SHORT NEWS.
(1). Ship that vanished in 1846 found in Canadian Arctic: Two British exploration ships that vanished during a storied expedition to the Arctic in 1846 has been discovered, submerged but 'perfectly preserved' in the Northwest Passage, Canadian scientists say. The ill-fated HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which were under the command of Sir John Franklin, left the shores of Britain on 19th May, 1845, on a mission to discover the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. While the Erebus was located in 2014, the whereabouts of the Terror were unknown until 03rd September when it was discovered by scientists from the Arctic Research Foundation, which showed the sunken ship in a video that aired Monday on public broadcaster CBC. "Resting proud in 24 meters of water, we found HMS Terror...It is perfectly preserved in the frigid waters of the Northwest Passage", foundation spokesperson Adrian Schimnowski said in the video. The three-mast ship, which was built 203 years ago, was found in the same region as the Erebus, the organisation said.
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(2). Angry drivers at higher crash risk: Angry aggressive drivers have much higher odds of being in a motor vehicle collision than those who do not lose their temper while driving, a new study has found. "Even minor aggression, such as swearing, yelling or making rude gestures, can increase the risk of a collision", said lead author Dr. Christine Wickens from Centre for Addiction and Mental health in Canada. In the study, drivers who said they had also made threats, attempted or succeeded in damaging another car or hurting someone, had the highest odds of collision - 78 percent higher than those whose aggression was considered minor. This risk is comparable to those who use cannabis and drive, Wickens said.
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(3). Rare Roman gold coin found: Archaeologists have discovered an exceptionally rare gold coin bearing the image of the Roman Emperor Nero that dates back to a little over a decade before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The coin was found at University of North Carolina at Charlotte's archaeological excavation at Mt Zion in Jerusalem. "The coin is exceptional because this is the first time that a coin of this kind has turned up in Jerusalem in a scientific dig", said Dr. Shimon Gibson, one of archaeologists in charge of the project.
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(4). The most common birthday is...: September 16 has the unique distinction of being the most common birthday date in the world, according to researchers at Harvard University. Chances are that you know someone with that birthday, right? The data for this birthday study was collated by Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, who compiled a list of the birth rates on each day between 1973-1999 in the USA. If you celebrate a September 16 birthday, you will be partying alongside Ian Harding, Flo Rida and Nick Jonas. Due to the leap year, the least common birthday was February 29.
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(5). What is the reason for the sound which comes when we crack our knuckles? It gives a kind of pleasant and relaxed feeling after having done that. Is it detrimental to the body in any way? Why can't it be done again before a certain time has passed?: The reasons for the sound which comes when we crack knuckles are cavitation within the joint, rapid stretching of ligaments and intra-articular adhesions being broken. In the joint, ligaments connect the bones to one another and a joint capsule surrounds the whole thing which is filled with a natural lubricant called synovial fluid that helps the joint move smoothly. When we stretch or bend a finger to pop the knuckle, the bones of the joint pull apart and the connective tissue capsule that surrounds the joint is stretched and the space between the joints increases which in turn creates a reduction in pressure within the joint cavity.
In this low pressure condition, some of the genes such as nitrogen and oxygen that are dissolved in the synovial fluid leave the solution (an event called articular release) into the empty space to equalise the pressure and make a bubble or cavity through a process called cavitation. These bubbles merge into large bubbles which in turn get popped up by additional fluid which rushes in to fill the enlarged space. The sound heard is just gas bubbles bursting. Thus cracking or popping of joints is the action of joint manipulation to produce a sharp popping sound. The effects of this process will remain for a period of time called refractive period, during which the joint can't be recracked for another 25 to 30 minutes. This gives time in the joint space to return to its normal size while the gas gets re-absorbed into the synovial fluid, ready to form bubbles which can then pop all over again. It has been shown that ligament laxity may be associated with an increased tendency to cavitate.
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(6). Whales are air-breathing mammals. However, they die when stranded on a beach for some time. Why?: Most species of whales are very large weighing thousands of pounds and have a brittle and porous skeletal structure. This is so because in the ocean environment, the water's buoyancy supports the 'whale's enormous weight and the whale is able to swim, dive and forage for food (which consists of millions of krill and plankton a day). However, when a whale is stranded on a beach gravity (in the absence of buoyancy) puts an enormous weight on its body and the whale's internal organs are crushed by this weight. During their evolution, whales lost a bulk of their fur for blubber beneath the skin, an excellent and better insulator. Blubber does not act as a thermo regulator and a beached whale would quickly get dehydrated due to over heating and get sunburnt and fall victim to other skin problems.
As most whales consume an enormous amount of food per day, they cannot survive on land as they do not have appendages like legs and arms for locomotion and foraging for food. They fall victim to starvation very soon. On land their huge masses put far too much pressure on their lungs and they can't expand their lungs to the full and suffocate.
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(7). (a).Cricket: A West Indian cricketer of Chinese origin - Ellis Puss Achong - was the man responsible for coinage of the term 'Chinaman' ball in cricket. He is said to have been the first left arm bowler to bowl the 'wrong-one' effectively. Reportedly he was the first person of Chinese origin to play Test cricket and later became an umpire. He was born in Port of Spain and was a good footballer too. He represented Trinidad and Tobago from 1919 to 1932.
Former England skipper Douglas Jardine, notorious for his introduction of 'body-line' tactics in cricket, was born in Bombay on 23rd October 1900 to Scottish parents based in India. His father Malcolm Jardine was born in Shimla in 1869 and was a talented first class cricketer who later became Advocate-General of Bombay. When Douglas was nine years old, he was sent to stay with his aunt in Scotland. His cricketing skills later enabled him to lead England.
(7). (b). Polo: Argentina's Adolfo Cambiaso is considered one of the best polo players in the world with a handicap of ten goals. Sometimes fans refer to him as the Lionel Messi of polo. A clone of his horse Cuartetera was bought for $8,00,000 - making it the most expensive horse sale in polo history. He has made efforts to ensure violence free training for horses because breaking in ahorse often involves pain and distress for the animal.
(7). (c). Wrestling: Dwayne Johnson better known in pro-wrestling as The Rock was a college level gridiron football player for University of Miami. He later played for a team called the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football league and later in life took up professional wrestling. His father and maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were both professional wrestlers. Maivia acted in the James Bond film 'You Only Live Twice' as one of the bad guys.
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(8). New tree-climbing crab species found in Hong Kong: Scientists have discovered a new species of tiny terrestrial crabs in Hong Kong that can climb trees. The new species named Hagerma Tingkok have been placed in a small genus, which contains merely three members. All specimens of the species were collected at a height of about 1.5 to 1.8 metres, walking on the bark of the branches at ebbing and low tides, scientists including those from the University of Hong Kong said. Among the crab's characteristic traits are squarish predominantly dark brown carapace, very long legs and orange chelipeds. The species is less than a centimetre long, with the studied specimens measuring between eight and nine millimetres, irrespective of their sex. However, the chelipeds of the males appear stout, while in females they are distinctly more slender.
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(9). Dino family tree to be overhauled? - Some of the best-known dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex and Brontosaurus, may be headed for a divorce due to irreconciliable differences. Scientists have proposed a radical overhaul of the dinosaur family tree first laid out in 1888, concluding after an analysis of 75 species that the meat-eating group that includes T. rex should not be lumped in with the long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged plant-eaters like Brontosaurus. The proposed new family tree includes two reformulated categories, or clades, of dinosaurs to replace the two that palaeontologists have long recognised . The research also pushes dinosaur origins back to relatively soon after a mass extinction that rocked the Earth 252 million years ago.
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(10). Living 'Bio-Wall' to clean household air, cut energy bills: Homes of the future could have cleaner air and lower energy bills, thanks to a new technology involving the use of a living wall of air-purifying plants, scientists say. The Bio-Wall is an air filter consisting of shelves of plants built into a wall and attached to a home's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, said researchers at Purdue University in the US. Built-in systems provide light and water. A fan behind the unit draws air into the Bio-Wall and through the growth media where microbes in the plants' roots process volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(11). Prosthetic limbs to get better sense of feeling: Amputees with prosthetic limbs may soon have much a better sense of touch, temperature and texture, thanks to the energy-saving power of the sun, British researchers said on 23rd March, 2017 (Thursday). A new prototype from University of Glasgow researchers opens up the possibility for so-called 'solar-powered skin', which would include better sense capabilities than current technology. The technology involves installing a thin layer of pure carbon around a prosthetic arm, hand or leg. This allows light to pass through it and be easily used as solar energy, the researchers said. The Sun can provide up to fifteen times more energy than is usually needed to power a prosthetic limb. This extra energy can power sensors that increase sense and feeling in a limb, so much so that the prosthetic can feel pressure, temperature and texture, the paper said.
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(12). Monogamy isn't as ideal as science shows: Scientists have for a long time researched into whether monogamy is better than polyamory. The concept of monogamy is so deep-rooted in our culture that we don't realise we have an unconscious bias towards it. A new study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science in March, 2017 will claim exactly that: relationship studies may be flawed because primacy is given to monogamous unions. Researchers from the University of Michigan set out to discover whether previous studies have been skewed to promote monogamy, whether purposefully or not. They concluded that the way we study relationships is problematic. According to Terry Conley, the study's lead author, our attitudes to monogamy are 'so ingrained as to be invisible. The new study from the University of Michigan, however, claims that non-monogamous relationships are just as successful as monogamous. They surveyed over 2,000 people over the age of twenty-five, 617 of whom were in consensually non-monogamous relationships. After assessing a range of factors such as jealousy, passion, trust and general satisfaction, they found that polyamorous relationships functioned just as well as the monogamous ones. The premise that monogamy is superior to other types of non-monogamous relational arrangements continues to permeate the ways in which researchers construct and test theories of love and intimacy'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (13). Mars may have had one big moon, not two small ones: Fresh research has revealed Mars could once have had one big moon instead of two smaller ones which will eventually form rings similar to Saturn. the Red Planet currently has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, but Purdue University Scientists theorise at one pointin the planet's history there may have been just one considerably bigger satellite. Authors of the study, David Minton and Andrew Hesselbrock, speculated a large moon may have ripped apart over time due to Mars' gravity. This would have formed a debris ring, similar to that of orbiting Saturn, before clumping together again to form a moon and reverting back to scattered debris in a cyclical process over millions of years. Each time a moon reformed it would have been five times smaller than the previous one. All that is left from the initial large moon are the two current ones.
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(14). You can now hunt for 'Planet Nine': Amatuer astronomers, take note! You can now help researchers discover 'Planet 9' - an elusive cosmic body believed to exist in our solar system, scientists say. The project to find 'Planet 9' will allow citizen scientists to use a website to search hundreds of thousands of images taken by the Australian National University SkyMapper telescope. Volunteers would be required to scan through the SkyMapper images online and identify mystery objects in space, including asteroids, comets and dwarf planets.
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(15). Chewing helped mammals survive mass extinction: Mammal teeth, jaw bones and muscles evolved to produce cow-like chewing motions, allowing our earliest ancestors eat a more diversified diet, which helped them survive the mass extinction nearly sixty-six million years ago, a new study has found. The terms 'pitch' and 'yaw' usually describe movements of airplanes, but biologists also use them to describe basic movements of body parts such as the jaw. Almost all modern mammals, including placental mammals, like humans and deer, and marsupials, like Kangaroos and Opossums, share similarities in their jaw structures and musculature that allow for both pitch and yaw movements. This allows mammals to have especially diverse diet.
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(16). Shopping cart handles may be dirtier than your toilet: Groceries from super markets may host more germs than the toilet in your home, say experts who have warned that harmful microbes may be invading homes in many ways, posing serious health risks. According to Charles Gerba, Microbiologist at the University of Arizona in the United States, there are many avenues through which microbes are piggy backing on rpoduce without the buyer knowing it. The germ exposure is highest in meat containers where they breed fast. Among things that host harmful germs are shopping cart handles, said Gerba. "It may be recalled that bulk of the germs is transmitted through hands during the purchase of grocery at the shopping cart handles", he said.
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(17).
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(4). The most common birthday is...: September 16 has the unique distinction of being the most common birthday date in the world, according to researchers at Harvard University. Chances are that you know someone with that birthday, right? The data for this birthday study was collated by Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, who compiled a list of the birth rates on each day between 1973-1999 in the USA. If you celebrate a September 16 birthday, you will be partying alongside Ian Harding, Flo Rida and Nick Jonas. Due to the leap year, the least common birthday was February 29.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5). What is the reason for the sound which comes when we crack our knuckles? It gives a kind of pleasant and relaxed feeling after having done that. Is it detrimental to the body in any way? Why can't it be done again before a certain time has passed?: The reasons for the sound which comes when we crack knuckles are cavitation within the joint, rapid stretching of ligaments and intra-articular adhesions being broken. In the joint, ligaments connect the bones to one another and a joint capsule surrounds the whole thing which is filled with a natural lubricant called synovial fluid that helps the joint move smoothly. When we stretch or bend a finger to pop the knuckle, the bones of the joint pull apart and the connective tissue capsule that surrounds the joint is stretched and the space between the joints increases which in turn creates a reduction in pressure within the joint cavity.
In this low pressure condition, some of the genes such as nitrogen and oxygen that are dissolved in the synovial fluid leave the solution (an event called articular release) into the empty space to equalise the pressure and make a bubble or cavity through a process called cavitation. These bubbles merge into large bubbles which in turn get popped up by additional fluid which rushes in to fill the enlarged space. The sound heard is just gas bubbles bursting. Thus cracking or popping of joints is the action of joint manipulation to produce a sharp popping sound. The effects of this process will remain for a period of time called refractive period, during which the joint can't be recracked for another 25 to 30 minutes. This gives time in the joint space to return to its normal size while the gas gets re-absorbed into the synovial fluid, ready to form bubbles which can then pop all over again. It has been shown that ligament laxity may be associated with an increased tendency to cavitate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(6). Whales are air-breathing mammals. However, they die when stranded on a beach for some time. Why?: Most species of whales are very large weighing thousands of pounds and have a brittle and porous skeletal structure. This is so because in the ocean environment, the water's buoyancy supports the 'whale's enormous weight and the whale is able to swim, dive and forage for food (which consists of millions of krill and plankton a day). However, when a whale is stranded on a beach gravity (in the absence of buoyancy) puts an enormous weight on its body and the whale's internal organs are crushed by this weight. During their evolution, whales lost a bulk of their fur for blubber beneath the skin, an excellent and better insulator. Blubber does not act as a thermo regulator and a beached whale would quickly get dehydrated due to over heating and get sunburnt and fall victim to other skin problems.
As most whales consume an enormous amount of food per day, they cannot survive on land as they do not have appendages like legs and arms for locomotion and foraging for food. They fall victim to starvation very soon. On land their huge masses put far too much pressure on their lungs and they can't expand their lungs to the full and suffocate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(7). (a).Cricket: A West Indian cricketer of Chinese origin - Ellis Puss Achong - was the man responsible for coinage of the term 'Chinaman' ball in cricket. He is said to have been the first left arm bowler to bowl the 'wrong-one' effectively. Reportedly he was the first person of Chinese origin to play Test cricket and later became an umpire. He was born in Port of Spain and was a good footballer too. He represented Trinidad and Tobago from 1919 to 1932.
Former England skipper Douglas Jardine, notorious for his introduction of 'body-line' tactics in cricket, was born in Bombay on 23rd October 1900 to Scottish parents based in India. His father Malcolm Jardine was born in Shimla in 1869 and was a talented first class cricketer who later became Advocate-General of Bombay. When Douglas was nine years old, he was sent to stay with his aunt in Scotland. His cricketing skills later enabled him to lead England.
(7). (b). Polo: Argentina's Adolfo Cambiaso is considered one of the best polo players in the world with a handicap of ten goals. Sometimes fans refer to him as the Lionel Messi of polo. A clone of his horse Cuartetera was bought for $8,00,000 - making it the most expensive horse sale in polo history. He has made efforts to ensure violence free training for horses because breaking in ahorse often involves pain and distress for the animal.
(7). (c). Wrestling: Dwayne Johnson better known in pro-wrestling as The Rock was a college level gridiron football player for University of Miami. He later played for a team called the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football league and later in life took up professional wrestling. His father and maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were both professional wrestlers. Maivia acted in the James Bond film 'You Only Live Twice' as one of the bad guys.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(8). New tree-climbing crab species found in Hong Kong: Scientists have discovered a new species of tiny terrestrial crabs in Hong Kong that can climb trees. The new species named Hagerma Tingkok have been placed in a small genus, which contains merely three members. All specimens of the species were collected at a height of about 1.5 to 1.8 metres, walking on the bark of the branches at ebbing and low tides, scientists including those from the University of Hong Kong said. Among the crab's characteristic traits are squarish predominantly dark brown carapace, very long legs and orange chelipeds. The species is less than a centimetre long, with the studied specimens measuring between eight and nine millimetres, irrespective of their sex. However, the chelipeds of the males appear stout, while in females they are distinctly more slender.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(9). Dino family tree to be overhauled? - Some of the best-known dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex and Brontosaurus, may be headed for a divorce due to irreconciliable differences. Scientists have proposed a radical overhaul of the dinosaur family tree first laid out in 1888, concluding after an analysis of 75 species that the meat-eating group that includes T. rex should not be lumped in with the long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged plant-eaters like Brontosaurus. The proposed new family tree includes two reformulated categories, or clades, of dinosaurs to replace the two that palaeontologists have long recognised . The research also pushes dinosaur origins back to relatively soon after a mass extinction that rocked the Earth 252 million years ago.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(10). Living 'Bio-Wall' to clean household air, cut energy bills: Homes of the future could have cleaner air and lower energy bills, thanks to a new technology involving the use of a living wall of air-purifying plants, scientists say. The Bio-Wall is an air filter consisting of shelves of plants built into a wall and attached to a home's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, said researchers at Purdue University in the US. Built-in systems provide light and water. A fan behind the unit draws air into the Bio-Wall and through the growth media where microbes in the plants' roots process volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(11). Prosthetic limbs to get better sense of feeling: Amputees with prosthetic limbs may soon have much a better sense of touch, temperature and texture, thanks to the energy-saving power of the sun, British researchers said on 23rd March, 2017 (Thursday). A new prototype from University of Glasgow researchers opens up the possibility for so-called 'solar-powered skin', which would include better sense capabilities than current technology. The technology involves installing a thin layer of pure carbon around a prosthetic arm, hand or leg. This allows light to pass through it and be easily used as solar energy, the researchers said. The Sun can provide up to fifteen times more energy than is usually needed to power a prosthetic limb. This extra energy can power sensors that increase sense and feeling in a limb, so much so that the prosthetic can feel pressure, temperature and texture, the paper said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(12). Monogamy isn't as ideal as science shows: Scientists have for a long time researched into whether monogamy is better than polyamory. The concept of monogamy is so deep-rooted in our culture that we don't realise we have an unconscious bias towards it. A new study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science in March, 2017 will claim exactly that: relationship studies may be flawed because primacy is given to monogamous unions. Researchers from the University of Michigan set out to discover whether previous studies have been skewed to promote monogamy, whether purposefully or not. They concluded that the way we study relationships is problematic. According to Terry Conley, the study's lead author, our attitudes to monogamy are 'so ingrained as to be invisible. The new study from the University of Michigan, however, claims that non-monogamous relationships are just as successful as monogamous. They surveyed over 2,000 people over the age of twenty-five, 617 of whom were in consensually non-monogamous relationships. After assessing a range of factors such as jealousy, passion, trust and general satisfaction, they found that polyamorous relationships functioned just as well as the monogamous ones. The premise that monogamy is superior to other types of non-monogamous relational arrangements continues to permeate the ways in which researchers construct and test theories of love and intimacy'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (13). Mars may have had one big moon, not two small ones: Fresh research has revealed Mars could once have had one big moon instead of two smaller ones which will eventually form rings similar to Saturn. the Red Planet currently has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, but Purdue University Scientists theorise at one pointin the planet's history there may have been just one considerably bigger satellite. Authors of the study, David Minton and Andrew Hesselbrock, speculated a large moon may have ripped apart over time due to Mars' gravity. This would have formed a debris ring, similar to that of orbiting Saturn, before clumping together again to form a moon and reverting back to scattered debris in a cyclical process over millions of years. Each time a moon reformed it would have been five times smaller than the previous one. All that is left from the initial large moon are the two current ones.
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(14). You can now hunt for 'Planet Nine': Amatuer astronomers, take note! You can now help researchers discover 'Planet 9' - an elusive cosmic body believed to exist in our solar system, scientists say. The project to find 'Planet 9' will allow citizen scientists to use a website to search hundreds of thousands of images taken by the Australian National University SkyMapper telescope. Volunteers would be required to scan through the SkyMapper images online and identify mystery objects in space, including asteroids, comets and dwarf planets.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(15). Chewing helped mammals survive mass extinction: Mammal teeth, jaw bones and muscles evolved to produce cow-like chewing motions, allowing our earliest ancestors eat a more diversified diet, which helped them survive the mass extinction nearly sixty-six million years ago, a new study has found. The terms 'pitch' and 'yaw' usually describe movements of airplanes, but biologists also use them to describe basic movements of body parts such as the jaw. Almost all modern mammals, including placental mammals, like humans and deer, and marsupials, like Kangaroos and Opossums, share similarities in their jaw structures and musculature that allow for both pitch and yaw movements. This allows mammals to have especially diverse diet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(16). Shopping cart handles may be dirtier than your toilet: Groceries from super markets may host more germs than the toilet in your home, say experts who have warned that harmful microbes may be invading homes in many ways, posing serious health risks. According to Charles Gerba, Microbiologist at the University of Arizona in the United States, there are many avenues through which microbes are piggy backing on rpoduce without the buyer knowing it. The germ exposure is highest in meat containers where they breed fast. Among things that host harmful germs are shopping cart handles, said Gerba. "It may be recalled that bulk of the germs is transmitted through hands during the purchase of grocery at the shopping cart handles", he said.
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(17).
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