Rs. 275/- ISSN 0970-6488 Science Service
www.ptinews.com Vol 37 No. 13 (20 pages including cover)
CONTENTS
NATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:
* New book delves into India’s nuclear doctrine evolution * Symposium on rise in drug resistant bacteria held at IMTECH * Nadda launches National Health Resource Repositry * Yoga helps reduce severity of depressiona AIIIMS study * Expert panel will be set up yo use advanced technology to deal with air pollution Env Ministry * Satya Pal Singh asks IIT-G to also work on ancient tecnologies * Use of diesel generators increased pollution levels in Gurgaon residential socities: CSE * Govt sets up panels under task force for implementing drone tech * Most people aware of harmful effects of plastics but still use it :study .
INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:
* World ‘s smalleast computer device created * Novel keyboard can be crumpled ,carried in pockets * Printed sensors may turn gummy bears into ingestible medical probes * New ‘e- skin’ brings sense of touch to prosthetic hands *NASA’s curiosity rover captures photos of Mars dust storm * Faster, cheaper way to synthesis DNA developed * Smart stents can better prevent heart attacks *New system lets you control robots with brain waves, hand gestures * China to set up varisty for nuclear power research * Evidence of rare black hole spotted * Space tourists may not be prepared for trip beyond earth:NASA astronaut * Last of universe, smissing ordinary matter found * NASA delays James webb Space Telescope launch to 2021 * Don’t be over the moon yet! Buying a piece of lunar landscape still a distant dream * Milky way full of ‘space grease’: Study * Organic molecules on saturn’s moon indicate possibility of life * Sweden, Finland developing technology to curb India’s pollution woes * Scientist develop ”deep learning” robots to empower autistic children * SpaceX launches AI robot, strong coffee for station crew.
GLOBE SCAN,
* World’s most powerful supercomputer unveiled * Astronomers spot supermassive blackhole destroying star * Living in mountains limits bone growth: Study * Robot bloodhound tracks odour on ground * Four cups of coffee daily may help protect your heart * Diabetes may be an early indicator of pancreatic cancer * Vitamin D may cut breast cancer risk * Plant -based diets may help diabetics manage health * Biodegradable plastic alternative synthesised * Compond that stops viruses from replicating identified.
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2 July 1-15, 2018
New book delves into India’s nuclear The symposium, titled ‘Antimicrobial Resistance doctrine evolution (AMR): Need for a United Front’ aims to develop new collaborative research networks for building India has come a long way from being a “nuclear multi-institutional projects with specific focus on the pariah” to a nuclear weapons state and it now needs discovery of novel anti-bacterials, exploring policy to maintain a “credible nuclear deterrent” while measures and developing tools to tackle issues of avoiding accidental and inadvertent escalation, an AMR in India. expert said. The conference was presided over by Punjab Yogesh Joshi, a MacArthur Nuclear Security Post- Governor and Chandigarh Administrator V P Singh Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Badnore. Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, and The governor suggested that it was crucial that co-author of ‘India in Nuclear Asia: Evolution of the scientific community, along with other public Regional Forces, Perceptions, and Policies’, shared health stakeholders, work towards delivery of new his views after the launch of the book at Teen Murti solutions for bacterial drug resistance. Bhawan in New Delhi. The governor appreciated IMTECHs role in “India has come a long way from being a nuclear developing new drugs that can counter drug pariah to a de facto nuclear weapons state. The need resistance bacteria. now is to see that India maintains a credible nuclear He also stressed on the urgent need of Indian deterrent while avoiding dangers of accidental and research and development institutions to deliver new inadvertent escalation,” he said. solutions on the issues of AMR. Joshi has authored the book with American Eminent scientist N K Ganguly, former DG, scholar Frank O’Donnell. The books sheds light on ICMR, Delhi, advised steps India must take to tackle the evolution of India’s nuclear doctrine since 1999 the vital issue of AMR. and the challenges it faces. Speaking on the occasion IMTECH Director Anil India’s first nuclear doctrine was declared in 1999 Koul said, “We are witnessing an alarming rise in after the nuclear tests in 1998; it was revised in 2003. the levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria linked to “Twenty years after India became a nuclear misuse of antibiotics. weapons state, its nuclear capabilities have seen tremendous improvement. In the book, we have made Nadda launches National Health two broad suggestions - New Delhi, Beijing and Resource Repository Islamabad should hold dialogues on nuclear issues, and a public defence review must be done by India,” Union Health Minister J P Nadda today launched O’Donnell said. the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) — the country’s first-ever national healthcare registry Symposium on rise in drug resistant of authentic, standardised and updated geo-spatial bacteria held at IMTECH data of all public and private healthcare establishments. The CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, a The vision of National Health Resource microbial institute under the Ministry of Science and Repository project is to strengthen evidence-based Technology, organised a one-day symposium on the decision making and develop a platform for citizen issue of the rise in drug resistant bacteria or super- and provider-centric services by creating a robust, bugs.
PTI Science Service3 July 1-15, 2018
standardised and secured IT-enabled repository of It also slows the pace of aging by reducing levels India’s healthcare resources, Nadda said. of oxidative and psychological stress and aids in NHRR will be the ultimate platform for maintaining the length of telomere, Dada said. comprehensive information of both private and Telomere are DNA sequences which lie at public healthcare establishments including the ends of chromosomes and act as biological Railways, ESIC, Defence and Petroleum heath clock. establishments. “The study which was published in the The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence ‘Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience’ journal (CBHI) has actively engaged with key stakeholders in March found that meditation and yoga could including leading associations, allied ministries, and reduce severity of depression and lead to several private healthcare service providers to frame improvement in systemic biomarkers of the facility. neuroplasticity,” she said. “This resource repository shall enable advanced The study was conducted by the Laboratory for research towards ongoing and forthcoming healthcare Molecular Reproduction and Genetics in challenges arising from other determinants of collaboration with Department of Psychiatry. It health like - disease, environment etc,” Nadda studied the impact of yoga on depression after a 12- said. week yoga intervention on around 236 subjects. Approximately 4,000 trained professionals are working to approach every healthcare establishment Expert panel will be set up to use advanced for information collection. The Indian Space technology to deal with air pollution: Env Research Organisation (ISRO) is the project Ministry technology partner adhering to paramount data security. The Environment Ministry said today a committee of experts would be formed to look into Yoga helps reduce severity of depression: the technological advances, including application of AIIMS study satellite-based measurement, to improve air quality and reduce pollution. Yoga helps reduce the severity of depression by Every winter smog causes deterioration of air increasing levels of certain chemicals in the brain quality, raising the pollution to dangerous levels in that maintain the sleep-wake cycle and regulate the the national capital. mood, appetite and digestion, according a recent The ministry said a meeting with expert study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences institutions was held to discuss the application of (AIIMS) here. advanced technologies to deal with the rising air The study found that introducing yoga into pollution and improve the overall air quality lifestyle results in a decrease in cortisol, the main management framework. stress hormone, and reduces levels of certain “An expert group will be constituted, which will inflammatory molecules in the body as well as brain, provide its recommendation in a month’s time on thereby reducing oxidative stress, said Rima Dada, early warning system, including dissemination Professor in-charge of Laboratory of Molecular protocol and application of satellite-based Reproduction and Genetics, Department of measurement for improving air quality information Anatomy at AIIMS. and management,” the ministry said in a statement.
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“The Department of Science and Technology will He said efforts must be made to get the highest take lead on technology interventions for possible awards in the field of science, appliedscience and use before the onset of winter. They should provide technology. the results of their assessments in two weeks, so that “When we are sharing our technological and pilots could be quickly rolled out,” it said. scientific advancements today, we should not forget The institutions that were part of today’s meeting our cultural roots,” Singh said. with ministry officials included Satellite Application Centre of ISRO, Department of Science & Use of diesel generators increased Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial pollution levels in Gurgaon residential Research-National Physical Laboratory, IIT Delhi, societies: CSE IIT Mumbai, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, India Meteorological Department, The use of diesel generator (DG) sets increased Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Bureau pollution levels by over 30 per cent in residential of Indian Standards. societies in Gurgaon, the CSE said, amid demands for concerted action to boost usage of solar rooftop Satya Pal Singh asks IIT-G to also work on panels. ancient technologies The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report revealed that solar rooftops (SRTs) are clean Union Minister Satya Pal Singh today asked and cheaper alternatives to highly polluting DG sets. teachers and professors of the Indian Institute of “Per unit cost of electricity generated by DG is Technology here to work on ancient technologies Rs 35 per unit (inclusive of the cost of the DG set), along with modern innovations, as he exhorted while SRT costs less than Rs 6 per unit,” the study Indians to work towards winning top global awards said. in science, technology or applied science. The study shows that in societies in Gurgaon Singh, the union minister of state for HRD in where DG sets were operated for several hours a day, charge of higher education, told the 20th PM2.5 and PM10 increased by over 30 per cent Convocation of IIT-Guwahati here that the compared to levels before the usage of DG sets. professors should explore ancient technology and “When DG usage exceeded eight hours, the PM work on it to provide a judicious balance between levels were persistently high throughout the day – modern and older technologies. on an average PM2.5 and PM10 levels were 130 and “I would like to tell that India as a whole is doing 300; peak PM2.5 and PM10 levels were 300 and quite well but as far as innovation and research is 1,900 respectively,” it said. concerned, much more is required to be done. Findings from another CSE research said Stating that simply publishing papers in journals pollution in residential societies from DG sets shows would not help, he said:”We have to find out how that they are widely used for power back-up during many journals, how many papers are ultimately ending electricity cuts, causing a huge spike in air pollution in patents; any start-ups, or helping some levels in the local surroundings. entrepreneurs and starting some industry.” Stressing that a “holistic mindset” was crucial, he said the aim was to create a good human being and a good citizen.
PTI Science Service5 July 1-15, 2018
Govt sets up panels under task force for DGCA had restricted use of drones and unmanned implementing drone tech aircraft system by civilians in October
The government today announced the formation Most people aware of harmful effects of of three committees to help a task force set up in plastics but still use it: Study April to prepare a road map for implementing the drone technology in the country. A majority of people are aware of the harmful The committees would separately make their effects of plastic on environment, but still use it due recommendations on manufacturing and licensing of to lack of availability of cheaper alternatives, a study drones, airspace and air traffic management and said. policy and law related issues, the Civil Aviation With a sample size of 3,600, the national study Ministry said. conducted by market research and analysis company The decision was taken during the first meeting Velocity MR found that 90 per cent of respondents of the drone task force chaired by Minister of State are aware of the harmful effects of plastic and 85 for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha. per cent of the respondents are even aware of the Members of the task force such as Civil Aviation ban on polythene bags. Secretary R N Choubey, Director General of Civil The study was conducted in most of the major Aviation B S Bhullar, Airports Authority of India cities of the country, including Mumbai, Delhi, Ben- Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra among others galuru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad attended the meeting. and Pune. The 13-member task force is expected to submit “It has been observed that even with plastic ban its report on the unmanned aerial vehicle technology in 25 states of India, 15,000 tonnes of plastic is still in six months, focussing on research and procured from cities on a daily basis. From our study, development of drones, acquisition and we clearly understood that while the people are aware commercialisation, preparing a regulatory framework of the adverse effects of plastic, the usage of this as well as preference for Make in India. environmental poison is high, primarily due to “We are working towards making UAVs a lack of availability of proper alternatives,” Managing sustainable, globally-competitive industry based in Director and CEO of Velocity MR Jasal Shah India. A strategic roadmap for India to emerge as a said. large drone player is being put in place,” the ministry The study also revealed that seven out of 10 said in a tweet. respondents believe that the ban is only on the use At present, aircraft rules do not cover use of of plastic carry bags and not on other variants of drones, their sale and purchase. Aviation regulator plastic like pouches, garbage bags and containers.
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World’s smallest computer device created and because of their brittle components, can only withstand a slight amount of bending or rolling. Scientists have developed the world’s smallest Researchers including those from Sejong computer – a device that measures just 0.3 University from South Korea wanted to develop a millimetres and could help find new ways to monitor keyboard that could withstand the rigors of everyday and treat cancer life, including complete folding and harsh crumpling. Previous systems, including the 2x2x4 millimetre The team based the device on a sensor sheet they Michigan Micro Mote, retain their programming and had previously developed. Here, they used a sheet data even when they are not externally powered. of soft silicone rubber embedded with conductive Unplug a desktop computer, and its program and carbon nanotubes that respond to the push of a finger data are still there when it boots itself up once the by changing electrical resistance. power is back. However, these new microdevices To guide users where to press, the researchers lose all prior programming and data as soon as they drew squares on the surface of the sheet to represent lose power. keys for each letter, number or other character. “We are not sure if they should be called computers or not. It’s more of a matter of opinion Printed sensors may turn gummy bears whether they have the minimum functionality into ingestible medical probes required,” said David Blaauw, a professor at the University of Michigan in the US, who led the Scientists have successfully printed electrodes on development of the new system. edible gummy bears, an advance that could lead to In addition to the RAM and photovoltaics, the ingestible medical sensors that can be easily new computing devices have processors and wireless administered to children in the future. transmitters and receivers. Since they are too small Microelectrodes can be used for direct to have conventional radio antennae, they receive measurement of electrical signals in the brain or heart. and transmit data with visible light. A base station These applications require soft materials, however. provides light for power and programming, and it With existing methods, attaching electrodes to such receives the data. materials poses significant challenges. Researchers including those from Technical Novel keyboard can be crumpled, carried University of Munich (TUM) in Germany have in pockets succeeded in printing electrodes directly onto a gummy bear – a popular chewy candy. Scientists have developed an inexpensive, flexible The microelectrode array could detect voltage keyboard that can be crumpled up and tucked in a changes resulting from activity in neurons or muscle pocket without damaging it. cells. Bendable portable keyboards for use with Microelectrode arrays have been around for a long computers and other electronic devices are already time. In their original form, they consist of hard on the market, but they have limited flexibility, and materials such as silicon. This results in several they are fairly sizable when rolled up for transport. disadvantages when they come into contact with living Existing keyboards incorporate either rigid push cells. buttons inserted in a rollable sheet or a tactile sensor In the laboratory, their hardness affects the shape array patterned on a multilayered soft sheet. These and organisation of the cells, for example. Inside the devices require complicated fabrication processes,
PTI Science Service7 July 1-15, 2018
body, the hard materials can trigger inflammation or However, the Curiosity rover, which has been the loss of organ functionalities. studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. New ‘e-skin’ brings sense of touch to While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which prosthetic hands is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery that runs day and Scientists have created an electronic skin that night. can lend a sense of touch to prosthetics or robotic The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is limbs, allowing amputees to regain sensation. now officially a “planet-encircling” dust event. Made of fabric and rubber laced with sensors to Though Curiosity is on the other side of Mars mimic nerve endings, e-dermis recreates a sense of from Opportunity, dust has steadily increased over touch as well as pain by sensing stimuli and relaying it, more than doubling over the weekend. the impulses back to the peripheral nerves. The atmospheric haze blocking sunlight, called “We’ve made a sensor that goes over the “tau,” is now above 8.0 at Gale Crater - the highest fingertips of a prosthetic hand and acts like your own tau the mission has ever recorded. Tau was last skin would,” said Luke Osborn, a graduate student measured near 11 over Opportunity, thick enough at the Johns Hopkins University in the US. that accurate measurements are no longer possible “It’s inspired by what is happening in human for Mars’ oldest active rover. biology, with receptors for both touch and pain,” said For NASA’s human scientists watching from the Osborn. ground, Curiosity offers an unprecedented window “We can have a prosthetic hand that is already to answer some questions such as why some Martian on the market and fit it with an e-dermis that can dust storms last for months and grow massive, while tell the wearer whether he or she is picking up others stay small and last only a week. something that is round or whether it has sharp points,” he said. Faster, cheaper way to synthesise DNA The work - published in the journal Science developed Robotics - shows that it is possible to restore a range of natural, touch-based feelings to amputees who Scientists have pioneered a new way to use prosthetic limbs. synthesise DNA sequences through a creative use The ability to detect pain could be useful, for of enzymes that promises to be faster, cheaper and instance, not only in prosthetic hands but also in more accurate. lower limb prostheses, alerting the user to potential The discovery, by researchers at Lawrence damage to the device. Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in the US, could address a critical bottleneck in biology NASA’s Curiosity rover captures photos of research. Mars dust storm “Nature makes biomolecules using enzymes, and those enzymes are amazingly good at handling DNA NASA’s Curiosity rover has beamed back pictures and copying DNA. Typically our organic chemistry of a dust storm that has engulfed much of Mars over processes are not anywhere close to the precision the last two weeks and prompted NASA’s that natural enzymes offer,” said Sebastian Palluk, Opportunity rover to suspend science operations, the graduate student at Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) US space agency said today. in the US.
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The idea of using an enzyme to make DNA is impractical or inconvenient for the patient,” said not new - scientists have been trying for decades to York Hsiang, a professor at UBC. find a way to do it, without success. “Putting a smart stent in place of a standard one The enzyme of choice is called TdT (terminal can enable physicians to monitor their patient’s health deoxynucleotidyl transferase), which is found in the more easily and offer treatment, if needed, in a timely immune system of vertebrates and is one of the few manner,” he added. enzymes in nature that writes new DNA from scratch rather than copying DNA. New system lets you control robots with The problem with existing approaches to using brain waves, hand gestures enzymes for DNA synthesis is that the catalytic site of the enzyme is not large enough to accept the MIT scientists have developed a system that nucleotide with a blocking group attached. allows humans to control robots using brainwaves and simple hand gestures, preventing machines from Smart stents can better prevent heart committing errors in real time. attacks By monitoring brain activity, the system can detect in real time if a person notices an error as a Scientists have created a ‘smart stent’ that can robot does a task. Using an interface that measures monitor even subtle changes in the flow of blood muscle activity, the person can then make hand through the artery, and detect the narrowing in its gestures to scroll through and select the correct option earliest stages - potentially preventing heart attacks. for the robot to execute. The device uses medical-grade stainless steel and The team from Massachusetts Institute of looks similar to most commercial stents. Technology (MIT)’s Computer Science and Artificial It is the first angioplasty-ready smart stent, Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in the US researchers said. It can be implanted using current demonstrated the system on a task in which a robot medical procedures without modifications. moves a power drill to one of three possible targets “We modified a stent to function as a miniature on the body of a mock plane. antenna and added a special micro-sensor that we They showed that the system works on users it developed to continuously track blood flow. The data has never interacted with before, meaning that can then be sent wirelessly to an external reader, organisations could deploy it in real-world settings providing constantly updated information on the without needing to train it on users. artery’s condition,” said Kenichi Takahata, from “This work combining EEG and EMG feedback University of British Columbia (UBC), who led the enables natural human-robot interactions for a study published in the journal Advanced Science. broader set of applications than we’ve been able to For every three individuals who have had a stent do before using only EEG feedback,” said CSAIL implanted to keep clogged arteries open and prevent director Daniela Rus, who supervised the work. a heart attack, at least one will experience restenosis “By including muscle feedback, we can use - the renewed narrowing of the artery due to plaque gestures to command the robot spatially, with much buildup or scarring - which can lead to additional more nuance and specificity,” said Rus. complications. “X-rays such as CT or diagnostic angiograms, which are the standard tools for diagnosis, can be
PTI Science Service9 July 1-15, 2018
China to set up varsity for nuclear power holes exist, by serendipitously capturing one in action research devouring an encountering star. “We feel very lucky to have spotted this object China is planning to build a university with a significant amount of high quality data, which dedicated to nuclear power research to meet the helps pinpoint the mass of the black hole and severe shortage of qualified people at its rapidly- understand the nature of this spectacular event,” said expanding atomic energy facilities at home and Dacheng Lin, a research assistant professor at UNH. abroad. “Earlier research, including our own work, saw China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), similar events, but they were either caught too late the country’s leading nuclear power developer and or were too far away,” Lin said. nuclear power plant operator, has signed a contract In the study, published in the journal Nature with the government of Tianjin municipality to invest Astronomy, researchers used satellite imaging to in a nuclear technology university in the northeastern detect for the first time this significant telltale sign city, the official newspaper of the country’s science of activity. and technology ministry reported. They found an enormous multiwavelength The university would be built as a national-level radiation flare from the outskirts of a distant galaxy. institution and would function as a base for skill- The brightness of the flare decayed over time exactly training, master’s, PhD programs, and core- as expected by a star disrupting, or being devoured, technology research and development (R&D), the by the black hole. Science and Technology Daily reported. China has a comparatively an integral nuclear Space tourists may not be prepared for trip industrial system. However, few nuclear related fields beyond Earth: NASA astronaut such as nuclear fusion, uranium enrichment and post- processing “differ widely from each other, and the People who sign up with space tourism existing nuclear related majors in universities and companies for a trip beyond the Earth may be colleges cannot satisfy the demand for talent,” the unprepared for the rigours of spaceflight, according report said, citing Wan Gang, director of the China to a NASA astronaut. Institute of Atomic Energy. To date, only the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, has taken tourists into space, between Evidence of rare black hole spotted 2001 and 2009, at a cost between USD 20 and 40 million. In a first, scientists have spotted the evidence of However, aerospace companies like Blue Origin, a rare intermediate-mass black hole - an elusive Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are hoping to launch object whose existence has been hotly debated. commercial flights within the next decade. Scientists have been able to prove the existence Hundreds of people including the Hollywood of small black holes and those that are super-massive, actors like Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet and but the existence of intermediate-mass black holes LeonardoDiCaprio, have already bought tickets. (IMBHs) was never proven. Nasa astronaut Anna Fisher, who became the Researchers from the University of New first mother in space, has warned many are Hampshire (UNH) in the US found the strongest unprepared for the rigours of spaceflight and the toll evidence to date that such middle-of-the-road black it will take on their bodies.
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Fisher said she was sick for the first two days of NASA delays James Webb Space her mission on the Discovery space shuttle in 1984, Telescope launch to 2021 expressing concern that people paying hundreds of thousands of pounds did not fully appreciate what The launch of NASA’s James Webb Space might happen. Telescope - world’s premier science observatory - has “It’s not like riding a commercial aircraft, not at been further delayed to March 2021, a move that all, and I can see all these problems with people up will cost the agency an additional USD 8.8 billion there and throwing up and messing up somebody’s The telescope was expected to launch in 2020. flight that they paid USD 250,000 for,” Fisher was quoted as saying by ‘The Telegraph’. The Independent Review Board (IRB) established by NASA to assess progress on the Webb telescope Last of universe’s missing ordinary matter has unanimously recommended that development on found it should continue. The report issued by the review board addresses The last reservoir of ordinary matter that had a range of factors influencing Webb’s schedule and so far evaded detection has been located in the space performance, including the technical challenges and between galaxies - existing as extremely hot filaments tasks remaining by primary contractor Northrop of oxygen gas, scientists say. Grumman before launch. Ordinary matter, or “baryons,” make up all “Webb should continue based on its physical objects in existence, from stars to the cores extraordinary scientific potential and critical role in of black holes. maintaining US leadership in astronomy and However, until now, astrophysicists had only astrophysics,” said Tom Young, the chair of the been able to locate about two-thirds of the matter review board. that theorists predict was created by the Big Bang. “Ensuring every element of Webb functions Researchers from the University of Colorado properly before it gets to space is critical to its Boulder in the US pinned down the missing third, success.” Young said. finding it in the space between galaxies. The board also reaffirmed Webb’s significant That lost matter exists as filaments of oxygen complexity, incredible scientific potential, and gas at temperatures of around 1 million degrees importance to astrophysics. The report includes Celsius, according to the study published in the several recommendations for moving forward, some journal Nature. of which NASA has already initiated. “This is one of the key pillars of testing the Big NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sent a Bang theory: figuring out the baryon census of message to the NASA workforce Wednesday about hydrogen and helium and everything else in the the report. periodic table,” said Shull. Researchers have a good idea of where to find Don’t be over the moon yet! Buying a piece most of the ordinary matter in the universe - not to of lunar landscape still a distant dream be confused with dark matter, which scientists have yet to locate: About 10 per cent sits in galaxies, and With real estate prices sky high, pollution choking close to 60 per cent is in the diffuse clouds of gas our cities, and civic amenities stretched to the limit, that lie between galaxies. it might be a good idea to move to a quiet, clean
PTI Science Service11 July 1-15, 2018
neighbourhood. How about the moon? That too for They mimicked the process by which organic just a couple of thousand rupees! molecules are synthesised in the outflows of carbon Owning pristine, untouched property on the stars, by expanding a carbon-containing plasma into Moon may sound too good to be true. That is because a vacuum at low temperature. it probably is. The material was collected and then analysed by That has not deterred Bollywood actor Sushant a combination of techniques. Using magnetic Singh Rajput who claims to have recently bought resonance and spectroscopy (splitting light into its property on Earth’s natural satellite, complete with constituent wavelengths) they were able to determine a legal looking certificate of purchase. But in fact he how strongly the material absorbed light with a may be in possession of nothing more than an certain infrared wavelength, a marker for aliphatic overpriced piece of paper, say experts. carbon. While a quick internet search will yield names “Combining our lab results with observations of many companies that are willing to sell you from astronomical observatories allows us to measure properties on the Moon and even planet Mars, in the amount of aliphatic carbon between us and the reality India has signed an international treaty which stars,” said Tim Schmidt, from UNSW. makes it impossible for anyone to legally lay claim The study, published in the journal Monthly on a piece of land in space. Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, found “The Treaty on Principles Governing the that there are about 100 greasy carbon atoms for every Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of million hydrogen atoms, accounting for between a Outer Space, including the moon and Other Celestial quarter and a half of the available Bodies” more commonly known as the “The Outer Space Treaty” came into effect in October 10, 1967. Organic molecules on Saturn’s moon It states that “outer space, including the Moon indicate possibility of life and other celestial bodies” are the ‘common heritage of mankind’ and cannot be owned by any nation. Scientists found that large, carbon-rich organic molecules are ejected from cracks in the icy surface Milky Way full of ‘space grease’: study of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, indicating it satisfies all of the basic requirements for life. The galaxy is rich in grease-like molecules, say Researchers, who used data from the NASA’s scientists who have estimated the amount of ‘space Cassini spacecraft, think chemical reactions between grease’ found in the Milky Way. the moon’s rocky core and warm water from its Organic matter of different kinds contains subsurface ocean are linked to these complex carbon, an element considered essential for life. There molecules. is though real uncertainty over its abundance, and “We are, yet again, blown away by Enceladus. only half the carbon expected is found between the Previously we’d only identified the simplest organic stars in its pure form. molecules containing a few carbon atoms, but even The rest is chemically bound in two main forms, that was very intriguing,” said Christopher Glein, a grease-like (aliphatic) and mothball-like (aromatic). space scientist from Southwest Research Institute in The researchers from University of New South the US. Wales (UNSW) in Australia used a laboratory to “Now we’ve found organic molecules with create material with the same properties as interstellar masses above 200 atomic mass units. That’s over ten dust. times heavier than methane,” said Glein.
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“With complex organic molecules emanating Denmark, and the deputy mission of Norway were from its liquid water ocean, this moon is the only also present at the discussion. body besides Earth known to simultaneously satisfy The Swedish diplomat said his country was in all of the basic requirements for life as we know it,” talks with the Department of Science and he said. Technology of India to work on the innovation. Prior to its deorbit in September of 2017, Cassini “The idea essentially seeks to transform those sampled the plume of material emerging from the burning fields (stubble) into bio coal. We want to subsurface of Enceladus. see if this idea can be scalable,” he said. The Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA) and the SwRI- Ambassador of Finland to India, Nina led Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) made Vaskunlahti said her country also had innovative measurements both within the plume and Saturn’s solutions to offer in the matter like converting rice E-ring, which is formed by plume ice grains escaping paddy to fibre that can later be used for making Enceladus’ gravity. clothes. “Even after its end, the Cassini spacecraft continues to teach us about the potential of Scientists develop “deep learning” robots Enceladus to advance the field of astrobiology in to empower autistic children an ocean world,” Glein said. MIT scientists have developed a new type of Sweden, Finland developing technology to “deep learning” network that can aid robots gauge curb India’s pollution woes the quality of their interactions with children having autism spectrum conditions by using data unique to Sweden is exploring ways to come up with each child. innovative technology to address the issue of Autism spectrum disorder is a condition related stubble-burning in parts of north India that leads to to brain development that impacts how a person pollution in Delhi-NCR, a Swedish diplomat said perceives and socializes with others, causing today. problems in social interaction and communication. “Delhi has seen this problem of air pollution and The term “spectrum” in autism spectrum disorder smog and the air quality gets worse around refers to the wide range of symptoms and severity. November. And, stubble-burning has been a major Armed with personalised “deep learning”, the issue. So, we are looking into ways to bring an child-friendly robot NAO can smoothly estimate the innovative technology to address this issue,” Gautam engagement and interest of each autistic child, using Bhattacharyya, Deputy Head of Mission at Swedish data unique to that particular individual, based on a Embassy here, said. study performed on 35 autistic children. Stubble-burning refers to a practice adopted by The new development can make their lives easier. many farmers in northwest India, who typically burn “The long-term goal is not to create robots that abundant crop residue on the fields after harvest will replace human therapists, but to augment them season in order to prepare their fields for subsequent with key information that the therapists can use to planting. personalise the therapy content and also make more Bhattacharyya was speaking at a panel discussion engaging and naturalistic interactions between the here on ‘India-Nordic Partnership: An Idea Whose robots and children with autism,” said Oggi Rudovic, Time Has Come’. Envoys of Finland, Iceland and the first author of the study.
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The robot’s perception of the children’s responses multiple features of the face, body and voice that go agreed with assessments by human experts, with a into understanding a more abstract concept such as correlation of 60 per cent, according to the scientists. a child’s engagement. “The challenge of creating machine learning and AI [artificial intelligence] that works in autism is SpaceX launches AI robot, strong coffee for particularly vexing, because the usual AI methods station crew require a lot of data that are similar for each category that is learned. In autism where heterogeneity reigns, A SpaceX rocket that flew just two months ago the normal AI approaches fail,” said Rosalind Picard, with a NASA satellite roared back into action today, co-author of the study. launching the first orbiting robot with artificial The robot-assisted therapy involves a human intelligence and other station supplies. therapist showing flash-cards of different faces The used Falcon rocket blasted off before dawn, expressing different emotions, like happiness, hauling nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of sadness, fear and a programmed robot or NAO, which cargo including the spherical AI bot named Cimon, shows the same emotions to the child. genetically identical mice and super-caffeinated The therapist observes how the child engages coffee for the crew of the International Space Station. with the robot and gets feedback on how the lesson The shipment — packed into a Dragon capsule is to be taken further. that’s also recycled — should reach the station NAO is a two feet tall robot resembling an Monday. armoured superhero or a droid, which conveys It was an especially gorgeous launch, delighting different emotions by changing its eye colour, limb- spectators as the rocket plume expanded in the clear motion and the tone of its voice. night sky like a giant halo beneath a nearly full moon “Therapists say that engaging the child for even and a gleaming Mars. a few seconds can be a big challenge for them, and SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen described the high- robots attract the attention of the child,” said altitude plume, illuminated against the dark sky, as Rudovic. “the space jellyfish that’s coming down after us.” “I “Also, humans change their expressions in many was going to say breathtaking, but maybe awakening different ways, but the robots always do it in the same might be a better word,” said NASA’s space station way, and this is less frustrating for the child because program manager, Kirk Shireman. the child learns in a very structured way how the This marked SpaceX’s fastest reflight of a expressions will be shown,” he said. booster. The same first-stage booster launched the In addition to being personalised, the system planet-hunting Tess satellite in April. The capsule, created by these researchers involves deep learning meanwhile, flew in 2016. powered by AI. Aiming to lower launch costs by reusing rockets, Deep learning has been used in automatic speech SpaceX did not retrieve the booster for another flight and object-recognition programmes, making it well- and ditched it in the Atlantic instead. The company suited for a problem such as making sense of the is switching to a new and improved line of boosters.
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World’s most powerful supercomputer The scientists tracked the event with radio and unveiled infrared telescopes, including the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), in US scientists have unveiled the world’s most a pair of colliding galaxies called Arp 299, nearly powerful and smartest scientific supercomputer that 150 million light-years from Earth. can complete over 200,000 trillion calculations per At the core of one of the galaxies, a black hole second - providing unprecedented computing power 20 million times more massive than the Sun shredded for research in energy, advanced materials and a star more than twice the Sun’s mass, setting off a artificial intelligence (AI). chain of events that revealed important details of The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge the violent encounter. National Laboratory (ORNL)supercomputer called Only a small number of such stellar deaths, Summit will be eight times more powerful than its called tidal disruption events, or TDEs, have been previous top-ranked system, Titan. detected, although scientists have hypothesised that For certain scientific applications, Summit will they may be a more common occurrence. also be capable of more than three billion billion Theorists suggested that material pulled from the mixed precision calculations per second, or 3.3 doomed star forms a rotating disk around the black exaops. hole, emitting intense X-rays and visible light, and “Summit will empower scientists to address a also launches jets of material outward from the poles wide range of new challenges, accelerate discovery, of the disk at nearly the speed of light. spur innovation and above all, benefit the American “Never before have we been able to directly people,” said Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy. observe the formation and evolution of a jet from The IBM AC922 system consists of 4,608 one of these events,” said Miguel Perez-Torres, of compute servers, each containing two 22-core IBM the Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia in Spain. Power9 processors and six NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics processing unit accelerators, interconnected Living in mountains limits bone growth: with dual-rail Mellanox EDR 100 Gb/s InfiniBand. Study Summit also possesses more than 10 petabytes of memory paired with fast, high-bandwidth Living in high altitude regions can limit bone pathways for efficient data movement. growth, causing people have shorter limbs, say The combination of cutting-edge hardware and scientists who conducted a study in Himalayan robust data subsystems marks an evolution of the populations. hybrid CPU-GPU architecture successfully pioneered High altitude is a particularly challenging by the 27-petaflops Titan in 2012. environment - the terrain is physically challenging and the land has a relatively poor crop yield, so food Astronomers spot supermassive blackhole can be sparse. destroying star Most importantly, oxygen levels are lower meaning that conversion of food into energy in an For the first time, astronomers have directly individual’s body is not very efficient and leads to imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving relatively limited energy available for growth. jet of material ejected when a supermassive black In a study published, in the journal Royal Society hole ripped apart a star that wandered too close to Open Science, scientists examine how high altitude the cosmic monster.
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and the associated limited available energy affects sources placed at different positions along the robot’s the growth of long bones. path, at a travel speed of 10 centimeters/second By measuring the limbs of people of similar (about 4 inches/second). ancestry from high altitude and low altitude regions, the team found that those living at high altitude had Four cups of coffee daily may help protect significantly shorter lower arm segments. your heart However, compared to people living at low altitude, the length of the upper arm and hand were Drinking about four cups of coffee everyday can relatively the same. protect you from heart diseases, say scientists who “Our findings are really interesting as they show have found that caffeine promotes the movement that the human body prioritises which segments to of a regulatory protein into mitochondria, enhancing grow when there is limited energy available for their function and protecting cardiovascular cells growth, such as at high altitude,” said Stephanie from damage. Payne, at University of Cambridge in the UK. Caffeine consumption has been associated with lower risks for multiple diseases, including type II Robot bloodhound tracks odours on diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, but the ground mechanism underlying these protective effects has been unclear. Scientists have developed a robot that can rapidly The study, published in the journal PLOS detect odors from sources on the ground, such as Biology, a protein called p27, known mainly as an footprints – and could even read a message written inhibitor of the cell cycle, was present on the ground using odours as a barcode. in mitochondria in the major cell types of the Over the past two decades, researchers have tried heart. to develop robots that rival the olfactory system of In these cells, mitochondrial p27 promoted bloodhounds, which are famous for their ability to migration of endothelial cells, protected heart muscle track scents over great distances. cells from cell death, and triggered the conversion However, most robots can only detect airborne of fibroblasts into cells containing contractile fibers odours, or they are painstakingly slow at performing — all crucial for repair of heart muscle after analyses. myocardial infarction. Researchers from Kyushu University in Japan Researchers, including those from IUF-Leibniz wanted to develop a robot with a high-speed gas Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in sensor that could rapidly track invisible odour Germany, found that caffeine induced the movement sources on the ground. of p27 into mitochondria, setting off this beneficial They based their odour sensor on a technique chain of events, and did so at a concentration called localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) that is reached in humans by drinking four cups of that measured changes in light absorption by gold coffee. nanoparticles upon exposure to a gas. Caffeine was protective against heart damage in As the robot travelled across a surface, a tube pre-diabetic, obese mice, and in aged mice. placed close to the ground suctioned odours into the LSPR sensor. The researchers showed that the sensor could accurately detect the location of ethanol odour
16 July 1-15, 2018 Diabetes may be an early indicator of marker because it is the main form of vitamin D in pancreatic cancer blood. All women were age 55 or older. The average Onset of type 2 diabetes may be an early indicator age was 63. Data were collected between 2002 and of pancreatic cancer - one of the most deadliest forms 2017. Participants were free of cancer at enrollment of cancer, scientists say. and were followed for a mean period of four years. Researchers from University of Southern Vitamin D levels in blood were measured during California in the US found that diabetes was study visits. associated with a more than twofold higher risk of Over the course of the combined studies, 77 new pancreatic cancer in African Americans and Latinos. cases of breast cancer were diagnosed for an age- However, recent-onset diabetes was associated adjusted incidence rate of 512 cases per 100,000 with a 2.3-fold greater increase in risk of pancreatic person-years. cancer than long-standing diabetes. Researchers identified the minimum healthy level Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal of 25(OH)D in blood plasma to be 60 nanograms cancers, with a five-year survival rate of only eight per millilitre (ng/ml), substantially higher than the per cent. 20 ng/ml recommended in 2010 by the National This is because the vast majority of pancreatic Academy of Medicine, a US health advisory group. cancer patients (some 80 per cent of them) are “We found that participants with blood levels of diagnosed at a late stage. Identification of high-risk 25(OH)D that were above 60 ng/ml had one-fifth people and ability to detect pancreatic cancer earlier the risk of breast cancer compared to those with less would likely improve patient outcomes. than 20 ng/ml,” said Cedric F Garland, a professor Diabetes has been consistently associated with at the UC San Diego. pancreatic cancer in previous studies, with a twofold higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer among Plant-based diets may help diabetics diabetes patients. manage health Diabetes has been proposed to be both a risk factor for and a consequence of pancreatic cancer. Vegan and vegetarian diets can help people The prevalence of diabetes among pancreatic cancer suffering from diabetes lose weight and manage patients is unusually high relative to other cancers. cholesterol, a study has found. Researchers reviewed nine trials that assessed the Vitamin D may cut breast cancer risk effectiveness of vegan and vegetarian diets for diabetes patients. Higher levels of vitamin D may lower the risk The results, published in the journal Clinical of developing breast cancer, a study has found. Nutrition, show that those who ate a plant-based diet Researchers from the University of California San lowered their cholesterol, lost weight and improved Diego in the US pooled data from two clinical trials other cardiometabolic risk factors when compared with 3,325 combined participants and a prospective to those who ate a non vegetarian diet. study involving 1,713 participants to examine the People with diabetes are two to four times more association between risk of female breast cancer and likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those a broad range of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D who do not have diabetes. (25(OH)D) concentrations, which was chosen as the “The link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease is strong. Sixty to seventy per cent of people
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who have type 2 diabetes die of heart disease,” said P3HB, but their route is faster and offers potential Hana Kahleova, director of clinical research at US- for larger-scale, cost-effective production for based non-profit Physicians Committee for commodity plastic applications. Responsible Medicine. “The good news is that this study shows that the Compound that stops viruses from same simple prescription - eating a plant-based diet replicating identified - can reduce our risk for heart problems and improve type 2 diabetes at the same time,” said Kahleova. Scientists have identified how a naturally Researchers suggest that plant-based diets, which occurring enzyme in humans and other mammals centre on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, prevents viruses from multiplying, an advance that benefit both glycemic control and cardiovascular may pave the way for new antiviral drugs. health, because they are low in saturated fat, rich in The enzyme viperin, known to have antiviral phytochemicals, high in fibre, and often rich in low- effects on a wide variety of viruses, including West glycemic fruits and vegetables. Nile, hepatitis C, rabies, and HIV, facilitates a reaction that produces the molecule ddhCTP, which Biodegradable plastic alternative prevents viruses from copying their genetic material synthesised and thus from multiplying. The discovery could allow researchers to develop Scientists have successfully synthesised a a drug that induces the human body to produce this polymer that is typically produced by bacteria, algae molecule and could act as a broad-spectrum therapy and other microorganisms, an advance that may lead for a range of viruses. to renewable and biodegradable plastics. “We knew viperin had broad antiviral effects The compound called bacterial poly(3- through some sort of enzymatic activity, but other hydroxybutyrate) - or P3HB - shows early promise antivirals use a different method to stop viruses,” as a substitute for petroleum plastics in major said Craig Cameron, a professor at Pennsylvania State industrial uses. University in the US. P3HB is a biomaterial, typically produced by Researchers found that viperin catalyses an bacteria, algae and other microorganisms, and is used important reaction that results in the creation of a in some biomedical applications. molecule called ddhCTP. They decoded the effects Its high production costs and limited volumes of ddhCTP on a virus’ ability to replicate its genetic render the material impractical in more widespread material. commodity applications, however. “The molecule acts in a similar manner to drugs Researchers from Colorado State University in that were developed to treat viruses like HIV and the US used a starting material called succinate, an hepatitis C. With a better understanding of how ester form of succinic acid. viperin prevents viruses from replicating, we This acid is produced via fermentation of glucose hope to be able to design better antivirals,” said and is first on the U.S. Department of Energy’s list Cameron. of top 12 biomass-derived compounds best A virus co-opts the host’s genetic building blocks positioned to replace petroleum-derived chemicals. to copy its own genetic material, incorporating The new chemical synthesis route produces molecules called nucleotides into new strands of P3HB that’s similar in performance to bacterial RNA.
Edited, printed and published by M. R. MISHRA on behalf of the PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, at 4, Parliament Street, New Delhi -110001 . 18 July 1-15, 2018