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(Current Affairs) Science & Technology, Defence, Environment | September: 2013
Science & Technology, Defense, Environment
- Neuron Growth cuts Memory Space (Free Available)
- For better Health, Walk or Cycle (Free Available)
- New Prospective Biomaterial for Bone Formation (Free Available)
- How can children of Rh positive parents be Rh negative? (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Cambodian Tailorbird (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- NASA’s Observatory discovered Exotic Neutron Stars (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- World’s first ultra-high resolution 3D model of a HUMAN BRAIN (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Bunostegos Discovered (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Platelets help Kill bacteria, too (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- The Fastest Computer of the World (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- UNESCO declared Nicobar Islands as World Biosphere Reserve (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Mimicking Microbes to Deliver Drugs (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Centuries-Old Frozen Plants Called Bryophytes from Teardrop Glacier Revived (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- ISRO set to establish Navigation Satellite System (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Manned Submersible in 5 Years (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Devap Air-Cooling System to be Used First Time in India (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Next-generation batteries from rice husk (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- A Sensor Chip That Can Detect Disease from Blood Drop (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- New World Record of Top Speed by Drayson Racing Electric Car (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- New Three-Horned Dinosaur Discovered (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- An Eco-friendly Battery using Wood, Tin and Sodium (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- Satellites Launched to Bring Rural Areas Online (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- New Solar Water Heater Designed (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
- First Classroom Lecture from Space for Students (Only for Online Coaching Members and Premium Members)
Neuron Growth cuts Memory Space
Canadian scientists discovered that the reason we struggle to
recall memories from our early childhood is due to high levels of neuron
production during the first years of life. The formation of new brain cells
increases the capacity for learning but also clears the mind of old memories.
The findings were presented to the Canadian Association of Neuroscience.
Neurogenesis or the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus, a region
of the brain known to be important for learning and remembering, reaches its
peak before and after birth. It then declines steadily during childhood and
adulthood. Scientists wanted to find out how the process of new neuron
generation impacted on memory storage. They carried out their research on
younger and older mice in the lab.
For better Health, Walk or Cycle
For the sake of their health, Indians would do well to leave
their cars, scooters and motorbikes behind and walk or bicycle instead,
according to research just published in the journal PLOS Medicine . That also
means that more investments ought to go into making such physical activity safe
and convenient. In India, economic prosperity has led to a boom in motor
vehicles, which has gone hand in hand with less physical activity and greater
consumption of energy-dense food. The number of people who are overweight and
obese is projected to increase rapidly in the next two decades. This country
already has more individuals with diabetes than any other nation and their
number is set to expand. Deaths from heart disease are also expected to shoot
up. ‘Active travel’ — walking, cycling or use of public transport — is one of
the measures that the World Health Organisation recommends to address the
growing burden of noncommunicable diseases. To examine the health benefits from
such active travel in the Indian context, researchers from Imperial College,
London in the U.K. and the Public Health Foundation of India scrutinised close
to 4,000 participants in the Indian Migration Study. About 2,500 of those
surveyed were urban dwellers while the others lived in rural
areas.
More than 60 per cent of the villagers travelled to work on bicycles while private vehicles were the commonest mode of transport among their urban counterparts. The study found that those who walked or bicycled to work were less likely to be overweight than those who relied on private vehicles. Those using bicycles also had a lower likelihood of diabetes or high blood pressure. “People need to take physical activity seriously,” remarked Sutapa Agrawal of the Public Health Foundation of India. The study had also shown that migrants from villages quickly adopted an urban lifestyle and had associated health problems.
New Prospective Biomaterial for Bone Formation
Scientists at Jadavpur University in the month of June 2013 discovered that zinc-doped hydroxyapatite (HAP) which is a calcium phosphatebased bioceramic material has a stimulatory effect on bone formation. Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is actually one of calcium phosphatebased bioceramic materials which form most of the inorganic components of human bones and teeth. It was also found that the bonding with bone was better for zinc-doped bicalcium phosphate than conventional ceramics. The benefit of Zinc is that it act to improve biological properties of synthetic HAP thus decreasing the inflammatory response and has an antibacterial effect. The scientists while synthesizing zinc doped Hap powder at Jadavpur Universityhave also observed that it exhibits high compressive strength and hardness than the conventional HAP. The scientists have witnessed the pronounced new bone formation in doped HAP with the implantation on the tibia of an adult New Zealand rabbit for two months. The formation of osteons around zinc-doped HAP was also confirmed by the Histopathology. The scientists at Jadavpur University are also developing materials (composition of HAP and beta Tricalcium phosphate) doped with zinc which can be used for bone grafting.