Standard Gold Announces New President

MINNEAPOLIS–(Business Wire)–
Standard Gold, Inc. (OTCBB:SDGR) has hired gold industry veteran Steve Flechner
to serve as its president.

At Standard Gold, Mr. Flechner will be working closely with and relying upon two
highly-qualified mineral project specialists, Senior Technical Vice President
Clyde Smith, Ph.D. and Vice President of Exploration and Sustainability David S.
Smith. Together, they have plans for acquisition, exploration, development, and
mining of gold and other profitable mineral opportunities being considered and
pursued in North and South America.

Visit the new Standard Gold website at www.standardgoldmining.com

About Steve Flechner

Mr. Flechner is the former vice president and general counsel of Gold Fields
Mining Corporation, which was the U.S. subsidiary of the former Consolidated
Gold Fields of London. In that position, he established and directed Gold
Fields` land, legal, and environmental functions in order to acquire, permit,
finance, and develop low-cost, heap-leach gold mining operations at the Ortiz
Mine in New Mexico, the Mesquite Mine in California, and the Chimney Creek Mine
in Nevada. These three mines collectively produced over 400,000 ounces of gold
per year with high profitability. Mr. Flechner negotiated $150 million of gold
loans and equipment leases for these projects with Chase, Citibank, Mellon and
Westpac banks. He also served on management committees for budgeting,
environmental compliance, and community relations as Gold Fields grew from 20 to
1200 people. The Mesquite and Chimney Creek mines were later acquired by Newmont
Mining.

More recently, Mr. Flechner has worked with publicly-traded junior exploration
companies on project acquisitions and development. He was instrumental in the
acquisition of a major South Korean tungsten-molybdenum project (one of the
largest tungsten mines in the world) and the formerly-producing largest gold
mine in South Korea. He also assisted in establishing a major gold exploration
project in Papua New Guinea and has worked on other gold projects in Utah,
Nevada, Ireland, Slovakia, Mexico and Columbia.

Mr. Flechner holds a Doctorate in Law from Yale University and has lectured at
the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute on “Environmental Laws & Regulations
Governing Gold Mining in the West”. His track record with Gold Fields and his
experience in domestic and international mining project acquisitions are
indicative of his ability to significantly contribute to the growth of Standard
Gold.

About Dr. Clyde Smith

Dr. Smith, Standard Gold`s senior technical vice president, holds a B.A. from
Carleton College, a M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D.
from the University of Idaho. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the
Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. Dr.
Smith has founded or co-founded five exploration companies and is responsible
for the discovery of four deposits: the Jason lead-zinc-silver deposit, Yukon
Territory, Canada; the Santa Fe gold deposit, Nevada; the North Lake gold
deposit, Saskatchewan, Canada; and the Solidaridad gold-silver-copper deposit,
Mexico.

About David S. Smith

Mr. Smith, Standard Gold`s vice president of exploration and sustainability,
holds a B.A. from Carleton College, a M.Sc. from the University of Oregon, and
an MBA from Bainbridge Graduate Institute. He has been involved in minerals
exploration for over 20 years in the US, Canada, Mexico, and China, serving most
recently as a chief geologist, exploration program manager, and sustainability
advisor. He has published research in the leading ore deposits journal Economic
Geology and brings substantial hands-on geologic, management, and project
development experience to the Standard Gold team.

About Standard Gold, Inc.

Standard Gold is a minerals exploration and development company. Through our
wholly-owned subsidiary, Hunter Bates Mining Corporation, we hold title to the
past producing gold mine in Colorado known as the Bates-Hunter Mine. We do not
claim to have any mineral reserves at the Bates-Hunter Mine. Our common stock
trades on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol “SDGR.” To find
out more about Standard Gold, Inc. (OTCBB:SDGR) visit our website at
www.standardgoldmining.com.

Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors

Certain statements included in this press release may constitute forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially. Such statements are valid only as of today, and we
disclaim any obligation to update this information. These statements are subject
to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future
experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. These
statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations as to such future
outcomes. These risks and uncertainties relate to Standard Gold and its
affiliates, and include, among others, the ability to obtain or maintain
regulatory approvals; the ability to obtain necessary financing; and other risks
and uncertainties described in Standard Gold`s filings from time to time with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. Standard Gold disclaims any obligation
to update its forward-looking statements.

In addition, the exploration for and development of mineral deposits involves
significant financial risks, which even experience and knowledge may not
eliminate, regardless of the amount of careful evaluation applied to a process.
While the discovery of a mineral deposit may result in substantial rewards, few
properties are ultimately developed into producing mines. Moreover, we cannot
make any estimates regarding probable reserves in connection with any of our
projects and any estimates relating to possible reserves are subject to
significant risks. Therefore, no assurance can be given that any size of
reserves or grades of reserves will be realized. If a discovery is made, the
mineral deposit discovered, assuming recoverable, may differ from the reserves
already discovered and recovered by others in the same region of the planned
areas of exploration. Further, the cost of exploration and exploitation can be
extensive and there is no assurance that we will have the resources necessary or
the financing available to pursue projects we currently hold interests in or to
acquire interests in other mineral exploration projects that may become
available. The risks we face are numerous and detailed information regarding
these risks may be found in filings made by us with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including our most recent annual report.

Standard Gold Inc.
Stephen King, CEO, 612-490-3419
Investor Relations: Dan Schustack, 646-278-6787

Copyright Business Wire 2010

JNU students protest against non-implementation of faculty quota

New Delhi, Apr 5 (ANI): A group of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students protested here on Monday against the administration outside the office of the University Grants Commission (UGC) for not filling up reserved faculty positions.

Students said the directives and the constitutional provisions in implementation of reservation policy in filling up faculty positions meant for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates were not being followed by the university.

Reportedly, the JNU administration had rejected the cut-off criteria for SC/ST/OBC candidates over the past two years.
The protestors claimed that at a meeting held on March 31, the JNU administration cited ”legal ambiguity” as an excuse in not filling up the reserved faculty positions.

The meeting was held to finalise SC and ST candidates for the posts of associate professor and professor and OBC candidates as assistant professors.

“According to the Supreme Court and Ministry of Human Resource Development, each and every central university has to implement SC/ST/OBC reservation. But in our campus our administration is not ready to implement reservation in the campus,” said Priya, one of the protestors.

“They are saying that if SC/ST/OBC teachers and students will come in the university to teach and to study, the standard of JNU will decrease. So according to the JNU administration they don”t want to implement the reservation,” she alleged. (ANI)

How to stay fit in flu season

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)

Musharraf ‘shedding crocodile tears’, says ex- Pak SCBA chief

Islamabad, Sep.19 (ANI): Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association’s former President Aitzaz Ahsan has said that former President General Pervez Musharraf is ‘shedding crocodile tears’ while admitting that removing Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from office in 2007 was a mistake.

Referring to Musharraf’s speech at Trinity University in Saint Antonio, Texas, where the former general admitted that he had committed a mistake while sacking the then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from office, Ahsan said Musharraf had committed not only one but two mistakes by removing the higher judiciary and imposing an emergency in the country on November 3, 2007.

Talking to a private television channel, Ahsan said the government and the ‘independent’ judiciary should play their role in trying Musharraf under high treason charges.

He said it was not the right time for lawyers to take their struggle to roads, as they did previously while demanding restoration of the judiciary, The News reports.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has denied that Musharraf had taken the cabinet into his confidence before promulgating the Provisional Constitutional Ordinance (PCO) and imposing the emergency rule in 2007.

Interacting with media persons during an Iftaar party hosted by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, several party leaders rejected the notion regarding Musharraf consulting the cabinet before taking the illegal and extra-judicial actions. (ANI)

US army set for “hopping rotochut” that hops to avoid rubble trouble

London, September 19 (ANI): The U.S. army’s fleet of robots will soon be enhanced with the addition of forthcoming reconnaissance craft called the ‘hopping rotochute’, which will be capable of travelling deep into obstacle-ridden spaces like caves and rubble-laden buildings to video what it finds.

The self-righting probe is being developed for the Army Research Lab in Aberdeen, Maryland, by Eric Beyer and Mark Costello, a pair of robotics engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The project attains significance because present-day military robots, which run on small tank-style tracks, cannot cope with irregular surfaces and obstacles such as rubble or boulders.

“They usually have trouble and get stuck with even low obstacles and walls a couple of feet high,” says Costello.

Although small helicopters are one alternative, continuous flying drains the batteries fast.

Thus, Costello stresses the need for a rotor-powered, bottom-heavy, self-righting vehicle that spends most of its time on the ground, conserving battery power.

AS to whether repeated hopping might harm the craft, a spokesman for the Impact Centre at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, UK, said: “From a crashworthiness point of view this concept looks perfectly feasible. There should be no problem with the vehicle surviving hundreds of impacts, which is roughly equivalent to dropping a mobile phone from waist height.” (ANI)

HIV uses several routes to escape immune system pressure

Washington, September 19 (ANI): Researchers at the Emory Vaccine Center have shown that HIV relies upon a number of strategies rather than use any preferred escape route to escape immune system pressure.

The human immune system has the ability to temporarily overpower HIV in early infection.

Studies conducted in the recent past have shown that most newly infected patients develop neutralizing antibodies. These are blood proteins that glob onto the virus and would allow patients to defend themselves – if they were facing only one target.

However, the problem occurs when HIV mutates, and disguises itself enough to get away from the antibodies. The virus eventually wears down the immune system into exhaustion.

The Emory team’s findings attain significance as they suggest that even if any scientist succeeds in identifying a vaccine component that can stimulate neutralizing antibodies, HIV’s capacity for rapid mutation could still be a confounding factor.

Dr. Cynthia Derdeyn, associate professor of pathology at Emory University School of Medicine, Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, says that a single type of neutralizing antibody may not be enough to contain HIV.

“These neutralizing antibodies work really well – they hit the virus fast and hard. But so far, every time we look, the virus escapes,” she says.

During the study, the researchers took blood samples from the participants a few weeks after infection occurred, and then later as two participants’ immune responses continued.

They isolated individual viruses over the first two years of HIV infection, and tested how well the patients’ own antibodies could neutralize them.

“In one patient where we had very early samples, there was evidence that neutralizing antibody came up within weeks, and that’s earlier than what was previously thought,” Derdeyn says.

In both patients, some viruses mutated part of their outer proteins so that after the mutation, an enzyme would be likely to attach a sugar molecule to it.

Though the sugar molecule interferes with antibody attack, this tactic, known as the “glycan shield”, was not observed in all cases.

Other viruses mutated the part of the outer protein that the neutralizing antibodies stick to directly. In both patients, many changes in the virus’ genetic code were necessary for escape.

“We need to understand early events in the immune response if we are going to figure out what a potential vaccine should have in it. What we can show is that even in one patient, several escape strategies are going on,” Derdeyn says.

According to her, that means that in order to be immune to HIV infection, someone may need to have several types of neutralizing antibodies ready to go.

Seeing how the virus mutates will allow researchers to choose the best parts to put in a vaccine, she says.

The results are online and scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.(ANI)

Invading black holes cause ‘cosmic flashes’

Washington, September 19 (ANI): Mathematicians at the University of Leeds, UK, have determined that cosmic flashes, known as gamma ray bursts, are produced by jets of plasma that originate from invading black holes.

Gamma ray bursts are beams of high-energy radiation that are similar to the radiation emitted by explosions of nuclear weapons.

The orthodox model for this cosmic jet engine involves plasma being heated by neutrinos in a disk of matter that forms around a black hole, which is created when a star collapses.

But, mathematicians at the University of Leeds, have come up with a different explanation: the jets come directly from black holes, which can dive into nearby massive stars and devour them.

Their theory is based on recent observations by the Swift satellite, which indicates that the central jet engine operates for up to 10,000 seconds – much longer than the neutrino model can explain.

Mathematicians believe that this is evidence for an electromagnetic origin of the jets, that is, that the jets come directly from a rotating black hole, and that it is the magnetic stresses caused by the rotation that focus and accelerate the jet’s flow.

For the mechanism to operate, the collapsing star has to be rotating extremely rapidly.

This increases the duration of the star’s collapse as the gravity is opposed by strong centrifugal forces.

One particularly peculiar way of creating the right conditions involves not a collapsing star, but a star invaded by its black hole companion in a binary system.

The black hole acts like a parasite, diving into the normal star, spinning it with gravitational forces on its way to the star’s centre, and finally eating it from the inside.

“The neutrino model cannot explain very long gamma ray bursts and the Swift observations, as the rate at which the black hole swallows the star becomes rather low quite quickly, rendering the neutrino mechanism inefficient, but the magnetic mechanism can,” said Professor Komissarov from the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds.

“Our knowledge of the amount of the matter that collects around the black hole and the rotation speed of the star allow us to calculate how long these long flashes will be – and the results correlate very well with observations from satellites,” he added. (ANI)

Young age at first drink can turn under-15s into alcoholics

Washington, Sept 19 (ANI): Drinking at young age may affect genes linked to alcoholism and make youngsters vulnerable to severe problems, says a new study.

The study led by Dr Arpana Agrawal, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, revealed that the younger an individual was at first drink, the greater the risk for alcohol dependence and the more prominent the role played by genetic factors.

“There seemed to be a greater genetic influence in those who took their first full drink at a younger age,” said Agrawal.

“That’s very consistent with what has been predicted in the literature and in the classification of types of alcohol dependence, but we present a unique test of the hypothesis,” she added.

During the study, the researchers studied 6,257 adult twins from Australia and measured the extent to which age at first drink changed the role of heritable influences on symptoms of alcohol dependence.

The study showed that when twins started drinking early, genetic factors contributed greatly to risk for alcohol dependence, at rates as high as 90 percent in the youngest drinkers.

The team also found that those who were 15 or younger when they started drinking tended to have a greater genetic risk for alcohol dependence.

However, some who were 16 or older before they took their first drink later became alcohol dependent, but their dependence was related more to environmental factors.

“Something about starting to drink at an early age puts young people at risk for later problems associated with drinking,” Agrawal says.

“We continue to investigate the mechanisms, but encouraging youth to delay their drinking debut may help.

“Some early-onset drinkers do not develop alcohol problems and some late-onset drinkers do – we are working on why that is the case, but it is important to note that this is one risk factor among many and does not determine whether a person will, or will not, develop alcohol dependence.

“But age at first drink is a well-known risk factor, and there have been two main hypotheses about why:

One has been that common genetic and environmental factors contribute both to the risk for alcohol dependence and to the likelihood a person will be younger when consuming their first drink,” she added.

The study will be published Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. (ANI)

Pak Army’s plans to use private militia against Taliban may backfire: Report

Washington, Sep.18 (ANI): The Pakistan Army’s initiative to sponsor local militias, or the lashkars, as they are commonly known, may have been working in its favour against the Taliban, however some people feel such move could back fire in future.

Backed by the Army, which had initiated an all out operation against the Taliban in Swat and Malakand Divisions in April, more than 8,000 villagers living across the region have joined these militias to try to keep the Taliban away from their villages.

Military officials are encouraging people to join hands with the troops against the extremists and carrying out special drives for forming such lashkars.

“The military is going village to village, speaking with elders and encouraging them to form their own lashkars and unite with existing ones,” said Swat military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan.

While the Army considers that its initiative would yield positive results and prevent the Taliban’s onslaught in the region, experts have raised questions over it saying the move could have catastrophic effect in future.

“They could be temporarily used in some areas where the Taliban are weak or heavily resented, like in Swat. But at the end of the day, the villagers need to do their work; they can’t be armed every night,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted, Rahimullah Yusufzai, a well-known journalist, as saying.

“Creating these private militias may work in the short-run, but what if they later turn on each other to settle personal scores?” usufzai asked

Experts said the military should think twice before trying to extend the experimant into Pakistan’s other tribal agencies, where the Taliban still maintains a strong grip.

“It’s a very interesting experiment. But if it works in Swat, this can’t be replicated anywhere else, because the guys that they were pitted against were way too powerful, the murder of Qari Zainuddin was a case in point,” said Rifaat Hussain, an analyst at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. (ANI)

Negative public opinion about foreign countries an early warning signal for terrorism

Washington, September 18 (ANI): People’s negative views toward the leadership and policies of other countries may be an indication that a terrorist act may be carried out, say researchers.

Alan Krueger, a Princeton University economist, and Jitka Maleckova, of Charles University in the Czech Republic, came to this conclusion after analysing public opinion polls and terrorist activity in 143 pairs of countries.

Writing about their findings in the journal Science, the researchers say that there is a strong relationship between attitudes expressed toward a foreign country — indicated in surveys on foreign leaders’ performance-and the occurrence of terrorism against that country.

“Public opinion appears to be a useful predictor of terrorist activity,” said Krueger, the Bendheim Professor in Economics and Public Policy.

“This is the first study to relate public opinion across countries to concrete actions such as terrorism,” he added.

He pointed out that the notion that public attitudes can contribute to terrorism has been inadequately explored to date.

According to him, the study’s findings attain significance as they suggest that public opinion may provide a valuable early warning signal of terrorism, and help researchers better understand the causes of terrorism.

The researchers carried out their study by mining public opinion polls of residents in 19 countries in the Middle East and northern Africa conducted by Gallup.

They asked the respondents whether they approved of the job performance of the leaders of nine large countries.

According to the researchers, the countries selected for the study are world powers in terms of size, population or military strength, are the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom.

The opinions, both positive and negative, were linked to the number of terrorist attacks conducted against the nine world powers by people from the 19 countries between 2004 and 2008. The terror attacks were compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center.

Based on the findings, Krueger says that there is not a direct connection between poverty and terrorism, contrary to a popular view.

He adds that economic status has more to do with target countries than it does with the states where the attacks originate.

He says that countries with advanced economies as well as a high degree of civil liberties are most likely to be the targets of terrorism.

The researchers admits that the study does not explain whether terrorists act in response to public opinion or whether they are simply reacting just like the larger public to external events.

However, he insists that, in either case, public opinion surveys can provide a powerful indication of the likelihood of terrorist activity.

Krueger believes that greater disapproval of another country’s leaders or policies may result in more terrorist acts because it increases the number of people who provide material support and encouragement for terrorism, and increases the number of people interested in joining cells and carrying out terrorist acts themselves. (ANI)

Catalyst simulations for fuel cells may make clean cars a reality

Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are working towards developing better catalyst for fuel cells in a bid to make clean cars a reality.

If successful, the researchers could make a car that runs on hydrogen from solar power, and produces water instead of carbon emissions.

Materials science and engineering assistant professor Dane Morgan and Ph.D. student Edward (Ted) Holby have developed a computational model that could optimise an important component of fuel cells, making it possible for the technology to have a more widespread use.

The researchers investigated how particle size is related to the overall stability of a material, and showed with their model that increasing the particle size of a fuel cell catalyst decreases degradation and therefore increases the useful lifetime of a fuel cell.

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that facilitate a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, producing electrical power and forming water.

In the type of fuel cells Morgan is researching, called proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), hydrogen is split into a proton and electron at one side of the fuel cell (the anode).

The proton moves through the device while the electron is forced to travel in an external circuit, where it can perform useful work, while at the other side of the fuel cell (the cathode), the protons, electrons and oxygen combine to form water, which is the only waste product.

One of the many hurdles to producing efficient fuel cells for widespread use is the catalyst added to aid the reaction between protons, electrons and oxygen at the cathode.

Current fuel cells use platinum and platinum alloys as a catalyst. While platinum can withstand the corrosive fuel cell environment, it is expensive and not very abundant.

Thus, to maximize platinum use, researchers use catalysts made with platinum particles as small as two nanometers, which are approximately 10 atoms across.

These tiny structures have a large surface area on which the fuel cell reaction occurs.

However, platinum catalysts this small degrade very quickly, which means that the fuel cell doesn’t last long.

The researchers have found a possible solution to the rapid degradation problem-when it comes to catalyst particle size, sometimes smaller isn’t better.

In their modelling work, they showed that if the particle size of a platinum catalyst is increased to four or five nanometers, which is approximately 20 atoms across, the level of degradation significantly decreases.

This means the catalyst and the fuel cell as a whole can continue to function for much longer than if the particle size was only two or three nanometers.

“Fuel cells are just one of many energy technologies – solar, battery, etc. – with enormous potential to reduce our dependence on oil and our carbon emissions. Computer simulation offers a powerful tool to understand and develop new materials at the heart of these energy technologies,” said Morgan. (ANI)

Planck spacecraft obtains first peek of big bang’s ‘afterglow’

London, September 18 (ANI): European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Planck spacecraft has obtained its first peek at the afterglow of the big bang, revealing it in unprecedented detail.

The ESA spacecraft was launched into space on May 14 this year. It is observing the glow of hot gas from just 380,000 years after the big bang, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

According to a report in New Scientist, the detailed properties of this background may contain hints of hidden extra dimensions or multiple universes, as well as providing clues to what caused a brief, early period of incredibly rapid cosmic expansion.

Planck began surveying the microwave background on August 13, a few weeks after reaching its planned perch 1.5 million kilometres from Earth at a point called L2 and cooling its detectors to within 0.1 degrees Celsius above absolute zero.

Now, the Planck team has released the probe’s first image, an observational strip covering about 5 per cent of the sky.

Slight variations in temperature from place to place in the early universe give the image its mottled appearance.

“With a few per cent of the data in, you can see it’s working well and delivering good stuff,” said team member George Efstathiou of the University of Cambridge.

Planck is expected to provide the most detailed all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background yet, improving on the best current map, obtained by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which launched in 2001.

Planck’s detectors have more than 10 times the sensitivity of WMAP’s, and about 2.5 times the angular resolution.

“Every strip that Planck scans, we’re getting data that is many, many times more sensitive than WMAP,” Efstathiou told New Scientist.

Although Planck was only designed to observe the sky for 15 months, the team believes it could last for more than 30 months, based on new estimates of how long its coolant will last.

The extra time will allow Planck to measure the radiation with even greater precision, since it will scan the entire sky four times – two more than originally planned. (ANI)

How life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents

London, September 18 (ANI): Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research group in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents, such as sulfuric acid instead of water.

The research group for Alternative Solvents as a Basis for Life Supporting Zones in (Exo-) Planetary Systems was established by the University of Vienna.

Traditionally, planets that might sustain life are looked for in the ‘habitable zone’, the region around a star in which Earth-like planets with carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrogen atmospheres could maintain liquid water on their surfaces.

Consequently, scientists have been looking for biomarkers produced by extraterrestrial life with metabolisms resembling the terrestrial ones, where water is used as a solvent and the building blocks of life, amino acids, are based on carbon and oxygen.

However, these may not be the only conditions under which life could evolve.

“It is time to make a radical change in our present geocentric mindset for life as we know it on Earth,” said scientist Johannes Leitner.

“Even though this is the only kind of life we know, it cannot be ruled out that life forms have evolved somewhere that neither rely on water nor on a carbon and oxygen based metabolism,” he added.

One requirement for a life-supporting solvent is that it remains liquid over a large temperature range.

Water is liquid between 0 degree Celsius and 100 degrees C, but other solvents exist which are liquid over more than 200 degrees C.

Such a solvent would allow an ocean on a planet closer to the central star.

The reverse scenario is also possible. A liquid ocean of ammonia could exist much further from a star.

Furthermore, sulfuric acid can be found within the cloud layers of Venus and it is now known that lakes of methane/ethane cover parts of the surface of the Saturnian satellite Titan.

Consequently, the discussion on potential life and the best strategies for its detection is ongoing and not only limited to exoplanets and habitable zones.

The newly established research group at the University of Vienna, together with international collaborators, will investigate the properties of a range of solvents other than water, including their abundance in space, thermal and biochemical characteristics as well as their ability to support the origin and evolution of life supporting metabolisms. (ANI)

Researchers operate biomedical robots from different locations worldwide via Internet

Washington, September 18 (ANI): Experts from the University of Washington and SRI International have jointly developed a new software protocol, to standardize the way biomedical robots are managed over the Internet.

Nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently made a successful demonstration of biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia with the help of the ‘Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol’.

In a 24-hour period, each participating group connected over the Internet, and controlled robots at different locations.

The tests performed demonstrated how a wide variety of robot and controller designs can seamlessly interoperate, allowing researchers to work together easily and more efficiently.

The demonstration also evaluated the feasibility of robotic manipulation from multiple sites, and was conducted to measure time and performance for evaluating laparoscopic surgical skills.

“Although many telemanipulation systems have common features, there is currently no accepted protocol for connecting these systems. We hope this new protocol serves as a starting point for the discussion and development of a robust and practical Internet-type standard that supports the interoperability of future robotic systems,” said SRI’s Tom Low.

The protocol is expected to allow engineers and designers that usually develop technologies independently, to work collaboratively, determine which designs work best, encourage widespread adoption of the new communications protocol, and help robotics research to evolve more rapidly.

Its early adoption may encourage robotic systems to be developed with interoperability in mind, and avoid future incompatibilities.

“We’re very pleased with the success of the event in which almost all of the possible connections between operator stations and remote robots were successful. We were particularly excited that novel elements such as a simulated robot and an exoskeleton controller worked smoothly with the other remote manipulation systems,” said Professor Blake Hannaford of the University of Washington. (ANI)

Emma Watson used gap year to design teen summer wear for People Tree

London, Sep 18 (ANI): Harry Potter star Emma Watson has revealed that she spent her gap year designing a ‘complete teenage summer wardrobe’ for the fair trade fashion brand People Tree.

Watson, 19, who has just enrolled at Brown University in the US, acted as a creative advisor for the ethical fashion collection, which will reach shops in February.

“I wanted to help People Tree produce a younger range because I was excited by the idea of using fashion as a tool to help alleviate poverty and knew it was something I could help make a difference with,” Sky News quoted her as saying.

“I think young people like me are becoming increasingly aware of the humanitarian and environmental issues surrounding fast fashion and want to make good choices but there aren’t many options out there.

“It has been the most incredible gap year project,” she added.

Among items that the teen actress has had a hand in designing were knitwear, cotton t-shirts, jersey dresses, and poplin shorts.

Her range also includes some more bizarre items, including “bohemian hand embroidered bed throws, recycled sweetie wrapper jewellery, banana fibre slouchy beanies and head scarves.”

They will be sold by People Tree, a company which aims at supporting developing countries and promoting environmental projects. (ANI)

Vaccine for urinary tract infections comes closer to reality

Washington, Sept 18 (ANI): A simple vaccine may soon be available to protect against urinary tract infections, thanks to researchers from University of Michigan.

The study conducted over mice showed that the vaccine prevented infection and produced key types of immunity.

It alerts the immune system to iron receptors on the surface of Escherichia coli bacteria that perform a critical function allowing infection to spread.

Administered in the nose, it induces an immune response in the body’s mucosa, a first line of defense against invading pathogens. The response, also produced in mucosal tissue in the urinary tract, should help the body fight infection where it starts.

The researchers used novel systematic approach, combining bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, to look for key parts of the bacterium that could be used in a vaccine to elicit an effective immune response.

The team, led by Dr. Harry L.T. Mobley, screened 5,379 possible bacterial proteins and identified three strong candidates to use in a vaccine to prime the body to fight E. coli.

Mobley’s team is currently testing more strains of E. coli obtained from women treated at U-M.

If the robust immunity achieved in mice can be reproduced in humans, it could be the first ever vaccine for urinary tract infections.

Most of the strains produce the same iron-related proteins that can be vaccine targets, an encouraging sign that the vaccine could work against many urinary tract infections.

The findings are published in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. (ANI)

Police swoop on sellers of Jaswant Singh’s pirated book in Pak

Lahore, Sep.18 (ANI): Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh’s book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah has sent the Pakistani book piracy nexus working overtime, but it has also landed people in police custody.

Pakistani security agencies have arrested three people for selling pirated editions of the book ‘Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence,’ following a countrywide crackdown on publishers and sellers of counterfeit editions of the controversial yet popular book.

Several fake copies of the book have also been recovered and cases have been registered in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi and Lahore, The Daily Times reported.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials said the action was taken on a complaint filed by Tariq Haq, regional sales head of the Oxford University Press (OUP).

Tariq said the OUP had the sole rights of publication and distribution of the book and the company is facing heavy losses due to large scale piracy of the book.

Singh’s book which has created a furor in India, has received an overwhelming response in Pakistan.

Not only intellectuals, but people from different strata of the society have also shown interest in the book, in which Singh has praised Muhammad Ali Jinnah and described him as a leader who had strong faith in united India, while blaming Sardar Patel for the partition in 1947. (ANI)

Genes controlling insulin ‘alter’ body clock

Washington, Sept 18 (ANI): Scientists at University of California, San Diego have identified certain insulin-regulating genes that can also alter the timing of the body clock.

They said that the findings can lead to new approaches to treating disorders such as metabolic syndrome that can result, at least in part, from chronic disruption of the sleep-wake cycle.

“People knew that the clock regulates many different processes, but what they didn’t realize what that when you tweak those processes, it feeds back and alters the clock,” said Steve Kay, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, who led the study along with John Hogenesch of the University of Pennsylvania.

A molecular clock controls daily physiological rhythms in many types of cells, even cells grown in culture.

By engineering cultured cells to glow yellow when a particular clock gene switched on, the team made the cycle visible. They then interfered with every human gene to see which would shift the clock. They found that hundreds altered the timing.

“We just suddenly discovered 350 new genes that affect the clock that weren’t known before,” Kay said.

However, subsequent screening to confirm the genes’ effect on a second clock gene narrowed the list to 200.

Seven genes involved in insulin control also influenced the rhythms of the clock.

“What came out very strongly was this close relationship between circadian regulation and insulin signalling. There’s a reciprocal relationship between circadian dysfunction and metabolic dysfunction,” said Kay.

The researchers suggest that genetically altered mice with malfunctioning clocks become obese and develop diet-induced diabetes.Understanding this close relationship between circadian regulation and metabolic homeostasis should provide novel ways of identifying new therapies for metabolic disease,” Kay added.

The study appears in journal Cell. (ANI)

Scientists map melting history of Greenland’s ice sheet

Washington, September 17 (ANI): Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have mapped the history of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland’s ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast.

By analyzing every single annual layer in the kilometres long ice cores, researchers can get detailed information about the climate of the past.

But now, the Danish researcher Bo Vinther and colleagues from the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with researchers from Canada, France and Russia, have found an entirely new way of interpreting the information from the ice core drillings.

“Ice cores from different drillings show different climate histories. This could be because they were drilled at very different places on and near Greenland, but it could also be due to changes in the elevation of the ice sheet, because the elevation itself causes different temperatures,” explained Bo Vinther about the theory.

Today, the ice sheet is more than three kilometres thick at its highest point and thinning out towards the coast.

Four of the drillings analyzed are from the central ice sheet, while two of the drillings are from small ice caps outside of the ice sheet itself.

By comparing the Oxygen-18 content in all of the annual layers from the four drillings through the ice sheet with the Oxygen-18 content of the same annual layers in the small ice caps, Bo Vinther has calculated the elevation course through 11,700 years.

Just after the ice age the elevation of the ice sheet rose slightly because when the climate transitions from ice age to warm age, there is a rapid increase in precipitation.

But at the same time, the areas lying near the coast begin to decrease in size, because the ice is melting at the edge.

When the ice melts at the edge, it slowly causes the entire ice sheet to ‘collapse’ and become lower.

The calculations show that in the course of about 3,000 years, the elevation changed and became up to 600 meters lower in the coastal areas.

But in the middle, it was a slow process, where the elevation decreased around 150 meters in the course of around 6,000 years.

It then stabilized.

The new results show the evolution of elevation of the ice sheet throughout 11,700 years and they show that the ice sheet is very sensitive to the temperature.

The results can be used to make new calculations for models predicting future consequences of climate changes. (ANI)

Robot that mimics humans from the inside out

London, Sept 17 (ANI): Boffins have developed an amazing skeleton robot that moves just like humans.

The creation is known as an “anthropomimetic robot”.

Using human anatomy as a blueprint, scientists have replicated tendons using kite lines.

And used elastic bands to mimic the bounce of a muscles, reports The Sun.

The University of Sussex with help of institutions across Europe developed the stunning invention – called the Eccerobot.

Owen Holland, who is leading the Eccerobot project, said: “We want to develop these ideas into a new kind of anthropomimetic robot which can deal with and respond to the world in ways closer to the ways that humans do.”

The project team believe the Eccerobot – which could also be fitted with artificial intelligence – could be the most life-like humanoid so far. (ANI)