India’s CO2 emissions account 8pc of global total, to rise by 4.6pc in 2024: Report

New Delhi, (IANS): India accounts for per cent of the global total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and it is expected to increase by 4.6 per cent in 2024, according to a new report released on Wednesday, ahead of the UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.The report by Global Carbon Project, involving an international team of more than 120 scientists, showed that global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have reached a record high in 2024 -- 37.4 billion tonnes in 2024, up 0.8 per cent from 2023 levels.The report led by the University of Exeter showed “there is ‘no sign’ that the world has reached a peak in fossil CO2 emissions”. This is despite the urgent need to cut emissions to slow climate change.It showed that emissions from coal are expected to rise by 0.2 per cent; oil by 0.9 per cent; and gas by 2.4 per cent.China’s emissions -- which account for 32 per cent of the global total -- are projected to marginally increase by 0.2 per cent, while US emissions (which account for 13 per cent of the global total) are projected to decrease by 0.6 per cent.Notably, emissions from the European Union (accounting for 7 per cent of the global total) will decrease by 3.8 per cent.Emissions in the rest of the world (accounting for 38 per cent of the global total) are projected to increase by 1.1 per cent, said the report, published in...

Read More........→December 02, 2024

Earthquake footage shows Turkey’s buildings collapsing like pancakes. An expert explains why

 Mustafa Karali / AP Mark Quigley, The University of MelbourneA pair of huge earthquakes have struck in Turkey, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and unknown numbers injured or displaced.The first quake, near Gaziantep close to the Syrian border, measured 7.8 in magnitude and was felt as far away as the UK. The second occurred nine hours later, on what appears to be an intersecting fault, registering a magnitude of 7.5.Adding to the devastation, some 3,450 buildings have collapsed, according to the Turkish government. Many of the modern buildings have failed in a “pancake mode” of structural collapse.Why did this happen? Was it simply the enormous magnitude and violence of the quake, or is the problem with the buildings?Thousands of years of earthquakesEarthquakes are common in Turkey, which sits in a very seismically active region where three tectonic plates constantly grind against one another beneath Earth’s surface. Historical records of earthquakes in the region go back at least 2,000 years, to a quake in 17 CE that levelled a dozen towns.The East Anatolian Fault zone that hosted these earthquakes is at the boundary between the Arabian and Anatolian tectonic plates, which move past each other at approximately 6 to 10 mm per year. The elastic strain that accumulates in this plate boundary zone is released by intermittent...

Read More........→February 08, 2023

Sun is white and not yellow, confirms former NASA astronaut!

Most people believe the Sun is yellow since it appears yellow from the ground, but after reading this tweet, we may have to rethink our views.This space truth was recently confirmed by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly in a widely shared tweet. The Sun's true colour is actually white, and the explanation the dwarf star typically seems yellow is due to an odd interaction between light physics that causes the sun to look yellow the majority of the time.Our atmosphere causes the sun to appear yellow. But once you are outside of the atmosphere of the Earth, the Sun appears to be all white. NASA claims that this is because of way our eyes see colour.Sunsets and sunrises seem red, yellow, or orange because the sun's light must traverse through all of Earth's atmosphere to reach the surface when it is lower in the sky than when it is directly overhead.According to NASA, shorter light wavelengths, like blue, are more likely to be scattered through the atmosphere as time goes on, whereas longer light wavelengths, like red, can go considerably farther.Since the amount of sunshine merely inundates the photoreceptor cells in our eyes, blending all the colours together, we are unable to distinguish a single colour from the sun. White is the result of combining all colours of light. As a result, the sun appears white in space and yellow on Earth. DailyBangladesh/RAH, Source:...

Read More........→September 20, 2022

Mars rover sees hints of past life in latest rock samples

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has detected its highest concentrations yet of organic molecules, in a potential signal of ancient microbes that scientists are eager to confirm when the rock samples are eventually brought to Earth.While organic matter has been found on the Red Planet before, the new discovery is seen as especially promising because it came from an area where sediment and salts were deposited into a lake -- conditions where life could have arisen."It is very fair to say that these are going to be, these already are, the most valuable rock samples that have ever been collected," David Shuster, a Perseverance return sample scientist, told reporters during a briefing.Organic molecules -- compounds made primarily of carbon that usually include hydrogen and oxygen, but also at times other elements -- are not always created by biological processes.Further analysis and conclusions will have to wait for the Mars Sample Return mission -- a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to bring back the rocks that is set for 2033.Nicknamed Percy, the rover landed on Mars' Jezero Crater in February 2021, tasked with caching samples that may contain signs of ancient life, as well as characterizing the planet's geology and past climate.The delta it is exploring formed 3.5 billion years ago. The rover is currently...

Read More........→September 18, 2022

UK becomes first nation to approve Omicron vaccine

AUG 16, 2022 Britain has become the first country to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine that targets the Omicron variant. The UK medicine regulator (MHRA) approved the 'bivalent' vaccine made by Moderna as a booster for adults, Reuters reported. The agency's decision was based on clinical trial data that showed the booster triggered "a strong immune response" against both Omicron (BA.1) and the original 2020 virus, it said. The UK medicine regulator also cited an exploratory analysis in which the shot was also found to generate a good immune response against the currently dominant Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, Copyright © Jammu Links News, Source: Jammu Links N...

Read More........→August 16, 2022

Chemists crack complete quantum nature of water

"Now that we have a good template for understanding how water molecules interact among themselves, we have a basis to deepen our understanding of the role of water in biochemical processes essential to life," says Joel Bowman, Emory professor of theoretical chemistry. Chemists have produced the first full quantum mechanical model of water — one of the key ingredients of life. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters published the breakthrough, which used machine learning to develop a model that gives a detailed, accurate description for how large groups of water molecules interact with one another. “We believe we have found the missing piece to a complete, microscopic understanding of water,” says Joel Bowman, professor of theoretical chemistry at Emory University and senior author of the study. “It appears that we now have all that we need to know to describe water molecules under any conditions, including ice, liquid or vapor over a range of temperature and pressure.” The researchers developed free, open-source software for the model, which they dubbed “q-AQUA.” The q-AQUA software provides a universal tool for studying water. “We anticipate researchers using it for everything from predicting whether an exoplanet may have water to deepening our understanding of the role of water in cellular function,” Bowman says. Read more...

Read More........→August 10, 2022

DRDO Celebrates 63rd Foundation Day; Chairman Reddy Calls To Focus On Cyber Security, Space, AI

New Delhi: The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) observed the 63rd Foundation Day of its establishment on Friday, 1st January 2021. G. Satheesh Reddy, Secretary DDR&D & Chairman DRDO met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and presented him with a model of the Akash Missile System, which was recently cleared for export. On the occasion, the Chairman of DRDO along with DGs and Directors of DRDO HQ paid floral tributes to former President APJ Abdul Kalam at DRDO Bhawan, according to a press statement from the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry stated that DRDO was established in 1958 with just 10 laboratories to enhance the research work in the Defence sector and was tasked with designing and developing cutting-edge defence technologies for the Indian Armed Forces. The Defence Ministry stated that today, the DRDO is working in multiple cutting-edge military technology areas, which include aeronautics, armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation, engineering systems, missiles, materials, naval systems, advanced computing, simulation, cyber, life sciences, and other technologies for defence. Addressing the DRDO fraternity, the DRDO Chairman Reddy extended warm wishes to DRDO employees and their families. He stated that an eventful year has passed and a new one is about to begin, and asked scientists...

Read More........→August 09, 2022

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins dies at 90

American astronaut Michael Collins, who flew the Apollo 11 command module while his crewmates became the first people to land on the Moon in 1969, died on Wednesday after battling cancer, his family said.“Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge, in the same way,” Collins’ family tweeted on his official Twitter account.Often described as the "forgotten" third astronaut on the historic mission, Collins remained alone for more than 21 hours until his two colleagues returned in the lunar module. He lost contact with mission control in Houston each time the spacecraft circled the dark side of the moon."Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins," the mission log said, referring to the biblical figure.Collins wrote an account of his experiences in his 1974 autobiography, "Carrying the Fire," but largely shunned publicity."I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have," Collins said in comments released by NASA in 2009. Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.c...

Read More........→May 08, 2021

Inoculated individual may carry coronavirus, scientist says

An individual who was inoculated against the novel coronavirus infection may remain its carrier and therefore should observe preventive measures, acting director of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza of the Russian Healthcare Ministry Dmitry Lioznov said at a press conference on Thursday.“An inoculated individual, he is protected, he does not develop the disease but the agent can get on the mucous lining, remain there for some time and emit to the external environment. A healthy individual can also be [a carrier] without developing the disease but he can be that temporary carrier.This is precisely why we say that a vaccinated individual should observe certain anti-epidemic measures in order not to infect the others,” the scientist said.According to deputy director for research of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza Darya Danilenko, an individual is considered to be vaccinated if he received the full dose of a vaccine, that is, was inoculated twice when it’s necessary. “After the second administration, at least three weeks should elapse after which we consider that enough time has elapsed for a person to be considered vaccinated, that is, his immune system responded to the administration of a vaccine,” she explained. Until then, according to her, the probability that this individual may be a carrier is...

Read More........→January 29, 2021

Russia reports ‘non-standard’ air leak on Space Station

Russia said Tuesday that astronauts had found an air leak in its section of the International Space Station, with a senior space official calling the air loss beyond expected levels.The crew on the ISS — Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy — have been searching for the air leak since August, first checking the US segment.Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said in a statement that after analysis and a search for the leak “it was established that the spot is located in the Zvezda (star) service module, which contains scientific equipment.”It said a search was now underfoot to pinpoint the exact location, saying the situation “is not dangerous for the life and health of the ISS crew and does not prevent the ISS continuing manned flight.”“It’s not critical in the near future,” said Sergei Krikalyov, the executive director of Russia’s manned space programs, in a televised comment.He said the ISS always has slight air loss due to the air purifying system.“These leaks are predictable. What’s happening now is more than the standard leakage and naturally if it lasts a long time, it will require supplies of extra air to the station,” he said.He said the crew were now resting but hoped to find the precise spot and fix the leak on Wednesday.“That’s not for sure,” he added, saying there...

Read More........→December 29, 2020

NASA to send a new toilet to Space Station

The US space agency NASA is set to test a new zero-gravity toilet to the International Space Station (ISS) before its probable use in a future mission to the Moon.The $23m (195 crores BDT) toilet, which sucks waste from the body, will be sent to the ISS on a cargo ship.According to NASA, the toilet's "vacuum system" was designed for the comfort of female astronauts, unlike previous models.The toilet was supposed to be sent to the space station from Virginia by the rocket on Thursday afternoon. But three minutes before the launch, the mission was aborted due to a technical error. If the engineers can fix the errors, they will try again.According to NASA, the Titanium Space Toilet will help in missions to more remote areas. The vacuum system is being used here to discharge body wastes in the zero gravity region.The toilet uses a vacuum system to suck waste away from the body in a zero-gravity environment. For privacy, the toilet is located inside a cubicle - just like in a public bathroom on Earth.It weighs 45kg (100lbs) and standing 28in (71cm) tall, the toilet is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the one currently in use.NASA project manager Melissa McKinley said the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) toilet has been designed for a long time. The commode seat and urine funnel are more refined than before. Women astronauts will...

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Xiaomi 80W wireless charging technology goes official

Chinese technology company Xiaomi has announced its next salvo in the fast charging wars, a new 80W wireless method that the company claims beats out any other competitor. The 80W solution is said to be able to charge a 4,000mAh battery up to 50 percent full in eight minutes and 100 percent full in 19 minutes. The video above shows it in action on a modified Mi 10 Pro.Xiaomi already has the fastest wireless charging on a shipping phone; the Mi 10 Ultra has 50W wireless technology that can fully charge its 4,500mAh battery in 40 minutes. Oppo recently announced a 65W solution that is said to be able to charge a 4,000mAh battery in 30 minutes, but the tech is yet to ship in a commercial device.Fast wireless charging is much less common outside China, where companies like Huawei and Xiaomi have been working to outdo each other for a while. The fastest option that’s widely available in the West is the OnePlus 8 Pro, which has an optional 30W wireless charger. Apple’s new MagSafe chargers for the iPhone 12 line charge at up to 15W.Xiaomi hasn’t announced when a phone with 80W wireless charging will actually ship, but it shouldn’t be too far off. The company has consistently released phones with ever-higher wireless power specs over the past couple of years, with the Mi 10 Ultra only coming out a couple of months ago. Source: ht...

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Nokia, NASA to install 4G on the Moon

Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company Nokia announced its expansion into a new market on Monday, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the Moon.The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by NASA to deploy an “ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened” wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon by 2030, according to a report by AFP.The $14.1 million contracts, awarded to Nokia’s US subsidiary, is part of NASA’s Artemis program which aims to send the first woman, and next man, to the moon by 2024.The astronauts will begin carrying out detailed experiments and explorations which the agency hopes will help it develop its first human mission to Mars.Nokia’s network equipment will be installed remotely on the Moon’s surface using a lunar hopper built by Intuitive Machines in late 2022, Nokia said.“The network will self-configure upon deployment,” Nokia said in a statement, adding that the wireless technology will allow for “vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video.”The 4G equipment can be updated to a super-fast 5G network in the future, Nokia said.In all, NASA announced...

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Google removes 3 popular apps from Play Store

Google has removed three popular apps used by kids from its Play Store periodically when the apps are caught violating its policies.The International Digital Accountability Council (IDCA) had found that the three apps, identified as Princess Salon, Number Coloring, and Cats & Cosplay, were collecting data of users, who happen to be children in most instances, in violation of the Play Store policies, and that this data was potentially leaking to SDKs of third parties."The practices we observed in our research raised serious concerns about data practices within these apps," IDAC president Quentin Palfrey told TechCrunch.The website also got a response from Google, which told it, “We can confirm that the apps referenced in the report were removed. Whenever we find an app that violates our policies, we take action.”It is not clear what sort of data the three innocent-looking apps were collecting. But these were the apps used by kids as they claimed to gamify learning. A number of such apps continue to be available on the app stores managed by Google and Apple.When it comes to the data of children, companies like Apple and Google have more stringent requirements from app developers. The data of children has to be handled more carefully and in many cases, it cannot be passed on to third parties. In fact, so sensitive are the rules...

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Whatsapp delivers 100 billion messages each day: Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the latest quarterly earnings call in late October said WhatsApp now delivers close to 100 billion messages every day . Zuckerberg shared that 2.5 billion people around the world use WhatsApp, and other apps owned by Facebook every day and there are more than 10 million active advertisers across services.WhatsApp usually experiences a significant spike in messages in the day of New Year's Eve and this has been a trend for the past several years. In 2017, WhatsApp saw 63 billion messages sent globally on New Year's Eve, followed by 75 billion in 2018, and over 100 billion last year. Since then, almost 100 billion messages are now delivered every day.Earlier in this year, WhatsApp’s user base has crossed the 2 billion mark and there is no other messaging service that is delivering these many messages when compared to the number of this Zuckerberg's messaging platform delivers. According to a report by Statista, WhastApp reached five billion downloads on Android in January this year, making it only the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone. Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh....

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Apple bringing 5G to the MacBook

Apple has begun working on its first cellular modem to bring 5G to its growing system-on-chip components, a new report from Bloomberg claims. However, it will bring 5G to the MacBook and due to this modem, the battery consumption will be much higher than usual.Johnny Srozy, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technology, has confirmed the development of that 5G modem, saying “kicked off the development of our first internal cellular modem which will enable another key strategic transition.” Intel has been working on making Five-G modems for the last few years, however, they did not succeed in the project of making modems. Qualcomm also had problems with the device overheating and battery consumption when it first built the Five-G modem.It has not been yet known when Apple will be able to bring MacBook with Five-G modem, it’s probably going to take a while to implement. Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh....

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Mutated virus variant from South Africa found in UK

A new, potentially more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been found in Britain in cases linked to South Africa, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday.South Africa’s health department said last week that a new genetic mutation of the virus had been discovered and might be responsible for a recent surge in infections there.“Thanks to the impressive genomic capability of the South Africans, we’ve detected two cases of another new variant of coronavirus here in the UK,” Hancock told a media briefing.“Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa over the past few weeks.”Britain is already trying to curb the spread of a mutated strain of the virus which is up to 70% more transmissible, and further studies aerie being carried out on the new variant.“This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible, and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant has been discovered in the UK,” he said.Close contacts of those with the new variant and all those who have been in South Africa in the last fortnight, or were in close contact with someone who had, must quarantine, he said.Immediate restrictions were being imposed on travel from South Africa, he added.Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to both Britain and...

Read More........→December 24, 2020

Modi impressed with rise in leopard population In India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed happiness over the increasing population of leopards in India which has registered more than 60 per cent rise in the latest report. "Great news! After lions and tigers, the leopard population increases," the Prime Minister tweeted.Extending congratulations to all those who are working towards animal conservation, the Prime Minister appealed to such institutions and people to keep up these efforts and ensure "our animals live in safe habitats".Prime Minister's message came after Union Minister Prakash Javadekar released the "Status of Leopard in India 2018" report.Javadekar informed in a tweet that "India now has 12,852 leopards", saying it is "more than 60 per cent increase in the population compared to the previous estimate which was conducted in 2014". Source: https://southasiamonitor.o...

Read More........→December 24, 2020

Research Strongly Suggests COVID-19 Virus Enters the Brain

 A study published in Nature Neuroscience shows how spike protein crosses the blood-brain barrier.The S1 protein likely causes the brain to release inflammatory products causing a storm in the brain, researchers said.More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue.And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published Dec.16 in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice.This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain.The spike protein, often called the S1 protein, dictates which cells the virus can enter. Usually, the virus does the same thing as its binding protein, said lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Healthcare System physician and researcher. Banks said binding proteins like S1 usually by themselves cause damage as they detach from the virus and cause inflammation.“The S1 protein likely causes the brain to release cytokines and inflammatory products,” he said.In science circles, the intense inflammation caused by...

Read More........→December 21, 2020

Scientists evaluate various mask protection, modifications against COVID-19

DEC 12, 2020 NEW YORK: Scientists have assessed the filtering efficiency provided by various types of facemask modifications, and found that masks made of two layers of woven nylon are some of the most effective when fit snug against the wearer's face. The scientists, including those from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine in the US, noted that over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a number of innovative "hacks," devices, and mask enhancements that claim to improve the performance of conventional masks. However, they believe there have been few evaluations of the efficiency of these face coverings or mask enhancements at filtering airborne particles. In the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the scientists assessed the protectiveness of various kinds of consumer-grade and modified masks, assuming the mask wearer was exposed to the virus. According to the researchers, surgical masks offered 38.5 per cent filtration efficacy, but when the ear loops were tied in a specific way to tighten the fit, the efficacy improved to 60.3 per cent. When a layer of nylon was added, they said these masks offered 80 per cent effectiveness. "Limiting the amount of virus is important because the more viral particles we're exposed to, the more likely it is we will get sick and potentially...

Read More........→December 20, 2020