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The Federal Government says Australian and US defence scientists have successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft for the second time in South Australia’s outback.
The aircraft soared through the atmosphere at more than 5,000 kilometres per hour after taking off from the Woomera Test Range.
The experiment was first conducted in May last year and more tests are planned.
Hypersonic flight could potentially allow people to travel between Sydney and London in just two hours.
New Delhi, Mar 19 (ANI): Indian hockey team coach Jose Brasa has said that a coach ought to have a more pro-active role and even more power than the selectors in the interest of the national squad.
Addressing the mediapersons here on Thursday, Brasa said: “The coach knows better about the inter-relationship of the players and also as to who can be a better captain to lead the side.
“At the beginning, I said, the most important is what is the best for the Indian hockey team. That should be the polar star. The polar star should be what is best for the Indian hockey team. If that is the best for the Indian hockey team. Have the selectors, okay. That (the) selectors do the selection for the team I don”t think so. I think the coach should be the one. It is the same with the captain. Nobody better than the coach knows the inter relationship between the players and which is the better one to be the leader in the pitch,” he added.
To a poser whether some players within the team were trying to create an adverse atmosphere, he said:”All the players are very motivated to win for their team and play their best and I think there are no problems of bad people trying to do worse things against the team, it”s not that problem.”
After the conclusion of the World Cup, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has ranked India as the 9th, climbing up three places prior to the tourney. (ANI)
Tiger Woods is expected to let the PGA Tour know soon when he will return to action, Tour commissioner Tim Finchem says.
Media speculation has linked the world number one with a return before or for the US Masters in early April.
“I’m as excited everybody else to see him back, I hope it’s this spring, but my sense is we’ll know pretty soon,” Finchem told NBC television on Sunday (local time).
“All of the speculation (is) about what is going to happen at the end of March, I think if he’s going to play at the end of March or early April.
“We will hear pretty soon because he recognises we need time to do it.”
American Woods is currently on an “indefinite break” from golf following the much publicised scandals surrounding his extra-marital affairs.
Woods spoke to the media last month in Ponte Vedra, Florida and was expected to announce a return date but the 14-times major winner said only that he did “not rule out” coming back this year.
The golfer has been working on his game recently while reports have speculated on whether he will come back in March for a warm-up prior to the US Masters or go straight into the event on April 5.
Finchem said he was glad that the public’s focus had shifted from the details of the scandal towards Woods’ return.
“Everybody is done looking back at the circumstances that resulted in him stepping away from the game and (are) now focused on when he is going to play golf. I think that is good,” he said.
“It is going to be huge when he comes back and then we’ll see how.
“It’s going to be an interesting thing to watch, how he re-enters the game, how he plays, how he deals with the reaction to his statement.
“But I do feel this huge change in the atmosphere because of what he said and I was impressed not only about him talking about personal issues but about him talking about the game.
“I thought he set the bar for himself and we all know what happens when Tiger sets the bar for himself.”
- Reuters
DUSHANBE, March 1 (Reuters) – Serious irregularities including ballot-box stuffing mean Sunday’s parliamentary election in Tajikistan failed to meet basic democratic standards, Europe’s main election watchdog said on Monday.
“I’m happy that election day took place in a generally good atmosphere but I’m even more disappointed that these elections failed on many basic democratic standards,” Pia Christmas- Moller, vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a statement.
The OSCE said its observers had “highlighted serious irregularities on election day, including a high prevalence of family and proxy voting and cases of ballot box stuffing”.
“…Such serious irregularities weaken genuine democratic progress,” Christmas-Moller said.
Tajikistan, a poor ex-Soviet state on the border with Afghanistan, has never held an election deemed free and fair by Western observers. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Michael Stott)
Washington, Sept 20 (ANI): As cold and flu season approaches, giving up junk food for more healthy options would help maintain a strong immune system.
Dr Ara DerMarderosian, professor of pharmacognosy for University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and an expert in nutraceuticals and natural foods, have provided guidance to change how you eat and break habits that pack on the pounds and compromise immunity.
? Don’t play “food police”
Be conscious of what and how much you eat, but don’t overdo self-monitoring to the point that a healthy lifestyle shifts from being a choice to becoming overwhelming, pushing other activities away and interfering with relationships.
? Pay attention to true hunger
Listen to your hunger signals and refrain from eating when you’re not hungry. Eating when your body doesn’t need food can cause you to overindulge.
? Eat slowly
Eat like a gourmet – enjoy each bite to have, chewing methodically, and truly enjoy the taste of your food. Eating slowly gives your body time to break down the food, which can prevent post-meal indigestion and feeling bloated.
? Focus on eating
Do not watch television, read or work while you eat. When you’re not focused on eating, it’s unlikely you’ll notice how much is going in your mouth.
? Avoid eating when stressed
Stress is a well-known cause of overeating and digestive issues, such as heartburn. A relaxing atmosphere, enjoyable company and conversation, and not feeling rushed for time makes for a healthy meal.
? Everything in moderation
Eating food is pleasurable, so enjoy a few morsels of candy, but limit the quantity. (ANI)
Islamabad, Sep. 19 (ANI): Pakistan has signed an agreement with China to provide a 220-million-dollar financial grant to help the Islamic country launch a communication satellite.
The operational life of Pakistan’s existing satellite PAKSAT-1 will be over in November 2011.
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Luo Zhaohui and Pakistan’s Economic Affairs Secretary Farrukh Qayyum signed the contract.
“China has agreed to fund the project through a soft loan with low mark up for a period of 20 years,” the Daily Times quoted Qayyum, as saying.
The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Organisation (SUPARCO) and the China Great Wall Industry Corporation have agreed to develop the new satellite PAKSAT-1R, which would replace PAKSAT-1 in September 2011, he added.
The satellite will support all conventional and modern fixed satellite service (FSS) applications.
The satellite will have 30 transponders, 18 in the Ku-band and 12 in C-band (ANI)
Washington, September 16 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has unraveled the chemical evolution of the orange-brownish colored atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, the only solar system body besides Venus and Earth with a solid surface and thick atmosphere.
Scientists at University of Hawai’i at Manoa carried out the research.
The UH Manoa team, including Xibin Gu and Seol Kim, conducted simulation experiments mimicking the chemical reactions in Titan’s atmosphere utilizing crossed molecular beams in which the consequence of a single collision between molecules can be followed.
The team’s experiments indicate that triacetylene can be formed by a single collision of a “radical” ethynyl molecule and a diacetylene molecule.
An ethynyl radical is produced in Titan’s atmosphere by the photodissociation of acetylene by ultraviolet light.
Photodissociation is a process in which a chemical compound is broken down by photons.
“Surprisingly, the photochemical models show inconsistent mechanisms for the production of polyynes,” said Kaiser, who is the principal investigator of this study.
The mechanism involved in the formation of triacetylene, was also confirmed by accompanying theoretical calculations by Alexander Mebel, a theoretical chemist at Florida International University.
These theoretical computations also provide the 3D distribution of electrons in atoms and thus the overall energy level of a molecule.
To apply these findings to the real atmosphere of Titan, Danie Liang and Yuk Yung, planetary scientists at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), respectively, performed photochemical modeling studies of Titan’s atmosphere.
All data together suggest that triacetylene may serve as a building block to form more complex and longer polyynes and produce potential precursors for the aerosol-based layers of haze surrounding Titan.
The study demonstrated for the first time that a sensible combination of laboratory simulation experiments with theory and modeling studies can shed light on decade old unsolved problems crucial to understand the origin and chemical evolution of the solar system.
The researchers hope to unravel next the mystery of the missing ethane lakes on Titan – postulated to exist for half a century, but not detected conclusively within the framework of the Cassini-Huygens mission.
In the future, the UH Manoa team will combine the research results with terrestrial-based observations of Titan’s atmosphere. (ANI)
Washington, September 14 (ANI): In a major research study, the link between declining carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth’s atmosphere and the formation of the Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been confirmed for the first time.
The research was carried out by a team of scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and Texas A and M universities, in a small East African village, where they extracted microfossils in samples of rocks which show the level of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere at the time of the formation of the ice-cap.
Geologists have long speculated that the formation of the Antarctic ice-cap was caused by a gradually diminishing natural greenhouse effect.
The study’s findings confirm that atmospheric CO2 declined during the Eocene – Oligocene climate transition and that the Antarctic ice sheet began to form when CO2 in the atmosphere reached a tipping point of around 760 parts per million (by volume).
According to Professor Paul Pearson from Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, who led the mission to the remote East Africa village of Stakishari, “About 34 million years ago, the Earth experienced a mysterious cooling trend. Glaciers and small ice sheets developed in Antarctica, sea levels fell and temperate forests began to displace tropical-type vegetation in many areas.”
“The period, known to geologists as the Eocene – Oligocene transition, culminated in the rapid development of a continental-scale ice sheet on Antarctica, which has been there ever since,” he said.
“We therefore set out to establish whether there was a substantial decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as the Antarctic ice sheet began to grow,” he added.
The team mapped large expanses of bush and wilderness and pieced together the underlying local rock formations using occasional outcrops of rocks and stream beds.
Eventually, they discovered sediments of the right age near a traditional African village called Stakishari.
By assembling a drilling rig and extracting hundreds of meters of samples from under the ground, they were able to obtain exactly the piece of Earth’s history they had been searching for.
According to co-author Dr Gavin Foster from the University of Bristol Earth Sciences Department, “By using the rather unique set of samples from Tanzania and a new analytical technique that I developed, we have, for the first time, been able to reconstruct the concentration of CO2 across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary – the time period about 34 million years ago when ice sheets first started to grow on Eastern Antarctica.” (ANI)
London, Sept 13 (ANI): Charles Dickens developed a ritualistic routine in his domestic life, together with an obsessive approach to work, which is consistent with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and can be seen reflected in some of his characters, claims a new biography.
Dickens had a habit of rearranging furniture whenever he stayed in a hotel room and inspecting his children’s bedrooms every morning, leaving behind notes when he was not satisfied with their tidiness.
According to Michael Slater, emeritus professor of Victorian literature at Birkbeck college, London, and author of the book, Charles Dickens, the genius’ behaviour could be traced to his childhood when poverty forced his family to move home repeatedly, reports The Times.
Slater said: “The disorder of his upbringing may have had the effect on him of wanting to be in control.”
He reckons that Little Dorrit, the main character in Dickens’s novel of the same name, reflected his character.
“There she is, the epitome of neatness, in the squalid atmosphere of the Marshalsea prison making order and making her father comfortable and sweeping and cleaning and tidying all the time,” said Slater.
Slater said there were also signs of OCD in the semi-autobiographical David Copperfield.
Also, when it came to women, the author’s attitude was governed by neatness. (ANI)
Washington, September 11 (ANI): Researchers at The University of Nottingham, UK, have created the most advanced 3D X-ray micro Computed Tomography (CT) scanner in the world, which will help scientists from a wide variety of departments across the University literally see through solid materials, including soil.
Known as the ‘Nanotom’, the machine will make previously difficult and laborious research much easier as it allows researchers to probe inside objects without having to break into them.
The Nanotom will produce high-resolution 3D and slice images of solids with a pixel resolution of up to half micron or 500 nanometres.
It will be based at the School of Biosciences as the centrepiece of research into efforts to understand the microscopic interactions between plant root growth and soil structure.
The first project to use it will examine the sensing ability of roots to grow in the best direction for the health of the plant through the soil.
It aims to provide evidence of how the root reacts and adapts to soil stresses like drought and compaction by adjusting the genetic information in the tips of the root as it grows.
The Nanotom will allow researchers to follow the progress of the root growth and soil structural development for the first time without disturbing the sample of the plant growing in the soil.
The eventual aim of research like this is to contribute to worldwide efforts for food security and sustainable food production by preserving and improving the vital but finite soil resources of the planet.
It will enable scientists to come up with a recipe for the best soil composition and level of compaction as well as informing plant breeding programmes.
Accurate soil structure measurement will be also be essential in changing farming practices to cut CO2 which is released into the atmosphere during traditional ploughing of agricultural soil.
According to Dr Sacha Mooney from the University’s Division of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, “This new kit will completely revolutionize our work in trying to understand the key factors that control some of the many functions that soils perform.”
“Of course it’s not just soils we’ll be scanning, I think I am just as excited about the opportunity to look inside newly created environmental building materials, eco-friendly crops developed to improve yield and even chocolate bars for the food industry,” Mooney added. (ANI)
Washington, September 10 (ANI): Analysis of a rock type found only in the world’s oldest oceans has shed new light on how large animals first got a foothold on the Earth.
By analysing the isotopes of chromium in iron-rich sediments formed in the ancient oceans, a scientific team, led by Professor Robert Frei at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, has found that a rise in atmospheric oxygen levels 580 million years ago was closely followed by the evolution of animal life.
The data offers new insight into how animal life – and ultimately humans – first came to roam the planet.
“Because animals evolved in the sea, most previous research has focussed on oceanic oxygen levels,” explained Newcastle University’s Dr Simon Poulton, one of the authors of the research paper.
“Our research confirms for the first time that a rise in atmospheric oxygen was the driving force for oxygenation of the oceans 580 million years ago, and that this was the catalyst for the evolution of large complex animals,” he added.
Distinctive chromium isotope signals occur when continental rocks are altered and weathered as a result of oxygen levels rising in the atmosphere.
The chromium released by this weathering is then washed into the seas and deposited in the deepest oceans – trapped in iron-rich rocks on the sea bed.
Using this new data, the research team has not only been able to establish the trigger for the evolution of animals, but have also demonstrated that oxygen began to pulse into the atmosphere earlier than previously thought.
“Oxygen levels actually began to rise 2.8 billion years ago,” explained Dr Poulton.
“But, instead of this rise being steady and gradual over time, what we saw in our data was a very unstable situation with short-lived episodes of free oxygen in the atmosphere early in Earth’s history, followed by plummeting levels around 2 billion years ago,” he said.
“It was not until a second rise in atmospheric oxygen 580 million years ago that larger complex animals were able to get a foothold on the Earth,” he added. (ANI)
Washington, September 9 (ANI): In a new study, scientists have determined that the technique of laser cooling could be used to create “exotic” states of matter.
According to a report in National Geographic News, in a new technique, Martin Weitz and Ulrich Vogl of the University of Bonn in Germany used a laser to bring the temperature of dense rubidium gas far below the normal point at which the gas becomes a solid.
Previous research had been able to use lasers to quickly “supercool” only very diluted gases.
But, “here’s a case where you shine a laser on something and it actually cools down, and not just a handful of atoms, but a macroscopic object,” said Trey Porto, a physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s laser-cooling group.
The process could be used to create fascinating new states of matter, according to the study authors.
“For example, if you can very quickly cool water much lower than zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), where it would normally turn to ice, exotic crystalline and glassy states of matter would be predicted,” Weitz said.
The new technique could also be used in cooling mechanisms to boost the efficiency of some stargazing equipment, he added.
“If you could cool thermal cameras that look at the stars, they may have less noise and be more sensitive,” he said.
Since a laser’s color is linked to its intensity, the new technique is based on using a red laser in which the frequency has been adjusted so that the beam affects the atoms only when they collide with each other.
Weitz and Vogl shone this laser beam into gaseous rubidium atoms in a high-pressure “atmosphere” of argon.
In the experiment, the rubidium gas fell from 662 degrees Fahrenheit (350 degrees Celsius) to almost 536 degrees Fahrenheit (280 degrees Celsius) within mere seconds.
Much more research needs to be done before the laser-cooling process can be used in real-world applications, study co-author Weitz cautioned.
But, NIST’s Porto said the work already represents a major departure from traditional cooling of diluted gases, which are currently used for studying quantum effects or preparing gas samples for atomic clocks.
“I think the really amazing thing is that you can even get cooling in this regime, because it’s a really dense gas and a very different mechanism,” Porto said.
“Traditional cooling powers are so tiny. To cool a physical object by a measurable degree with a laser is amazing,” he added. (ANI)
London, September 9 (ANI): A new research has suggested that a steady barrage of small meteorite impacts cause the moon to “hum”.
But, no seismometers sent to the moon to date have been sensitive enough to hear the “hum”.
According to a report in New Scientist, Philippe Lognonne at the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris and colleagues decided to work out how loud the ring is.
The team estimated the meteorite population in the solar neighbourhood, and calculated the likely seismic signals that would be created by a range of meteorite sizes and velocities as they strike the moon.
To determine how the vibrations from these impacts would be seen by seismometers, the team used data taken by Apollo seismometers four decades ago.
These measured the vibrations created by the landings of lunar modules and spent rocket stages.
Since the precise locations and timing of these landings were known, they could be used to gauge how long it would take vibrations caused by meteorite impacts to travel through the moon, and how much the signals might dim.
Their calculations revealed space rocks with masses ranging from a gram to a kilogram do indeed create a hum, but it is subtle.
Earth’s hum, created by pounding waves, is more than 1000 times louder.
“This shows that all planets may hum, those with and those without atmosphere,” said Lognonne.
“The moon-hum’s quietness means future lunar seismometers should be able to peek deep within the moon without the hum creating problematic background noise, he added.
Instead, seismometers can focus on measuring waves created by moonquakes, tremors created by a variety of sources, including the tidal tug of the Earth.
Because seismic waves are sensitive to the type, arrangement and density of rocks they pass through, studying the quakes can reveal more about the moon’s interior.
The network of seismometers left by the Apollo missions has been shut down since 1977, so Lognonne hopes more sensitive instruments will be sent to the moon soon.
These could reach deeper than the Apollo network to measure the size of the moon’s core.
“I think the study is a great idea,” said Clive Neal of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, who was not associated with the research.
“Estimating the actual background noise is critical for designing the next generation of seismometers to go to the moon,” he added. (ANI)
Guwahati, Sep 9 (ANI): As experts claim that a big earthquake might hit Assam region shortly, locals are rushing to get their houses insured while the authorities are conducting sensitization campaigns as a precautionary measure.
The region was rocked by four earthquakes in past three weeks, including a tremor with 5.9 magnitude, the biggest in past nine years in the area.
People are not just getting their houses insured but advising others to do so as well.
“We are advising other people in the (housing) society to insure their flats also so that we can fight such disasters together. Precaution is important at this time. People have become alert and there is a general atmosphere of fear that prevails,” said Ravishankar Ravi, a resident.
Even builders in the city are taking all precautions while constructing buildings. The last and the strongest of the recent four earthquakes have literally shaken the people.
“We are really concerned about the earthquake because in the last month, we have already had four earthquakes, it worried us a lot because we are staying in apartments and it becomes tough to manage while there is (constant fear) of earthquake going on. We are really worried because we have a history of major earthquake in 1950. And there are some rumours also going on that there might be a earthquake, a big earthquake might happen in the course of time,” said Adreena Bora, another resident.
Meanwhile the authorities are gearing up for any such situation as well. They are conducting sensitization and awareness campaigns across the city in schools, housing societies, government and corporate houses.
“We are having sensitization meetings amongst them (schools and societies). We are telling them, those who are living in multi storey buildings because they will be more vulnerable to damage because of an earthquake, as to what they should know about the quality of buildings and what they should do to minimize casualties like hiding or coming under a beam,’ said Pratik Hazele, Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup.
Assam is seated on the highly volatile seismic zone five. Among all the earthquakes that Assam has experienced, the earthquakes of 1897 and 1950 are among the ten biggest earthquakes in history.
Study reveals that Assam records a major earthquake every fifty years, the last being in 1950. (ANI)
London, Sep 7 (ANI): Former model Katie Price, a.k.a. Jordan, reportedly got furious when she came to know about her lover Alex Reid’s involvement in a sex film, which shows him naked in a rape scene.
Before the new nude footage emerged, the 31-year-old had publicly defended her boyfriend from porn allegations by saying that he did not strip for the ultra-violent flick ‘Killer Bitch’.
However, Jordan was left red-faced when Reid showed her a censored version of the film, cutting out his X-rated bits..
According to reports, the film almost cost Reid his love.
“He made a mistake and it nearly cost him his relationship with Kate,” the Daily Star quoted one of Jordan’s friends as saying.
“He’s pulled out of the film and is looking to sue the makers because there has obviously been a very big leak,” the friend added.
Though the two showed a united front at the Burghley Horse Trials, near Stamford, Lincolnshire, the atmosphere between them remained icy as she promoted her KP Equestrian range.
“Despite putting on a brave face, Kate is furious that Alex has betrayed her by lying about the film and keeping secret scenes from her,” a source said.
“She believed everything he said and stood by him, but has been left looking like a total mug. This will leave their relationship in turmoil.
“Kate was all business at Burghley but is set to haul him over the coals for humiliating her once she gets him alone.
“Alex let her make a fool of herself on national TV and it’s touch and go whether she’ll be able to forgive him.
“She’s furious and he’s treading on very thin ice,” the source added. (ANI)
London, September 4 (ANI): The Maldives government has launched a project to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using “biochar”, a charcoal made from bio-wastes such as coconut shells.
According to a report by BBC News, the pilot project, launched by the Maldives government together with a UK-based company, Carbon Gold, aims to produce biochar using bio-waste, including coconut shells, which are abundantly available in the archipelago.
Biochar is produced through the “slow cooking” (pyrolysis) of plant wastes. The resulting black char is rich in carbon and can be mixed with soil as a fertiliser.
“While wasting the environment we are wasting a lot of money by buying (fertilizer) from abroad,” said Minister of state for fisheries and agriculture, Aminath Shafia.
“So, we were looking into a project that could develop it using something that is available in the country,” she said.
The Maldives wants to be carbon neutral by 2020
President Mohamed Nasheed, who earlier announced a target of going carbon neutral by 2020, has welcomed the new partnership.
“Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people,” he said.
Shafia said that the project would be launched on three islands and rolled out to others if farmers responded positively.
According to officials at Carbon Gold, biochar is an effective way of removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
The company said that the fertiliser also improves soil fertility and locks up its carbon contents for several years after it is ploughed into the ground.
Daniel Morrel, a co-founder of the company, told BBC News that the Maldives was the first government to sponsor its production.
He described biochar as “carbon negative”.
“Waste that would have rotted or been burnt before is now locked up and put very safely in the soil,” he said.
“It is not one of the best solutions, but the great thing about biochar is while everybody is talking about reducing the CO2 emissions, this is actually taking CO2 out of the atmosphere,” he added. (ANI)
Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): Potted plants might add a certain aesthetic value to your house, but they are likely to have adverse health effects, suggests a new study.
The research team headed by Stanley J. Kays of the University of Georgia’s Department of Horticulture has shown that these indoor plants actually release volatile organic compounds into the environment.
During the study, they identified and measured the amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by four popular indoor potted plant species Peace Lily, Snake Plant, Weeping Fig and Areca Palm.
Samples of each plant were placed in glass containers with inlet ports connected to charcoal filters to supply purified air and outlet ports connected to traps where volatile emissions were measured.
A total of 23 volatile compounds were found in Peace Lily, 16 in Areca Palm, 13 in Weeping Fig, and 12 in Snake Plant. Some of the VOCs are ingredients in pesticides applied to several species during the production phase.
Other VOCs released did not come from the plant itself, but rather the micro-organisms living in the soil.
“Although micro-organisms in the media have been shown to be important in the removal of volatile air pollutants, they also release volatiles into the atmosphere”, said Kays.
Furthermore, 11 of the VOCs came from the plastic pots containing the plants. Several of these VOCs are known to negatively affect animals.
Interestingly, VOC emission rates were higher during the day than at night in all of the species, and all classes of emissions were higher in the day than at night.
The study concluded, “while ornamental plants are known to remove certain VOCs, they also emit a variety of VOCs, some of which are known to be biologically active.
“The longevity of these compounds has not been adequately studied, and the impact of these compounds on humans is unknown.”
The study is published in the American Society for Horticultural Science journal HortScience. (ANI)
London, Sep 3 (ANI): Wicketkeeper Matt Prior says he has proved the selectors right, both with the bat, as well as through his flawless work behind the stumps, as England sealed a 2-1 Ashes victory over Australia.
Dubbed ‘Dire Prior’ by England legend Bob Willis before the series, the 27-year-old turned in some excellent performances to help win back the little urn.
Speaking to All Out Cricket magazine, Prior said: “I don’t want people noticing me because that means they are still talking about me in the job.”
“It’s been a goal of mine to get to a place where the keeping position wasn’t discussed and I knew the only way to get to that was putting in good performances with the bat and gloves,” The Sun quoted him, as saying.
“The scrutiny that the England wicketkeeper is under is massive but it’s something I have to take on the chin and know that if I do drop a ball, no matter how difficult it might be, it is going to get looked at from every angle. And once I got over that realisation – I found that I could get on with my job,” Prior added.
Prior’s personal highlight this summer was the 115-run win at Lord’s.
His keeping saw just nine byes conceded in the Test, compared to a whopping 31 for Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
With the bat, a 42-ball 61 in the second innings set up the victory charge for Andrew Flintoff and Co as they skittled the Aussies.
And after seeing the wickets tumble at the home of cricket on day five, Prior added: “You play a county game at Lord’s and you think ‘wow, this is incredible’.
“Then you play a Test match there and you think ‘this is what it’s all about’ – playing there with that Test match buzz – it’s a completely different atmosphere. And then you play an Ashes Test and you think ‘this is unbelievable’.
“And then you win an Ashes Test match at Lord’s after turning up on the last day, with thousands of fans unable to get in. The noise in the Long Room when we walked out was just astounding,” he said. (ANI)
Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): In a new report, scientists have determined that climate change mitigation strategies ignore carbon cycling processes of inland waters.
Scientists from the University of Vienna, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Antwerp, and the US based Stroud Water Research Center, authored the report, which is published in the September issue of Nature Geoscience.
They argue that current international strategies to mitigate manmade carbon emissions and address climate change have overlooked a critical player – inland waters.
Streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands play an important role in the carbon cycle that is unaccounted for in conventional carbon cycling models.
According to Dr. Tom J. Battin of the department of Freshwater Ecology at the University of Vienna and lead author of the report, “While inland waters represent only 1 percent of the Earth’s surface, their contribution to the carbon cycle is disproportionately large, underestimated, and not recognized within the models on which the Kyoto protocol was based.”
The team of scientists points out that all current global carbon models consider inland waters static conduits that transfer carbon from the continents to the oceans.
In reality, inland waters are dynamic ecosystems with the potential to alter the fates of terrestrial carbon delivered to them including: burial in sediments leading to long-term storage or sequestration; and metabolism in rivers and subsequent outgassing of respired carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
“Twenty percent of the continental carbon sequestration actually occurs as burial in inland water sediments,” said Dr. Lars Tranvik, Professor of Limnology at Uppsala University in Sweden.
“River outgassing of respired carbon, contributes carbon to the atmosphere in an amount equivalent to 13 percent of annual fossil fuel burning,” said Dr. Anthony K. Aufdenkampe, a scientist at the Stroud Water Research Center.
Because the amount of atmospheric carbon is well known and conservation of matter requires a balanced global carbon budget, this previously unaccounted for source of carbon to the atmosphere implies the existence of an additional continental carbon sink such as higher rates of biomass accrual in forests.
“A larger accumulation of carbon in forest ecosystems that could offset the outgassing from rivers would be more consistent with current independently-derived estimates of carbon sequestration on the continents,” said Dr. Sebastian Luyssaert of the department of Biology at University of Antwerp in Belgium. (ANI)
London, August 30 (ANI): The Royal Society in London seems to be convinced that man-made volcanoes can help stave off climate change, as it is backing research into simulated volcanic eruptions that will spray millions of tons of dust into the air to cool the Earth.
This week, the society will call for a global programme of studies into geo-engineering, which can help devise new ways to manipulate the planet’s climate to counteract global warming.
It believes that pouring sulphur-based particles into the upper atmosphere may help keep the planet cool.
Ken Caldeira, an earth scientist at Stanford University, California, and a member of a Royal Society working group on geo-engineering, said that dust sprayed into the stratosphere in volcanic eruptions could cool the Earth by reflecting light back into space.
“If I had a dollar for geo-engineering research I would put 90 cents of it into stratospheric aerosols and 10 cents into everything else,” Times Online quoted Caldeira as saying.
The intervention by the Royal Society comes amid tension ahead of the United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen in December to agree global cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
The Royal Society’s decision to take geo-engineering seriously is a measure of the desperation felt by scientists about climate change.
Brian Launder, a professor at Manchester University, who is also on the working group, recently said that without CO2 reductions or geo-engineering “civilisation as we know it will end within our grandchildren’s lifetime”.
“The only rational scheme is to reduce the sunlight reaching Earth and to reflect back more of it,” he said.
The society’s report is expected to draw partly on research by Tim Lenton, professor of earth sciences at the University of East Anglia, who has just completed the first big comparison of different forms of geo-engineering.
“We estimate that 1.5-5m tons of sulphate particles could be released (artificially) into the stratosphere each year on a recurring basis. This is quite a small amount, which makes it potentially economically viable, but it could reduce global temperature rise by up to 2C,” said Lenton. (ANI)
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