SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off with communications satellite
A Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 7th September to put a commercial communications satellite into orbit. The 224-foot (68-meter) tall rocket lifted off from its seaside launch pad at 1 a.m. EDT/0500 GMT, dashing through partly cloudy, night time skies as it headed toward space.
Tucked inside the rocket's nosecone was the second of two satellites owned by Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd, or AsiaSat.
The first satellite, AsiaSat 8, was successfully delivered into an orbit some 22,200 miles (35,700 km) above Earth on Aug. 5. Both satellites were built by Space Systems/Loral, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based subsidiary of Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
The latest launch was the 12th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, which in addition to delivering satellites for commercial companies flies Dragon cargo ships to the International Space Station for NASA. SpaceX is competing to build a passenger version of Dragon to fly astronauts as well and is attempting to break into the lucrative military satellite launch business.
The satellite launched on Sunday is outfitted with 28 high-power C-band transponders for video distribution and broadband network services in China and Southeast Asia.
Robots to protect ISS from deadly space junk
Researchers have flight-tested new sharp-eyed mini robots that will protect the International Space Station (ISS) from potentially damaging space junk and help repair defunct satellites. The space laboratory regularly changes orbit to avoid colliding with derelict satellites, rocket stages and other objects whizzing around Earth at huge speeds.
These robots may fly out to assess the danger presented by the vast array of objects not already tracked by radar, ‘New Scientist’ reported.
Investigator Alvar Saenz-Otero and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built several self-guided robots.
The robots are smaller than a soccer ball and designed to investigate potentially damaging objects from a safe distance with a 3D stereo camera. The images are relayed to the crew aboard the ISS, who can decide how to proceed.
Greenhouse gas levels hit new high, says UN
Surging levels of carbon dioxide sent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a new record in 2013, while oceans, which absorb the emissions, have become more acidic than ever, the UN said on 9th September. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide all broke fresh records in 2013, said the report.
Global concentrations of CO2, the main culprit in global warming, soared to 396 parts per million last year, or 142 percent of pre-industrial levels, defined as before 1750. That marked a hike of 2.9 parts per million between 2012 and 2013 alone, the largest annual increase in 30 years, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
The report also showed that so-called radiative forcing, or the warming effect on our climate attributed to greenhouse gases like CO2, increased 34 percent from 1990 to 2013. A quarter of emissions are absorbed by the oceans, while another quarter are sucked into the biosphere, naturally limiting rates of warming gases in the atmosphere. But CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer.
The gases stored in the oceans also have "far-reaching impacts," WMO warned, since more CO2 in the water leads to increased acidity, altering the ocean ecosystem.
Every day, the world's oceans absorb some four kilos (8.8 pounds) of CO2 per person each day, WMO said, calling current ocean acidification levels "unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years."
NASA laser probe to map Earth’s forests in 3D
NASA is developing a laser-based probe for the International Space Station that will study the Earth’s forests in 3D, helping to fill in missing information about their role in the carbon cycle.
Called the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar, the instrument will be the first to systematically probe the depths of the forests from space.
The system is one of two instrument proposals recently selected for NASA’s Earth Venture Instrument programme and is being led by the University of Maryland, College Park.
By revealing the 3-D architecture of forests in unprecedented detail, GEDI will provide crucial information about the impact that trees have on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Although it is well-established that trees absorb carbon and store it long-term, scientists have not quantified exactly how much carbon forests contain.
As a result, it’s not possible to determine how much carbon would be released if a forest were destroyed, nor how well emissions could be countered by planting new trees.
SFC personnel test-fire Agni-I
Agni-I, a surface-to-surface, nuclear-weapons-capable ballistic missile, was test-fired for its 700-km strike range from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha Coast, on 11th September. Strategic Forces Command (SFC) personnel launched the single-stage, short-range missile, powered by a solid propellant, from a rail mobile launcher as part of regular user training to consolidate operational readiness. The missile carrying a 1,100-kg payload zeroed in on the target with a high degree of accuracy.
Japan first to implant iPS stem cells
Japanese researchers on 12th September conducted the world's first surgery to implant "iPS" stem cells in a human body in a major boost to regenerative medicine
A female patient in her 70s with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common medical condition that can lead to blindness in older people, had a sheet of retina cells that had been created from iPS cells implanted.
The research team used induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells -- which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body -- that had originally come from the skin of the patient. Until the discovery of iPS several years ago, the only way to obtain stem cells was to harvest them from human embryos.
The surgery is still at an experimental stage, but if it is successful, doctors hope it will stop the deterioration in vision that comes with AMD.
AMD, a condition that is incurable at present, affects mostly middle-aged and older people and can lead to blindness. It afflicts around 700,000 people in Japan alone. The study was being carried out by researchers from government-backed research institution Riken and the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital.
Stem cell research is a pioneering field that has excited many in the scientific community with the potential they believe it offers. Stem cells are infant cells that can develop into any part of the body.
What are ipStem cells?
Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult cells. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka’s lab in Kyoto, Japan, who showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific transcription factors could convert adult cells into pluripotent stem cells. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.
SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off with communications satellite
A Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 7th September to put a commercial communications satellite into orbit. The 224-foot (68-meter) tall rocket lifted off from its seaside launch pad at 1 a.m. EDT/0500 GMT, dashing through partly cloudy, night time skies as it headed toward space.
Tucked inside the rocket's nosecone was the second of two satellites owned by Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd, or AsiaSat.
The first satellite, AsiaSat 8, was successfully delivered into an orbit some 22,200 miles (35,700 km) above Earth on Aug. 5. Both satellites were built by Space Systems/Loral, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based subsidiary of Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
The latest launch was the 12th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, which in addition to delivering satellites for commercial companies flies Dragon cargo ships to the International Space Station for NASA. SpaceX is competing to build a passenger version of Dragon to fly astronauts as well and is attempting to break into the lucrative military satellite launch business.
The satellite launched on Sunday is outfitted with 28 high-power C-band transponders for video distribution and broadband network services in China and Southeast Asia.
Robots to protect ISS from deadly space junk
Researchers have flight-tested new sharp-eyed mini robots that will protect the International Space Station (ISS) from potentially damaging space junk and help repair defunct satellites. The space laboratory regularly changes orbit to avoid colliding with derelict satellites, rocket stages and other objects whizzing around Earth at huge speeds.
These robots may fly out to assess the danger presented by the vast array of objects not already tracked by radar, ‘New Scientist’ reported.
Investigator Alvar Saenz-Otero and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built several self-guided robots.
The robots are smaller than a soccer ball and designed to investigate potentially damaging objects from a safe distance with a 3D stereo camera. The images are relayed to the crew aboard the ISS, who can decide how to proceed.
Greenhouse gas levels hit new high, says UN
Surging levels of carbon dioxide sent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a new record in 2013, while oceans, which absorb the emissions, have become more acidic than ever, the UN said on 9th September. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide all broke fresh records in 2013, said the report.
Global concentrations of CO2, the main culprit in global warming, soared to 396 parts per million last year, or 142 percent of pre-industrial levels, defined as before 1750. That marked a hike of 2.9 parts per million between 2012 and 2013 alone, the largest annual increase in 30 years, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
The report also showed that so-called radiative forcing, or the warming effect on our climate attributed to greenhouse gases like CO2, increased 34 percent from 1990 to 2013. A quarter of emissions are absorbed by the oceans, while another quarter are sucked into the biosphere, naturally limiting rates of warming gases in the atmosphere. But CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer.
The gases stored in the oceans also have "far-reaching impacts," WMO warned, since more CO2 in the water leads to increased acidity, altering the ocean ecosystem.
Every day, the world's oceans absorb some four kilos (8.8 pounds) of CO2 per person each day, WMO said, calling current ocean acidification levels "unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years."
NASA laser probe to map Earth’s forests in 3D
NASA is developing a laser-based probe for the International Space Station that will study the Earth’s forests in 3D, helping to fill in missing information about their role in the carbon cycle.
Called the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar, the instrument will be the first to systematically probe the depths of the forests from space.
The system is one of two instrument proposals recently selected for NASA’s Earth Venture Instrument programme and is being led by the University of Maryland, College Park.
By revealing the 3-D architecture of forests in unprecedented detail, GEDI will provide crucial information about the impact that trees have on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Although it is well-established that trees absorb carbon and store it long-term, scientists have not quantified exactly how much carbon forests contain.
As a result, it’s not possible to determine how much carbon would be released if a forest were destroyed, nor how well emissions could be countered by planting new trees.
SFC personnel test-fire Agni-I
Agni-I, a surface-to-surface, nuclear-weapons-capable ballistic missile, was test-fired for its 700-km strike range from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha Coast, on 11th September. Strategic Forces Command (SFC) personnel launched the single-stage, short-range missile, powered by a solid propellant, from a rail mobile launcher as part of regular user training to consolidate operational readiness. The missile carrying a 1,100-kg payload zeroed in on the target with a high degree of accuracy.
Japan first to implant iPS stem cells
Japanese researchers on 12th September conducted the world's first surgery to implant "iPS" stem cells in a human body in a major boost to regenerative medicine
A female patient in her 70s with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common medical condition that can lead to blindness in older people, had a sheet of retina cells that had been created from iPS cells implanted.
The research team used induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells -- which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body -- that had originally come from the skin of the patient. Until the discovery of iPS several years ago, the only way to obtain stem cells was to harvest them from human embryos.
The surgery is still at an experimental stage, but if it is successful, doctors hope it will stop the deterioration in vision that comes with AMD.
AMD, a condition that is incurable at present, affects mostly middle-aged and older people and can lead to blindness. It afflicts around 700,000 people in Japan alone. The study was being carried out by researchers from government-backed research institution Riken and the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital.
Stem cell research is a pioneering field that has excited many in the scientific community with the potential they believe it offers. Stem cells are infant cells that can develop into any part of the body.
What are ipStem cells?
Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult cells. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka’s lab in Kyoto, Japan, who showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific transcription factors could convert adult cells into pluripotent stem cells. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.
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