — and they want to stay ahead of a fundamental shift in the way electricity is bought, sold and delivered.

"I see an opportunity for us to recreate ourselves, just like the telecommunications industry did," Michael W. Yackira, chief executive of NV Energy, a Nevada utility, and chairman of the industry group the Edison Electric Institute, said at the group's convention.

The fight in California has become increasingly public, with the two sides releasing reports and counter-reports. A group of fast-growing young companies that install rooftop systems, including SolarCity, Sungevity, Sunrun and Verengo, recently formed their own lobbying group, the Alliance for Solar Choice, to battle efforts to weaken the subsidies and credit systems.

They have good reason. In California, as intended, net metering has proved a strong draw for customers. From 2010 to 2012, the amount of solar installed each year has increased by 160 percent, almost doubling the amount of electricity that rooftop systems can make, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. With federal tax credits and a rebate program for installation costs under the California Solar Initiative phasing out, determining how much to pay customers has become even more critical.

"Net metering right now is the only way for customers to get value for their rooftop solar systems," said Adam Browning, executive director of the advocacy group Vote Solar.

Mr. Browning and other proponents say that solar customers deserve fair payment not only for the electricity they transmit but for the value that smaller, more dispersed power generators give to utilities. Making more power closer to where it is used, advocates say, can reduce stress on the grid and make it more reliable, as well as save utilities from having to build and maintain more infrastructure and large, centralized generators.

But utility executives say that when solar customers no longer pay for electricity, they also stop paying for the grid, shifting those costs to other customers. Utilities generally make their profits by making investments in infrastructure and designing customer rates to earn that money back with a guaranteed return, set on average at about 10 percent.

"If the costs to maintain the grid are not being borne by some customers, then other customers have to bear a bigger and bigger portion," said Steve Malnight, a vice president at Pacific Gas and Electric. "As those costs get shifted, that leads to higher and higher rates for customers who don't take advantage of solar."

Utility executives call this a "death spiral." As utilities put a heavier burden on fewer customers, it increases the appeal for them to turn their roofs over to solar panels.

A handful of utilities have taken a different approach and are instead getting into the business of developing rooftop systems themselves. Dominion, for example, is running a pilot program in Virginia in which it leases roof space from commercial customers and installs its own panels to study the benefits of a decentralized generation.

Last month, Clean Power Finance, a San Francisco-based start-up that provides financial services and software to the rooftop solar industry, announced that it had backing from Duke Energy and other utilities, including Edison International. And in May, NextEra Energy Resources bought Smart Energy Capital, a commercial solar developer.

But those are exceptions.

"The next six to 12 months are the watershed moment for distributed energy in this country," said Edward Fenster, a chief executive of Sunrun, adding that if their side prevailed in California and Arizona, it would dissuade utilities with net metering programs elsewhere from undoing them. "If we don't succeed, the opposite will be the case and in two years we'll be fighting 41 of these battles."


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

UK plans to land man on Mars by 2021

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 26 Juli 2013 | 22.10

LONDON: UK scientists have designed a concept mission to land astronauts on Mars by 2021 — 12 years before Nasa expects to send a manned mission to the Red Planet. The plan envisages a three-person crew journeying to Mars aboard a small two-part craft.

Nasa says they will get on Mars at the earliest by 2033, but scientists at Imperial College , London have come up with a mission that could land on the planet eight years.

According to professor Tom Pike, the leader of the London team, the trip would be the next major step for mankind in space — and create a Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for the 21st Century . "We have now come up with a mission concept that uses both robots and humans to get us to Mars and back. The robots will be sent to the northern plains of Mars, with a rocket to get back to Earth — but without fuel," Pike wrote in an article for 'The Sun' .

"Sending the tanks empty saves a huge amount of mass on launch. Instead, the robots will dig up ice on Mars. Once the ice is melted, we can use solar electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen to fill the fuel tanks. Better still, combining hydrogen with the atmosphere can make powerful methane," Pike said.

According to Pike, a threeperson crew will then launch and in the nine months it takes to get from Earth to Mars, without weight from gravity, muscles weaken and bones become brittle — they need artificial gravity.

He said it can be done by splitting the spacecraft into two, tied together by a tether, and spinning the parts around each other. With the right spin speed, they will be fooled into thinking they feel gravity, he said.

The landing on Mars will be an extreme ride lasting just a few minutes. The landing module will approach Mars at 22530.8kph, said Pike.

He said the atmosphere will reduce the speed to 1126.5kph, then parachutes with rockets will slow the module, landing in the warmest place on Mars, near the equator. Pike said in order to return, the crew will have to journey about 1600km north via rover from their landing site to the return rocket.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Scientists produce false memories in mice

WASHINGTON: Scientists have pulled off the plot of Inception with mice!

Researchers have successfully implanted false memories of an event that never actually took place into a mice brain, showing it is possible to create inaccurate recollections of the past.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice.

They also found that many of the neurological traces of these memories are identical in nature to those of authentic memories.

"Whether it's a false or genuine memory, the brain's neural mechanism underlying the recall of the memory is the same," said Professor Susumu Tonegawa, senior author of the paper published in journal Science.

The study also provides further evidence that memories are stored in networks of neurons that form memory traces for each experience we have — a phenomenon that Tonegawa's lab first demonstrated last year.

Neuroscientists have long sought the location of these memory traces, also called engrams. In the pair of studies, Tonegawa and colleagues showed that they could identify the cells that make up part of an engram for a specific memory and reactivate it using a technology called optogenetics.

Episodic memories — memories of experiences — are made of associations of several elements, including objects, space and time. These associations are encoded by chemical and physical changes in neurons, as well as by modifications to the connections between the neurons.

Where these engrams reside in the brain has been a longstanding question in neuroscience.

Tonegawa's lab turned to optogenetics, a new technology that allows cells to be selectively turned on or off using light.

The researchers engineered mouse hippocampal cells to express the gene for channelrhodopsin, a protein that activates neurons when stimulated by light.

They also modified the gene so that channelrhodopsin would be produced whenever the c-fos gene, necessary for memory formation, was turned on.

In last year's study, the researchers conditioned these mice to fear a particular chamber by delivering a mild electric shock.

As this memory was formed, the c-fos gene was turned on, along with the engineered channelrhodopsin gene. This way, cells encoding the memory trace were "labelled" with light-sensitive proteins, researchers said.

The next day, when the mice were put in a different chamber they had never seen before, they behaved normally.

However, when the researchers delivered a pulse of light to the hippocampus, stimulating the memory cells labelled with channelrhodopsin, the mice froze in fear as the previous day's memory was reactivated.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

MERS virus may be deadlier than SARS: Study

LONDON: The new respiratory virus that emerged in the Middle East last year appears to make people sicker faster than SARS, but doesn't seem to spread as easily, according to the latest detailed look at about four dozen cases in Saudi Arabia.

Since last September, the World Health Organization has confirmed 90 cases of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, including 45 deaths. Most cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but the mysterious virus has also been identified in countries including Jordan, Qatar, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. MERS is related to SARS and the two diseases have similar symptoms including a fever, cough and muscle pain.

"At the moment, the virus is still confined (to the Middle East)," said Dr. Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany, who wrote an accompanying commentary. "But this is a coronavirus and we know coronaviruses are able to cause pandemics."

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that mostly cause respiratory infections like the common cold, but it also includes SARS, the virus that killed about 800 people in a 2003 global outbreak. MERS is distantly related to SARS but there are major differences between the two. Unlike SARS, MERS can cause rapid kidney failure and doesn't seem as infectious.

Drosten said the upcoming Hajj in October - where millions of Muslim pilgrims will visit Saudi Arabia, where the virus is still spreading - is worrisome. On Thursday, WHO said in a statement that the risk of an individual traveler to Mecca catching MERS was considered "very low." The agency does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions or entry screening for the Hajj.

In the latest study, researchers found 42 of the 47 cases in Saudi Arabia needed intensive care. Of those, 34 patients deteriorated so badly within a week they needed a breathing machine. That was up to five days earlier than was the case with SARS. Most of the MERS cases were in older men with underlying health problems, as one of the biggest outbreaks was among dialysis patients at several hospitals. The research was published Friday in the journal, Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Ali Zumla, one of the paper's co-authors and a professor of infectious diseases at University College London, said in an email that the rapid deterioration of patients was "not worrying at all since the numbers are small" and most of the patients had other health problems.

Drosten, however, said that could be bad news. "That could mean the virus is more virulent and that (doctors) have a smaller window of opportunity to intervene and treat patients," he said. Detecting MERS fast could be a problem since quick diagnostic tests aren't available.

Last week, WHO declared there was not yet enough evidence to classify MERS as a public health emergency after setting up an emergency committee to keep a closer eye on the virus.

Zumla said it was "very unlikely" that MERS would ignite a pandemic. He noted officials were increasingly picking up mild cases of the disease, suggesting reported cases were only the tip of the iceberg. Identifying more mild or asymptomatic cases could indicate the virus is more widespread, but it's unclear if those infected people might be able to spread the disease further.

MERS also appears to be mainly affecting men; nearly 80 percent of the cases in the new study were men. Drosten said there might be a cultural explanation for that.

"Women in the (Middle East) region tend to have their mouths covered with at least two layers of cloth," he said, referring to the veils worn by women in Saudi Arabia. "If the coronavirus is being spread by droplets, (the veils) should give women some protection."

Scientists still haven't pinpointed the source of MERS and theories have ranged from animals like goats and camels to dates infected with bat excrement. WHO says the virus is capable of spreading between people but how exactly how that happens - via coughing, sneezing or indirect physical contact - isn't known.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

War on malaria: Be invisible to mosquitoes

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 25 Juli 2013 | 22.10

WASHINGTON: Researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, have developed the world's first lightweight patch that can make people 'invisible' to pesky mosquitoes and could prove key in the battle against malaria.

The affordable patch is a colourful sticker, small enough to be worn virtually without notice.

Once worn, it provides the user with up to 48 hours of protection from mosquitoes.

The technology hampers mosquitoes host-seeking behaviour , was identified at the University of California, Riverside in 2011, and has led to the development of the product that blocks mosquitoes' ability to efficiently detect carbon dioxide, their primary method of tracking human blood meals.

The initial research was performed in the laboratory of Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology , and was featured in the journal Nature.

Ray's lab identified volatile odour molecules that can impair, if not completely disrupt , mosquitoes' carbon dioxide detection machinery.

Called the KiteTM Mosquito Patch, the product marks a significant advancement in the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever.

The patch delivers mosquito-repelling compounds in a simple, affordable and scalable sticker that can be used by individuals in regions impacted by malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

Estimated to cost a fraction of existing repellents, Kite is applied to clothing and can be used by people of all ages , including infants and pregnant mothers.

"I am very excited to see how Olfactor Labs has rapidly taken our initial discovery to a product that can have great value in the war against mosquitoes and disease," Ray said. "I am most impressed that they have designed something affordable and convenient for use in Africa and around the world. I am rooting for this to become a game changer in lowering instance of malaria, dengue, filariasis and other dangerous diseases ," said Ray.

Kite's technology is the culmination of years of development work on a class of odour molecules, all of which are non-toxic compounds approved for human consumption by the US Food and Drug Administration. "The Kite Mosquito Patch isn't just another mosquito product, but a powerful alternative to most products on the market, enabling people to live normal lives with a new level of protection against contracting mosquito-borne diseases," said Michelle Brown, the chief scientist and vice president of Olfactor Laboratories.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Teens using marijuana may permanently damage their brains

WASHINGTON: Regular marijuana use in adolescence may permanently impair brain function and cognition, and can increase the risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, a new study has warned.

Researchers from the University of Maryland in US found that exposure to marijuana during the critical period of adolescence, but not adulthood, impaired cognition.

"Over the past 20 years, there has been a major controversy about the long-term effects of marijuana, with some evidence that use in adolescence could be damaging," said the study's senior author Asaf Keller, from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"Previous research has shown that children who started using marijuana before the age of 16 are at greater risk of permanent cognitive deficits, and have a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

"There likely is a genetic susceptibility, and then you add marijuana during adolescence and it becomes the trigger," Keller said.

The scientists examined cortical oscillations in mice. Cortical oscillations are patterns of the activity of neurons in the brain and are believed to underlie the brain's various functions. These oscillations are very abnormal in schizophrenia and in other psychiatric disorders.

They exposed young mice to very low doses of the active ingredient in marijuana for 20 days, and then allowed them to return to their siblings and develop normally.

"Adolescence is the critical period during which marijuana use can be damaging. We wanted to identify the biological underpinnings and determine whether there is a real, permanent health risk to marijuana use," said the study's lead author, Sylvina Mullins Raver.

"In the adult mice exposed to marijuana ingredients in adolescence, we found that cortical oscillations were grossly altered, and they exhibited impaired cognitive abilities," said Raver.

"We also found impaired cognitive behavioural performance in those mice. The striking finding is that, even though the mice were exposed to very low drug doses, and only for a brief period during adolescence, their brain abnormalities persisted into adulthood," Raver said.

Researchers repeated the experiment, this time administering marijuana ingredients to adult mice that had never been exposed to the drug before.

Their cortical oscillations and ability to perform cognitive behavioural tasks remained normal, indicating that it was only drug exposure during the critical period of adolescence that impaired cognition through this mechanism.

Researchers looked at different regions of the brain and found that the frontal cortex is much more affected by the drugs during adolescence.

"This is the area of the brain controls executive functions such as planning and impulse control. It is also the area most affected in schizophrenia," Keller said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Large Hadron Collider helps confirm ultrarare particle decay

LONDON: Scientists have confirmed the ultra rare phenomena of decay in particle physics, which is found just thrice in every billion collisions at the LHC.

The scientists made the observation of the rare transformation of one subatomic particle into another for the first time.

The way this has unfolded has cast doubts on versions of the theory of physics known as Supersymmetry (Susy).

Scientists had been hoping that Susy would have helped explain gaps in the most established theory of the working of the Universe.

The theory Susy proposed was that every particle has a heavier version of itself, which could help explain the mysterious dark matter believed to make quarter of our Universe.

However, the decay rate found had been predicted by the Standard Model even though it's now seen as an incomplete description of nature.

Here scientists found a particle named Bs meson, which decayed into two muons for the first time.

The observations at LHCb and CMS were so rare that Bs mesons only decayed into two muons about three times in every billion collisions.

Val Gibson, leader of the Cambridge particle physics group and member of the LHCb experiment, told BBC News it was the rarest decay observed yet.

He said that the reason the decay is so rare is because it doesn't decay easily into the final quark particles that is known., asserting that it has to go through a loop process, like a quantum loop.

Gibson explained that it is not a straight road however; it has to go round a roundabout before it is able to get to the final state particles.

He added that because it's got this roundabout in it, it means that other heavy supersymmetric particles can potentially enter the roundabout and make a huge difference to the decay rate.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Life on Earth dates back to 2.2 billion years

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 23 Juli 2013 | 22.10

WASHINGTON: Newly discovered ancient fossils from South Africa provide strong evidence that life existed on Earth 2.2 billion years ago - four times earlier than previously believed.

Conventional scientific wisdom has it that plants and other creatures have only lived on land for about 500 million years, and that landscapes of the early Earth were as barren as Mars.

Now, a new study, led by geologist Gregory J Retallack of the University of Oregon, has presented evidence for life on land that is four times as old.

The evidence involves fossils the size of match heads and connected into bunches by threads in the surface of an ancient soil from South Africa. They have been named Diskagma buttonii, meaning "disc-shaped fragments of Andy Button," but it is unsure what the fossils were, the authors said.

"They certainly were not plants or animals, but something rather more simple," said Retallack, professor of geological sciences and co-director of paleontological collections at the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

The fossils, he added, most resemble modern soil organisms called Geosiphon, a fungus with a central cavity filled with symbiotic cyanobacteria.

"There is independent evidence for cyanobacteria, but not fungi, of the same geological age, and these new fossils set a new and earlier benchmark for the greening of the land," he said.

"This gains added significance because fossil soils hosting the fossils have long been taken as evidence for a marked rise in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere at about 2.4 billion to 2.2 billion years ago, widely called the Great Oxidation Event," he added.

Demonstrating that Diskagma are fossils, Retallack said, was a technical triumph because they were too big to be completely seen in a standard microscopic slide and within rock that was too dark to see through in slabs.

The samples were imaged using powerful X-rays of a cyclotron, a particle accelerator, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

The images enabled a three-dimensional restoration of the fossils' form: odd little hollow urn-shaped structures with a terminal cup and basal attachment tube.

In their conclusion, the researchers noted that their newly named fossil Diskagma is comparable in morphology and size to Thucomyces lichenoides, a fossil dating to 2.8 billion years ago and also found in South Africa, but its composition, including interior structure and trace elements, is significantly different.

The new fossil, the authors concluded, is a promising candidate for the oldest known eukaryote - an organism with cells that contain complex structures, including a nucleus, within membranes.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Complimentary feeding should begin at six months of age: Experts

CHANDIGARH: Medical experts are of the opinion that complementary feeding should begin around six months of age in addition to mother's milk. The digestive functions are likely to become sufficiently mature by this time to enable infants to process some complementary food. Beginning any later may result in under-nutrition and an insufficiently developed immune system. It is therefore important for mothers to start complementary feeding at the right time.

Complementary food also needs to be appropriate, meaning that it should provide enough energy and nutrition, be of smooth texture and get digested easily. Infants have high energy requirements but their stomach size is small. Therefore, the food given to them has to be packed with energy, especially if they are being offered only a few meals every day.

Most current guidelines for the gradual introduction of different foods during the complimentary feeding period are based on cultural factors and food availability. Energy requirements remain high during the first year of life. The fat content of the diet is an important determinant of its energy density. A higher proportion might be required if the appetite is poor, the infant has recurrent infections or is fed infrequently. Foods with high energy density are rich in fat, but low in water content, such as cheese, butter, ghee, eggs. Those with high water content or which absorb water during cooking have low energy density, like soups and stews, most fruits and vegetables, low-fat yogurt, boiled rice, and porridge made with water. Regularly feeding children low-energy foods may result in compromised physical strength and stamina. Their diet should contain high amount of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fibre.

According to experts, complementary feeding needs to be sourced from diverse food groups so that the growing child receives all essential nutrients for optimum growth and development. These groups are: (i) grains, roots and tubers, legumes and nuts; (ii) dairy products; (iii) meat, fish, and poultry; (iv) eggs; (v) fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin A, and; (vi) other fruits and vegetables. Give your child food from at least four of these groups daily to ensure well-balanced nutrition.

Complementary food needs to be prepared keeping in mind the basic parameters of safety and hygiene. Food-borne illnesses can occur if the food is not cooked thoroughly, cooked food is left at room temperature for a long time, cooking equipment is contaminated, or hands are not washed properly before feeding the infant.

Dr Pinkesh K Varma, Senior Consultant - Paediatrics, Happy Family Hospital, Chandigarh said, "Freshly cooked food is the safest for a child; otherwise, it should be consumed within one to two hours of cooking in a hot climate, unless refrigerated. It is important to cook the food thoroughly as high temperature during cooking is essential to kill harmful bacteria".

Babies need to be fed lukewarm food - neither too hot, nor too cold - using a clean plate or bowl. Many mothers reheat left-over food just to make it warm and palatable. This is a mistake because insufficiently high temperatures cannot kill harmful bacteria. Mothers should also take care not to reheat cooked food more than once.

When introducing complementary food to your child for the first time, choose products that are least likely to cause allergy. They should also not contain artificial flavours, colours, preservatives or harmful chemicals. Following good feeding practices like these will ensure you never go wrong with your child's diet.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Nasa releases Saturn-Earth 'photobomb' picture

WASHINGTON: The US space agency has released a rare photo of the Earth and moon taken from the vantage point of the outer solar system, with Saturn's rings in the shot.

The color images were taken by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft at a distance of nearly 900 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away, Nasa said.

After calling on Earthlings to wave at Cassini for the picture last week, Nasa said the chance to "photobomb" another planet drew 20,000 participants, even though the Earth appears as just a tiny speck in the final image.

"The July 19 Earth-imaging event marked the first time Earthlings had advance notice that their portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances," Nasa said.

"It was the also the first time Cassini's highest resolution camera captured the Earth and its Moon as two distinct objects."

The unusual angle was possible because the Sun had moved behind Saturn from the spacecraft's point of view, blocking out most of the light that would otherwise have damaged the camera's detectors.

"We may not be able to see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, based at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"Cassini's picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space."


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tomato, apple peels to help purify water

Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Juli 2013 | 22.13

SINGAPORE: An Indian-origin scientist has developed the world's first water purification technique that uses apple and tomato peels to remove different types of pollutants. In a bid to make clean water available at low cost, Ramakrishna Mallampati, a PhD student at the National University of Singapore, experimented with peels of apples and tomatoes. He found that tomato peels can remove different contaminants in water , including dissolved chemicals , dyes and pesticides, and can also be used in large-scale applications. It was also found that apple peels can remove dissolved water pollutants through adsorption.

Mallampati hopes that the water purification methods can benefit communities living in places where there is little electricity or resources to establish a water purification plant.


22.13 | 0 komentar | Read More

Prehistoric man painted while high on drugs?

WASHINGTON: Prehistoric man made cave art while high on hallucinogenic drugs, a new research has claimed. A team of international scientists studied paintings dating as far back as 40,000 years.

They discovered that the spiral-like and labyrinthian designs that are often found in the paintings at locations that are thousands of kilometres away from each other didn't just pop up by coincidence.

These patterns are consistent with those that many humans see after taking hallucinogenic drugs, leading scientists to believe that ancient cavemen were high while painting. Known as 'Turing instabilities' , these hallucinations are common after ingesting a number of different plants with psychoactive properties, science and technology website Gizmodo reported.

The patterns resemble "neural patterns" that mimic the structural make-up of the brain and are as meaningful as those that initially experienced them perceived them to be.

"When these visual patterns are seen during altered states of consciousness, they are directly experienced as highly charged with significance," the researchers said. "In other words, the patterns are directly perceived as somehow meaningful and thereby offer themselves as salient motifs for use in rites and rituals ," they said.

This isn't the first time it has emerged that hallucinogenic drugs may have played a role in early cave paintings , though it's the most scientifically rigorous evidence yet. A few years ago, a 6,000-year-old cave painting in Spain created a buzz after scientists identified what appeared to be images of psychedelic mushrooms in one of the murals. PTI


22.13 | 0 komentar | Read More

Molecule responsible for causing feelings of depression identified

WASHINGTON: Researchers have claimed that they have discovered molecules that are responsible for stress, anxiety and even depression.

They discovered that the protein receptor CRF1 is responsible for releasing hormones which could cause anxiety and depression over long time periods, the Independent reported.

Researchers in their study, conducted by drug company Heptares Therapeutics, used a particle accelerator known as Diamond Light Source for understanding the CRF1 structure.

According to Sunday Times, the X-ray machine's powerful beams illuminated the protein's structure, which includes a crevice that is capable of becoming the new target for drug therapy.

Dr Fiona Marshall, Chief Scientific Officer at Heptares Therapeutics, said that since the shape is now known, a molecule can be designed which is going to lock into this crevice and block it so that CRF1 becomes inactive - ending the biochemical cascade that ends in stress.

The study has been published in the Nature journal.


22.13 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brain's 'misery' molecule discovered

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Juli 2013 | 22.11

LONDON: Scientists have found the brain's most miserable molecule - a protein involved in all our feelings of stress, anxiety and depression - paving way for development of new drugs to control it.

Researchers used the Diamond Light Source, a particle accelerator at Harwell in Oxfordshire, which generates some of the world's most powerful x-ray beams, to study molecules that jut from the outer surfaces of cells in the brain's pituitary gland.

It is already known that the pituitary plays a crucial role in anxiety and depression by releasing stress chemicals into the blood.

However, it was not known how the response was triggered, although a protein named CRF1 was a suspect, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

"Stress-related diseases such as depression and anxiety affect a quarter of adults each year, but what many people don't realise is that these conditions are controlled by proteins in the brain, one of which is CRF1," said Fiona Marshall, chief scientific officer at Heptares Therapeutics, a drug discovery company in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

"What we have done is to work out its structure, which tells us how it works and, potentially, means we can design drugs to control it," Marshall said.

CRF1 is embedded in the outer membranes of pituitary cells where it looks out for stress molecules released by the hypothalamus.

When it detects one it activates its parent cell to release hormones that, over long periods, cause anxiety and depression.

The powerful accelerator that scientists used illuminated the molecule's entire atomic structure - including a crevice within it that could prove an ideal target for new drugs.

"Now we know its shape, we can design a molecule that will lock into this crevice and block it so that CRF1 becomes inactive - ending the biochemical cascade that ends in stress," Marshall said.

The results were published in journal Nature.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

World's first trip to Moon's south pole planned for 2016

WASHINGTON: The world's first mission to the south pole of the moon to install a permanent telescope on the lunar surface, to aid professional and amateur researchers, has been announced.

The private enterprise mission, announced by the International Lunar Observatory Association and Moon Express, will be both scientific and commercial, and plans to deliver the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) aboard a Moon Express robotic lander.

Moon Express will also utilise the mission to explore the moon's south pole for mineral resources and water. Lunar probes have provided compelling evidence of mineral and volatile deposits in the Moon's southern polar region where energy and resources may be abundant, Phys.org reported.

The ILO, with its 2-meter dish antenna, will be the world's first instrument to conduct international astrophysical observations and communications from the lunar surface, providing scientific research, commercial broadcasting and enabling Galaxy 21st Century education and "citizen science" on the Moon.

The announcement was made during a NASA Lunar Science Institute conference at Nasa Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

"The ILO will demonstrate the value of the Moon for scientific study of the galaxy, moon, earth, sun and stars," said Steve Durst, founder and director of the ILOA and Space Age Publishing Company.

"We are a global consortium of scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and visionaries who seek to establish a scientific presence on the Moon followed by human exploration and eventual settlement."

Space Age Publishing Company, ILOA's commercial affiliate, intends to broadcast its Space Calendar weekly and Lunar Enterprise Daily via the ILO. ILOA expects that the south pole mission could take place as early as 2016 and contribute to humanity's growth as a multi-world species.

Moon Express will send a series of robotic missions to the Moon in support of science, commerce and exploration starting in 2015.

"We are very excited to our announce that our second Moon mission will be to the lunar South Pole to deliver the International Lunar Observatory and to prospect for resources," said Moon Express CEO Dr Robert Richards.

"The mission will provide a historic landing in an unexplored region of the moon that may harbour some of the greatest resource deposits in the solar system," said Richards.

The ILO and its precursor will have an internet-based access and control system and will be the first private space telescope to operate from the lunar surface.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Smart' street-lamps light up only when people are around

WASHINGTON: An Indian-origin designer has developed unique 'smart' street-lamps which light up only in presence of people, an invention that could slash energy costs by 80 per cent.

The 'on-demand' streetlights only glow in the presence of a people, bicycle or car, and remain dim the rest of the time.

The system dubbed Tvilight was invented by designer Chintan Shah while a student at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Shah, while flying overseas, noticed street-lamps lighting streets that, in the middle of the night, were empty and desolate, CNN reported.

"I started researching. I wondered, why are they burning? How much does it cost? Is this a problem? I discovered some amazing numbers," he said.

Shah said that Europe pays over USD 13 billion a year powering streetlights, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of government energy bills.

His offered a solution to develop an intelligent, lighting system using wireless sensors to conserve energy.

Shaw believes the system will slash energy costs and CO2 emissions by 80 per cent, and maintenance by another 50 per cent, due to the integrated wireless sensor that allows lamps to alert a central control center.

The technology to distinguish between people and smaller animals, like cats and mice, so it would avoid lighting up unnecessarily has also been developed.

"I thought, why should each citizen pay for street lights that aren't being used? We now have a solution for that," he said.

Tvilight has already been implemented in four municipalities in Holland and one in Ireland.

"We have enquiries from Israel, Turkey, the United States, Australia, India and Japan. The problem is not a lack of enquiries, it's the team's capacity to deliver the solution worldwide," he said.


22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Life may have existed on Mars 4 billion years ago

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 20 Juli 2013 | 22.10

LONDON: Life may have existed on Mars till about 4 billion years ago. After studying the first measurements of Martian atmosphere taken by the Curiosity rover, researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, say the red planet lost its oxygen four billion years ago, possibly after a massive collision with an object as big as Pluto.

"This data is clear evidence of a substantially thicker atmosphere, hence a warmer and wetter Mars in the past than the cold and arid planet we find today," said Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan. The team of scientists said a mysterious - and catastrophic - event tore away its oxygen-rich atmosphere, leaving back only carbon dioxide.

Nasa said meteorite measurements indicate much of the atmospheric loss may have occurred during the first billion years of the planet's 4.6-billion-year history. Atreya, co-investigator on Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments, said the scientists measured different gases and isotopes in samples of Martian air. Isotopes are variations of the same chemical element that contain different numbers of neutrons , such as the most common carbon isotope, carbon-12 , and a heavier stable isotope, carbon-13 , which contains an additional neutron.

SAM analyzed the ratios of heavier to lighter isotopes of carbon and oxygen in the carbon dioxide that makes up most of Mars' atmosphere today. Measurements showed that heavy isotopes of carbon and oxygen were more abundant in today's thin atmosphere compared with the proportions in the raw material that formed the planet. This provides not only supportive evidence for the loss of much of Mars's original atmosphere , but also gives clues to how the loss occurred, the scientists said. It suggests that the planet's atmosphere escaped from the top, rather than due to the lower atmosphere interacting with the ground.

In a first, snow discovered on star in far-off , infant solar system

Astronomers have discovered a snowy region in a far-off baby solar system, 175 light years away from the Earth. The snow line, located in the disc around the Sun-like star TW Hydrae, has been found in a far-off infant solar system for the very first time. The discovery promises to reveal more about the formation of planets and comets, the factors that decide their composition, and the history of the solar system. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/ Submillimeter Array discovered the snow line in an infant solar system. The study was published in Science Express.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Earth prepares for glamour shots from space

LOS ANGELES: Smile Earth! You're on camera.

Nasa is inviting the public to look skyward and wave at Saturn and Mercury in what is billed as an interplanetary photo op.

The Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn and the Messenger craft circling Mercury moved into position on Friday to take pictures of Earth, which will appear as a dot.

At the time of Friday's Cassini photo shoot, North America will be in sunlight. Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia will be illuminated in portraits by Messenger on Friday and Saturday.

Scientists say the snapshots of Earth are part of a bigger effort to study Saturn's shimmering rings and search for moons around Mercury.

It'll take days to weeks to process the images.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Non-electric cooler bag to keep food chilled for five days

HELSINKI: Taking food to festivals or on holiday even during the hottest of days will soon be easier, as a new non-electric cooler bag designed by a Finnish firm can keep food chilled for at least 4-5 days.

The innovation dubbed "super cooler bag" has been designed by the Icebridge Oy company based in Tuusula, near Helsinki, news website goodnewsfinland.com reported.

Company CEO Jukka Hamalainen said a "non-electric cooling system" developed by the company can be used in many different applications, such as in cooler bags.

"In practice, the basic product is ready but the product for the consumer market is still undergoing a few adjustments. We aim to complete the development work by the end of the year," the official said.

The most noticeable benefit of the "super cooler bag" over traditional cooler bags is its long-lasting and reliable temperature control.

The product is designed for conditions in which electric or otherwise-powered refrigeration space is not available or is insufficient.

"Our product is especially suited for travel, long hiking trips, staying at the summer cottage, sailing excursions and other kinds of events such as festivals," said Hamalainen.

He said the largest markets for the bag will be in the Middle East and in North America.

Icebridge's flagship product is a non-electric refrigeration system for airline catering. It is based on patented technology developed by inventor Jarmo Aurekoski.

The system cools the serving trolley evenly and for a sustained period, meaning that food can be kept cool for up to 23 hours.

The CEO said that 10 airlines have been using Icebridge products.

Dutch airline KLM has been flying with Icebridge coolers for over a year. The company has calculated that the product has helped save 1.2 million euros per year, he said.


22.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Regularly breaking a sweat can lower stroke risk

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 19 Juli 2013 | 22.15

WASHINGTON: Regular exercise lowers the risk of having a stroke, new research suggests.

A stroke can occur when a blood vessel in the brain gets blocked. As a result, nearby brain cells will die after not getting enough oxygen and other nutrients.

A number of risk factors for stroke have been identified, including smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and being inactive.

For this study, Michelle N. McDonnell, PhD, from the University of South Australia, Adelaide and her colleagues obtained data from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

REGARDS is a large, long-term study funded by the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to look at the reasons behind the higher rates of stroke mortality among African-Americans and other residents living in the Southeastern United States.

"Epidemiological studies such as REGARDS provide an important opportunity to explore race, genetics, environmental, and lifestyle choices as stroke risk factors," Claudia Moy, PhD, program director at NINDS, said.

Over 30,000 participants supplied their medical history over the phone. The researchers also visited them to obtain health measures such as body mass index and blood pressure.

At the beginning of the study, the researchers asked participants how many times per week they exercised vigorously enough to work up a sweat.

The researchers contacted participants every six months to see if they had experienced a stroke or a mini-stroke known as a transient ischemic attack (TIA). To confirm their responses, the researchers reviewed participants' medical records.

The researchers reported data for over 27,000 participants who were stroke-free at the start of the study and followed for an average of 5.7 years. One-third of participants reported exercising less than once a week.

Study subjects who were inactive were 20 per cent more likely to experience a stroke or TIA than participants who exercised four or more times a week.

The findings revealed that regular, moderately vigorous exercise, enough to break a sweat, was linked to reduced risk of stroke. Part of the protective effect was due to lower rates of known stroke risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking.

The study is published in the journal Stroke.


22.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Why nondrinkers have higher mortality rates

WASHINGTON: A new study has explored why non-drinkers have a higher mortality risk than people who are light drinkers.

As it turns out, the mystery as to why abstaining from alcohol makes you live longer, kind of depends on why you don't drink.

Multiple studies have shown that the likelihood of dying for people who drink increases as they consume more alcohol.

Those same studies have shown that a person's mortality risk also increases at the other end of the spectrum among people who choose not to drink at all though the risk is still much less than for heavy drinkers.

Some researchers have hypothesized that the increased mortality among nondrinkers could be related to the fact that light alcohol consumption drinking, on average, less than one drink a day might actually protect people from disease and reduce their stress levels.

But researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, working with colleagues at the University of Colorado Denver, decided to examine whether characteristics of different subgroups of nondrinkers could explain the increased mortality risk.

"Among nondrinkers, people have all sorts of background reasons for why they don't drink," sociology professor Richard Rogers, director of CU-Boulder's Population Program in the Institute of Behavioral Science, said.

"We wanted to tease that out because it's not really informative to just assume that nondrinkers are a unified group," he said.

For the new study, Rogers and his colleagues relied on data collected in 1988 by the National Health Interview Survey about the drinking habits of more than 41,000 people from across the United States.

The researchers also had access to information about which respondents died between taking the survey and 2006.

During the survey, nondrinkers were asked to provide their reasons for not drinking.

Possible answers ranged from "don't socialize very much" to "am an alcoholic" to "religious or moral reasons."

The research team divided nondrinkers into three general categories: "abstainers," or people who have never had more than 12 drinks in their lives; "infrequent drinkers," or people who have fewer than 12 drinks a year; and "former drinkers."

Each category was further divided using a statistical technique that grouped people together who gave similar clusters of reasons for not drinking.

The team then calculated the mortality risk for each subgroup compared with the mortality risk for light drinkers, and they found that the risks varied markedly.

Abstainers who chose not to drink for a cluster of reasons that included religious or moral motivations, being brought up not to drink, responsibilities to their family, as well as not liking the taste, had similar mortality risks over the follow-up period to light drinkers.

"So this idea that nondrinkers always have higher mortality than light drinkers isn't true," Rogers said.

"You can find some groups of nondrinkers who have similar mortality risks to light drinkers," he said.

The other subgroup of abstainers whose largest reason for not drinking appeared to be a dislike of the taste and to a lesser degree family responsibilities, religious or moral motivations or upbringing had a 17 per cent higher mortality risk over the follow-up period compared with light drinkers.

The scientists also found that infrequent drinkers generally had a slightly higher mortality risk than light drinkers.

Former drinkers, however, had the highest mortality risk of all nondrinkers.

Former drinkers whose cluster of reasons for not drinking now included being an alcoholic and problems with drinking, for example, had a 38 per cent higher mortality risk than light drinkers over the follow-up period.

By comparison, people who drink between one and two drinks per day, on average, have a 9 per cent higher mortality rate than light drinkers, while people who drink between two and three drinks per day have a 49 per cent higher mortality.

People who consume more than three drinks per day had a 58 per cent higher mortality risk over the follow-up period compared with light drinkers.

Despite confirming that some subgroups of nondrinkers have a higher mortality rate than light drinkers, it doesn't necessarily follow that those people's mortality rates would fall if they began drinking, Rogers said.

For example, people who were problem drinkers in the past might increase their mortality risk further by starting to drink again.

Also, people who don't drink at all, as a group, have lower socioeconomic characteristics than light drinkers, which could be one of the underlying causes for the mortality differences, Rogers said.

In that case, starting to drink without changing a person's socioeconomic status also would not likely lower mortality rates.

The study is published in the journal Population Research and Policy Review.


22.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Genetic mutation linked to severe obesity identified

WASHINGTON: US scientists have identified a rare genetic mutation that can directly cause obesity in some people.

The study by Boston Children's Hospital in US involved genetic surveys of several groups of obese humans and experiments in mice.

Mice with the genetic mutation gained weight even while eating the same amount of food as their normal counterparts; the affected gene, Mrap2, has a human counterpart (MRAP2) and appears to be involved in regulating metabolism and food consumption.

"These mice aren't burning the fat, they're somehow holding onto it. Mice with the genetic mutation gained more weight, and we found similar mutations in a cohort of obese humans," said the study's lead investigator Joseph Majzoub, chief of endocrinology at Boston Children's.

The protein created by the Mrap2 gene appears to facilitate signalling to a receptor in the brain called Mc4r, which helps increase metabolism and decrease appetite as part of a larger signalling chain involved in energy regulation.

Fat cells produce the hormone leptin, prompting receptors in the brain to instigate production of a second hormone, alpha-MSH. Mc4r detects this hormone with the aid of Mrap2, leading to a decrease in appetite and weight.

Mutations in this signalling chain, including mutations in Mc4r, are known to increase the likelihood of obesity.

Majzoub, first author Masato Asai, now at Nagoya University in Japan, and colleagues studied mice with the Mrap2 gene knocked out both overall and just in the brain. In both cases, the mice grew to about twice their normal size.

Weight gain was greatest when both copies of Mrap2 were knocked out, but the mice still showed weight gain and appetite increase with one working copy of the gene. The weight gain was more pronounced in males than females.

In addition, the mice without Mrap2 had more exaggerated weight gain when fed a high-fat diet than normal mice.

Surprisingly, while the mice without Mrap2 didn't eat more at first, they still gained weight faster than the controls. Later, their appetites increased and they continued to gain more weight than the controls, even when held to the same diet and quantity of food.

To investigate the gene in humans, Majzoub collaborated with Sadaf Farooqi, of the University of Cambridge, and others to investigate groups of obese patients from around the world.

The team found four mutations in the human equivalent of Mrap2 among the 500 people, all in patients with severe, early-onset obesity; each of the four affected patients had only one copy of the mutation.

While the finding suggests that these rare mutations directly cause obesity in less than one per cent of the obese population, the researchers suspect that other mutations in the gene might occur more commonly and might interact with other mutations and environmental factors to cause more common forms of obesity.


22.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Memory loss peaks at 4 stages atleast 20 years before Alzheimer's hits

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 18 Juli 2013 | 22.30

MELBOURNE: Australian scientists have discovered four peak stages of memory loss 20 years before the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

This data from the national Australian Imaging, Biomarker and Lifestyle Flagship study, has for the first time shown how long it takes for the development of Alzheimer's disease, the Courier Mail reported.

Florey Institute and their national consortium's researchers discovered that the plaque build-up in Alzheimer's sufferers' brain could be seen up to 20 years before memory loss symptoms appear.

However, it took about 10 years for these beta-amyloid plaque proteins to attain abnormal levels in the brain.

The researchers found that there was also a gradual death of the hippocampus about five years before the onset of the disease, with distinct memory losses occurring in 17 years, four and three years before a full-blown dementia strikes.

The research involved analysing brain scans and cognitive function tests of 206 participants in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing.


22.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man spots lost pyramids via satellite

WASHINGTON: Mysterious, pyramid-like structures spotted in the Egyptian desert by an amateur satellite archaeologist may indeed be long-lost pyramids, a new investigation has found. Angela Micol, from North Carolina, made the discovery of the possible pyramid complexes using Google Earth, last year.

One site in Upper Egypt, just 19 km from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, featured four mounds.

The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 76.2 metres in width. Some 144 km north near the Fayum oasis, the second possible pyramid complex revealed a four-sided, truncated mound approximately 150 feet wide and three smaller mounds in a diagonal alignment.

Micol told 'Discovery News' that peculiar features have been uncovered around the structures during a preliminary ground proofing expedition, revealing cavities and shafts.

According to Micol, the Egyptian team believes they have identified a temple or habitation site near the site and a row of what may be mastaba tombs adjacent to the mounds.


22.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gold on Earth came from far away dead stars

NEW DELHI: All the gold on Earth must have come from colliding dead stars, scientists have suggested after studying a gamma ray burst (GRB) that happened when two neutron stars collided on June 3 rdthis year.

It was known that gold must have cosmic origins like many of the heavier elements. But gold is so heavy that it could not be created even in stars, like iron. It needed a cataclysmic event for gold to be forged.

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astronomy (CfA) observing the gamma ray burst last month found that a unique glow that persisted for days at the GRB location potentially signifies the creation of substantial amounts of heavy elements - including gold. The gamma ray burst was a death scream of two neutron stars colliding and merging, some 3.9 billion light years away.

Neutron stars are super-dense stars made of just neutrons. They are born after a star explodes in a supernova. A neutron star is said to have a density like a Boeing 747 compressed to the size of a grain of sand.

"We estimate that the amount of gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as large as 10 moon masses - quite a lot of bling!" says lead author Edo Berger of the CfA in a statement.

Although the gamma rays disappeared in just one-fifth of a second, a slowly fading glow dominated by infrared light persisted for some more time. Its brightness and behavior didn't match a typical ""afterglow,"" which is created when a high-speed jet of particles slams into the surrounding environment.

Instead, the glow behaved like it came from exotic radioactive elements. The neutron-rich material ejected by colliding neutron stars can generate such elements, which then undergo radioactive decay, emitting a glow that's dominated by infrared light - exactly what the team observed.

"We've been looking for a 'smoking gun' to link a short gamma-ray burst with a neutron star collision. The radioactive glow from GRB 130603B may be that smoking gun," explains Wen-fai Fong, a graduate student at the CfA and a co-author of the paper.

The team calculates that about one-hundredth of a solar mass of material was ejected by the gamma-ray burst, some of which was gold. By combining the estimated gold produced by a single short GRB with the number of such explosions that have occurred over the age of the universe, all the gold in the cosmos might have come from gamma-ray bursts.

"To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are all star stuff, and our jewelry is colliding-star stuff," says Berger.

The team's results have been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available online.


22.30 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger