Scientists recant Big Bang gravitational wave theory

LONDON: A new analysis has dynamited a much-hyped discovery of primordial "gravitational waves" from the dawn of time.

Despite earlier reports of a possible detection, a joint analysis of data from ESA's Planck satellite and the ground-based BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments has found no conclusive evidence of primordial gravitational waves.

Scientists revealed that interstellar dust caused more than half of the signal detected by the Antarctica-based BICEP2 experiment. The Planck spacecraft observations were not yet available in March 2014 when the BICEP2 science team made its announcement.

BICEP2, Planck and Keck all study the cosmic microwave background (CMB), or light that was left over from the Big Bang, and which can be seen in every direction in the sky.

One feature of the CMB that these experiments study was its polarization, or the orientation of the light waves. (This phenomenon might be familiar in the form of polarizing sunglasses, which take advantage of light waves' orientation by blocking light that becomes polarized as it bounces off the surface of water.)

The original announcement March 2014 caused a sensation because it appeared to show evidence that the universe ballooned rapidly a split-second after its birth, in what scientist call cosmic inflation.

That idea had been widely believed, but researchers had hoped to bolster it by finding a particular trait in light left over from the very early universe.

That signal was what the researchers claimed they had found in observations of the sky taken from the South Pole, in a project called BICEP2.

But now, in a new paper submitted for publication, Brian Keating of the University of California, San Diego, a member of the BICEP2 team said that they were effectively retracting the claim.

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HIV may stay hidden in 'quiet' immune cells

WASHINGTON: In what could lead to a cure for HIV, researchers have found that the human immunodeficiency virus may stay hidden for years in certain "quiet" immune cells.

Drugs for HIV have become adept at suppressing infection, but they still can not eliminate it because the medication in these pills does not touch the virus' hidden reserves, which lie dormant within infected white blood cells, the researchers said.
READ ALSO: Medicines, test kit scarcity hits HIV therapy in India
"It has recently been shown that infected white blood cells can proliferate over time, producing many clones, all containing HIV's genetic code. However, we found that these clones do not appear to harbour the latent reservoir of virus," said study author Lillian Cohn from Rockefeller University.
READ ALSO: HIV losing its edge, evolving into milder form, study finds

"Instead our analysis points to cells that have never divided as the source of the latent reservoir," Cohn said.

Schoolgirls take part in an HIV/AIDS awareness rally on World AIDS Day at a School in Patiala, on December 1, 2014.
HIV belongs to a family of viruses that insert themselves directly into the host cell's genome where they can hide out quietly after the initial infection.

HIV mostly targets CD4 T lymphocytes, a type of T cell involved in initiating an immune response.
READ ALSO: Four south Indian states make up 50% of HIV cases
When HIV integrates itself into the genetic code of a CD4 T cell, it may produce an active infection.

"If a patient stops taking antiretrovirals, the infection rebounds. It is truly amazing that the virus can give rise to AIDS 20 years after the initial infection," Cohn said.

Bill Clinton, former US president, addresses the crowd at a musical concert organized to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS on World AIDS day in New York City, on December 1, 2014.
The reservoir of latent virus may be hiding out in a type of CD4 T cell: long-lived memory cells that help the immune system remember particular pathogens, the researchers pointed out.

The study appeared in the journal Cell.

College and Schoolstudents hold a giant red ribbon made by themselves during an event to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS on the World AIDS Day, in Fuyang, China, on December 1, 2014.

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Structure of anxiety disorder protein revealed

WASHINGTON: New research has revealed the crystal structure of a key protein, TSPO, which is associated with several forms of anxiety disorders.

By identifying the structure at the atomic level, scientists can now pinpoint where drugs may interact with the protein.

"Many other scientists have studied this protein, but what exactly it is doing has been very difficult to determine," said Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Michigan State University in the US.

"Drugs and other compounds bind to TSPO, but without knowing the structure, their effects are hard to interpret. Now that we have obtained the structure, it could provide important clues regarding anxiety disorders and the basis for a new generation of anti-anxiety drugs," Miller added.

TSPO plays a key role in shuttling cholesterol into mitochondria, the cells' powerhouse where the cholesterol is converted to hormones.

These hormones are essential for our body functions.

Using X-ray technology, the team was able to solve the crystal structure of the protein - creating an image of TSPO at a molecular level.

This gave researchers a better understanding on how TSPO interacts with cholesterol and how this relationship affects the creation of steroid hormones.

"One reason that TSPO's function has been so hard to pin down is that many studies have been done in the complex and diverse environments of whole cells and tissues, where a clear-cut interpretation of the results is difficult," said Fei Li, a researcher and co-author from the Michigan State University.

"We were able to obtain a pure protein that was still functional, but isolated from these complications," Fei Li added.

The study appeared in the journal Science.

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‘Love cheats are perfectly suited for politics’

LONDON: People who tend to cheat are most suitable for politics than any other profession, claims a new study.

According to psychologist Lucy Redford, cheaters don't feel they would get caught, or even if they do, they think they would be able to walk out of it easily, "which politicians are very good at," the Daily Star reported.

The study reviewed 1,000 cheating people, and found that 235 of them were working in politics. These include head of government departments, parliamentary officials, political representatives, local councillors or senior civil servants. Meanwhile, other professions only had an average of 110 cheaters. Claire Page, from extra-marital dating website Illicit Encounters, said that their services were used by many high-profile politicians. She added that the act is very common these days.

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Russia may create orbital station with India, China

MOSCOW: Russia is exploring the possibility of a joint manned orbital station with India and China as part of a common strategy to create technological alliances and may take up the matter with the two Asian space giants in July.

"Moscow could propose to China and India to create a joint manned orbital station at the summit of the BRICS emerging economies in Russia's Ufa in July," a document drafted by the expert council at Russia's military and industrial commission said.

The experts recommend "working out the possibilities of an international manned project with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries as part of a common strategy of creating technological alliances", Itar Tass reported.

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Stem cell breakthrough may lead to baldness cure

WASHINGTON: Scientists have successfully used human stem cells to generate new hair, paving the way for a potential new cure for baldness.

The study from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) in US represents the first step towards the development of a cell-based treatment for people with hair loss, researchers said.

"We have developed a method using human pluripotent stem cells to create new cells capable of initiating human hair growth. The method is a marked improvement over current methods that rely on transplanting existing hair follicles from one part of the head to another," said Alexey Terskikh, associate professor in the Development, Ageing and Regeneration Programme at Sanford-Burnham.

"Our stem cell method provides an unlimited source of cells from the patient for transplantation and isn't limited by the availability of existing hair follicles," said Terskikh.

The research team developed a protocol that coaxed human pluripotent stem cells to become dermal papilla cells.

They are a unique population of cells that regulate hair-follicle formation and growth cycle.

Human dermal papilla cells on their own are not suitable for hair transplants because they cannot be obtained in necessary amounts and rapidly lose their ability to induce hair-follicle formation in culture.

"In adults, dermal papilla cells cannot be readily amplified outside of the body and they quickly lose their hair-inducing properties," said Terskikh.

"We developed a protocol to drive human pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into dermal papilla cells and confirmed their ability to induce hair growth when transplanted into mice," said Terskikh.

"Our next step is to transplant human dermal papilla cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells back into human subjects," Terskikh added. The research was published in the journal PLOS One.

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Asteroid that flew past Earth has small moon

NEW YORK: The asteroid that flew past the Earth Jan 26 has its own small moon, Nasa said.

In the first radar images of asteroid called 2004 BL86, scientists working with Nasa's Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, show that the primary body is approximately 325 metres across and has a small moon approximately 70 metres across.

The 20 individual images used in the movie were generated from data collected at Goldstone.

The flyby was the closest approach the asteroid will make to Earth for at least the next two centuries.

It is also the closest a known asteroid this size will come to the Earth until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past our planet in 2027.

In the near-Earth population, about 16% of asteroids that are about 200 metres or larger are a binary (the primary asteroid with a smaller asteroid moon orbiting it) or even triple systems (two moons).

In 2016, Nasa will launch a robotic probe to one of the most potentially hazardous of the known near-Earth objects (NEOs).

The OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid (101955) Bennu will be a pathfinder for future spacecraft designed to perform reconnaissance on any newly discovered threatening objects.

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Chewing gum helps fight oral bacteria

LONDON: Just 10 minutes of chewing gum can remove 100 million bacteria from your mouth, according to a new study which suggests chewing gum may be as good as flossing. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that chewing gum can trap and remove bacteria from the oral cavity.

In the study, five biomedical engineering students were recruited to chew two different standard types of spearmint gum for various lengths of time ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Afterward, the gum was spit into a cup filled with sterile water to be analysed, 'Medical Daily' reported. There were were about 100 million bacteria detected on each piece of chewed up gum, with the number increasing as chewing time increased. However, after 30 seconds of chewing, the gum starts to lose its adhesiveness, meaning it traps fewer bacteria overall. "Trapped bacteria were clearly visualised in chewed gum using scanning-electron-microscopy," researchers said in the paper published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Previous research has shown that using a new, clean toothbrush without any toothpaste can remove around 100 million colony-forming units per brush, which would put chewing of gum on a par with mechanical action of a toothbrush.

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Flexible work hours can improve employees’ health

WASHINGTON: Giving employees more control over their work schedules may help curb sleep deficiency and improve health, according to new research.

"In the absence of sufficient sleep, we are not as attentive or alert, we process information more slowly, miss or misinterpret social and emotional cues and decision making is impaired," said Orfeu M Buxton from the Pennsylvania State University. "For example, we may misjudge risks by undervaluing negative consequences and overvaluing potential rewards," he said. Sleep deficiency has been linked to increased risk of automobile crashes, chronic disease and early mortality.

Buxton and colleagues looked to see if a workplace intervention improved sleep quantity and quality.

Researchers followed 474 employees as part of a study conducted at an information technology company.

A year after the intervention, the researchers found that employees experienced an average of eight minutes more sleep per night, which is nearly an hour more sleep per week, than the control group. Intervention participants' perceptions of their sleep sufficiency also improved.

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Found: Why rain gives off aromatic earthy smell

WASHINGTON: MIT scientists have identified the mechanism that releases an earthy smell in the air after light rain. Using high-speed cameras, the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology observed that when a raindrop hits a porous surface, it traps tiny air bubbles at the point of contact. As in a glass of champagne, the bubbles then shoot upward, ultimately bursting from the drop in a fizz of aerosols. The team was also able to predict the amount of aerosols released, based on the velocity of the raindrop and the permeability of the contact surface.

The researchers suspect that in natural environments, aerosols may carry aromatic elements, along with bacteria and viruses stored in soil.These aerosols may be released during light or moderate rainfall, and then spread via gusts of wind.

Youngsoo Joung, a postdoc in the lab of Cullen R Buie, an assistant professor at MIT, said now that the mechanism for such aerosol generation has been identified, the results may help to explain how certain soil-based diseases spread.

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8,383km in six days: '2 Eagles' seek to cross Pacific on balloon

ALBUQUERQUE: Two balloonists took flight from Japan on Saturday in a bid to break world records for distance and duration for gas balloon travel, in what they hope will be at least a six-day trans-Pacific flight reaching the US West Coast, officials said.

The distance record of 5,209 miles (8,383km) for gas balloons was set on the only previous manned trans-Pacific flight, in 1981, while the duration record of more than 137 hours aloft was set in 1978 by a team cross ing the Atlantic.

Balloon pilots Troy Bradley, an American, and Leonid Tuikht yaev, of Russia, collectively dubb ed "Two Eagles", successfully took off after bad weather and poor wind trajectories wind trajectories had repeatedly delayed their launch, said Ray Bair, an official observer with the National Aeronautic Association based at Mission Control in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

They will subsist on a diet that includes fresh fruit, freeze-dried hikers' meals, beef jerky and the occasional hot meal prepared on a small stove, and will be equipped with cold weather gear including sleeping bags and a heater.If they make it to the US West Coast south of Oregon they will have broken the distance record, Bair said, adding that they could also attempt to fly further, as the craft is believed capable of staying aloft for 10 days.

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Soon, paper-thin, faster flexi-screens for computers

TOKYO: The next generation of transistors may pave the way for flexible, paper-thin computer screens that provide faster response times and better efficiency, scientists say.

Researchers at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science reviewed the latest developments in research on photoactive organic field-effect transistors; devices that incorporate organic semiconductors, amplify weak electronic signals, and either emit or receive light. Organic field-effect transistor (OFETs) were developed to produce low-cost, large-area electronics, such as printable andor flexible electronic devices.

The researchers reported that much progress has been made in the development of light-emitting organic fieldeffect transistors (LE-OFETs) since they first appeared in 2003. Research in this area has resulted in advances in the manufacture of novel organic photonics applications using cost-effective approaches.

Light emission efficiency and brightness of these transistors will soon improve, researchers said. Further research may lead to production of new display technologies. LEOFETs are also expected to become fully compatible with well-established electronic technologies. This may allow further development of optical communication systems and optoelectronic systems, such as those using laser technologies.

LE-OFETs are being used to develop flexible, transparent computer screens. These screens are purported to provide faster response times, better efficiency, and no need for backlighting. They also have very low energy needs. Light-receiving organic field-effect transistors, on the other hand, are much less developed than their light-emitting siblings.

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Final attempt to hunt for missing comet lander

LONDON: In its final attempt to find the missing comet lander, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) are deliberating to send Rosetta spacecraft, which is still orbiting the comet, to swoop down just six kilometres over the patch where the lander is thought to be.

Since its batteries ran out just days after a bumpy landing on the comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G) in November last year, Philae has been silent and its exact location remains a mystery, scientific journal Nature reported.

But Rosetta has only limited fuel and any attempt to look for Philae would mean scrapping another flyby, sacrificing a chance to image the comet in a shadow-free shot that should reveal unprecedented detail.

After the coming flyby, planned for Valentine's Day next month, Rosetta will not come this close again until 2016, once the comet has swung around the Sun and headed back out to space.

"If we are going to change plans to target looking for the lander, that impacts some of the goals we had planned," said Joel Parker, research astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The debate involves weighing the science goals of both options, as well as the chances of finding Philae, he added.

A process of deduction has put Philae's location somewhere within a 20-metre by 200-metre strip, but efforts to find the one-metre-wide lander in high-resolution images taken by Rosetta from 20 km out have so far failed.

Finding the lander is not just a matter of closure.

Spotting the lander would also help to determine its exact position and angle, and to predict how likely Philae is to come back to life.

The craft may wake up in the coming months as the comet nears the Sun and its solar panels begin to receive more light.

"Planning for something like that is a lot of work. It would be good to know if it [will happen]," Parker noted.

The final word rests with ESA. According to the agency's manager for the mission, Fred Jansen, a decision is likely to be reached soon.

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Soon, autonomous helicopter drone for Martian exploration

WASHINGTON: NASA has revealed that it is working on a small helicopter that could fly ahead of future Mars rovers to improve surveillance and navigation abilities on the alien planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proposed the idea of Mars Helicopter, an autonomous drone that could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day, as the alien surface is uneven, and ridges and valleys make navigating the terrain difficult, the Verge reported.

The rover teams could also use images from the helicopter to select features for further study, giving them a much closer option than the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its HiRISE camera, which is over 150 miles above the surface.

Prototype versions of the Mars Helicopter are being tested now and the idea is proposed as an "add-on" to future rover missions, so even if it gets approved it won't be flying any time soon.

Compared to Earth, Mars has a much thinner atmosphere and much weaker gravity, suggesting that a drone also must be engineered to be rugged enough to withstand Martian conditions while remaining light enough to fly.

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Mega study on ayurveda's healing powers

Perhaps for the first time leading research and medical institutions in the US-Harvard University, Scripps Clinic, University of California San Diego, Mt Sinai University , University of California San Francisco and Duke University -are collaborating on a project to study ayurveda's healing powers.

Called the `Self-Directed Biological Transformation Initiative (SBTI) Research Study', the study is being conducted at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in California. The center, run by wellness expert Deepak Chopra, had earlier conducted a smaller study to examine the effects of meditation and yoga on gene expression.

"The findings from the older study showed that a week of meditation and yoga practice led to an increase in expression of genes that support rejuvenation of the body , a reduction in expression of genes associated with the stress response, and a large increase in telomerase levels (an enzyme that helps maintain structural identity of genes)," says Chopra.

In the SBTI study , researchers will be analyzing the impact of ayurvedic treatments on participants' genes, certain hormones as sociated with metabolism and mood change, bacteria present in the gut and on the skin, inflammation markers, weight, stress makers etc. "The body's healing system is still little understood because of the complex inputs -thoughts, emotions, diet, stress, exercise, immune response -that affect healing. The picture is further clouded when isolated findings overlap or contradict one another. In the context of ayurveda, therapies and practices aren't done in isolation. Instead of focusing on local symptoms, the diagnosis is systemic.Only now is Western medicine beginning to understand that a blanket condition like `stress' or `inflammation' connects many diverse disorders, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes," says Chopra.

Ayurveda is widely practised and followed in India. There are 2,458 ayurveda hospitals running in India under the government's directorate of Ayush (Ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homoeopathy). However since there have been few scientific studies on the safety and efficacy of the system in the West, it is often perceived as a pseudoscience there. Dr Rudolf Tanzi, a professor at the Harvard University and a co-researcher at the SBTI study , says that this perception is now changing.

"Any scientist of worth will admit that most of time we are wrong. Just look back at science 100 years ago and ask how much is still correct today. Why would this not continue to be the case 100 years from now? Thus, it makes sense to look back to ancient remedies and wisdom, for example, as prescribed in ayurvedic medicine. So far, the results ranging from the effects of meditation on beneficial gene activity to ashwagandha on Alzheimer's pathology are certainly looking sufficiently promising to continue," says Tanzi who specializes in researching gene mutations linked to Alzheimer's Disease.

The study also has the potential to throw light on which brain-function related genes and chemicals are turned "on" or turned "off " by an ayurvedic diet and lifestyle."That type of information can help us not only better establish how ayurveda works at a cellular level but also how best to integrate it into a modern healthy lifestyle," says Dr Murali Doraiswamy , professor at Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and coresearcher on the study .

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Soon, autonomous helicopter drone for Martian exploration

WASHINGTON: NASA has revealed that it is working on a small helicopter that could fly ahead of future Mars rovers to improve surveillance and navigation abilities on the alien planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proposed the idea of Mars Helicopter, an autonomous drone that could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day, as the alien surface is uneven, and ridges and valleys make navigating the terrain difficult, the Verge reported.

The rover teams could also use images from the helicopter to select features for further study, giving them a much closer option than the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its HiRISE camera, which is over 150 miles above the surface.

Prototype versions of the Mars Helicopter are being tested now and the idea is proposed as an "add-on" to future rover missions, so even if it gets approved it won't be flying any time soon.

Compared to Earth, Mars has a much thinner atmosphere and much weaker gravity, suggesting that a drone also must be engineered to be rugged enough to withstand Martian conditions while remaining light enough to fly.

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Ebola biggest threat to gorillas, chimps

The Ebola virus currently poses the greatest threat to the survival of great apes, conservationists have warned, after killing an estimated third of the world's gorillas and chimpanzees since the 1990s.

The unprecedented current Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed some 8,641 people, according to data from the World Health Organisation, while the first batch of GlaxoSmithKline's experimental Ebola vaccine was expected to arrive in Liberia on Friday.

Conservationists have suggested vaccination could also prove helpful in tackling the threat the virus poses to our closest cousins. Writing for The Conversation, Meera Inglis, a Conservation Policy PHD student at the University of Sheffield, said: "At this moment in time, Ebola is the single greatest threat to the survival of gorillas and chimpanzees."

She goes on to suggest while vaccination could help as "a short-term strategy" to tackle the virus in apes, a longer-term strategy could focus on restoring forest habitat, "as larger forested areas would reduce the chances of infected animals coming into contact with one another."

A report written by Ria Ghai for The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada suggests "an estimated one third of the world's gorillas and chimpanzees have been killed by this disease". Ghai writes: "Outbreaks of Ebola are infrequent, but many wildlife populations are unmonitored."

"Therefore, infection of a single member of a highly affiliative animal species like chimpanzees can lead to population-level spread, especially if carcasses are left uncollected to be handled or scavenged by other animals." According to the WWF, a 1994 Ebola outbreak in Mikebe, in northern Gabon, "wiped out the entire population of what used to be the second largest protected population of gorillas and chimpanzees in the world". the independent

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Final attempt to hunt for missing comet lander

LONDON: In its final attempt to find the missing comet lander, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) are deliberating to send Rosetta spacecraft, which is still orbiting the comet, to swoop down just six kilometres over the patch where the lander is thought to be.

Since its batteries ran out just days after a bumpy landing on the comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G) in November last year, Philae has been silent and its exact location remains a mystery, scientific journal Nature reported.

But Rosetta has only limited fuel and any attempt to look for Philae would mean scrapping another flyby, sacrificing a chance to image the comet in a shadow-free shot that should reveal unprecedented detail.

After the coming flyby, planned for Valentine's Day next month, Rosetta will not come this close again until 2016, once the comet has swung around the Sun and headed back out to space.

"If we are going to change plans to target looking for the lander, that impacts some of the goals we had planned," said Joel Parker, research astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The debate involves weighing the science goals of both options, as well as the chances of finding Philae, he added.

A process of deduction has put Philae's location somewhere within a 20-metre by 200-metre strip, but efforts to find the one-metre-wide lander in high-resolution images taken by Rosetta from 20 km out have so far failed.

Finding the lander is not just a matter of closure.

Spotting the lander would also help to determine its exact position and angle, and to predict how likely Philae is to come back to life.

The craft may wake up in the coming months as the comet nears the Sun and its solar panels begin to receive more light.

"Planning for something like that is a lot of work. It would be good to know if it [will happen]," Parker noted.

The final word rests with ESA. According to the agency's manager for the mission, Fred Jansen, a decision is likely to be reached soon.

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Small helicopter to scout for future Mars rovers

WASHINGTON: Nasa engineers are working on a small helicopter that could "scout" a trail for future Mars rovers.

The low-flying Mars helicopter would fly ahead of the rover almost every day, checking out various possible points of interest and helping engineers back on Earth plan the best driving route, the US space agency said in a statement.

The proposed helicopter could potentially triple the distance these vehicles currently drive in a Martian day and deliver a new level of visual information for choosing which sites to explore.

Scientists could also use the helicopter images to look for features for the rover to study in further detail.

Another part of the helicopter's job would be to check out the best places for the rover to collect key samples and rocks for a cache, which a next-generation rover could pick up later.

The vehicle is envisioned to weigh one kg and measure 1.1 metres across from the tip of one blade to the other.

The prototype body looks like a medium-size cubic tissue box.

Till date, each Nasa rover has delivered a wealth of information about the history and composition of the Red Planet but a rover's vision is limited by the view of on board cameras, and images from spacecraft orbiting Mars are the only other clues to where to drive it.

To have a better sense of where to go and what's worth studying on Mars, it could be useful to have a low-flying scout.

The current design is a proof-of-concept technology demonstration that has been tested at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

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Interstellar-style wormhole exists in Milky Way?

WASHINGTON: An Interstellar-style space-time tunnel may exist in the Milky Way and we could even travel through it, according to a new theory proposed by an international team of scientists, including those from India.

Based on the latest evidence and theories our galaxy could be a huge wormhole and, if that were true, it could be "stable and navigable," scientists say .

"If we combine the map of the dark matter in the Milky Way with the most recent Big Bang model to explain the universe and we hypothesize the existence of space-time tunnels, what we get is that our galaxy could really contain one of these tunnels, and that the tunnel could even be the size of the galaxy itself.But there's more," said Paolo Salucci, astrophysicist of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, Italy, and a dark matter expert. "We could even travel through this tunnel, since, based on our calcula tions, it could be navigable," Salucci said.

The research was published in a paper in the Annals of Physics, which Salucci authored with Farook Rahaman from Jadavpur University in Kolkata and a group of Indian and North American researchers."Obviously we are not claiming that our galaxy is definitely a wormhole, but simply that, according to theoretical models, this hypothesis is a possibility," said Salucci.

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Rosetta mission data reveals how comets evolve

WASHINGTON: A team of researchers has unveiled closest-ever details about the evolution of a comet that was in headlines last year when the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission helped its Philae lander touch down on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G).

The study helps scientists better understand how comets form in the first place, how their surfaces evolve over time and how to potentially predict their lifespans.

"We are trying to see how a comet evolves over time, and also through the course of its orbit. Gaining this detailed time series is what distinguishes Rosetta from other missions," said Michael A'Hearn, distinguished university professor emeritus of astronomy at University of Maryland (UMD).

A'Hearn with UMD astronomer Dennis Bodewits co-authored three of the papers as members of the team for Rosetta's Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS).

One of the Rosetta papers uses OSIRIS images to analyse the structure of C-G.

Described as roughly the shape of a rubber duck, it consists of two lobes connected by a thin "neck".

The team found that the majority of outgassing activity from the comet is occurring at the neck, where the OSIRIS cameras have consistently seen jets of gas and debris.

The second paper describes the surface of the portion of C-G that is currently visible to Rosetta.

This "northern" region is divided into 19 distinct regions, all named for ancient Egyptian deities in keeping with the nomenclature of the mission.

A third paper combines data from OSIRIS and another instrument, the Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (GIADA).

This study looks at C-G's coma - the thick cloud of dust and gas that envelops the nucleus. Comets have very little gravity, dust and gas flow freely into the space.

"We were surprised to find a cloud of particles orbiting the comet that are large and heavy enough to defy the sun's radiation pressure," Bodewits said.

The comet will be most active when it reaches perihelion or the single point in C-G's orbit that is the closest and most intensely affected by solar radiation.

It will reach this point Aug 13, 2015 after which it will head away from the Sun once again.

The series of papers appeared in a special issue of the journal Science.

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New study finds 8 genetic 'errors' that cause aging of brain

NEW DELHI: A global team of about 300 scientists studied over 30,000 brain scans of people from 33 countries and found that eight common genetic mutations are behind the aging of brain. This was the largest collaborative study of the brain to date and its findings could lead to targeted therapies and interventions for Alzheimer's disease, autism and other neurological conditions.

The study known as the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Network was led by researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and involved 190 institutions. The findings are published on Jan 21 in Nature. This is the first high-profile study since the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US launched its Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) centers of excellence in 2014.

"ENIGMA's scientists screen brain scans and genomes worldwide for factors that help or harm the brain—this crowd-sourcing and sheer wealth of data gives us the power to crack the brain's genetic code," said Paul Thompson, professor at Keck School of Medicine and principal investigator of ENIGMA. "Our global team discovered eight genes that may erode or boost brain tissue in people worldwide. Any change in those genes appears to alter your mental bank account or brain reserve by 2 or 3 percent. The discovery will guide research into more personalized medical treatments for Alzheimer's, autism, depression and other disorders."

The study could help identify people who would most benefit from new drugs designed to save brain cells, but more research is necessary to determine if the genetic mutations are implicated in disease.

The ENIGMA researchers screened millions of "spelling differences" in the genetic code to see which ones affected the size of key parts of the brain in magnetic resonance images (MRIs) from 30,717 individuals. The MRI analysis focused on genetic data from seven regions of the brain that coordinate movement, learning, memory and motivation. The group identified eight genetic variants associated with decreased brain volume, several found in over one-fifth of the world's population. People who carry one of those eight mutations had, on average, smaller brain regions than brains without a mutation but of comparable age; some of the genes are implicated in cancer and mental illness.

In October 2014, the NIH invested nearly $32 million in its Big Data Initiative, creating 12 research hubs across the United States to improve the utility of biomedical data. USC's two BD2K centers of excellence, including ENIGMA, were awarded a total of $23 million over four years.

"The ENIGMA Center's work uses vast datasets as engines of biomedical discovery; it shows how each individual's genetic blueprint shapes the human brain," said Philip Bourne, Ph.D., associate director for data science at the NIH. "This 'Big Data' alliance shows what the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program envisions achieving with our 12 Centers of Excellence for Big Data Computing."

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Next generation of cancer drugs may be mined from soil

LONDON: The world's next generation of antibiotic or anti-cancer drugs could come from the most unlikely place - the soil under your feet.

Scientists from US' Rockefeller University have analyzed soil from beaches, forests and deserts on the five continents to discover the best places in the world to mine untapped antibiotic and anticancer drugs.

The findings provide new insights into the natural world as well as a road map for future drug discovery. The scientists now want to collect more samples from unique environments such as caves, hot springs, islands and city parks.

Lead author Zachary Charlop-Powers said the study of the biosynthetic content of these soils shows their potential for drug discovery.

"Uncultured bacteria from the environment could provide a dazzling array of new molecules many of which could become new medicines. The unbelievable diversity we found is a first step towards our dream of building a world map of chemicals produced by microbes," said Sean Brady, from the Rockefeller University.

They will continue with their citizen science effort 'Drugs from Dirt', inviting the public to submit samples.

While there are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are humans on earth, only a tiny fraction have been cultured. Of these only a small number of the potentially clinically useful chemicals produced by bacteria have been studied.

For this study, 185 samples were taken from rainforests, temperate forests, deserts, and beaches on five continents (North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia) and the oceanic islands of Hawaii and Dominican Republic.

The vast majority of antibiotics in clinical use today are derived from soil bacteria but the yield of new drugs is low because the same cultivated bacteria and the set of molecules they synthesise are repeatedly rediscovered.

But for every cultured bacterial species there are 100 uncultivated species in the environment.

Scientists have previously identified clusters of bacterial genes that are particularly good at producing therapeutics. This knowledge meant the scientists could focus on searching for certain types of gene clusters in samples rather than having to sequence and analyse the whole genomes of bacteria.

The team compared environmentally derived DNA to DNA from laboratory-grown bacteria chosen for their ability to make more than 400 natural product compounds. The analysis revealed soils particularly rich in important gene clusters.

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Nasa, Microsoft to help scientists virtually explore Mars

WASHINGTON: Nasa has teamed up with Microsoft to develop a new software that will enable scientists to work on Mars virtually using a wearable technology.

Developed by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the software called OnSight will give scientists a means to plan and, along with the Mars Curiosity rover, conduct science operations on the Red Planet.

"OnSight gives our rover scientists the ability to walk around and explore Mars right from their offices," said Dave Lavery, programme executive for the Mars Science Laboratory mission at Nasa headquarters in Washington.

"It fundamentally changes our perception of Mars, and how we understand the Mars environment surrounding the rover," said Lavery.

OnSight will use real rover data and extend Curiosity's existing planning tools by creating a 3-D simulation of the Martian environment where scientists from world over can meet.

Programme scientists will be able to examine the rover's work-site from a first-person perspective, plan new activities and preview the results of their work firsthand.

"We believe OnSight will enhance the ways in which we explore Mars and share that journey of exploration with the world," said Jeff Norris, JPL's OnSight project manager.

Until now, rover operations required scientists to examine Mars imagery on a computer screen.

But even 3-D stereo views, lack a natural sense of depth that human vision employs to understand spatial relationships.

The OnSight system uses holographic computing to overlay visual information and rover data into user's field of view.

Holographic computing blends a view of the physical world with computer-generated imagery to create a hybrid of real and virtual.

To view this holographic realm, members of the Curiosity mission team don a Microsoft HoloLens device, which surrounds them with images from the rover's Martian field site.

They then can stroll around the rocky surface or crouch down to examine rocky outcrops from different angles. The tool provides access to scientists and engineers looking to interact with Mars in a more natural, human way.

"Previously, our Mars explorers have been stuck on one side of a computer screen. This tool gives them the ability to explore the rover's surroundings much as an Earth geologist would do field work here on our planet," said Norris.

The OnSight tool also will be useful for planning rover operations. For example, scientists can programme activities for many of the rover's science instruments by looking at a target and using gestures to select menu commands.

The tool will assist researchers in better understanding the environment and workspace of robotic spacecraft - something that can be quite challenging with their traditional suite of tools.

JPL plans to begin testing OnSight in Curiosity mission operations later this year. Future applications may include Mars 2020 rover mission operations, and other applications in support of Nasa's journey to Mars.

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Gene activation extends lifespan of flies by 60%

LONDON: Scientists have managed to prolong the lifespan of flies by up to 60% after activating a gene which destroys unhealthy cells, an advance which may help develop new anti-aging treatments for humans.

Researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland, led by Eduardo Moreno, have developed a new method to extend lifespan of flies. "Our bodies are composed of several trillion cells and during aging those cells accumulate random errors due to stress or external insults, like UV-light from the sun," said Moreno.

"Because some cells are more affected than others, we reasoned that selecting the less affected cells and eliminating the damaged ones could be a good strategy to maintain tissue health and delay in aging and prolong lifespan," Moreno said.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers used Drosophila melanogaster flies. The first challenge was to find out which cells within the organs of Drosophila were healthier. Moreno's team identified a gene which was activated in less healthy cells.

They called the gene ahuizotl (azot) because the function of the gene was also to selectively target less healthy or less fit cells to protect the integrity and health of the organs like the brain or the gut. Normally, there are two copies of this gene in each cell. By inserting a third copy, the researchers were able to select better cells more efficiently.

The consequences of this improved cell quality control mechanism were, according to Moreno, "very exciting".

The flies appeared to maintain tissue health better, aged slower and had longer lifespans.

"Our flies had median lifespans 50 to 60% longer than normal flies," said Christa Rhiner, one of the authors of the study.

Because the gene azot is conserved in humans, this opens the possibility that selecting the healthier or fitter cells within organs could in the future be used as an anti-aging mechanism, researchers said.

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Many deadly diseases linked to sitting around, exercising not to much

Long hours spent sitting significantly increase the chances of getting heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dying, even if the person is regularly exercising, a new study by Canadian researchers has found. This blows up the popular perception that once you put in, say, an hour of exercise, that will wipe out the ill-effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

The researchers reviewed 47 prior studies to arrive at these new conclusions. The study is published in the online issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We found the association relatively consistent across all diseases. A pretty strong case can be made that sedentary behavior and sitting is probably linked with these diseases," said study author Aviroop Biswas, a Ph.D. candidate at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network.

"When we're standing, certain muscles in our body are working very hard to keep us upright," added Biswas, offering one theory about why sitting is detrimental. "Once we sit for a long time . . . our metabolism is not as functional, and the inactivity is associated with a lot of negative effects."

According to Biswas and his colleagues, the following tips may be useful in reducing the ill-effects of sedentary time: taking a one- to three-minute break every half-hour during the day to stand or walk around, standing or exercising while watching TV, gradually reducing daily sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes per day, aiming for two to three fewer sedentary hours over a 12-hour day.

About 3.2 million people die each year because they are not active enough, according to the World Health Organization, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.

Among the studies reviewed by Biswas and his team, the definition of prolonged sitting ranged from eight hours a day to 12 hours or more. Sitting, or sedentary activities ubiquitous with sitting such as driving, using the computer or watching TV, shouldn't comprise more than four to five hours of a person's day, Biswas said, citing guidelines issued by Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We found that exercise is very good, but it's what we do across our day," he said. "Exercise is just one hour in our day, if we're diligent; we need to do something when we're not otherwise exercising, like finding excuses to move around, take the stairs, or carry groceries rather than use the [shopping cart] at the supermarket.""

The biggest health hazard stemming from prolonged sitting, according to the review, was a 90 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Among studies examining cancer incidence and deaths, significant links were specifically noted between sedentary behavior and breast, colon, uterine and ovarian cancers.

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Many deadly diseases linked to sitting around, exercising does not help much: Study

Long hours spent sitting significantly increase the chances of getting heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dying, even if the person is regularly exercising, a new study by Canadian researchers has found. This blows up the popular perception that once you put in, say, an hour of exercise, that will wipe out the ill-effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

The researchers reviewed 47 prior studies to arrive at these new conclusions. The study is published in the online issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We found the association relatively consistent across all diseases. A pretty strong case can be made that sedentary behavior and sitting is probably linked with these diseases," said study author Aviroop Biswas, a Ph.D. candidate at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network.

"When we're standing, certain muscles in our body are working very hard to keep us upright," added Biswas, offering one theory about why sitting is detrimental. "Once we sit for a long time . . . our metabolism is not as functional, and the inactivity is associated with a lot of negative effects."

According to Biswas and his colleagues, the following tips may be useful in reducing the ill-effects of sedentary time: taking a one- to three-minute break every half-hour during the day to stand or walk around, standing or exercising while watching TV, gradually reducing daily sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes per day, aiming for two to three fewer sedentary hours over a 12-hour day.

About 3.2 million people die each year because they are not active enough, according to the World Health Organization, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.

Among the studies reviewed by Biswas and his team, the definition of prolonged sitting ranged from eight hours a day to 12 hours or more. Sitting, or sedentary activities ubiquitous with sitting such as driving, using the computer or watching TV, shouldn't comprise more than four to five hours of a person's day, Biswas said, citing guidelines issued by Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We found that exercise is very good, but it's what we do across our day," he said. "Exercise is just one hour in our day, if we're diligent; we need to do something when we're not otherwise exercising, like finding excuses to move around, take the stairs, or carry groceries rather than use the [shopping cart] at the supermarket.""

The biggest health hazard stemming from prolonged sitting, according to the review, was a 90 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Among studies examining cancer incidence and deaths, significant links were specifically noted between sedentary behavior and breast, colon, uterine and ovarian cancers.

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Why do zebras have stripes? To keep them cool

NEW YORK: Zebras' thick, black stripes may have evolved to help them stay cool in the midday African heat, a new study has found.

Researchers have long struggled to explain the purpose of the zebra's unique black-and-white coat. It has been suggested that the stripes may help zebras camouflage themselves and escape from lions and other predators; avoid nasty bites from disease-carrying flies; or control body heat by generating small-scale breezes over the zebra's body when light and dark stripes heat up at different rates.
Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) examined how 29 different environmental variables influence stripe styles of plains zebras at 16 different sites from south to central Africa. The scientists found that the definition of stripes along a zebra's back most closely correlated with temperature and precipitation in a zebra's environment, and did not correlate with the prevalence of lions or tsetse flies in the region.
These findings suggest that torso stripes may do more to help zebras regulate their body temperature than to avoid predators and tsetse flies, 'Live Science' reported.
Other animals also need to regulate body temperature, or therm8oregulate, said co-author Ren Larison, a researcher at UCLA, but zebras may especially benefit from an extra cooling system as they digest food less efficiently than other grazers in Africa. ptiAs such, zebras need to spend longer periods of time out in the heat of the midday sun, eating more food.
The team found that the plains zebras with the most-defined torso stripes generally lived in the Northern, equatorial region of their range, whereas those with less-defined torso stripes were more common in the Southern, cooler regions of the range - a finding that supports the thermoregulation explanation.
The researchers plan to test the thermoregulation hypothesis, either by studying the behaviour of air currents over zebra pelts, or by implanting wild zebras with temperature sensors, if they are granted permission to do so, Larison said.
The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

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US okays world's 1st device to fight obesity

WASHINGTON: A first-of-its-kind implant to treat obesity that curbs appetite by electrically stimulating stomach ne8rves has been approved in the US.

The Maestro Rechargeable System is approved to treat patients aged 18 and above who have not been able to lose weight with a weight loss programme, and who have a body mass index of 35 to 45 with at least one other obesity-linked condition, like type-2 diabetes.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the implant for certain obese adults, the first weight loss treatment device that targets the nerve pathway between the brain and the stomach that controls feelings of hunger and fullness. BMI, which measures body fat based on an individual's weight and height, is used to define obesity categories.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of all US adults are obese, and people with obesity are at increased risk of heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes and certain kinds of cancer.

"Medical devices can help physicians and patients develop comprehensive obesity treatment plans," said William Maisel, deputy director for science and chief scientist at FDA's Centre for Devices and Radiological Health. The system consists of a rechargeable electrical pulse generator, wire leads and electrodes implanted surgically into the abdomen.

It works by sending intermittent electrical pulses to the trunks in the abdominal va8gus nerve, which is involved in regulating stomach emptying and signalling to the brain that the stomach feels empty or full. Although it is known that the electric stimulation blocks nerve activity between the brain and the stomach, the specific mechanisms for we8ight loss due to use of the %device are unknown.

External controllers allow the patient to charge the device and allow health care professionals to adjust its settings to provide optimal therapy with minimal side effects.

The safety and effectiveness of the system were evaluated in a clinical trial that included 233 patients with a BMI of 35 or greater. The weight loss and adverse events of 157 patients who received the active Maestro device (the experimental group) were compared to 76 patients in the control group who received a Maestro electrical pulse generator that was not activated.

The study found that after 12 months, the experimental group lost 8.5% more of its excess weight than another group which did not receive the active Maestro device, FDA said. About half (52.5 per cent) of the patients in the experimental group lost at least 20 per cent of their excess weight, and 38.3 per cent of patients in the experimental group lost at least 25 per cent of their excess weight.

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Environment, not genes, dictates our immune system

WASHINGTON: Our environment, more than our heredity, plays the starring role in determining the state of our immune system, the body's primary defence against disease, a new study of twins has shown.

This is especially true as we age, the study indicates.

"The idea in some circles has been that if you sequence someone's genome, you can tell what diseases they're going to have 50 years later," said Mark Davis, from Stanford University's Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection.

But while genomic variation clearly plays a key role in some diseases, he said, the immune system has to be tremendously adaptable in order to cope with unpredictable episodes of infection, injury and tumour formation.

"When you examine people's immune systems, you often find tremendous differences between them. So we wondered whether this reflects underlying genetic differences or something else," said Davis, senior author of the study.

"But what we found was that in most cases, including the reaction to a standard influenza vaccine and other types of immune responsiveness, there is little or no genetic influence at work, and most likely the environment and your exposure to innumerable microbes is the major driver," Davis said.

To determine nature's and nurture's relative contributions, Davis and his colleagues turned to a century-old method of teasing apart environmental and hereditary influences.

They compared pairs of monozygotic twins - best known as "identical" - and of dizygotic, or fraternal, twins.

The researchers recruited 78 monozygotic-twin pairs and 27 pairs of dizygotic twins. They drew blood from both members of each twin pair on three separate visits.

The team then applied sophisticated laboratory methods to the blood samples to measure more than 200 distinct immune-system components and activities.

Examining differences in the levels and activity states of these components within pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, the scientists found that in three-quarters of the measurements, nonheritable influences - such as previous microbial or toxic exposures, vaccinations, diet and dental hygiene - trumped heritable ones when it came to accounting for differences within a pair of twins.

This environmental dominance was more pronounced in older identical twins (age 60 and up) than in younger twins (under age 20).

The study was published in the journal Cell.

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Poor sleep may lead to alcohol, drug abuse in teens, study finds

WASHINGTON: Adolescents who get poor or insufficient sleep may be at higher risk of developing alcohol and drug problems, scientists say.

Researchers have found that sleep difficulties and hours of sleep can predict a number of specific problems, including binge drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol, and risky sexual behaviour.

"Among normal adults, sleep difficulties and insomnia have predicted onset of alcohol use one year later, and increased risk of any illicit drug use disorder and nicotine dependence 3.5 years later," said Maria M Wong, professor and director of experimental training in the department of psychology at Idaho State University.

"Among adult alcoholics who received treatment for alcohol dependence, those with insomnia at baseline were more likely to relapse to alcohol use. The association between poor sleep and substance use has also been found in younger age groups. Overtiredness in childhood has predicted lower response inhibition in adolescence, which in turn predicted number of illicit drugs used in young adulthood," she added.

READ ALSO: Warning sign for depression in teen boys found

"Overtiredness in childhood has also directly predicted the presence of binge drinking, blackouts, driving after drinking alcohol, and number of lifetime alcohol problems in young adulthood. The purpose of this study was to examine whether sleep difficulties and hours of sleep prospectively predicted several serious substance-related problems that included binge drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol, and risky sexual behaviour," Wong said.

Wong and her colleagues analysed data collected via interviews and questionnaires from 6,504 adolescents (52 per cent girls, 48 per cent boys) participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the US.

Data were collected for three waves — 1994-1995, 1996, and 2001-2002 — and study authors used sleep difficulties from a previous wave to predict substance-related problems at a subsequent wave, while controlling for substance-related problems at the previous wave.

READ ALSO: Sexting culture fast catching up with Indian teens

"Sleep difficulties at the first wave significantly predicted alcohol-related interpersonal problems, binge drinking, gotten drunk or very high on alcohol, driving under the influence of alcohol, getting into a sexual situation one later regretted due to drinking, and ever using any illicit drugs and drugs-related problems at the second wave," said Wong.

"Previous studies on adolescents were mostly drawn from high risk samples," said Wong.

"This study has added to the existing literature by establishing the relationship between two sleep variables — sleep difficulties and hours of sleep — and the odds of serious alcohol- and drug-related problems in a nationally representative sample," she said.

The study will be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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Pills to adjust night-shift workers' body clock

MONTREAL: What if a pill could help adjust your internal body clock to night shifts or jet lag the way it works during the day to eliminate various health risks, including cancer?

This may be possible, says a team of Australian researchers, with the administration of glucocorticoid tablets, a class of hormones used as powerful anti-inflammatory compounds to treat various diseases.

"This new scientific discovery opens the door to innovative therapies that could act on the different parts of the circadian system so that these rhythms can be adjusted to inverted sleep schedules," said Diane B Boivin, director of the centre for study and treatment of circadian rhythms at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute.

For this, the team studied the rhythmic expression of clock genes in white blood cells to see how they adjusted in response to glucocorticoids.

The researchers analysed 16 healthy volunteers who were studied in temporal isolation chambers.

The results showed, for the first time, that the peripheral biological clocks located in white blood cells can be synchronised through the administration of glucocorticoid tablets.

"These cells are involved in our body's reaction to attacks from many pathogens. This study suggests that biological rhythms may play a role in controlling immune function in night-shift workers," added co-author Marc Cuesta, post-doctoral fellow.

Physiological changes over the course of a day are regulated by a circadian system comprised of a central clock located deep within the centre of the brain and multiple clocks located in different parts of the body.

Since humans are fundamentally diurnal creatures, staying awake at night can significantly disrupt all of the body's internal biological clocks.

Over the long term, this can lead to a high incidence of various health problems, such as metabolic or cardiovascular problems or even certain types of cancer.

The previous work of Boivin and her team showed that exposing workers to bright light at night tor adjusting work schedules can improve the synchronisation of the central biological clock to their work schedule.

The new study was published in The FASEB Journal.

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How stars, galaxies formed in early Universe

WASHINGTON: A new study has provided a deeper insight into how stars and massive galaxies formed in the infancy of our Universe.

Two teams of astronomers led by researchers at the University of Cambridge have looked back nearly 13 billion years, when the Universe was less than 10 percent its present age, to determine how quasars - extremely luminous objects powered by supermassive black holes with the mass of a billion suns - regulate the formation of stars and the build-up of the most massive galaxies.

Using a combination of data gathered from powerful radio telescopes and supercomputer simulations, the teams found that a quasar spits out cold gas at speeds up to 2000 kilometres per second, and across distances of nearly 200,000 light years - much farther than has been observed before.

How this cold gas - the raw material for star formation in galaxies - can be accelerated to such high speeds had remained a mystery. Detailed comparison of new observations and supercomputer simulations has only now allowed researchers to understand how this can happen: the gas is first heated to temperatures of tens of millions of degrees by the energy released by the supermassive black hole powering the quasar. This enormous build-up of pressure accelerates the hot gas and pushes it to the outskirts of the galaxy.

The supercomputer simulations showed that on its way out of the parent galaxy, there was just enough time for some of the hot gas to cool to temperatures low enough to be observable with radio telescopes.

Cicone's observations allowed the second team of researchers specialising in supercomputer simulations to develop a detailed theoretical model of the outflowing gas around a bright quasar.

Tiago Costa said that while gas was launched out of the quasar at very high temperatures, there was enough time for some of it to cool through radiative cooling - similar to how the Earth cools down on a cloudless night.

The results are published in the journals Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Thane students design car that runs on salt water and solar energy

THANE: In a bid to to limit the usage of fossil fuel and as a part of the all-India competition, Teenovators, by the Manipal University, the students of SVPT's Saraswati Vidyalaya High School and Junior College Of Science, Thane, made a car that works on a fuel cell made up of NaCl (aq), ie normal salt water and solar energy.

The principal Anita Pinto said, "The team of five students of Std XI and XII comprising Shraddha Prabhu, Neha Patil, Samrudhi Vaidya, Amey Parab and Aakash Dolas will be going to Manipal next week for the finals."

The car designed by Thane students run on salt water and solar energy.

The students were helped by teacher Swapnil Sontake. Talking about the Ultimate Power Car, he explained, "It looks like a normal petrol or diesel car but without engine and doesn't cause air or water pollution. It uses renewable and abundantly available resource like sunlight and so would be cheaper than usual cars. The only twist is that the back compartment of the car will have the circuitry whereas the front compartment will be the storage unit."

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Robot found on Mars after decade lost in space

In the most amazing twist, one of the pioneering robots that went into space almost a decade ago to land on Mars but disappeared has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, almost intact.

The UK-led probe - Mars robot Beagle 2 tried to make a soft touchdown on the red soil of Mars on the Christmas day of 2003 but no radio contact was ever made with the probe.

It was then assumed that it had been destroyed in a high-velocity impact.

High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified the probe and found it to be in one piece.

Images taken by the camera on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have also solved the mystery of what happened to Beagle 2.

This find shows that the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touchdown on Mars.

Image analysis by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has confirmed that the targets discovered, are of the correct size, shape, colour and dispersion to Beagle 2.

Unfortunately given the partial deployment, it would not be possible to revive Beagle 2 and recover data from it.

Professor Colin Pillinger from the Open University who led the Beagle 2 project with inspirational enthusiasm died in May 2014.

A computer-generated image shows three airbags separating to release the Beagle 2 lander craft onto the surface of Mars in 2003. (Reuters photo)

Others who provided major contributions to Beagle 2 were Professor George Fraser of the University of Leicester and Professor David Barnes of Aberystwyth University who also died in 2014.

Dr David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said "The history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure. This finding makes the case that Beagle 2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe's continuing exploration of Mars".

Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester who was an integral part of the Beagle 2 project from the start leading the initial study phase said "I am delighted that Beagle 2 has finally been found on Mars. Every Christmas Day since 2003 I have wondered what happened to Beagle 2. My Christmas day in 2003 alongside many others who worked on Beagle 2 was ruined by the disappointment of not receiving data from the surface of Mars. To be frank I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle 2. The images show that we came so close to achieving the goal of science on Mars.

"I view it as a great achievement that the team built Beagle 2 in a little over four years and successfully landed it on the surface of Mars."

Dr Judith Pillinger who was heavily involved in the Beagle 2 project in particular its publicity and was married to Professor Colin Pillinger said "On behalf of Colin, I would like to thank everyone who joined with him to make Beagle 2 happen so many years ago. For me and his family, of course, seeing the images from Mars brings about mixed emotions. An immense sense of pride is inevitably tinged with great sadness that Colin is not able to share the findings with us".

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Scientists come up with findings on beneficial effects of metformin

HYDERABAD: Scientists of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here have come up with certain findings when they investigated Metformin's role in Atheroscelrosis.

Metformin, a widely used anti-diabetic drug all over the world, is the first-line drug of choice to manage Type 2 diabetes especially in obese and overweight people and even those with normal kidney function. Metformin primarily controls blood glucose levels by inhibiting the glucose production by the liver. Recently, metformin has been shown to slow the aging process and increase the life span.

The scientists found that metformin effectively inhibited the angiotensin-II- induced atherosclerotic disease process when administered to Apolipoprotein (Apo) E knockout mice. Atherosclerosis is a vascular disease in which plaque (made up of calcium, cholesterol and fat) builds-up inside the arteries and thereby hampers the oxygen-rich blood flow to different organs of the body and it may cause serious problems including heart attack and stroke.

It was found that metformin greatly inhibited the monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation and the associated inflammatory processes during monocyte differentiation via affecting STAT3 phosporylation.

Enhanced monocyte/macrophage infiltration is considered to be one of the major factors responsible for exacerbating the progression of atherosclerosis by causing the release of inflammatory cytokines and proliferation of smooth muscle cells. All these result in the narrowing of arteries, ultimately leading to the decreased blood flow.

Metformin treatment significantly decreased the macrophage levels around the sub-endothelial space in the aorta of mice. Also, metformin administration resulted in the inhibition of plaque formation and aortic aneurysms (localized balloon-like bulge in the wall of the artery) in mice.

The beneficial effects of metformin were further extended by the observations showing that it has significantly elevated the HDL levels and decreasing the LDL and triglyceride levels. It is likely that the anti-atherosclerotic effects of metformin are in part mediated by perturbing monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation during angiotensin-II-mediated atherosclerosis. The results of this study were recently published in the journal 'Diabetes', a prestigious journal of the American Diabetes Association.

"From these observations, it appears that metformin may have protective effects in regressing cardiovascular abnormalities not only in diabetic people, but also in non-diabetic people suffering from vascular disorders. In this context, clinicians may have to take closer look on these beneficial effects of metformin and see whether such a correlation exists in patients who are on metformin prescription," the study said.

The lead authors of this study are Dr. Srigiridhar Kotamraju, Senior Scientist, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, and his team involving Sathish Vasamsetti, Santosh Karnewar and Koteswararao Kanugula and Dr. Jarald Mahesh Kumar and Avinash Raj from CCMB.

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Walk 20 minutes a day, beat early death

LONDON: A brisk 20-minute walk each day could be enough to reduce an individual's risk of early death, according to a new research. 0The study of European men and women found that twice as many deaths may be attributable to lack of physical activity compared with the number of deaths attributable to obesity.

To measure the link between physical inactivity and premature death, and its interaction with obesity, Cambridge University researchers analysed data from 3,34,161 men and women across Europe participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study.

Between 1992 and 2000, the researchers measured height, weight and waist circumference, and used self-assessment to measure levels of physical activity. The participants were then followed up over 12 years, during which 21,438 participants died.

The researchers found that the greatest reduction in risk of premature death occurred in the comparison between inactive and moderately inactive groups, judged by combining activity at work with recreational activity; just under a quarter (22.7%) of participants were categorized as inactive, reporting no recreational activity in combination with a sedentary occupation.

The authors estimated that doing exercise equivalent to just a 20-minute brisk walk each day - burning between 90 and 110 kcal - would take an individual from the inactive to moderately inactive group and reduce their risk of premature death by between 16-30%. The impact was greatest amongst normal weight individuals, but even those with higher BMI saw a benefit.

Using the most recent available data on deaths in Europe, the researchers said 3,37,000 of the 9.2 million deaths amongst European men and women were attributable to obesity, however, double this number of deaths (6,76,000) could be attributed to physical inactivity.

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Quasar throws out gas at 2000kms per second causing stars to form

A combination of powerful radio telescopes and supercomputers has allowed scientists a peek at how stars and massive galaxies formed in the infancy of our Universe. And, the picture they got is of unimaginable forces clashing, and forging massive clumps of matter into familiar cosmic objects.

The researchers from Cambridge University studying a quasar 13 billion years ago found it spitting out cold gas at speeds up to 2000kms per second, and across distances of nearly 200,000 light years — much farther than has been observed before. Quasars are extremely luminous objects powered by super massive black holes with the mass of a billion suns.

The supercomputer simulations show that on its way out of the parent galaxy, there is just enough time for some of the hot gas to cool to temperatures low enough to be observable with radio telescopes. The results are presented in two separate papers published today (16 January) in the journals Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"It is the first time that we have seen outflowing cold gas moving at these large speeds at such large distances from the super massive black hole," said Claudia Cicone, a PhD student at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, and lead author on the first of the two papers. ""It is very difficult to have matter with temperatures this low move as fast as we observed.""

How this cold gas — the raw material for star formation in galaxies — can be accelerated to such high speeds had remained a mystery. Detailed comparison of new observations and supercomputer simulations has only now allowed researchers to understand how this can happen: the gas is first heated to temperatures of tens of millions of degrees by the energy released by the super massive black hole powering the quasar. This enormous build-up of pressure accelerates the hot gas and pushes it to the outskirts of the galaxy.

Quasars are amongst the most luminous objects in the Universe, and the most distant quasars are so far away that they allow us to peer back billions of years in time. They are powered by super massive black holes at the centre of galaxies, surrounded by a rapidly spinning disk-like region of gas. As the black hole pulls in matter from its surroundings, huge amounts of energy are released.

Cicone's observations allowed the second team of researchers specialising in supercomputer simulations to develop a detailed theoretical model of the outflowing gas around a bright quasar.

"We found that while gas is launched out of the quasar at very high temperatures, there is enough time for some of it to cool through radiative cooling - similar to how the Earth cools down on a cloudless night," said Tiago Costa, a PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, and lead author on the second paper. "The amazing thing is that in this distant galaxy in the young Universe the conditions are just right for enough of the fast moving hot gas to cool to the low temperatures that Claudia and her team have found."

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Mars Mission Missing lander Beagle-2 finally located on Mars, agency says

LONDON: The European Space Agency's Beagle-2 lander, which had been lost on Mars since 2003, has been found, the agency said Friday.

New photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the lander partially deployed on the surface of the Red Planet, it said.

Rudolf Schmidt, ESA's Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding ``excellent news.'' He said that not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had ''remained a nagging worry.''

Beagle-2 has not been heard of since it separated from its mother ship, but ESA said the images prove the entry, descent and landing sequence did work and that it successfully landed on Mars on Christmas Day in 2003.

UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker said the discovery of the craft showed its complex landing procedures had worked.

''This finding makes the case that Beagle-2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe's continuing exploration of Mars,'' he said.

Parker told a London news conference that there are no indications the lander crashed.

''These images are consistent with the Beagle-2 having successfully landed on Mars but then only partially deploying itself,'' he said.

The British-built Beagle-2 was launched on ESA's Mars Express orbiter and was supposed to look for signs of alien life.

It was released from its mother ship on Dec. 19, 2003, and was supposed to land six days later, but no communications with the lander were ever established.

Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, who worked on the project, said the new information shows the team came extremely close to its goal of getting data from Mars, with the deployment failing only in its final stage.

''To be frank, I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle-2,'' he said.

After the project failed, two U.S. spacecraft landed on Mars and sent back many pictures and extensive scientific data.

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Nasa finds 8 new planets in ‘life zone’

The author has posted comments on this articleKounteya Sinha, TNN | Jan 8, 2015, 05.36AM IST

An artist's conception of Earth-like planet orbiting evolved star that has formed a stunning 'planetary nebula'. 

Page 1 of 4

LONDON: Nasa's Kepler space telescope has found eight planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone of their stars, just at the right distance to contain liquid wa-ter and, possibly, life.

Two of them have been touted as most Earth-like — Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b — which are orbiting red dwarf stars that are smaller and cooler than our Sun. Kepler-438b circles its star every 35 days while Kepler-442b completes one orbit every 112 days.

With a diameter just 12% bigger than Earth, Kepler-438b has a 70% chance of being rocky, according to scientists. Kepler-442b is about one-third larger than Earth but still has a 60% chance of being rocky.

Kepler-438b receives about 40% more light than Earth. In comparison, Venus gets twice as much solar radiation as Earth. As a result, the team calculates that it has a 70% likelihood of being in the habitable zone of its star. Kepler-442b receives about two-thirds as much light as Earth. Scientists give it a 97% chance of being in the habitable zone. This doubles the number of small planets (less than twice the diameter of Earth) believed to be in the habitable zone of their parent stars.

"Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky like Earth," said lead author Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). To be in the habitable zone, an exoplanet must receive about as much sunlight as Earth. Too much sunlight, and any water would boil away as steam. Too little, and water will freeze solid. "We don't know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable," said second author David Kipping of the CfA. "All we can say is that they're promising candidates."

Prior to this, the two most Earth-like planets known were Kepler-186f, which is 1.1 times the size of Earth and receives 32% as much light and Kepler-62f, which is 1.4 times the size of Earth and gets 41% as much light. The newly found planets are distant enough to make additional observations challenging. Kepler-438b is located 470 light years from Earth while the more distant Kepler-442b is 1,100 light-years away.

The team studied planetary candidates first identified by Nasa's Kepler mission. All of the planets were too small to confirm by measuring their masses. Instead, the team validated them by using a computer program called BLENDER to determine that they are statistically likely to be planets. After the BLENDER analysis, the team spent another year gathering follow-up observations in the form of high-resolution spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging and speckle interferometry to thoroughly characterize the systems. This revealed that four of the new finds are in multiple-star systems. But the companion stars are distant and don't significantly influence them.

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‘Glowing’ breakthrough in cancer fight

The author has posted comments on this articleKounteya Sinha, TNN | Jan 8, 2015, 05.47AM IST

The findings have shown remarkable success in lab animals.

Page 1 of 4

LONDON: It's a breakthrough in cancer care — make cancer cells glow inside the body and hit them hard. Researchers at the Oregon State University have developed a new way to selectively insert compounds into such cells — a system that will help surgeons identify malignant tissues and then, in combination with phototherapy, kill any remaining cancer cells after a tumour is removed.

"If it glows, cut it out," is the mantra. In laboratory tests, it completely prevented cancer recurrence after phototherapy. "This is kind of a double attack that could significantly improve the success of cancer surgeries," said Oleh Taratula from the OSU College of Pharmacy. "With this approach, cancerous cells and tumours will literally glow and fluoresce when exposed to near-infrared light, giving the surgeon a precise guide about what to remove. That same light will activate compounds in the cancer cells that will kill any malignant cells that remain. It's an exciting new approach to help surgery succeed," Taratula added.

The findings have shown remarkable success in lab animals. The concept should allow more accurate surgical removal of solid tumours and at the same time it eradicates any remaining cancer cells.

Technology such as this, scientists said, may have a promising future in the identification and surgical removal of malignant tumours.

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An elastic spine implant helps paralysed rats walk

The author has posted comments on this articleKounteya Sinha, TNN | Jan 10, 2015, 05.01AM IST

The implant, built by Swiss researchers so as to resemble living tissue, was placed directly onto the spinal cord of paralysed rats. Its success has opened new therapeutic possibilities for people paralysed after a spinal injury. 

Page 1 of 4

LONDON: Researchers in Switzerland say an elastic implant that moves with the spinal cord has restored the ability to walk in paralysed rats.

The flexible implants, which work for months, have been developed by a team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). But applying this method to humans would require multifunctional implants which could be installed for long periods of time on the spinal cord without causing any tissue damage.

Professors Stephanie Lacour and Gregoire Courtine have developed an e-Dura implant designed specifically for implantation on the surface of the brain or spinal cord. The small device closely imitates the mechanical properties of living tissue and can simultaneously deliver electric impulses and pharmacological substances.

For the time being, the e-Dura implant has been primarily tested in cases of spinal cord injury in paralysed rats. But the potential for applying these surface implants is huge - for example in epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and pain management.

Scientists are planning to move towards clinical trials in humans, and to develop their prototype in preparation for commercialization.

The risks of rejection and/or damage to the spinal cord have been drastically reduced. Flexible and stretchy, the implant developed at EPFL is placed beneath the dura mater, directly onto the spinal cord. Its elasticity and its potential for deformation are almost identical to the living tissue surrounding it. This reduces friction and inflammation to a minimum. When implanted into rats, the e-Dura prototype caused neither damage nor rejection, even after two months.

More rigid traditional implants would have caused significant nerve tissue damage during this period of time. The researchers tested the device prototype. Not only did the implant prove its biocompatibility, it also did its job perfectly, allowing the rats to regain the ability to walk on their own again after a few weeks of training.

"Our e-Dura implant can remain for a long period of time on the spinal cord or the cortex, precisely because it has the same mechanical properties as the dura mater itself," said Lacour. "This opens up new therapeutic possibilities for patients suffering from neurological trauma or disorders, particularly individuals who have become paralysed following spinal cord injury." Developing the e-Dura implant was quite a feat of engineering. As flexible and stretchable as living tissue, it nonetheless includes electronic elements that stimulate the spinal cord at the point of injury. The silicon substrate is covered with cracked gold electric conducting tracks that can be pulled and stretched. The electrodes are made of an innovative composite of silicon and platinum microbeads. They can be deformed in any direction, while still ensuring optimal electrical conductivity. Finally, a fluidic microchannel enables the delivery of pharmacological substances - neurotransmitters in this case - that will reanimate the nerve cells beneath the injured tissue.

The implant can also be used to monitor electrical impulses from the brain in real time. When they did this, the scientists were able to extract with precision the animal's motor intention before it was translated into movement.

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‘Glowing’ breakthrough in cancer fight

The author has posted comments on this articleKounteya Sinha, TNN | Jan 8, 2015, 05.47AM IST

The findings have shown remarkable success in lab animals.

Page 1 of 4

LONDON: It's a breakthrough in cancer care — make cancer cells glow inside the body and hit them hard. Researchers at the Oregon State University have developed a new way to selectively insert compounds into such cells — a system that will help surgeons identify malignant tissues and then, in combination with phototherapy, kill any remaining cancer cells after a tumour is removed.

"If it glows, cut it out," is the mantra. In laboratory tests, it completely prevented cancer recurrence after phototherapy. "This is kind of a double attack that could significantly improve the success of cancer surgeries," said Oleh Taratula from the OSU College of Pharmacy. "With this approach, cancerous cells and tumours will literally glow and fluoresce when exposed to near-infrared light, giving the surgeon a precise guide about what to remove. That same light will activate compounds in the cancer cells that will kill any malignant cells that remain. It's an exciting new approach to help surgery succeed," Taratula added.

The findings have shown remarkable success in lab animals. The concept should allow more accurate surgical removal of solid tumours and at the same time it eradicates any remaining cancer cells.

Technology such as this, scientists said, may have a promising future in the identification and surgical removal of malignant tumours.

Article continues

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Nasa finds 8 new planets in ‘life zone’

The author has posted comments on this articleKounteya Sinha, TNN | Jan 8, 2015, 05.36AM IST

An artist's conception of Earth-like planet orbiting evolved star that has formed a stunning 'planetary nebula'. 

Page 1 of 4

LONDON: Nasa's Kepler space telescope has found eight planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone of their stars, just at the right distance to contain liquid wa-ter and, possibly, life.

Two of them have been touted as most Earth-like — Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b — which are orbiting red dwarf stars that are smaller and cooler than our Sun. Kepler-438b circles its star every 35 days while Kepler-442b completes one orbit every 112 days.

With a diameter just 12% bigger than Earth, Kepler-438b has a 70% chance of being rocky, according to scientists. Kepler-442b is about one-third larger than Earth but still has a 60% chance of being rocky.

Kepler-438b receives about 40% more light than Earth. In comparison, Venus gets twice as much solar radiation as Earth. As a result, the team calculates that it has a 70% likelihood of being in the habitable zone of its star. Kepler-442b receives about two-thirds as much light as Earth. Scientists give it a 97% chance of being in the habitable zone. This doubles the number of small planets (less than twice the diameter of Earth) believed to be in the habitable zone of their parent stars.

"Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky like Earth," said lead author Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). To be in the habitable zone, an exoplanet must receive about as much sunlight as Earth. Too much sunlight, and any water would boil away as steam. Too little, and water will freeze solid. "We don't know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable," said second author David Kipping of the CfA. "All we can say is that they're promising candidates."

Prior to this, the two most Earth-like planets known were Kepler-186f, which is 1.1 times the size of Earth and receives 32% as much light and Kepler-62f, which is 1.4 times the size of Earth and gets 41% as much light. The newly found planets are distant enough to make additional observations challenging. Kepler-438b is located 470 light years from Earth while the more distant Kepler-442b is 1,100 light-years away.

The team studied planetary candidates first identified by Nasa's Kepler mission. All of the planets were too small to confirm by measuring their masses. Instead, the team validated them by using a computer program called BLENDER to determine that they are statistically likely to be planets. After the BLENDER analysis, the team spent another year gathering follow-up observations in the form of high-resolution spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging and speckle interferometry to thoroughly characterize the systems. This revealed that four of the new finds are in multiple-star systems. But the companion stars are distant and don't significantly influence them.

Article continues

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