1st baby pangolin in Europe born in Prague zoo, doing well

A baby Chinese pangolin is being weighed at the Prague Zoo, Czech Republic, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. A female baby of Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo on Feb 2, 2023, as the first birth of the critically endangered animal on the European continent, and was doing well, the park said. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

PRAGUE (AP) — A Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo, the first birth of the critically endangered animal in captivity in Europe, and is doing well after initial troubles, the park said on Thursday.

For the first few days after the baby female was born on Feb 2, park keepers were worried because it was losing weight.

The reason was found to be that the mother, Run Hou Tang, didn’t have enough milk. Following consultations with experts from Taiwan, a program of artificial feeding with milk from a cat was introduced and the mother was stimulated to produce more of her own.

That turned things around with the zoo now expressing cautious optimism about the pup, which still has no name but has been nicknamed “Little Cone” because it resembles a spruce cone.

Prague received the rare animals from Taiwan last year, becoming only the second European zoo to keep the species.

Guo Bao, the male pangolin, and Run Hou Tang both came from the Taipei zoo, the leading breeder of the mammals that are hunted heavily for their scales and meat.

It’s estimated that almost 200,000 were trafficked in 2019 because of the scales that are used in traditional medicine in Asia and elsewhere.

The pangolins’ arrival in Prague came after relations with China became strained, among other reasons, after Prague decided to revoke a sister-city agreement with Beijing and signed a similar deal in 2020 with the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. That agreement also included cooperation between the zoos of the two cities.

Taiwan split from mainland China amid a civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the self-ruled island part of its territory.The Czech government recognizes the one-China principle but Prague officials said they wanted to focus on cultural and other cooperation, not on politics. Source: https://yourvalley.net/

Read More........→February 24, 2023

World's first 100% hydrogen-powered train now runs in Germany

Alstom, global leader in smart and sustainable mobility, on Wednesday announced the launch of the world’s first hydrogen powered train, the Coradia iLint, setting another historical milestone. The train has started plying on the world’s premiere 100 per cent hydrogen train route in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, Germany, for passenger service. This regional train only emits steam and condensed water while operating with a low level of noise. Altom has developed 14 vehicles with fuel cell propulsion for Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG). LNVG had started looking for alternatives to diesel trains in 2012, providing the momentum for the development of the trains in Germany. Other project partners for this world debut are the Elbe-Weser railways and transport company (evb) and the gas and engineering company Linde. “Emission free mobility is one of the most important goals for ensuring a sustainable future and Alstom has a clear ambition to become the world leader in alternative propulsion systems for rail. The world’s first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, demonstrates our clear commitment to green mobility combined with state-of-the-art technology. We are very proud to bring this technology into series operation as part of a world premiere, together with our great partners,” said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO and chairman of the board of Alstom. On the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude, 14 hydrogen-powered Alstom regional trains will be operated by evb on behalf of LNVG, gradually replacing 15 diesel trains. They will be fuelled daily and around the clock at the Linde hydrogen filling station. Thanks to a range of 1,000 kilometres, the Alstom multiple units of the Coradia iLint model, which are emission-free in operation, can run all day long on just one tank of hydrogen on the evb network. In September 2018, there had been a successful trial run of almost two years with two pre-series trains. “Emission free mobility is one of the most important goals for ensuring a sustainable future and Alstom has a clear ambition to become the world leader in alternative propulsion systems for rail. The world’s first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, demonstrates our clear commitment to green mobility combined with state-of-the-art technology,” Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO and chairman of the board of Alstom, said. “Despite numerous electrification projects in several countries, a significant part of Europe’s rail network will remain non-electrified in the long term. In many countries, the number of diesel trains in circulation is still high, with more than 4,000 cars in Germany, for instance,” he pointed out. Alstom currently has four contracts for hydrogen fuel cell powered regional trains. Two are in Germany, the first for 14 Coradia iLint trains in the region of Lower Saxony, and the second for 27 Coradia iLint trains in the Frankfurt metropolitan area. The third contract comes from Italy where Alstom is building 6 Coradia Stream hydrogen trains in the region of Lombardy – with the option for 8 more, while the fourth is in France for 12 Coradia Polyvalent hydrogen trains shared across four different French regions. Furthermore, the Coradia iLint has been successfully tested in Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden to name a few. The Coradia iLint is the world’s first passenger train to run on a hydrogen fuel cell that generates electrical energy for propulsion. This completely emission-free train is quiet and emits only water vapour and condensation. The Coradia iLint features several innovations: clean energy conversion, flexible energy storage in batteries, and intelligent management of motive power and available energy. Specifically developed for use on non-electrified lines, it enables clean, sustainable train operation while maintaining high performance. On evb’s network, the train travels at speeds of 80 to 120, with a maximum speed of 140 kilometres per hour. The iLint was designed by Alstom teams in Salzgitter (Germany), its centre of excellence for regional trains, and in Tarbes (France), centre of excellence for traction systems. The project benefits from the support of the German government and the development of the Coradia iLint was funded as part of the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP) by the German government. The Coradia iLint is the 2022 German Sustainability Design Award recipient. The award recognises technical and social solutions that are particularly effective in driving the transformation to sustainable products, production, consumption, or lifestyle in line with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. The Linde facility in Bremervörde contains sixty-four 500-bar high-pressure storage tanks with a total capacity of 1,800 kg, six hydrogen compressors and two fuel pumps. The use of hydrogen as a fuel for trains noticeably reduces the burden on the environment, as one kg of hydrogen replaces approximately 4.5 litres of diesel fuel. A later hydrogen production on site by means of electrolysis and regeneratively generated electricity is planned; corresponding expansion areas are available.The project is funded by the federal ministry of digital affairs and transport as part of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Programme. The federal government is contributing 8.4 million euros to the costs of the vehicles and 4.3 million euros to the costs of the filling station. The funding directive is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Julich (PtJ). Source: https://www.domain-b.com/

Read More........→February 17, 2023

Strong activation of anti-bacterial cells of immune system linked to severe COVID-19: Study

SEP 29, 2020 LONDON: A type of the immune system's T cells known to fight against bacterial infections is strongly activated in people with moderate to severe COVID-19, according to a study which provides a better understanding of how the body responds to the novel coronavirus infection. Researchers, including those from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, noted that this component of the immune system called MAIT cells make up about one to five percent of T cells in the blood of healthy people, and are primarily important for controlling bacteria, but can also be recruited to fight some viral infections. They explained that T cells are a type of white blood cells that are specialised in recognizing infected cells, and are an essential part of the immune system. In the current study, published in the journal Science Immunology, the scientists assessed the role played by MAIT cells in COVID-19 disease. They examined the presence and character of MAIT cells in blood samples from 24 patients admitted to Karolinska University Hospital with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease, and compared these with blood samples from 14 healthy controls and 45 individuals who had recovered from COVID-19. Four of the patients died in the hospital, the study noted. "To find potential treatments against COVID-19, it is important to understand in detail how our immune system reacts, and in some cases, perhaps contribute to worsening the disease," said Johan Sandberg, a co-author of the study at Karolinska Institutet. According to the study, the number of MAIT cells in the blood decline sharply in patients with moderate or severe COVID-19, and the remaining cells in circulation are highly activated. Based on these results, the scientists suggested that the MAIT cells are engaged in the immune response against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This pattern of reduced number and activation in the blood is stronger for MAIT cells than for other T cells, they said. The study also noted that pro-inflammatory MAIT cells accumulated in the airways of COVID-19 patients to a larger degree than in healthy people. "Taken together, these analyses indicate that the reduced number of MAIT cells in the blood of COVID-19 patients is at least partly due increased accumulation in the airways," Sandberg said. The scientists added that the number of MAIT cells in the blood of convalescent COVID-19 patients recovered at least partially in the weeks after disease, which can be important for managing bacterial infections in individuals who have had COVID-19. They said the MAIT cells tended to be extremely activated in the patients who died. "The findings of our study show that the MAIT cells are highly engaged in the immunological response against COVID-19," Sandberg said. The scientists believe the characteristics of MAIT cells make them engaged early on in both the systemic immune response, and in the local immune response in the airways to which they are recruited from the blood by inflammatory signals. "There, they are likely to contribute to the fast, innate immune response against the virus. In some people with COVID-19, the activation of MAIT cells becomes excessive and this correlates with severe disease," Sandberg added. Copyright © Jammu Links News, Source: Jammu Links News

Read More........→September 29, 2020

Solar probe reveals sun's tiny 'campfires' in closest-ever photos

A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed ‘campfires’ and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.

‘When the first images came in, my first thought was, 'This is not possible - it can't be that good,'‘ David Berghmans, principal investigator for the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's ultraviolet imager at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, told reporters on Thursday.

The spacecraft, launched from Florida in February, snapped the images in late May using the probe's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager as it orbited nearly 48 million miles (77 million km) from the sun's surface, or roughly halfway between the sun and Earth.

The ‘campfires’ are believed to be tiny explosions, called nanoflares, and could explain why the sun's outer shield, the corona, is 300 times hotter than the star's surface. Scientists are awaiting more data from the spacecraft's other instruments to know for sure.

‘We've never been closer to the sun with a camera, and this is just the beginning of the long epic journey of Solar Orbiter,’ said Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist.

Scientists typically have relied upon Earth-based telescopes for closeups of the sun's surface. But Earth's atmosphere limits the amount of visible light needed to glean views as intimate as those obtained by the Solar Orbiter.

The spacecraft also carries plasma-sampling instruments to offer researchers further data.

‘That combination really allows us to make links and connections to what's happening on the sun and what's happening at the spacecraft,’ said Holly Gilbert, Solar Orbiter project scientist at NASA.

Solar Orbiter's primary mission of examining the sun's polar regions will help researchers understand the origins of the solar wind, charged particles that blast through our solar system and affect satellites and electronics on Earth.Solar probe reveals sun's tiny 'campfires' in closest-ever photos: A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with

Read More........→July 16, 2020

5 Million Year Old Underwater 'Lost City' Was Not Built By Men Say Scientists

Credit: University of Athens

The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon - according to joint research from the University of East Anglia (UK) and the University of Athens (Greece). When underwater divers discovered what looked like paved floors, courtyards and colonnades, they thought they had found the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization that perished when tidal waves hit the shores of the Greek holiday island Zakynthos. But new research published reveals that the site was created by a natural geological phenomenon that took place in the Pliocene era - up to five million years ago. The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon -- according to joint research from the University of East Anglia and the University of Athens (Greece). Lead author Prof Julian Andrews, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea. There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life - such as pottery." The bizarre discovery, found close to Alikanas Bay, was carefully examined in situ by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of Greece. Archaeologist Magda Athanasoula and diver Petros Tsampourakis studied the site, together with Prof Michael Stamatakis from the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment at the University of Athens (UoA). After the preliminary mineralogical and chemical analyses, a scientific research team was formed, composed of UoA and UEA staff. The research team went on to investigate in detail the mineral content and texture of the underwater formation in minute detail, using microscopy, X-ray and stable isotope techniques. Prof Andrews said: "We investigated the site, which is between two and five meters under water, and found that it is actually a natural geologically occurring phenomenon. The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon -- according to joint research from the University of East Anglia and the University of Athens (Greece).

Credit: University of Athens

"The disk and doughnut morphology, which looked a bit like circular column bases, is typical of mineralization at hydrocarbon seeps - seen both in modern seafloor and palaeo settings. "We found that the linear distribution of these doughnut shaped concretions is likely the result of a sub-surface fault which has not fully ruptured the surface of the sea bed. The fault allowed gases, particularly methane, to escape from depth. "Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion. The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon -- according to joint research from the University of East Anglia and the University of Athens (Greece). "In this case the cement was an unusual mineral

Credit: University of Athens

called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments. "These concretions were then exhumed by erosion to be exposed on the seabed today. "This kind of phenomenon is quite rare in shallow waters. Most similar discoveries tend to be many hundreds and often thousands of meters deep underwater. "These features are proof of natural methane seeping out of rock from hydrocarbon reservoirs. The same thing happens in the North Sea, and it is also similar to the effects of fracking, when humans essentially speed up or enhance the phenomena." 

• Contacts and sources: Lisa Horton
• University of East Anglia

'Exhumed hydrocarbon-seep authigenic carbonates from Zakynthos island (Greece): Concretions not archaeological remains' is published in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology on June 3, 2016. Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com

Read More........→June 10, 2016