My Revolution of PARTs

WASHINGTON: That's one small pot of soil, one giant leap for man's knowledge of space agriculture: scientists have for the first time grown plants in lunar soil brought back by astronauts in the Apollo program. The ground-breaking experiment, detailed in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, has given researchers hope that it may be possible to one day grow plants directly on the Moon. That would save future space missions much hassle and expense, facilitating longer and farther trips. However, according to the study's University of Florida authors, much remains to be studied on the topic, and they intend to leave no stone unturned. For their experiment, the researchers used just 12 grams (a few teaspoons) of lunar soil collected from various spots on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions. In tiny thimble-sized pots, they placed about a gram of soil (called "regolith") and added water, then the seeds. They also fed the plants a nutrient ...

PARIS: The last seven years have been the hottest on record globally "by a clear margin", the European Union's climate monitoring service reported Monday, as it raised the alarm over sharp increases in record concentrations of methane in the atmosphere. Countries around the world have been blasted by a relentless assault of weather disasters linked to global warming in recent years, including record-shattering wildfires across Australia and Siberia, a once-in-1000-years heatwave in North America and extreme rainfall that caused massive flooding in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe. In its latest annual assessment, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed that 2021 had joined the unbroken warm streak since 2015. It found that last year was the fifth warmest on record globally, marginally warmer than 2015 and 2018. Accurate measurements go back to the mid-19th century. The annual average temperature was 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, ...

अंतरिक्ष में विशाल तारों के मरने की खबरें हमने अक्‍सर पढ़ी हैं। कभी आपने सोचा है कि यह नजारा कैसा होगा? एक तारा पृथ्‍वी से कैसा दिखाई देगा, जब वह अपने अंत के निकट होगा? रिसर्चर्स ने टेलिस्‍कोप का इस्‍तेमाल करके एक विशाल लाल तारे में विस्फोट को देखा। यह तारा पृथ्वी से 120 मिलियन प्रकाश वर्ष दूर स्थित NGC 5731 आकाशगंगा में स्थित था। वैज्ञानिकों ने बताया कि विस्फोट से पहले यह तारा सूर्य से 10 गुना अधिक बड़ा था। इसमें मौजूद हाइड्रोजन, हीलियम और अन्य तत्वों के जरिए जलने के बाद यह फट गया। इस घटना को देखने से पहले खगोलविदों का मानना ​​था कि विस्फोट से पहले विशालकाय तारा शांत था।  यह रिसर्च एस्ट्रोफिजिकल जर्नल में 6 जनवरी को प्रकाशित हुई है। इसमें कहा गया है कि विशाल तारों में जब विस्‍फोट होता है, उसे देखना मील का पत्‍थर है। इस स्‍टडी के प्रमुख लेखक व्यान जैकबसन-गैलन (Wynn Jacobson-Galan) ने एक बयान में कहा कि विशालकाय लाल तारे को विस्फोट करते देखना एक बड़ी सफलता है।' CNN की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, इस‍ विशाल तारे में असामान्य गतिविधि का पता खगोलविदों ने 130 दिन पहले लगाया था। यूनिवर्सिटी ऑ...

WASHINGTON: Investigators have reported on the design and testing of a breathalyzer, known as the Bubbler that relies on viral RNA detection to diagnose SARS-CoV-2. Its name is derived from the bubbling sound that occurs when the patient exhales into the device. The findings were published in a new study in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, published by Elsevier. The Bubbler not only reverse transcribes RNA from airborne virus particles into DNA to be tested via PCR but can also barcode that DNA, allowing samples to be linked directly to the patient they have come from and be used for sequencing. It can be used for simultaneous batches of pooled samples and provides additional information such as viral load and strain identity and eliminates the need for stabilizing a sample, potentially allowing the assay to be performed at home. "Involvement of the lower respiratory tract is often a precursor to severe Covid-19, so there is an argument for a more direct sampling focused ...