Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO Recovered Two Apollo Rocket Engines from Atlantic Ocean

In the privately-funded expedition, a recovery team which was funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recovered two Saturn V rocket engines from beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Announcement of the recovery was made on 20 March 2013. Saturn V rocket engines are the ones which were used to send human beings to Moon from 1967 until 1973.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, in the year 2012 announced about his plans of searching the sea floor of Atlantic Ocean for the rocket motors which plunged back into the Ocean after the Saturn 5 launches to the moon during Apollo 11 moon mission. Two Saturn V first-stage engines were recovered by the Bezos Expeditions from 3 miles beneath Atlantic Ocean.

Around 40 years ago, NASA had sent a total of seven missions to Moon out of which six had carried astronauts successfully. Jeff Bezos announced that the serial numbers on these engines were not found, which made it difficult for them to identify the mission for which they were used.

Restoration work will now be carried out on the engines which will continue to remain a US Government property, after which they would be put on the public display. One of these engines would be at public display at Washington DC's Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Other one would be displayed at Museum of Flight in Seattle.

NASA, in the meanwhile announced that this was a historic recovery that would allow in exploring the important artifacts about its first efforts of sending human beings out of the Earth’s orbit.
 
Saturn V first-stage rocket engines:-

• Saturn V was the American human-rated expendable rocket which was used by Apollo of NASA and Skylab from 1967 until 1973. NASA launched a total of 13 Saturn Vs from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
• It is said to be the heaviest, tallest as well as the most powerful rocket ever brought to the operational status. It holds a record of heaviest launch vehicle payload ever.
• Up to date, Saturn V is only launch vehicle that transported humans beyond low Earth orbit.
• The Saturn V first-stage rocket engines were developed by Rocketdyne. These engines were used in Saturn V.
• First F-1 engines were made use in S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which was in turn used as the launch vehicle in Apollo Program.
• F-1 is the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine.

Herschel Observatory discovered 15 New Very Young Stars named as Protostars

Astronomers at the Herschel space observatory in the Month of March 2013 found some of the youngest stars ever seen in the Universe.

The findings of new stars which is known by protostars was also contributed by Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile, a collaboration involving the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, and the European Southern Observatory in Germany.

It has been observed that dense envelopes of gas and dust surround the fledging stars known as protostars, making their detection difficult. The 15 newly observed protostars turned up by surprise in a survey of the biggest site of star formation near our solar system, located in the constellation Orion.

The finding of these new stars is giving scientists a glance into one of the earliest and least understood phases of star formation and it can be a witnessing moment of the phases when a star begins to form.

Astronomers long had investigated the stellar nursery in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a vast collection of star-forming clouds, but had not seen the newly identified protostars until Herschel observed the region.

A brief insight of the Observation made by Herschel Space Observatory:-

• Herschel spied the protostars in far-infrared, or long-wavelength, light, which can shine through the dense clouds around burgeoning stars that block out higher-energy, shorter wavelengths, including the light our eyes see.

• The Herschel Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument collected infrared light at 70 and 160 micrometers in wavelength, comparable to the width of a human hair. Researchers compared these observations to previous scans of the star-forming regions in Orion taken by Spitzer.

• Extremely young protostars identified in the Herschel views but too cold to be picked up in most of the Spitzer data were further verified with radio wave observations from the APEX ground telescope.

• Of the 15 newly discovered protostars, 11 possess very red colors, meaning their light output trends toward the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. This output indicates the stars are still embedded deeply in a gaseous envelope, meaning they are very young.

Abundant Active Bacteria Community Discovered In Deepest Spot of the Earth

A team of researchers, led by Ronnie Glud of University of Southern Denmark discovered that a huge community of bacteria grows in depths of the Mariana Trench off the coast of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Islands. It was found that the organisms live at the dentisities ten times higher than shallower ocean floor at rim of trench.

The deepest point on entire seafloor is called The Challenger Deep and it is situated in Mariana Trench off the coast of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Islands. This point is 36000 feet or 7.8 miles below the surface of the ocean.

How was the research done?

In order to explore the ecosystem that exists ultra-deep, the international team of researchers sent the specially-designed 1300 pound robot in the depth of the Mariana Trench in 2010. This robot was facilitated with thin sensors which could enter into the seafloor sediments in order to measure organic consumption of oxygen. Because all living organisms consume oxygen while respiration, therefore it is possible to find out the amount of microorganisms living in an area by checking the tallies on what quantity of ambient oxygen is missing from the sediments.

The team of researchers used the device for sampling the sediments at two sites with depths of 35476 and 35488 feet. It was found that large quantity of oxygen consumption took place. This indicated that there were ten times more bacteria at the ultra-deep site than the shallower site which was sampled just for reference around 37 miles away, at a depth of merely 19626 feet.

What did the specially-designed 1300 pound robot explore?

The robot brought out an overall 21 sediment cores from these two deep sites. The sediment cores were kept for analysis in the lab. Even though a lot of microorganisms died after being brought out to the surface, but it confirmed the finding that cores from Mariana Trench were habitat to higher densities of bacterial cells than the ones which existed in the reference site.

Also, the video recording of the ocean floor was done by making use of the lights for illuminating the dark environment. It was also discovered that certain life forms which were larger than the bacteria on the top of the sediment, existed. It was determined that these life forms were Hirondellea gigas, a species of amphipods. Amphipods are the small crustaceans which are just less than one inch in terms of length.

Importance of the research:-

The finding of abundant bacterial life at such a depth is very surprising because it was believed that at such depths, not enough nutrients can be found. The Photosynthetic plankton can act as a nutrient base for almost all the ocean food chain, but even these planktons are unable to survive in lightless seafloor. But this research has amused the scientists because ultra-deep trench was found to be the abode of so much bacterial activity than the shallower reference site just nearby.

Since 2010 exploration, the team of researchers has also sent this robot to sample Japan Trench which is roughly 29500 feet deep. The researchers now plan to sample the Kermadec-Tonga Trench which is 35430 feet deep.

Japan Became First Country in the World to Extract Natural Gas from Methane Hydrate

Japan on 12 March 2013 announced that it had extracted the natural gas from frozen methane hydrate successfully off the central coast. With this, Japan became the first country to do so in the world. A Japan official from Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry announced that this was the first offshore experiment of producing natural gas from methane hydrate in the world.

Methane Hydrate, also known as clathrates are a kind of frozen confinements of molecules of water and methane. The gas field where the natural gas was extracted from methane hydrate is situated 50 km away from the main island of Japan in Nankai Trough.

Also, apart from Japan, certain other countries such as China, US and Canada have been searching for the ways to exploit the methane hydrate deposits. Certain pilot experiments were conducted in the past few years, which depicted that it was possible to extract methane from deposits by making use of the methane hydrate which was found under the land ice.

Offshore deposits have a huge source of methane but they also raise environmental concerns because underwater geology which encompasses them is unstable at various places.

Now, the survey of gas field is being conducted by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).

How was the natural gas from methane hydrate extracted?

The engineers made use of the depressurisation method which converts the methane hydrate into the methane gas. The production tests will continue till the end of March 2013.

The government officials of Japan announced that now their aim was establishment of methane hydrate production technologies for the purpose of practical use by 2018.

How will this extraction benefit Japan?

According to the Japanese study, it was estimated that around 1.1tn cubic metres of methane hydrate existed in the offshore deposits. This is equal to the gas consumption of Japan in more than 10 years.

According to the researchers, this extraction can prove to be very beneficial because it could facilitate as an alternative source of energy for Japan. It is important to note that Japan as of now imports all the energy needs.

Japan has limited natural resources. After the nuclear disaster of Fukushima plant in 2011, cost of importing the fuel has also increased. The extraction of natural gas from methane hydrate will therefore help Japan in reducing the pressure on natural resources as well as bringing down the cost of import of fuel.

New Type of Bacteria Reportedly Found in Buried Antarctic Lake

A new type of microbe has been found at a lake buried under Antarctica's thick ice. The find may unveil clues of the surrounding environment in the lake, according to scientists.

The bacteria, said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist on Earth, was discovered in a water sample taken from Lake Vostoc, which sits under more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) of Antarctic ice. The freshwater lakehas likely been buried, unaltered, under the ice for the past million years.

Russian scientists reportedly obtained the water samples in 2012 when they drilled all the way down to the lake's surface. They ran the bacteria's composition through a global database and were not able to find anything similar to its type. Scientists couldn't even figure out the bacteria's descendents.

 "After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," said Sergey Bulat, a geneticist at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, in a quote attributed in media reports to RIA Novosti news service.

"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," he added.

Understanding the environment:-

While the bacteria still needs to be confirmed, its potential is already drawing attention from other Antarctic scientists.

Life forms are shaped by the environment they live in, and often shape that environment in return. Finding out more about bacteria in Lake Vostok, therefore, will help researchers picture what living in the lake is like for these tiny microorganisms.

"The study of looking at the organisms and their environment is really the study of ecology," said Alison Murray, an associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute (an environmental research group based in Nevada) who also does antarctic research herself.

"By learning more about the life forms that live in Vostok, that will probably teach us a bit about the lake itself," Murray told.

Murray, who is familiar with the Russian researchers' work, said the group is a "very careful team of scientists" who would have put the bacteria through several validity tests before releasing the news.

Understanding bacterial life on Earth is also considered a possible research direction for finding life on other planets, including mars.

'If this is real, it is very exciting':-

The 86 percent similarity figure is a plausible indicator that this could be a new type of bacteria. Since all Earthly life is related to each other in some way, anything below about 80 percent would draw concern, Murray added.

At least one other scientist, however, expressed caution about the finding, saying that more information is needed before drawing conclusions.

"If this is real, it is very exciting," Peter Doran, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote in an e-mail to OurAmazingPlanet. He is a frequent visitor to the Arctic and Antarctica for his research.

"I would caution, though, that this type of 'press release' science is a little dangerous. It really needs to go through the rigor of peer review by other experts in the field before I'll jump on board," he said. "Having others looking at their methods and data will provide support for their conclusions."

Russian scientists successfully drug through to the buried lake again in January this year, retrieving more samples for later analysis.

Meanwhile, a British team had to call off their quest in december to dig to Lake Ellsworth, another Antarctic subglacial lake, after they encountered technical difficulties.

Detailed heart atlas created

Researchers from the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain have created a high resolution atlas of the heart based on 3D images taken from 138 people. This atlas is a statistical description of how the heart and its components — such as the ventricles and the atrium. The study can be applied to medical imaging, especially when segmenting, or in other words, properly differentiating a structure to be analysed from the rest of the image.

The level of detail and the possibility to extend the atlas give it  an advantage over the majority of cardiac models present to date.

Pompeu Fabra scientists have managed to create a representation of the average shape of the heart and its variations with images from 138 fully functioning hearts taken using multi-slice computed tomography.

This technique offers both 3D and high resolution X-ray.

To create this cardiac map, researchers developed a statistical model capable of managing high quantities of information provided by individual images.

It can also collect temporary variations, given that the heart is never motionless.

New Details Emerge About ‘Snowball Earth’ Period

About 635 million years ago, our world was covered in ice during an event called “Snowball Earth,” and new details written in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provide new insights on the duration of this event.

According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, an ice age brought on rapid changes in the atmospheric conditions on our planet, followed by a rapid greenhouse heat wave. This period may have given rise to modern levels of atmospheric oxygen, which helped to pave the way for animals and the diversification of life after.

Researchers set out to find how the planet was able to spring back from the ice apocalypse millions of years ago. Huiming Bao, and Charles L. Jones, Professor in Geology & Geophysics at Louisianna State University, said the story of our planet is about the incredible resilience of life and life’s remarkable ability to restore a new balance between atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere after a global glaciation.

“In the study, we concluded that the strange atmospheric O2 isotope event at about 635 million years ago, an event that so far remains singular in the entire Earth history, lasted anywhere from 0 to about 1 million years,” Bao.

He said they were able to conclude this in two ways. The first was because they “discovered a sedimentary section that has the largest number of barite layers, so that the duration of the event is best defined in the sedimentary record.” Next, Bao said they found “the sedimentary package and carbon isotope curve from this section can be correlated to other sections in the same depositional region where radiometric dates are available.”

Barite, a common mineral, was deposited in rocks following the Marinoan glaciation, or Snowball Earth period. The oxygen isotope ratios the team found in barite samples from 635 million years ago could have occurred if Earth’s atmosphere had very high levels of carbon dioxide after the Snowball Earth glaciation.

An atmosphere high in carbon dioxide would cause depletion of the O-17 isotope in the air, as well as barite minerals, which use oxygen to grow. O-17 is one of three stable isotopes of oxygen, and the group found deposits of depleted O-17 in sulfate mineral in rocks dating from the global glaciation event during that time period.

LSU graduate student Bryan Killingsworth said their findings show something significant happened in the atmosphere at this time. He said this kind of atmospheric shift in carbon dioxide is not observed during any period of Earth’s history.

“This atmospheric event, or MOSD event, reflects pretty much how rapid the Earth system can recover or return to a normal condition after an extreme global glaciation,” Bao told, “There are questions on how fast atmospheric CO2 had been drawn down and how fast atmospheric O2 had risen by renewed biological activity, or how Earth surface temperature could have varied from superhot to mild after Earth came out of a deep freeze (thanks, probably, to a ultra-high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere). These questions can only be answered by models that take into consideration of many atmospheric and biogeochemical processes.

“However, without a constraint from the real solid rock record, these models could offer you whatever numbers or scenarios you want. Therefore, our sedimentary constraint on the duration of the MOSD event will provide an very important parameter on any modeling studies on Earth system response at the onset of the great Marinoan glacial meltdown,” he added.

He said by using their established approach, future work will be able to refine the exact duration of the MOSD event.

Ultrasound Shows That Even Unborn Babies Yawn

This is an ultrasound showing yawn at 27.5 weeks gestation.

Bust a yawn in the room and others may follow suit. While yawning may be contagious with children and adults alike, the role of yawning is less clear in unborn babies.

Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities recently discovered that ultrasound images show when a fetus is yawning and when it is just opening its mouth, possibly signaling a developmental marker in the womb that could provide more information on the health status of the fetus.

The study on yawing as a developmental process was recently published in the international academic journal, PLoS ONE. While past studies by scientists have argued that fetuses yawn, other studies have proposed that unborn babies are only opening their mouths slightly, and not showing a true yawn. The scientists believe that the varied findings were the result of “a lack of precise definition of yawns” that differentiated them from mouth openings.

In the current study, the scientists completed 4D scans of 15 healthy unborn babies and the images show a clear difference between “yawning” and “non-yawn mouth opening.”

“The results of this study demonstrate that yawning can be observed in healthy fetuses and extends previous work on fetal yawning. Our longitudinal study shows that yawning declines with increasing fetal age,” explained the study’s lead research Dr. Nadja Reissland of the Department of Psychology at Durham University in a prepared statement.

Based on the findings, the team of investigators believed that over half of the mouth openings found in the study could be considered “yawns.” Yawn studies were conducted with eight female and seven male fetuses during 24 to 36 weeks of gestation. While there was no major difference between yawning in males and females, yawning overall reduced following 28 weeks of gestation.

“The results of this study demonstrate that yawning can be observed in healthy fetuses and replicates previous studies with 2-D images. In contrast to previous research we could also show that although healthy fetuses vary in the frequency of yawns observed overall, the repeated measures design allowing an observation of the same fetuses at 24 to 36 weeks gestation in 4 weekly intervals showed that in healthy fetuses the frequency of yawning declines over time,” wrote the authors in the paper.

Scientists are still unsure as to the role of yawning, but believe that it may be related to fetal development.

“Given that the frequency of yawning in our sample of healthy fetuses declined from 28 weeks to 36 weeks gestation, it seems to suggest that yawning and simple mouth opening have this maturational function early in gestation,” continued Reissland in the statement. “Unlike us, fetuses do not yawn contagiously, nor do they yawn because they are sleepy. Instead, the frequency of yawning in the womb may be linked to the maturing of the brain early in gestation.”

More research in the future is needed to identify how yawning could impact development in areas like the central nervous system.

“In order to exclude the potential function of cortisol in yawning, in future research it would be important to measure maternal cortisol levels at the time of observing fetal yawns,” concluded the authors.

Women More Talkative Than Men Because Thier Brain Is Designed That Way

We’ve all heard the oft-repeated statistics about women talking more than men. And to back up those statistics, one previous study has shown that a part of the brain responsible for processing communication is simply larger in a woman than a man. Now, a new study adds to those claims by moving a step further, showing that the female brain is actually designed with communication in mind.

Performed by doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, this study has linked being talkative with a particular protein found in the brain called FOXP2. Women have been found to have more of this protein in their brains, leading the researchers to believe this is why women are more vocal than men.

“This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals,” explained the study’s co-author Margaret McCarthy, PhD, in a prepared statement. “The findings raise the possibility that sex differences in brain and behavior are more pervasive and established earlier than previously appreciated.”

Science, it seems, has been forever curious about a female’s tendency to be more communicative and has been looking for this answer for years. The link between FOXP2 and speech was first discovered at the turn of the century and was found to connect vocalization in a host of different animals, such as bats, mice and rats. This latest study started off by observing this correlation in rats before moving on to young children.

First, the researchers recorded the levels of FOXP2 in four-day-old rat pups, both female and male. Next, the researchers separated these newborn rats from their mothers and compared the sounds between the females and males. When they were pulled away from their mother, the male rats made the most noise, crying twice as much as their female siblings. The researchers also noticed that the FOXP2 levels were higher in the part of the brain associated with cognition, emotion and vocalization.

To put this finding to the test, the researchers switched the amount of communication protein between the female and male rat pups. Once switched, the female rat pups sounded just like the males when taken away from their mother, and vice versa. Even the mother rat was fooled, rushing to take care of the female pups first.

With this data, Dr. McCarthy and co-author Dr. Bowers studied the amount of this protein in 4- and 5-year old children. According to their data, girls have more FOXP2 in the language portion of their brain than boys — about 30 percent more. This, says Dr. Bowers might be the first step in explaining why women tend to be more talkative than men.

So, while women may be better wired for communication than men, there are still those who believe we use about the same number of words. Perhaps the entire debate comes down to quality versus quantity, though I won’t be making any assumptions about which gender belongs to which category.

Deepest Hydrothermal Vent Discovered In Cayman Trough, Teeming With Life

In 2010, scientists working for the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Southampton made an astonishing discovery:- the deepest and hottest known hydrothermal vents. These vents, which were found in an isolated trough in the Caribbean, have been named the Beebe Hydrothermal Vent Field (BHVF).

With the discovery still fresh in their minds, a new team, led by the University of Southampton’s Dr. Jon Copley, returned to the BHVF to investigate it more closely. But upon their arrival to investigate the deepest known volcanic vents, the team made another remarkable discovery: a set of even deeper hydrothermal vents nearby, some 3 miles beneath the ocean’s surface.

Copley said these vents, some which are more than 30 feet tall, exist in the Cayman Trough, a deep trench formed by the boundary of two tectonic plates. This deep rise of hydrothermal vents has important implications for the physics and chemistry of the fluids that are emitted by the vents, and in turn, the organisms that rely on the vents for sustainable life in the deep waters.

The Vent Field is named after William Beebee, an early American ecologist who is known for his marine studies, which include the first ever observations of deep-sea animals in their natural habitat. Copley and his colleagues are set to follow in Beebe’s footsteps, using a remote operated vehicle (ROV) named Isis to study the marine communities hosted by the hydrothermal spires of the Cayman Trough. Isis is designed to operate at depths down to to 21,500 feet, giving the team plenty of room to spare.

Matt Hodgkinson, a member of the research team from University of Southampton Ocean and Earth Science, said : “The extraordinarily high pressure (of 500 x atmospheres) at the Beebe site, situated at nearly double the normal depth of most known hydrothermal systems, is important due to the physical changes that seawater undergoes at extremely high pressures and temperatures. Instead of being a liquid or vapor, the vent fluid becomes supercritical. These supercritical fluids are very reactive, dissolve metals at depth in the Earth’s crust, and transport them to the seafloor where they form spectacular hydrothermal vents and mineral deposits.”

Copley said the discovery of the “astounding mineral spires [was a] complete surprise.”

These very unusual vents in the otherwise chilly depths (39F), heat the surrounding water to extreme temperatures (in excess of 750F at the vent site). It is because of these vents that bizarre creatures are allowed to come to life, and researchers believe it is vents like these that jumpstarted human existence.

The team hopes their work will eventually answer some of mankind’s most paramount questions. They feel their research will eventually help explain why and how life evolved in such a hostile environment.

Despite these extreme conditions, the vents were found to be teeming with thousands of new species, discovered with Isis, as the team gently steered it around the spires, taking pictures and gathering samples. One of the most astonishing finds was a whole host of pale shrimp that were found to have a light-sensing organ on their backs in place of eyes.

The team kept Isis on site for roughly 24 hours, investigating the site before bringing it back on board the British research ship the James Cook. The ROV brought back samples of water and wildlife, including the pale shrimp, for analysis.

Verity Nye, a researcher on board the vessel, took liberty to study these tiny blind organisms.

Copley said several of the samples (including a white anemone and a starfish) returned by Isis could likely be those of new species, and should yield positive results when they can be analyzed in the lab once the team makes it back home.

But for now, the team remains busy collecting data and plan to make further dives in the coming days. Researchers from Japan and the US also plan to investigate the vent fields later this year.

100-Year-Old Mystery Of Talking Magnets Finally Solved

Thanks to new nanotechnology tools and the tenacity of star physics students, a University of Alberta research team has cracked the code to a magnetic mystery scientists have been trying to solve for over 100 years.

The team, led by U of A professor and National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) researcher Mark Freeman, made the breakthrough with a new kind of high-resolution microscopy of magnetic materials, making it possible to finally harness a phenomenon known as the Barkhausen effect.

“I call this new tool a ‘scanning vortex probe microscope’ after the special magnetization pattern we used to make this discovery,” explained U of A graduate student Jacob Burgess, author of the theory and the model that revealed Barkhausen’s elusive secret.

Heinrich Barkhausen, for whom the Barkhausen effect is named, conducted a seminal experiment in 1919 that provided the first evidence of magnetic domains, which are the quilt-like patterns in the orientation of “magnetization” within magnetic materials. Barkhausen made his groundbreaking discovery by listening in on magnetic activity by wrapping a magnet with an electrical coil connected to a speaker. The messages Barkhausen received, however, were intermittent, idiosyncratic and impossible to translate. That is, impossible to translate until now.

“Barkhausen’s findings were very important for advancing our understanding of magnetism and for eventually using magnetic materials in applications like data storage,” says Freeman. “But the intricate details have proven surprisingly difficult to measure. In fact, the vague picture we’ve been working from has come to more perfectly represent what we don’t know.”

This discovery is a game changer, the study suggests, because magnetic thin films are critical in modern computing for storing information in every hard disk on every computer. This discovery provides potentially critical information for magnetic computation technology that may eventually be be designed to replace hard drives. This would make it possible to engineer data storage that is so secure that it would be able to preserve data even if the computer crashed.

Researchers Discovered a Lost Continent Called Mauritia, Beneath the Indian Ocean

Researchers from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany, in the last week of February 2013 discovered a sunken and small continent beneath the Indian Ocean. This is the ancient and mini continent named Mauritia and it lies beneath the lava flows which led to the formation of islands of Mauritius and Reunion.

This lost continent called Mauritia, dates back to the time when the super continents of the Earth- Laurasia and Gondwana shattered into the familiar geography like present. Mauritia is said to be a part of the mass of Gondwana which had eventually split into Antarctica, India, Australia and Madagascar after around 170 million years ago.

The mini continent was later torn apart as it passed over the mid-ocean ridges. The lava eruptions later covered this sunken continent. But later, due to the volcanic eruptions on the Island of Mauritius the pieces of this lost continent were brought on the surface of the Earth. These pieces were crystals called zircons which dated back to 660 and 1970 million years ago. This hinted towards the fact that the rock which lied beneath the crust was in fact the part of this ancient mini-continent.

The team of geoscientists also suggested that there might be other lost micro-continents on Earth which are buried beneath the lava.

NASA Scientist Discovered Mini Nile River on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Scientists from NASA spotted the longest extra-terrestrial river system ever on Saturn’s moon Titan which appears to be a miniature version of Earth’s Nile River. 

 As per NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the river valley on Titan stretches more than 400 kilometres from its headwaters to a large sea comparing it with the Nile River on Earth which stretches about 6700 kilometres. 

The finding came into in light after NASA’s Cassini mission sent images which revealed for the first time a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth. 

Titan is the only body in the solar system apart from earth which is known to have vast seas and possess a cycle of liquids on its surface.

However, the other evident fact is that the thick Titan atmosphere is a frigid where water could not possibly flow. The liquids on Titan are therefore composed of hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane.

Images from Cassini’s visible-light cameras in late 2010 in Titan’s equatorial regions revealed the regions to be darkened due to recent rainfall. Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer confirmed liquid ethane at a lake in Titan’s southern hemisphere known as Ontario Lacus in 2008. 

The radar image taken on 26 September 2012 shows Titan’s north polar region, where the river valley flows into Kraken Mare, a sea that is, in terms of size, between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea on Earth.

Fossil of First Bird with Teeth in China has been found

Fossil skeleton of the early bird called Sulcavis Geeorum which lived 125 million years ago was discovered in the first week of January 2013 in China. The bird had strange kind of ridges on the teeth which allowed it to open up hard-shelled snails and insects as well.

This is an unusual fossil which was preserved so well that some of the stomach contents were present even now. The discovery would help the researchers find out the kinds of food items that earliest birds of Earth ate during the time when dinosaurs existed.

The fossil skeleton of the first bird with teeth indicated that the bird had durophagous diet, which means that the teeth of this bird were able to eat prey that had hard exoskeletans. Researchers believed that teeth of this new specimen increased the known range of tooth shapes in the early birds, which in turn would indicate about the ecological diversity.
 
About Sulcavis Geeorum:-

•Sulcavis Geeorum is the enantiornithine bird (extinct toothed bird) that existed around 125 million years ago in Liaoning Province, China.
•Enantiornithine birds are actually a kind of early birds and also the most numerous birds from dinosaurs-era.
•Sulcavis Geeorum is said to be the first bird discoevred with tooth enamel. The birds are said to be have evolved from the dinosaurs but the dinosaurs have carnivorous teeth that have special characteristics for eating only meat.
•Enantiornithine are the unique birds among others that show minimal tooth reduction along with assortment of the dental patterns. However, Sulcavis Geeorum has strong teeth having grooves on inside surface which strengthen their teeth against harder foods.
•No other bird species in the past had striations, preserved ridges, serrated edges or other kinds of dental ornamentation.

Five New Planets discovered, One of Them is Habitable

Scientists detected five new planets close to Earth using an intra-galactic speed gun. It was discovered that one of these planets was orbiting the habitable zone of star called Tau Ceti, where there are conditions for life. While travelling with speed of the light, it was possible to reach these planets in only 12 years time.

Scientists who analyse around 6000 measurements of velocity of star Tau Ceti believed that some inconsistencies in direction as well as speed were caused because of gravitational pull that occurred because of other celestial bodies. Professor Chris Tinney of the University of New South Wales explained that the star was moving backward and forward very slightly and it had shown the evidences of doing so at 5 different durations.

Scientists explained that there were five planets which were going on around star, which made it move backward and forward. One of the planets is habitable. This planet lies in the zone where life might be possible and this planet has five times greater mass than that of Earth. This is the smallest known planet that is orbiting in Goldilocks zone, the zone where there are conditions for survival of life.

Researchers created natural heart pacemaker from single gene

Researchers of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute developed pacemaker cells through injection of gene called Tbx18, which could greatly help in repairing the heart. This research would help treating the heart patients with the simple injection of so-called natural pacemaker. The researchers programmed ordinary cells of heart for becoming the exact imitations of specialised biological pacemakers through injection of single gene.

 

This is said to be the major step towards a long search of 10 years for finding the biological therapy that can correct falling heartbeats. The researchers described the study the first one to depict that one gene can direct conversion of cells of heart muscle to authentic pacemaker cells. The new cells are said to generate electrical impulses unexpectedly and these were also different from the local pacemaker cells. 

Actually, the pacemaker cells produce electrical activity which spreads in turn to other heart cells in a neat pattern for creating regular muscle contractions.  In case these cells go wrong, the heart starts beating randomly at its best. 

The heartbeat begins in sino-atrial node (SAN) of right upper chamber of heart where there are accumulated pacemaker cells. Out of the 10 billion cells of heart, less than 10000 are the pacemaker cells which are also referred as SAN cells. Once these new pacemaker cells are programmed by Tbx18 gene, they had all the important features of the native pacemakers. These pacemaker cells once programmed, also maintained the SAN-like characteristics despite the fact that effects of Tbx18 gene faded away. 

Researchers, who made use of the virus which is engineered to carry the single gene called Tbx18, directly reprogrammed the cells of heart muscle for specialising pacemaker cells.  These new cells performed the function as well as features of native pacemaker cells in lab cell reprogramming as well as in the studies conducted on guinea pig. 

In the initial efforts, new pacemaker cells were created but there was a risk of infecting cancerous cells. However, the new research created the pacemaker cells which are closely associated with native ones that do not pose risk of cancer.

Device Developed to Imitate Dog’s Nose for Detecting Explosives

Dogs are known for their olfactory sense. Imitating the same sense, scientists from the University of California in the third week of November 2012 designed the nanotech chip that can smell presence of the molecules from a bomb within a few seconds.

According to the researchers, this nanotech chip is portable, absolutely sensitive and accurate which can smell the vapours from the explosives as well as other substances. This could become very common in future just like the smoke detectors found in the public places.

Researchers who were led by professors Martin Moskovits and Carl Meinhart designed the detector which makes use of the microfluidic nanotechnology in order to imitate biological mechanism used behind canine scent receptors. This device is not just very sensitive for tracing the amount of specific vapour molecules but can also tell about specific substances besides the similar molecules.

The device has been designed with the similar or even better sensitivity just like the nose of the dogs. Results of the study depict that this device can also detect the airborne molecules of the 2, 4-dinitrotoluene, mainly the vapours which emanate from the TNT-based explosives.

New Dinosaur with Gigantic Nose found in Mexico

Scientists in northern Mexico discovered a new dinosaur with a large prominent nose which lived about 73 million years ago.

The duck-billed dinosaur, which was named Latirhinus uitstlani lived during the Late Cretaceous period and its wide nasal cavity might have given it incredible smell-detecting ability.

As per researchers the giant nose of Dinosaur supported and provided enhanced space for a soft tissue structure, sort of like an inflatable bladder, for display, recognition and communication purposes in general.

The dinosaur also possessed sturdy hind limbs ending in three toes, and relatively smaller and thinner forelimbs ending in 4 digits — meaning this animal was thumb-less.

These dinosaurs were herbivores with a few thousand teeth closely packed together to form a grinding surface to chew the vegetation they fed upon.

As per the report it was concluded that the environment that Latirhinus inhabited was likely warmer and more humid than it is today’s time, with lakes and bays nearby.

Brain-Removal Tool Discovered in 2400-Year Old Mummy

Brain-removal tool, which was used by the ancient Egyptian embalmers, was discovered by the researchers of Zagreb Croatia in the third week of December 2012. This brain-removal tool was lodged in skull of the female mummy which dated back to approximately 2400 years. This was the 3-inch object which was found in body of the 40-year old woman. The researchers who discovered this tool were surprised by the breakthrough.

Brain removal was the Egyptian mummification procedure which was quite popular around 3500 years ago. It was also used extensively in later periods. It is important to note here that identification of the ancient tools which were used by the embalmers for brain removal was very difficult. Researchers also noted that this was the 2nd time when this kind of a tool was found in the skull of a mummy.

After the CT scans were carried out, the researchers found a tool or an instrument which was located between the left parietal bone as well as the rear of skull. This was filled with the resin during the process of mummification.
Curious about the recent discovery, the team of researchers also made use of the endoscope (a thin tube that is used for noninvasive medical processes), in order to extract it from the resin with which it remained stuck.

The researchers found out that the embalmers might have inserted this tool through a hole which was made in skull near nose. This was later used for liquifying as well as removing the brain. The researcher, Dr Mislav Čavka of University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb Croatia explained that this brain-removal tool was extracted using the clamp with the help of endoscope. Some of the parts of brain might be wrapped around the stick and extracted while others might be liquefied during the mummification process.

The mummy could be put on the abdomen then and liquid might be drained through hole of the nose. The researcher also added that leaving this tool in the skull of the mummy was an error on the part of embalmers. The researcher also added that possibly the tool might have been broken during the process.

This embalming accident which might have occurred provided the researchers with rare artifact. The researchers found out that brain-removal tool or stick found in the skull of the mummy dated back to some 2200 years. At present this mummy is in Archaeological Museum in Zagreb Croatia.

Researchers Discovered Protein behind Scaly and Dry Skin in Eczema

A team of researchers including that of an Indian-origin, at Oregon State University discovered in the first week of January 2013, one malfunctioning protein which leads to itchy, dry as well as inflamed skin wounds in a kind of eczema.  The protein is called Ctip2 and it actually causes certain skin conditions by controlling body fat which keeps the skin hydrated and healthy.

Eczema actually causes major loss of certain fluids through the skin which in turn leads to penetration of certain allergens. In the study conducted by the researchers, it was found that insufficient Ctip2 leads to reduction in the lipids in skin which are required for staying healthy and performing its function. Additionally, this leads to unwanted creation of proteins which can cause inflammation.

The ability of the skin to oppose to inflammation goes down because the quantity of inflammation is rising and the main factor is Ctip2 not performing its job. One of these or both these issues can cause eczema. It was known that Ctip2 controls the body fats which can keep your skin hydrated and healthy, but researchers discovered that in case this protein starts malfunctioning, it could lead to atopic dermatitis which is a common kind of eczema.

At present, the treatment includes moisturizing the skin for protection. In certain difficult cases, powerful steroids are used but it also leads to negative effects, especially long term side effects.

The skin is actually the largest human body organ and also the important one. It fights against the external factors and therefore is also influenced by environment and genetics. In the condition of eczema, the function of skin slows down. The findings in turn can help the researchers in discovering the new treatments for eczema.

The main findings of the study were as follows:-

•Protein called Ctip2 starts controlling body fats which are helpful in keeping the skin cell hydrated as well as healthy.
•However, in the people suffering from eczema, this starts malfunctioning leading to itchy, red and dry skin.
•The researchers believed that the findings could lead to certain new treatments as well.