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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 24, 2014 at 5:28am

NASA discovers Mars gully channel formed just three years ago

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has just revealed to the world an enormous new gully channel cutting across the Martian landscape. But this isn’t like the other ancient channels found on Mars, where liquid water once flowed. It’s a gully that wasn’t there 3 years ago.

Using the powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the orbiter snapped the area in both 2010 and in 2013. Before-and-after pictures record the appearance of an entirely new gully located on a crater-wall slope in Mars’ southern highlands, NASA said in a news release. Scientists think it likely was formed by carbon-dioxide frost.

According to NASA, gully or ravine landforms are common on the Red Planet, especially in its southern highlands.

The images show that material flowing down from an alcove at the head of a gully broke out of an older route and eroded a new channel, NASA explains. The dates on the images are more than a full Martian year apart, so the observations didn’t pin down the Martian season of the activity at the site.

Before-and-after HiRISE photos of similar activity at other sites show that this type of activity generally occurs in the winter, in temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide, rather than water, is the likely to play a key role, the space agency said.

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasas-mars-orbiter-finds-gully-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 24, 2014 at 5:24am

Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions
Darwin theorized that emotional expressions originated as opposing functional adaptations for the expresser, not as distinct categories of social signals. Given that two thirds of the eye’s refractive power comes from the cornea, we examined whether opposing expressive behaviors that widen the eyes (e.g., fear) or narrow the eyes (e.g., disgust) may have served as an optical trade-off, enhancing either sensitivity or acuity, thereby promoting stimulus localization (“where”) or stimulus discrimination (“what”), respectively. An optical model based on eye apertures of posed fear and disgust expressions supported this functional trade-off. We then tested the model using standardized optometric measures of sensitivity and acuity. We demonstrated that eye widening enhanced stimulus detection, whereas eye narrowing enhanced discrimination, each at the expense of the other. Opposing expressive actions around the eye may thus reflect origins in an optical principle, shaping visual encoding at its earliest stage—how light is cast onto the retina.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/24/0956797613514451.ab...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 21, 2014 at 8:55am

Earth's inner radiation belt displays a persistent zebra striped pattern generated by our planet's rotation, Nasa's twin Van Allen Probes spacecraft have found.

The high-energy electrons in the inner radiation belt display a persistent pattern that resembles slanted zebra stripes, researchers said.

Surprisingly, this structure is produced by the slow rotation of Earth, previously considered incapable of affecting the motion of radiation belt particles, which have velocities approaching the speed of light.
Because of the tilt in Earth's magnetic field axis, the planet's rotation generates an oscillating, weak electric field that permeates through the entire inner radiation belt.
he global oscillations slowly stretch and fold the fluid, much like taffy is stretched and folded in a candy store machine.

The stretching and folding process results in the striped pattern observed across the entire inner belt, extending from above Earth's atmosphere, about 800km above the planet's surface up to roughly 13,000km.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 21, 2014 at 8:33am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:57am

Ghee, butter and cheese not tied to heart disease? Experts: No Proof That Saturated Fat Is Unhealthy ( Take this with a pinch of salt! - K) Yes, your genes will definitely determine whether you are susceptible or not. You cannot put all the people in one bracket to come to a conclusion! Flawed study! The results are unclear!

A dollop of ghee or butter in your diet does not cause as much harm to your heart as it was believed till now. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Heart Foundation have found there is actually no evidence that confirms changing the type of fat you eat from “bad” saturated to “healthier” polyunsaturated cuts heart risk.
The researchers analysed data from 72 unique studies with over 600,000 participants from 18 nations and found total saturated fatty acid, whether measured in the diet or in the bloodstream as a biomarker, was not associated with coronary disease risk in the observational studies. Similarly, when analysing the studies that involved assessments of the consumption of total monounsaturated fatty acids, long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, there were no significant associations between consumption and cardiovascular risk.
Saturated fat is the kind of fat found in butter, biscuits, red meat, sausages and bacon and cheese and cream. There has been a big drive to get more people eating unsaturated fats, such as olive and sunflower oils, and other non-animal fats instead. But the latest study raises questions about the current guidelines that generally restrict the consumption of saturated fats and encourage consumption of polyunsaturated fats to prevent heart disease.
“These are interesting results that potentially stimulate new lines of scientific inquiry and encourage careful reappraisal of our current nutritional guidelines,” said Dr Rajiv Chowdhury, lead author of the research at the University of Cambridge. “Cardiovascular disease, in which the principal manifestation is coronary heart disease, remains the single leading cause of death and disability worldwide. In 2008, more than 17 million people died from a cardiovascular cause globally. With so many affected by this illness, it is critical to have appropriate prevention guidelines which are informed by the best available scientific evidence.”
The research collaboration led by the University of Cambridge analysed existing cohort studies and randomised trials on coronary risk and fatty acid intake. They showed that current evidence does not support guidelines which restrict the consumption of saturated fats in order to prevent heart disease. The researchers also found insufficient support for guidelines which advocate the high consumption of polyunsaturated fats (such as omega 3 and omega 6) to reduce the risk of coronary disease.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:55am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:52am

The use of wastewater to irrigate crops is exposing children in Asia to a high risk of rotavirus infection and other deadly disease, scientists say.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.12178/abstract;jses...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:50am

A meta-analysis of papers published on diabetes shows that diabetic women are more susceptible to stroke than diabetic men, possibly because of obesity.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2814...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:48am

Scientists: Don't pee in pools
Not only is peeing in the swimming pool antisocial, it could also harm your health, according to a study.
Scientists from China Agricultural University and Purdue University have found that uric acid in urine interacts with the disinfectants in swimming pools to produce harmful chemicals.

The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, showed that uric acid becomes chlorinated and acts as a precursor to the formation of the toxic gases cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and trichloramine (NCl3).

At high concentrations, CNCl is known to cause immediate injury to the eyes and respiratory system upon contact, and longer term problems in the central nervous system and heart. NCl3 has been linked to chronic health problems in adults and asthma in children.

In the article, the authors noted that since urination is under the voluntary control of swimmers, improved hygiene habits are essential to keep swimming pool water safe.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405402r

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2014 at 8:38am

Natural forests in the Amazon remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they emit - Nasa-led study
This means that the 5.5 million square kilometer forest is a crucial factor in reducing global warming. The new study, published in Nature Communications on March 18, is the first to measure tree deaths caused by natural processes throughout the Amazon forest.

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