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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 17, 2016 at 8:33am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 17, 2016 at 6:51am

A “crater” in Antarctica once thought to be the work of a meteorite impact is actually the result of ice melt, new research finds.

The hole, which is in the Roi Baudouin ice shelf in East Antarctica, is a collapsed lake — a cavity formed when a lake of meltwater drained — with a “moulin,” a nearly vertical drainage passage through the ice, beneath it, researchers found on a field trip to the area in January 2016.

Combining their fieldwork with satellite data and climate modeling, the researchers found that East Antarctica is more vulnerable to melt than was previously realized. Warm winds to the region blow away the snow cover, which darkens the surface of the ice, the team reported Dec. 12 in the journal Nature Climate Change. Darker surfaces absorb more heat from the sun than lighter surfaces, so they are more prone to melt. These floating ice sheets don’t contribute much to sea level rise ­— as they’re already in the ocean — but they provide an important backstop against the flowing of land-based ice from continental Antarctica into the ocean.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 15, 2016 at 7:38am

A funny and scientific way of explaining Father Christmas:

The mystery of how Father Christmas can deliver presents to 700 million children in one night, fit down the chimney and arrive without being seen or heard has been explained in a scientific way by a physicist at the University of Exeter.

Santa and his reindeer zoom around the world at such speed that - according to relativity theory - they would shrink, enabling Father Christmas and a huge sack of presents to fit down chimneys.

Dr Katy Sheen, a physicist in the Geography department at the University of Exeter, has also found a scientific explanation for why Santa is not heard arriving by children, and why they rarely catch a glimpse of him on Christmas eve.

Santa's stealth delivery is partly explained by special relativity theory devised by Albert Einstein, whom Dr Sheen thinks bares a passing resemblance to Santa.

Relativity theory explains how Father Christmas can fit down the chimney. At the speeds he needs to travel to deliver presents to every child, Father Christmas shrinks - or gets thinner - in the direction he is travelling. And he has to be careful not to stop for a mince pie in a chimney, or he could grow back to full size!

Relativity also explains why Father Christmas appears not to have aged throughout the ages, because relativity can slow down clocks.

The physicist has calculated that Santa and his reindeer would have to travel at about 10 million kilometres per hour to deliver presents to every child expected to celebrate Christmas in 31 hours (taking into account world time zones).

If millions of children have been good, and deserve bigger stockings, he may need to travel even faster. Such speed would make him change from red to green and, at greater speeds, he would disappear! Children would not be able to recognise him as he would appear as a rainbow-coloured blur, eventually disappearing to the human eye.

Travelling at more than 200,000 times faster than Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, the laws of physics explain why Father Christmas is rarely seen by children while delivering presents.

The Doppler effect would make Santa change colour because the light waves he releases would get squashed at such a high speed.

The Doppler effect also explains why children cannot hear Father Christmas arrive. As Santa and his sleigh approach, the sound of bells and his deep 'ho, ho, ho' would get higher and higher (like when an ambulance siren whizzes by) and then become completely silent, because he would move beyond human hearing range. Even the sound of Santa urging on Rudolph would become unrecognisable, and then inaudible to the human ear.

If children hear a bang on Christmas night, it may not be the sound of Santa dropping his presents, landing on their roof in his sleigh, or sliding down the chimney with a plop. Santa's reindeer could have broken the speed of sound, resulting in a 'sonic boom.'

Dr Sheen, a physicist working in the University of Exeter's Geography department, is not planning to present her research to a peer-reviewed journal (it's prepared with the festive spirit in mind), and has done the calculations in her own time to interest children in science and physics.

-Eureka Alert

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 13, 2016 at 10:41am

Researchers from Egypt and Saudi Arabia have developed a simple way to manufacture an eco-friendly and affordable membrane that can efficiently adsorb oils spills from sea or waste water.

The membrane can recover quickly and easily for reuse — it can be applied at least 10 times with the same efficiency, according to a study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.

The nanostructured polymer blend adsorbs oil and can be reused at least 10 times.It is made from natural materials friendly to the environment and aquatic organisms. Its capacity to work on a large scale, with oil spills at sea, has yet to be tested.

the study published last September tested blends of nanoscale polyvinyl alcohol polymers, considered to be among the most dissolvable and non-toxic biopolymers. They can also be manufactured relatively cheaply from biodegradable and biocompatible polymers.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 12, 2016 at 8:43am

Effects of c- section births on evolution

Caesarean section (or C-section) deliveries can save lives when babies are too large to be born naturally - or if there are other health complications - but they also appear to be affecting how humans are evolving, scientists report.

In the past, larger babies and mothers with narrow pelvis sizes might both have died in labour.  Thanks to C-sections, that's now a lot less likely, but it also means that those 'at risk' genes from mothers with narrow pelvises are being carried into future generations.

Cases where a baby can't fit through the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 births in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 today because of this C-section effect, according to estimates from researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria.  That's a significant shift in just half a century.

"Without modern medical intervention, such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection.

The team used a mathematical model based on obstructed child birth data to reach their estimates.

More detailed studies would be required to actually confirm the link between C-sections and evolution, as all we have now is a hypothesis based on the birth data. But Mitteroecker and his colleagues say it's important to consider the effect the rise in these procedures is having.

There are already a few conflicting evolutionary forces at work here, scientists think, in what's known as the obstetrical dilemma.

The 'dilemma' is that the larger a baby is when it's born, the more likely its chances of survival. At the same time, women have evolved with smaller pelvic sizes to aid upright walking and to limit the chances of premature births.

Both evolutionary pressures are working to try and keep babies healthy... but they're also working against each other.

"One side of this selective force - namely the trend towards smaller babies - has vanished due to caesarean sections.

This evolutionary trend will continue but perhaps only slightly and slowly.

Cliff-edge model of obstetric selection in humans

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/11/29/1612410113

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 12, 2016 at 7:13am

The BIG Bell Test.

The experiment - coordinated by ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain - powered by human randomness is aimed to demonstrate that the microscopic world is in fact as strange as quantum physics predicts. 

Predictions such as particles behaving in a random way, determining their properties only when we look at them; strange instantaneous interactions at a distance - were all questioned by Einstein, who rejected them completely. 

During the 48 hours in which it was November 30th at different place on the planet, participants contributed to the initiative, generating sequences of zeros and ones as random as possible through a video game. 

Each of these bits was used to control in real-time the experimental conditions of the labs. 

They moved mirrors, polarising filters, waveplates - elements located on optical tables and that affect the type of measurements that are made on the different quantum systems in each lab. 

Together all the participants provided scientists with millions of unpredictable, independent decisions which were used to measure their particles. 

This independence is a crucial feature for the conclusions of the Bell tests to be valid. 

Using the sequences provided by the participants, the scientists have been able to verify whether or not their particles were intertwined by the "spooky action at a distance" that Einstein could not accept. 

The Bell test states that experimentalists have to do their measurements with the help of human decisions and calculate the "Bell parameter" (known as the parameter S). 

If the world is, as Einstein believes, predictable and without "spooky actions at a distance", then S cannot be greater than 2. Otherwise, the inequality has been violated, indicating the presence of intrinsically quantum phenomena. 

By 13:00 Central European Time (CET), the minimum number of participations needed to assure enough bits to power the experiments had already been surpassed, registering above 1,000 bits per second in a stable manner over the course of several hours. 

By early afternoon, some of the labs had been able to obtain preliminary results, confirming violations of Bell's inequality, and thus refuting Einstein, giving their complete support to the predictions of quantum physics. 

"The project required contributions from many people in very different areas: the scientists pushed their experiments to new limits, the public very generously gave us their time in support of science, and educators found new ways to communicate between these two groups," said Morgan Mitchell, professor at ICFO.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 12, 2016 at 6:54am

5th world conference on research integrity

May 18th to 31st, 2017, Amsterdam, The Nederlands

To  promote the integrity of research – from proper design methodology to ethical submission and publication to making research data available for re-use.

Themes include transparency and accountability, building on the premise that the honesty and reliability of research are best served by openly sharing all aspects of research and by taking personal responsibility for it. It also draws attention to the urgent need to fight questionable research practices. 

More details here: http://www.wcri2017.org/

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 6, 2016 at 8:30am

The 'BIG Bell Test: worldwide quantum experiments powered by human randomness' aims to conduct a series of quantum experiments in labs around the world that, for the first time, will be controlled by human decisions made by

volunteers across the world. On November 30th, for the first time, participants around the world took part in a unique worldwide experiment with the aim of testing the laws of quantum physics. 

Coordinated by ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, 12 laboratories from around the world collaborated for the BIG Bell Test: worldwide quantum experiments powered by human randomness with the aim of demonstrating experimentally that the nanoscale world is as strange as quantum physics predicts, consisting of particles in superstates that collapse only when observed; strange instantaneous interactions at a distance; predictions that were questioned by Einstein, who rejected them completely.

During the 48 hours during which it was November 30th somewhere on the planet, participants contributed to the initiative, generating sequences of zeros and ones through a video game to produce sequences of numbers that were as random as possible. Each of these bits was used to control the experimental conditions of the labs in real time. They moved mirrors, polarizing filters, waveplates—elements located on optical tables that affected the types of measurements made on the quantum systems in each lab.

All the participants provided scientists with millions of unpredictable, independent decisions that were used to measure their particles. This independence is a crucial feature for the conclusions of the Bell tests to be valid. Using the sequences provided by the participants, the scientists verified whether or not their particles were intertwined by the quantum entanglement that Einstein could not accept. In a nutshell, the Bell test states that experimentalists have to conduct their measurements with the help of human decisions and calculate the "Bell parameter" (also known as the parameter S). If the universe is predictable and without quantum entanglement, then S cannot be greater than two. That is, S should always be less than two. Otherwise, the inequality has been violated, indicating the presence of intrinsic quantum phenomena.

By 13:00 CET, the minimum number of participations needed to provide enough bits to power the experiments had already been surpassed, registering above 1000 bits per second in a stable manner over the course of several hours. By early afternoon CET, some of the labs had been able to obtain preliminary results, confirming violations of Bell's inequality, and thus confirming the predictions of quantum physics.

 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 24, 2016 at 8:44am

Must read ... An open letter from women of science

 Women scientists' pledge...

https://500womenscientists.org/#our-pledge

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 24, 2016 at 8:05am

How what you eat effects your gut...

Mucus plays a major role in your gut. There are antimicrobial peptides and proteins that are present in the environment. Bacteria live in your gut and forage on the carbohydrates. And it's a lubricant, it helps sweep contents down the GI tract, without injuring the epithelial layer. In the colon, the mucus builds a wall: a barrier against friendly bacteria, as well as pathogens that could be transiting through. But here's the problem: your gut bacteria may chew right through that wall—if you skimp on fiber in your diet. 

In the studies conducted on mice, extreme high-fiber diet helped keep the mucus barrier intact. But in mice that had zero fiber—or the kind of soluble fiber typically added to processed foods—the fiber-eating members of the gut dwindled. Their absence opened up more space for mucus-munching bacteria, which increased in number, and tore through the protective mucus wall—leaving intestinal cells open for microbial attack. The study's published in the journal Cell. 

Your diet could predispose how you react to an enteric pathogen. Eating natural vegetables, raw vegetables, cooked veggies, whole grains, is definitely good for you. Interestingly, the mice's gut bacteria bounced back within a day to a change in diet. 

A Dietary Fiber-Deprived Gut Microbiota Degrades the Colonic Mucus Barrier and Enhances Pathogen Susceptibility

http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(16)31464-7

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