Junior Digest

‘Fresh’ craters discovered on Moon’s darkest regions

Washington, May 24 : Scientists have discovered two ‘young’ lunar craters – one 16 million, the other at least 75 million years old – in the Moon’s darkest regions.

“Finding geologically young craters and honing in on their age helps us understand the collision history in the solar system,” said Kathleen Mandt, from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in US.

Researchers used data from the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

LAMP uses the far-ultraviolet Lyman-alpha band sky-glow and light from ultraviolet-bright stars LAMP to “see” in the dark and image the permanently shaded regions of the Moon.

Using LAMP and LRO data, the team mapped the floors of very large, deep craters near the lunar south pole.

These deep craters are difficult to study because sunlight never illuminates them directly. Tiny differences in reflectivity, or albedo, measured by LAMP allowed scientists to discover these two craters and estimate their ages.

Collisions in space have played an important role in the formation of the solar system, including the formation of the Moon.

Since the Moon has been peppered with impacts, its surface serves as a record of its past. Determining when collisions occurred helps scientists map the motion of objects in the solar system throughout its history, researchers said.

Craters that are young on geological timescales also provide information on the frequency of collisions.

When a small object collides with a larger object, such as the Moon, the impact creates a crater on the larger body.

Craters can be a few feet in diameter or several miles wide. During the impact, the material ejected forms a blanket of material surrounding the crater.

The ejecta blankets of “fresh,” relatively young craters have rough surfaces of rubble and a sprinkling of condensed, bright dust.

Over millions of years, these features undergo weathering and become covered with layers of fluffy, dark dust.

Scientists determined that the areas around the two craters were brighter and rougher than the surrounding landscape. The team estimated the age of one crater at about 16 million years.

The other crater’s rough extended ejecta blanket had faded, showing that this crater must be at least 75 million years old.

However, time would have completely covered the ejecta blanket in fluffy dust within 420 million years, providing an upper limit on its age.

Other images, produced using laser altimetry and sunlight scattered off crater walls, provided details about topography, surface features, and material properties.

“This method will be useful not only on the Moon, but also on other interesting bodies, including Mercury, the dwarf planet Ceres, and the asteroid Vesta,” said Mandt.

The study was published in the journal Icarus.

India’s first-ever indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD successfully tested from Sriharikota

The first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), that can launch satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere, was flight tested on Monday morning.

The technology demonstration was successfully tested from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The vehicle will be taken to a height of over 70 km and released for its re-entry into the atmosphere. After launch it will be glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 km from the coast.

The mission, known as the hypersonic flight experiment, is expected to last about 10 minutes from liftoff to splashdown.

The RLV-TD which is the scaled-down model of the reusable launch vehicle is unlikely to be recovered from sea during this experiment as it is expected that the vehicle will disintegrate on impact with water since it is not designed to float.

Reusable launch vehicle is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, according to ISRO scientists.

India all set to launch indigenous version of space shuttle tomorrow

India will use a mini-rocket with a booster to fly a winged reusable launch vehicle into lower earth orbit on May 23 for demonstrating the technology its space agency developed, a senior official said.

“All going well, especially the weather, we will send on May 23 the nine-metre rocket, with a winged reusable launch vehicle demonstrator (RLV-TD) on its top into the atmosphere, about 70 km from the earth, and bring it back to test the technology we have developed indigenously,” Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K. Sivan told IANS.

The state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has designed and built the 1.7-tonne RLV-TD as a flying testbed to evaluate technologies developed to reduce the cost of launching rockets for carrying satellites into the earth’s polar and geo-stationary orbits.

The experimental launch will be from Isro’s spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km northeast of Chennai off the Bay of Bengal coast.

“The exercise will enable us collect data on hypersonic speed, autonomous landing ans cruise flight using air-breathing propulsion,” Sivan said ahead of the launch.

Rockets for launching satellites and space exploration are made at the space agency’s VSSC at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

The long-term objective of this mission is to reduce the launch cost to one-tenth of the present through a reusable vehicle.

Space agencies worldwide spend, on average, $20,000 to make and use medium-to-heavy weight rockets to launch satellites.

The first technology demonstrator will conduct the hypersonic flight experiment, followed by landing test, return flight experiment and scramjet propulsion test, using a 15-tonne rocket with nine tonne of propellants (solid fuel) as a booster.

“The 10-minute flight will demonstrate the hypersonic and aero-thermo dynamics of the winged re-entry vehicle, with autonomous mission management to land after passing through very high temperatures during re-entry,” Sivan noted.

As the cost of access to space is a prohibitive in space exploration and space utilization, a reusable launch vehicle will be low-cost for on-demand space access.

The space agency’s telemetary, tracking and command network (Istrac) in Bangalore will collect data from the vehicle spanning vertical take-off, its release in space by the rocket booster for manoeurves and its plunge into the sea in the Bay of Bengal.

The vehicle, however, will not be recovered, being a ‘dummy’.

“In subsequent test flights, we will attempt to land the reusable vehicle at a specific location on land like an aircraft does on a runway so that we can again use it for launching more satellites,” Sivan asserted.

@Agency report.

Scientists produce jet fuel in “one-pot” recipe

Washington, May 10,2016: Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have engineered a strain of bacteria that enables a “one-pot” method for producing advanced biofuels from a slurry of pre-treated plant material.

The Escherichia coli (E coli) is able to tolerate the liquid salt used to break apart plant biomass into sugary polymers, researchers said.

Since the salt solvent, known as ionic liquids, interferes with later stages in biofuels production, it needs to be removed before proceeding, a process that takes time and money. Developing ionic-liquid-tolerant bacteria eliminates the need to wash away the residual ionic liquid.

The achievement is a critical step in making biofuels a viable competitor to fossil fuels because it helps streamline the production process, researchers said.

“Being able to put everything together at one point, walk away, come back, and then get your fuel, is a necessary step in moving forward with a biofuel economy,” said Aindrila Mukhopadhyay from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“The E coli we have developed gets us closer to that goal. It is like a chassis that we build other things onto, like the chassis of a car,” said said Mukhopadhyay.

“It can be used to integrate multiple recent technologies to convert a renewable carbon source like switchgrass to an advanced jet fuel,” she said.

The basic steps of biofuel production start with deconstructing the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that are bound together in the complex plant structure.

Enzymes are then added to release the sugars from that gooey mixture of cellulose and hemicellulose, a step called saccharification.

Bacteria can then take that sugar and churn out the desired biofuel. The multiple steps are all done in separate pots.

Researchers pioneered the use of ionic liquids, salts that are liquid at room temperature, to tackle the deconstruction of plant material because of the efficiency with which the solvent works.

However, what makes ionic liquids great for deconstruction also makes it harmful for the downstream enzymes and bacteria used in biofuel production.

They established that an amino acid mutation in the gene rcdA, which helps regulate various genes, leads to an E coli strain that is highly tolerant to ionic liquids.

They used this strain as the foundation to build on earlier work – including the ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes – and take the steps further to the one-pot biofuel finishing line.

The findings were published in the journal Green Chemistry.

@Agency report.

230 million-year-old dinosaur footprint found in north Spain

Madrid : Spain says a footprint of a dinosaur that roamed the area 230 million years ago has been found in northeastern Catalonia, and says it’s the best preserved dinosaur print seen so far in the Iberian Peninsula.

The print of a reptile-like creature called an Isochirotherium — an ancestor of dinosaurs and crocodiles — was discovered in early April by a person out walking in Olesa de Montserrat, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Barcelona.

The government said Monday that a plaster cast of the print was made by the town’s council and handed over to the region’s archaeology and paleontology department “so it can be studied and preserved.”

The statement said the “conservation status is exceptional and retains details of claws and skin.”

@Agency report.

Scientists turn skin into heart cells

Scientists have turned skin into brain and beating heart cells, using a technique similar to the astonishing powers of regeneration of animals like salamanders.

They said their revolutionary new method was a significant step towards the day when coronary and Alzheimer’s patients can be treated with their own reprogrammed tissue.

Human skin cells were turned into stem cells – which can form any kind of tissue in the body – using a cocktail of chemicals. Another mix of chemicals was then used to transform them into heart cells, according to a study reported in the journal Science.

More than 97 per cent of the cells start beating and when they were transplanted into a mouse’s heart, they developed into healthy-looking heart tissue.

In a separate study, reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the scientists turned mouse skin into brain stem cells using a similar technique.

Dr Sheng Ding, of the San Francisco-based Gladstone Institutes research centre, who led the study, said: “This method brings us closer to being able to generate new cells at the site of injury in patients.

“Our hope is to one day treat diseases like heart failure or Parkinson’s disease with drugs that help the heart and brain regenerate damaged areas from their own existing tissue cells.

“This process is much closer to the natural regeneration that happens in animals like newts and salamanders, which has long fascinated us.”

Previously, scientists had managed to reprogram cells but only by adding external genes to the cells.

Genetic engineering of human cells remains controversial and the Gladstone researchers believe their method is a more efficient and reliable method of creating new cells to replace damaged tissue.

“The ultimate goal in treating heart failure is a robust, reliable way for the heart to create new muscle cells,” said Dr Deepak Srivastava, a co- author of the Science paper.

“Reprogramming a patient’s own cells could provide the safest and most efficient way to regenerate dying or diseased heart muscle.”

In the brain cell study, neural stem cells made from mouse skin transformed into the three main types of brain cell, neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, when transplanted into mice.

Dr Yadong Huang, another of the researchers, said: “With their improved safety, these neural stem cells could one day be used for cell replacement therapy in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

“In the future, we could even imagine treating patients with a drug cocktail that acts on the brain or spinal cord, rejuvenating cells in the brain in real time.”

@Agency report.

Facebook, Google campuses vulnerable to flooding
A fresh forecast by a team of scientists has warned that Facebook, Google and Cisco may face the prospect of their Silicon Valley headquarters becoming swamped by water as rising sea levels threaten to submerge much of the property in San Francisco Bay Area, The Guardian reported.

Even under optimistic scenarios where rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions avoid the most severe increases, the companies may face cut-off from others around the world, the team noted.

“Without significant adaptation, social media giant Facebook’s new campus appears most at risk,” the report added. Facebook’s campus at the San Francisco Bay shoreline is a 430,000 square feet complex — with a nine-acre garden rooftop — and is an extension of its Menlo Park base.

“Facebook is very vulnerable. They built on a very low site. I do not know why they chose to build there. Facebook thinks they can pay enough to protect themselves,” Lindy Lowe, a senior planner at California’s Bay Conservation and Development Commission, was quoted as saying.

The elevation that Facebook gave to its premises will not be sufficient from saving it from a 1.6-feet rise in sea levels by the end of the century. The search engine giant Google located in Mountain View and technology company Cisco headquartered in San Jose may get some respite. But should the Antarctic ice sheet disintegrate, the sea water will be pushed up beyond six-feet and swamp both.

“Even with a small increase, the sea comes into the 101 highway by the Googleplex and the whole areas could be screwed up,” Kristina Hill, an environmental planning and urban design expert at the University of California-Berkeley, was quoted as saying.

“Google and Facebook will have to redo their campuses. I do not think there has been much success in getting Google to support adaption, it is not really on their radar,” Hill added. Nearly $100 billion worth of commercial and residential properties around the Bay Area are at risk from sea level rise and severe storms.

@ Agency report.

Smartphone addicts, take note! People who use digital technology excessively may develop ADHD-like symptoms even if they are not diagnosed with the disorder, a new study has warned.

“With the internet in their pockets, people today are bombarded with notifications – whether from email, text messaging, social media or news apps – anywhere they go,” said Kostadin Kushlev from University of Virginia in the US. “We are seeking to better understand how this constant inflow of notifications influences our minds,” said Kushlev.

Recent polls have shown that as many as 95% of smartphone users have used their phones during social gatherings; that seven in 10 people used their phones while working, said Kushlev. Smartphone owners spend nearly two hours per day using their phones, he added.

Researchers designed a two-week experimental study and showed that when students kept their phones on ring or vibrate, they reported more symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity than when they kept their phones on silent. “We found the first experimental evidence that smartphone interruptions can cause greater inattention and hyperactivity – symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – even in people drawn from a nonclinical population,” said Kushlev.

During Kushlev’s and his colleagues’ study, 221 students at the University of British Columbia in Canada were assigned for one week to maximise phone interruptions by keeping notification alerts on, and their phones within easy reach. During another week participants were assigned to minimise phone interruptions by keeping alerts off and their phones away. At the end of each week, participants completed questionnaires assessing inattention and hyperactivity.

The results showed that the participants experienced significantly higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity when alerts were turned on, researchers said. The results suggest that even people who have not been diagnosed with ADHD may experience some of the disorder’s symptoms, including distraction, difficulty focusing and getting bored easily when trying to focus, fidgeting, having trouble sitting still, difficulty doing quiet tasks and activities, and restlessness, they said. “Smartphones may contribute to these symptoms by serving as a quick and easy source of distraction,” said Kushlev.

The findings suggest that our constant digital stimulation may be contributing to an increasingly problematic deficit of attention in modern society, Kushlev said. “Importantly, we found that people can reduce the harmful effects of overstimulation by smartphones simply by keeping their phones on silent and out of easy reach whenever possible, thus keeping notifications at bay,” he added.

@Agency report.

Junior Digest

‘Fresh’ craters discovered on Moon’s darkest regions

India’s first-ever indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD successfully tested from Sriharikota

India all set to launch indigenous version of space shuttle tomorrow

Scientists produce jet fuel in “one-pot” recipe

230 million-year-old dinosaur footprint found in north Spain

Scientists turn skin into heart cells

Facebook, Google campuses vulnerable to flooding

World’s first 3D-printed, fully functional office building opens in Dubai

Obama launches ‘Kid Science Advisors’ campaign

Europa’s ocean may harbour life: NASA

Scientists developed skin like material

SpaceX rocket launches satellite, then lands on ship at sea

Regrowing body parts now closer to reality?

Chyna’s brain to be donated to science

Astronomers find a tailless comet, first of its kind

Excessive smartphone use may make you hyperactive, claims new study

NASA’s Kepler telescope finds 1,284 new planets

World’s largest telescope may be set up in Ladakh

India’s GPS named ‘NAVIC’

Free will could all be an illusion, scientists suggest

India’s first Reusable Launch Vehicle to take off today

NGT asks states to submit complete list of wetlands

Prithvi-II missile successfully fired, capable of a 350Km strike range

NASA funding sleep-inducing, growable habitats