18 MAY 2014, VOLUME 8, NO 1 Pissn 2372-8191 Eissn 2329
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pISSN 2372-8191 SScciieennccee eISSN 2329-5856 IIINNNSSSIIIGGGHHHTTTSSS®®® 18 MAY 2014, VOLUME 8, NO 1 The Bonoi Academy of Science & Education (BASE) Join us as a member of The BASE http://www.basehq.org/machform/view.php?id=12340 Membership Benefits for you http://www.basehq.org/node/15 Renew your membership http://www.basehq.org/machform/view.php?id=11462 ® Science INSIGHTS : the Real Journal of Science and EducationPage II ►Mission: Let science reach the far corner by education EDITORS (Alphabetically) Editors-in-Chief Jane Rosenberg (Case Western Reserve University, USA) Ajai Singh (K G Medical University, India) Ayman T. Bridgewater (Cardiff University, UK) Raquel Soares (University of Porto, Portugal) Frederick F. Wang (Bonoi Academy of Science and Education, Takashi Sudo (Kyoto University, Japan) USA) Lijun Tang (University of North Carolina, USA) Michael P. Worden (University of Michigan, USA) Rajeev Vats (The University of Dodoma, Tanzania) Email Address: [email protected] Hao Wang (Wake Forest University, USA) Deputy Editors-in-Chief Yujie Wang (Pennington Biomedical Research Center, USA) Thomas R. Wilson (Minnesota University, USA) Conrod C.K. Maitre (Université Catholique de Louvain, Amita Yadav (Lady Hardinge Medical College, India) Belgium) Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan University, Japan) Barbara I. Rietschel (King's College London, UK) Jie Yang (Nanjing University, China) Managing Editors Longjun Zhou (Jiangsu Institute of Education, China) Göraan Zopper (University of Kentucky, USA) Timothy L. Beckmann (Virginia State University, USA) Wendy S. Clarke (Kent State University at Kent, USA) Contributing Editors Víctor De Azevedo (University of São Paulo, Brazil) Pankaj Kumar (Apollo Reach Hospital, India) Sandi Kay (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Guoguang Niu (Wake Forest University, USA) Elke R. Schneider (University of Tübingen, Germany) Xiaofeng Shi (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) David M.T. Zhou (University of Arkansas, USA) Dong Wang (Xiamen University, China) In-House Editors Yukihiro Yoshizumi (University of Tokyo, Japan) Yanping Zhao (Tsinghua University, China) Niklas Akey (University of Washington, USA) Sergey P. Bashkirov (National University of Science and Linguistic Editors Technology, Russia) Christine M. Dixit (University of California San Francisco, Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) USA) Xinguo Cao (University of Toronto, Canada) Junbang He (Lanzhou University of Technology, China) Anitha Chandrahausan (Meenakshi Medical College Hospital Claudia Irimia (University of Cambridge, UK) and Research Institute, India) Liu Na (Lanzhou University of Technology, China) José Javier Chichón (University of Barcelona, Spain) Sarah K. Newton (University of North Carolina, USA) Elizabeth Erdman (Wake Forest University, USA) Mary A. Rerie (Ohio State University, USA) Kenji Hamajima (North Carolina State University - Raleigh, Stephen J. Stenger (University of Florida, USA) USA) Tanseli Kanit (Ege University, Turkey) Statistical Editors Young Yee Kim (Seoul National University, South Korea) Dennis S. Lee (University of California Los Angeles, USA) George G. King (Columbia University, USA) Roo Liu (McGill University, Canada) Mark E. Kohl (Brown University, USA) Daniel A. Lee (University of Delaware, USA) Editorial Office Jing Li (Duke University, USA) Monica R. Silber (Editor Assistant): [email protected] Godfred A. Menezes (Sree Balaji Medical College & Hospital, Susan J. Song (Secretary): [email protected] India) Amie S. Cahill (Technician): [email protected] Hardik R. Mody (University of Georgia, USA) Editorial Office: [email protected] Anand Prakash (IBN Sina National College for Medical Studies, Saudi Arabia) Yanning Qian (Nanjing Medical University, China) Founding-Committee of the BASE SCIENCE INSIGHTS www.bonoi.org 18 MAY 2014, VOL. 8, NO. 1 Page II Elizabeth Erdman D.Pharm. - Daniel A. Lee Ph.D. - [email protected] [email protected] Fred F. Wang M.D. Ph.D. - Kenji Hamajima Ph.D. - [email protected] [email protected] Michael P. Worden M.D. M.P.H. - Mark E. Kohl Ph.D. - [email protected] [email protected] Regional Office CHINA (Mainland) Contact Info: Haibo (Herbert) Wu, No.123, Tianfeixiang, Nanjing 210004, Jiangsu, China Tel: +86-25-150 6228 2214 Email: [email protected] Science Tests Idea | Science Speaks Truth | Science Makes Difference Education On Science | Education For Advancement | Education To Future SCIENCE INSIGHTS www.bonoi.org 18 MAY 2014, VOL. 8, NO. 1 CONTENTS 18 MAY 2014 VOL. 8, NO. 1, PAGES 183-198. NEWS 183 New Frogs in Troubled Indian Habitat (New Delhi, INDIA) The Most Earth-Like Planet is Only 500 Light Years Away (Washington DC, USA) 184 Chinese Strategists Reflect on the First Sino-Japanese War (Beijing, CHINA) 185 Ancient Shark Discovery May Rewrite Our Evolutionary History C14 Dates Question Role of Near East in Early Human Migrations (London, UK) 186 Fuels from Corn Waste Not Better Than Gas (Washington DC, USA) page 183 Neanderthals Had Shallow Gene Pool (Leipzig, GERMANY) 187 A 4,600-year Step Pyramid Uncovered in Egypt (Toronto. CANADA) Ancient Assassin Flies Found in Amber (Washington DC, USA) 188 Ancient Flying Reptile from China Fills Evolutionary Gap (Washington DC, USA) EDITORIAL 189 Science and the Ability and Capability of the Human Being: the Vanished Flight 370 Tells Us the Truth By Frederick F. Wang (USA) EDITOR'S CHOICE 193 MATERIAL: Diamond No Longer Nature’s Hardest Material page 194 PALEONTOLOGY: Mini Longneck Dino Discovered in South America 194 BIOLOGY and INSECTOLOGY: What is Killing the Honeybees! PICTURE STATION 196 3-D Views of the Universe By European Southern Observatory (2014) (Germany) COMMON SCIENCE 197 Amazing Macro Views of Snowflakes COVER Even science is marching forward, whereas the real ratio between the science advancement to trouble-solving ability is reduced dramatically compared to our ancestors. One bad manner that we human being cannot discard is finding excuses when facing unsolvable troubles. In fact, do we really need excuses for everything? One thing needing note is that science is science, and ability is ability. The more you know, the more you will find hard to deal with. See page 189. Image: BASE illustrating group p-ISSN: 2372-8191 e-ISSN: 2329-5856 DOI: 10.15354/issn.2329-5856 www.bonoi.org SCIENCE INSIGHTS VOL.8, NO.1 18 MAY 2014 page i/i LLoovvee tthhee WWaavvee LLoovvee tthhee EEaarrtthh NEWS AROUND THE WORLD NEWS New Delhi, INDIA New Frogs in Troubled Indian Habitat The Most Earth-Like know it, and planets in this zone re- Planet is Only 500 Light main the top candidates to harbor some form of life. Although NASA Years Away can’t be sure about the mass of 186f, Less than two months ago, NASA’s it can make an educated guess based Kepler mission announced the con- on previous data from planets this size. firmation of 700 new exoplanets, but Given that estimate and the planet's its latest news of a single exosolar size, their guess is that 186f might be system may be a bit more exciting. a rocky planet. The other planets in Kepler has now found an Earth-like this planetary system are all smaller planet that may have liquid water on than 186f and orbit too close to the its surface, and the new discovery is star to have any liquid water. Alt- located less than 500 light years away. hough the orbit of 186f is about 53 Since its launch in 2009, Kepler has million kilometers from the star (Mer- been finding exoplanets with a decep- cury’s distance from the Sun), the star tively simple technique. At any given is much smaller. Therefore, this dis- time, it stares at thousands of stars, tance puts 186f far enough away to looking for a dip in the amount of not boil off any water it may have. light received from them. That dip can That is about all that we know about be caused by a planet passing in front 186f for now. Kepler doesn’t have the of whatever star it is orbiting (from capacity to give information about the the perspective of Earth). By observ- planet’s atmosphere, its surface tem- A total of 14 new species of so-called ing the time interval between these perature, or even its density. But Kep- dancing frogs discovered by a team dips and the size of the dip, Kepler ler is achieving what it set out to headed by University of Delhi profes- can calculate the planet’s orbit and find—Earth-sized planets. Getting sor Sathyabhama Das Biju in the jun- radius. When this data is combined details is left to a future telescope. gle mountains of southern India. The with other data from the star, astron- And according to a recent analysis, study listing the new species brings omers can build a rough picture of there might be 17 billion Earth-sized the number of known Indian dancing what the planetary system looks like. planets in the Milky Way alone. frogs to 24 and attempts the first near- The new planet has been named Kep- That's more than enough to keep any complete taxonomic sampling of the ler 186f, and it is part of a five-planet Kepler successors busy. single-genus family found exclusively system that is orbiting a red dwarf star What exactly is causing this bot- in southern India’s lush mountain (smaller and cooler than the Sun). tleneck has been the subject of debate range called the Western Ghats, which What makes 186f so interesting is that for more than 50 years. Explanations stretches 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) its radius is only 1.1 times that of the could include a paucity of Earth-like from the west state of Maharashtra Earth and it is orbiting its star in the planets or self-replicating molecules. down to the country’s southern tip.■ habitable zone. This is the distance Other possibilities could be an im- Washington DC, USA where, if the planet has water, then it probable jump from simple prokaryot- is likely to remain in the liquid form.