First image of another solar system captured

London: Rolf Olsen, a New Zealand-based astrophotographer, has published the first non-professional pictures of the disk of debris and dust swirling around Beta Pictoris, a very young solar system.

Incredibly, the 12 million-year-old system, some 60 million light years away from our own, was captured with only a 25cm telescope, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported. The material that forms the proto-planetary disc around Beta Pictoris has been photographed by large observatories before, but it was not thought possible for amateurs to take a picture of the system, due to the glare from the star itself.

But by capturing an image of a similar star and subtracting it from the picture of Beta Pictoris, Olsen was able to eliminate the stellar glare, revealing the dust disk.

Olsen says he first gathered fifty images of Beta Pictoris. Then he collected similar pictures of another star that is similar in colour and brightness Alpha Pictoris. He subtracted the image of the second star, removing the glare.

The raw image of the material disc looked scrappy, so he blended it with the original image of Beta Pictoris using photo editing software. Olsen wrote on his website: “The result is, I believe, the first amateur image of another solar system: The proto-planetary disc around Beta Pictoris. I must say it feels really special to have actually captured this.”

Olsen’s observatory is located in Titirangi in the foothills of Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland.

Source: Deccan Herald, 28-11-2011

Oxygen 2.48 billion years old

Washington: Oxygen is likely to be 2.48 billion years old, a new research has suggested.

An international team says that banded ironstone core samples from the Pilbara rocks in Australia have aided in dating the first appearance of atmospheric oxygen at 2.48 billion years ago.

Prof Mark Barley, who led the team, says their findings, published in the ‘Nature’ journal. rested on the reliability of the rock samples they used as evidence.

According to geologists, the Great Oxidation Event, when earth’s atmospheric oxygen formed, happened at between 2.48 and 2.32 billion years ago.

“This was evidence for the most primitive form of aerobic respiring life, aerobic respiring bacteria which oxidise pyrite that released acid that dissolved rocks and soils on land, including chromium, that was then carried to the oceans by the flow of water.

“The aerobic respiring chemolitho-autorobic bacteria require coexistence with cyanobacteria producing oxygen to do this,” Prof Barley said.

Prof Barley says that geobiologists are working towards a better database, for more evidence of when the types of bacteria linked to the rise of oxygen were really functioning.

“We got a good group of samples from banded iron formations and analysed the chromium isotopes and other elements because that gives the strongest evidence of oxidation.

“If you have a good deep drill hole that’s not close to a big iron ore deposit, you have got the appropriate chemistry record,” he said.

Source: The Hindu, 26-11-2011

New super yeast turns pine into ethanol

Washington: A “super strain” of yeast developed by researchers at the University of Georgia can efficiently ferment ethanol from pre-treated pine – one of the most common species of trees in Georgia and the U.S.

The breakthrough discovery could help biofuels replace gasoline as a transportation fuel.

“Companies are interested in producing ethanol from woody biomass such as pine, but it is a notoriously difficult material for fermentations,” said Joy Doran-Peterson, associate professor of microbiology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

“The big plus for softwoods, including pine, is that they have a lot of sugar that yeast can use.

“Yeast are currently used in ethanol production from corn or sugarcane, which are much easier materials for fermentation; our process increases the amount of ethanol that can be obtained from pine,” she said.

Before the pinewood is fermented with yeast, however, it is pre-treated with heat and chemicals, which help open the wood for enzymes to break the cellulose down into sugars.

Once sugar is released, the yeast will convert it to ethanol, but compounds produced during pre-treatment tend to kill even the hardiest industrial strains of yeast, making ethanol production difficult.

Doran-Peterson, along with doctoral candidate G. Matt Hawkins, used directed evolution and adaptation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast used commonly in industry for production of corn ethanol, to generate the “super" yeast”.

Their research showed that the pine fermented with the new yeast could successfully withstand the toxic compounds and produce ethanol from higher concentrations of pre-treated pine than before.

Source: Indian Express 19-11-2011

Most liveable 'moons and planets' revealed

London: Saturn’s moon Titan and the exoplanet Gliese 581g - thought to reside some 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra – are among the most habitable alien worlds, according to scientists.

The researchers propose two different indices: an Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI), to assess the probability of hosting alien life.

“The first question is whether Earth-like conditions can be found on other worlds, since we know empirically that those conditions could harbour life,” the BBC quoted co-author Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch from Washington State University, US, as saying.

“The second question is whether conditions exist on exoplanets that suggest the possibility of other forms of life, whether known to us or not,” he said.

The maximum value for the Earth Similarity Index was 1.00 -- for Earth, unsurprisingly. The highest scores beyond our solar system were for Gliese 581g (whose existence is doubted by some astronomers), with 0.89, and another exoplanet orbiting the same star -- Gliese 581d, with an ESI value of 0.74.

The Gliese 581 system has been well studied by astronomers and comprises four -- possibly five -- planets orbiting a red dwarf star.

HD 69830 d, a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting a different star in the constellation Puppis, also scored highly (0.60).

It is thought to lie in the so-called Goldilocks Zone - the region around its parent star where surface temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life.

The highly rated worlds from our own solar system were Mars, with a value of 0.70, and Mercury, with 0.60.

Source: The Indian Express, 25-11-2011

Fish enzyme can help indicate environmental toxins

Washington: A particular enzyme in fish can be used as biomarker to indicate the presence of toxic and non-toxic substances, a new study has revealed.

The level of the enzyme carbonyl reductase (CBR) is elevated in the livers of fish that have been exposed to cleaned wastewater.

Scientists at the University of Gothenburg can show that CBR has properties that may make it suitable to be used as a biomarker, an early warning signal of environmental toxins.

The aim of the project is to achieve better environmental monitoring.

“While chemists measure the levels of environmental toxins, we biologists monitor their effects,” says Eva Albertsson, research student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Gothenburg.

“We can use biomarkers to discover these effects before the levels of toxins have become fatal. The increased CBR level in fish is probably caused by chemicals in the water.”

Source: The Indian Express, 10-11-2011

Slow death awaits Chalakudy river

Kochi: Chalakudy River is yearning for a lifeline. Chalakudy River, the fifth largest river in the State, is faced with a series of risks including sand-mining, release of untreated effluents from an industrial unit and improper disposal of solid waste.

The environmental monitoring programme on water quality of the Chalakudy River Basin carried out by the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment has brought out the challenges faced by the river.

The river basin covers Ernakulam, Thrissur and Palakkad districts.

The river is home to a large number of fish varieties and studies have identified 104 fish species from it. Considering the fish diversity supported by the river, the National Bureau of Fish Genetics Resources, Lucknow, has recommended that the upstream areas of the river should be declared as a fish sanctuary, the report says.

It is estimated that over 10 lakh people directly depend on the river for various needs. Lift irrigation, drinking water schemes and dams have been constructed in the river system.

The study has cautioned that “the construction of dams and inter basin water transfers have added to the degradation of the river.

Heavy sand-mining, over extraction of water for drinking purposes and irrigation and even for other river basins and saline ingress are taking their toll on the river.”

Low dissolved oxygen, abnormal colour and offensive odour were reported in the Kanjirapally area of the river basin and this has been attributed to the discharge of effluents from an industrial unit. Clay mining, transportation of mined clay and its processing near Chalakudy Bridge, presence of pesticide from Koodapuzha and Kanjirapally were some of the signs of slow death awaiting the river.

Another cause of worry for the river was the presence of heavy metals in sediment samples collected from the river. Traces of Manganese, Lead, Nickel, Zinc, Copper and Cadmium were identified in the scientific analysis, it was reported.

Source: The Hindu, 24-11-2011

Unique night-flowering orchid found

An orchid that unfurls its petals at night and loses its flowers by day has been found on an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The plant is the only known night-flowering orchid and was collected by botanists on a field trip to New Britain, an island in the Bismarck archipelago.

The flowers of the species, Bulbophyllum nocturnum, are thought to be pollinated by midges and last for only one night, according to a description of the plant published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

Orchid specialist Ed de Vogel, from the Netherlands, discovered the unusual flowering after he gathered some of the plants from trees in a logging area on the island and returned home to cultivate the orchids at the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. Most orchids are epiphytes, which means they take root on trees.

The botanist was particularly eager to see the orchid's flowers because it was a member of the Epicrianthes group of orchids. This group contains several species that have bizarre flowers with strange appendages, which often resemble leggy insects, small hairy spiders or intricate sea-creatures.

The appendages are usually attached by thin filaments, which allow them to move erratically in the slightest breeze.

As De Vogel cultivated the orchids, he noticed flower buds appear, but instead of opening to reveal their petals, they simply shrivelled up and died. He finally realised what was happening when he took one of the plants home and saw its flowers open around 10pm one night and close again soon after sunrise.

Flowers that open only at night are seen in a small number of plant species, such as the queen of the night cactus, the midnight horror tree and night blooming jasmine.Bulbophyllum nocturnum is the only orchid among 25,000 species that is known to do so. Many orchids are pollinated by moths and other nocturnal insects, but have flowers that remain open during the day.

In 1862, Charles Darwin correctly predicted that the Christmas star orchid, which is endemic to Madagascar, was pollinated by a moth with a 30cm-long proboscis. The moth in question was not discovered until 20 years after his death. The small night-flowering orchid has yellow-green sepals that unfurl to reveal tiny petals adorned with dangling, greyish, thick and thin appendages. The flower, which is 2cm wide, has no noticeable smell, though some nocturnal species can time the release of their scents to attract night-time pollinating insects. Writing in the journal, the authors point out the resemblance between the flowers' appendages and the fruiting bodies of certain slime moulds found in the same part of the world. The similarity led the botanists to speculate that the orchids might be pollinated by midges that normally feed on slime moulds or small fungi.

Andre Schuiteman, an orchid specialist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew said: “This is another reminder that surprising discoveries can still be made. But it is a race against time to find species like this that only occur in primeval tropical forests. which are disappearing fast.”

Source: The Hindu, 23-11-2011

International Year of Chemistry

The International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) is a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. This recognition for chemistry was made official by the United Nations in December 2008. Events for the year are being coordinated by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Under the unifying theme “Chemistry-our life, our future,” IYC 2011 will offer a range of interactive, entertaining, and educational activities for all ages. The Year of Chemistry is intended to reach across the globe, with opportunities for public participationat the local, regional, and national level. The goals of IYC2011 are to increase the public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage interest in chemistry among young people, and to generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry. The year 2011 will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Madame Marie Curie-an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women to science. The year will also be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies, providing a chance to highlight the benefits of international scientific collaboration. IYC 2011 events will emphasize that chemistry is a creative science essential for sustainability and improvements to our way of life. The Year of Chemistry will help enhance international cooperation by serving as a focal point or information source for activities by national chemical societies, educational institutions, industry, governmental, and non-governmental organizations.

International year of Bat

Bats, the worlds only flying mammals are one of the planet’s most misunderstood and persecuted mammals. Around half of the world’s 1100 bat species are currently at risk. Bat populations have declined alarmingly in recent decades. Despite intensified conservation efforts, over half of all bats species are now classified by the International Union for Conservation as threatened or near threatened. The recently launched, UNEP-backed ‘Year of the Bat’ will promote conservation, research and education on bats. The Year of the Bat in 2011 will coincide with the United Nations’ International Year of Forests. The Year of the Bat will encourage people across the world to get involved in bat conservation efforts.

Bats play a key part in sustaining the world’s forests. Bats provide ecological benefits such as pest control and seed dispersal. Bat populations in large urban areas can consume up to 30,000 pounds of insects in a single night. An estimated 134 plants that yield products used by humans are partially or entirely dependent on bats for seed dispersal or pollination. Environmental experts say bats as indicators of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Most people are unaware that bats provide invaluable services to the environment.

Bats are found nearly everywhere and approximately 1,200 species account for almost a quarter of all mammals. Nevertheless, in recent decades their populations have declined alarmingly. Many are now endangered, though they provide invaluable services that we cannot afford to lose. Simply because they are active only at night and difficult to observe and understand, bats rank among our planet’s most misunderstood and intensely persecuted mammals. Fruit and nectar-eating bats are equally important in maintaining whole ecosystems of plant life. In fact, their seed dispersal and pollination services are crucial to the regeneration of rain forests which are the lungs and rain makers of our planet. Many of the plants which depend on such bats are additionally of great economic value, their products ranging from timber and tequila to fruits, spices, nuts and even natural pesticides. It is now well demonstrated that people and bats can share even our cities at great mutual benefit. Through varied activities during the Year of the Bat, it can understand that bats are much more than essential. They’re incredibly fascinating, delightfully likeable masters of our night skies.