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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 18, 2023 at 11:11am

Cap top 20% of energy users to reduce carbon emissions, say scientists

Consumers in the richer, developed nations will have to accept restrictions on their energy use if international climate change targets are to be met, warn researchers.

The big challenge is to identify the fairest and most equitable way that governments can curtail energy use, a process known as energy demand reduction. In the paper, "Emissions savings from equitable energy demand reduction," in the journal Nature Energy, the research team analyzed several scenarios to identify a potential solution.

One option is to cap the top 20% of energy users while allowing those people who use little energy and have poverty-level incomes to be able to increase their consumption levels and improve their quality of life.

Across any population there will be a range—or distribution—of values for how much energy individuals use. The values are sorted into 100 percentiles—for example, the 50th percentile represents the value that is exactly in the middle of the energy distribution, which half the population fail to reach and the other half exceeds.

Under the energy demand reduction scheme, the top-level energy users would see their energy use restricted to the value of energy use at the 80th percentile. In the scenario modeled, that would be 170.2 gigajoules (GJ) per person per year, compared to the mean energy use of the top 20% of consumers of 196.8 GJ per person per year.

Using data from 27 European states, the researchers modeled how effective this energy demand reduction strategy would be. They found it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 11.4% from domestic energy sources; 16.8% from transport and 9.7% from total energy consumption.

Allowing people in poverty to increase their energy use would reduce these emissions savings by relatively small amounts—1.2 percentage points for domestic energy; 0.9 for transport; and 1.4 for total energy consumption. It would enable the less well-off to meet unmet needs, perhaps where they may have been unable to adequately heat their home.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 18, 2023 at 11:02am

New method used to develop RNA therapy for the treatment of rare diseases

Having a rare genetic disease is actually pretty common. Rare diseases affect approximately 1 in 10 individuals. What makes them rare is that these 1 in 10 people affected have an estimated 7,000 different conditions, with treatments available for only about 5% of them.

Rare disease research  has accelerated the treatment potential for one such disease, ataxia-telangiectasia, with antisense oligonucleotides.

In a paper, "A framework for individualized splice-switching oligonucleotide therapy," published in Nature, the researchers detail their methods to identify treatment potential for one rare disease and illustrate how the process could tackle other untreatable conditions. A Clinical Briefing published in the same journal issue summarizes the work done by the team.

The research is based on splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). ASOs are short sequences of synthetic nucleic acids, a chain of nucleotides adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T), connected in a specific sequence. The specific sequence is called "antisense" because it complements an RNA target sequence, binding with it to alter its function.

The alteration can induce degradation, modulation of splicing, prevention of translation, or in this case, paste a correction over a mis-splicing event. By correcting mis-spliced RNA, the normal production of downstream proteins can resume the role they would carry out in a healthy individual.

Jinkuk Kim et al, A framework for individualized splice-switching oligonucleotide therapy, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06277-0

Clinical Briefing: A framework for identifying targets for individualized therapy in genetic disease, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-023-01994-y

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 18, 2023 at 10:17am

THEY ARE WORLD FAMOUS  INDIAN SCIENTISTS FROM CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY. 

A rare picture of top Indian Scientists who are acclaimed for their contribution to Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics.

Seated (L to R): 

Meghnad Saha (Astrophysicist)

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (Biologist & Physicist), 

Jnan Chandra Ghosh (Chemistry, Electrolysis and Ionization)

Standing (L to R):

Snehamoy Dutt (Physicist) 

Satyendranath Bose 

(Bose Einestein theory) 

Debendra Mohan Bose (Physicist) 

N R Sen (Physicist & mathematician)

Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee

(Chemistry, Colloid Chemistry) 

N C Nag (Biologist)

Comment by Deepak Menon on July 17, 2023 at 1:15pm

26.7 Billion Years old Galaxy! WOW! Now believable. Exactly how brilliant was Paul Dirac to have postulated or hypothised that Coupling constants are fundamental physical constants that govern the interactions between particles. Further - according to Dirac, these constants might have varied over time.
What an extraordinary brain Dirac had!

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 17, 2023 at 12:35pm

New research puts age of universe at 26.7 billion years, nearly twice as old as previously thought

Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called "impossible early galaxy problem."

The newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by a several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated.

For years, astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of our universe by measuring the time elapsed since the Big Bang and by studying the oldest stars based on the redshift of light coming from distant galaxies. In 2021, thanks to new techniques and advances in technology, the age of our universe was thus estimated at 13.797 billion years using the Lambda-CDM concordance model.

However, many scientists have been puzzled by the existence of stars like the Methuselah that appear to be older than the estimated age of our universe and by the discovery of early galaxies in an advanced state of evolution made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope. These galaxies, existing a mere 300 million years or so after the Big Bang, appear to have a level of maturity and mass typically associated with billions of years of cosmic evolution. Furthermore, they're surprisingly small in size, adding another layer of mystery to the equation.

Zwicky's tired light theory proposes that the redshift of light from distant galaxies is due to the gradual loss of energy by photons over vast cosmic distances. However, it was seen to conflict with observations. Yet now it 's found that "by allowing this theory to coexist with the expanding universe, it becomes possible to reinterpret the redshift as a hybrid phenomenon, rather than purely due to expansion.

In addition to Zwicky's tired light theory, researchers no introduce the idea of evolving "coupling constants," as hypothesized by Paul Dirac. Coupling constants are fundamental physical constants that govern the interactions between particles. According to Dirac, these constants might have varied over time. By allowing them to evolve, the timeframe for the formation of early galaxies observed by the Webb telescope at high redshifts can be extended from a few hundred million years to several billion years. This provides a more feasible explanation for the advanced level of development and mass observed in these ancient galaxies.

Researchers now suggest that the traditional interpretation of the "cosmological constant," which represents dark energy responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe, needs revision. Instead, he proposes a constant that accounts for the evolution of the coupling constants. This modification in the cosmological model helps address the puzzle of small galaxy sizes observed in the early universe, allowing for more accurate observations.

R Gupta, JWST early Universe observations and ΛCDM cosmology, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad2032

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 16, 2023 at 2:19pm

UV Light – More Than Just Sunburns

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 16, 2023 at 2:14pm

Robot assisted surgery with four arms

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 16, 2023 at 1:04pm

Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find
Dutch study identifies several examples of corvids’ ‘amazing’ ability to adapt to the urban environment.

Birds have never shied away from turning human rubbish into nesting materials, but even experts in the field have raised an eyebrow at the latest handiwork to emerge from urban crows and magpies.

Nests recovered from trees in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium were found to be constructed almost entirely from strips of long metal spikes that are often attached to buildings to deter birds from setting up home on the structures.

The discovery prompted researchers at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden to scour the internet for further examples, leading to the identification of another anti-bird spike nest in Glasgow. One of the reviewers of the study then flagged a fourth nest in Enschede in the Netherlands.

While the Rotterdam nest was made by crows, the other three were built by magpies, which construct large dome-like nests. The crows used the anti-bird spikes as a sturdy construction material, but the magpies may have appreciated their intended use: they placed most of the spikes on the nest’s roof where they could deter predators, including other birds and weasels.
It is not the first time birds have been found to incorporate urban materials into their nests. In 1933, a South African museum reported a crow’s nest fashioned from hard-drawn copper, galvanised iron and barbed wire. Nails, screws and even drug users’ syringes have all found their way into birds’ nests.
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 16, 2023 at 1:00pm

Birds build nests from anti-bird spikes

Crows and magpies are building nests with the metal spikes meant to deter them from perch.... Carrion
crows (Corvus corone) and Eurasian magpies (Pica pica) in The Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland were observed to have plucked the sharp metal pins off buildings to use in their nests. The magpies even put most of the spikes on top of their nests, perhaps in an anti-bird effort of their own (crows eat magpies’ eggs).

https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/documents-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 14, 2023 at 12:13pm

Global study details microplastics contamination in lakes and reservoirs

Around 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. But that is not the only water source where plastic represents a significant intrusion.

Scientists found microplastics in every lake they sampled. 

A new paper, titled "Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs," reveals that concentrations of plastic found in freshwater environments are actually higher than those found in so-called "garbage patches" in the ocean. The article is published in Nature.

Veronica Nava et al, Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06168-4

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