Beautiful Saamiland

Saamiland, region, extending across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Most of Saamiland is north of the Arctic Circle. The western portion is an area of fjords, deep valleys, glaciers, and mountains, the highest point being Mount Kebnekaise (2,111 m/ 6,926 ft), in Swedish Saamiland.

Farther east, the terrain is that of a low plateau, containing many marshes and lakes, the most important of which is Inarijärvi, in Finnish Saamiland. The extreme eastern section lies within the tundra region. The climate is arctic and vegetation is sparse, except in the densely forested southern portion.

Saamiland contains valuable mineral deposits, particularly iron ore in Sweden, copper in Norway, and nickel and apatite in Russia. Reindeer, wolf, bear, and sea and land fowl are the main forms of animal life. Sea and river fisheries abound in the region. Steamers operate on some of the lakes, and a few ports are ice-free throughout the year.

Most inhabitants of Saamiland are Saami, who speak a Finno-Ugric language also known as Saami. The Saami are descended from nomadic peoples who have lived in Scandinavia for thousands of years. Traditionally, the Saami hunted, fished, and herded reindeer, living in tents and migrating with their herds.

The nomadic way of life has virtually disappeared, however. Most Saami today live in modern, permanent homes in scattered settlements on the coast and fjords, and at the heads of valleys or on well-stocked lakes. A majority of the Saami live in Norway. Many Saami work in industries such as forestry and mining, and in services such as government administration, education, and health care.

However, about 10 percent of the Saami still herd reindeer for a living. The Saami were conquered by the Vikings in the 9th century ad and by the Russians in the 11th century. Between the 13th and the 17th centuries they were ruled by Sweden.

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Scientists to create artificial sun

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore are attempting to create an artificial sun on Earth – an achievement that will provide answer to the world’s impending energy shortage.

For nearly 100 years the goal seemed impossible, but now scientists believe that they are on brink of cracking one of the biggest problems in physics by harnessing the power of nuclear fusion, the reaction that burns at the heart of the sun.

The attempt will be made in the spring.

The team will try to ignite a tiny man-made star inside a laboratory and trigger a thermonuclear reaction.

Its goal is to generate temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius and pressures billions of times higher than those found anywhere else on earth, from a speck of fuel little bigger than a pinhead.

If the project is successful, the experiment will mark the first step towards building a practical nuclear fusion power station and a source of almost limitless energy.

The researchers will use a laser that concentrates 1,000 times the electric generating power of the United States into a billionth of a second.

The result should be an explosion in the 32ft-wide reaction chamber which will produce at least 10 times the amount of energy used to create it.

"We are creating the conditions that exist inside the sun," said Ed Moses, director of the facility.

"It is like tapping into the real solar energy as fusion is the source of all energy in the world. It is really exciting physics, but beyond that there are huge social, economic and global problems that it can help to solve,” the expert added.

The laser, which has been housed within a hanger-sized room that has to be pumped clear of dust to prevent impurities getting into the beam, will be split into 192 separate beams, converted into ultraviolet light and focused into a capsule at the centre of an aluminium and concrete-coated target chamber, reports the Telegraph.

When the laser beams hit the inside of the capsule, they should generate high-energy X-rays that, within a few billionths of a second, compress the fuel pellet inside until its outer shell blows off.

The explosion of the fuel pellet shell produces an equal and opposite reaction that compresses the fuel itself together until nuclear fusion begins, releasing vast amounts of energy.

ANI

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Miracle device to pull water out of thin air

There is cheering news for the water-thirsty world! A Canadian company claims to have developed a device that will pull water out of thin air to end thirst around the world.

British Columbia-based Element Four said the device, called Watermill, can create enough clean and fresh water to overcome the global crisis. Each device will pull 13 litres out of air using the natural condensation process, company officials said.

It will reportedly use coils to squeeze water out of the natural humidity in the air, they said.

''This is the next microwave,'' Richard Weisbeck, director of product development at Element Four, told a news channel.

He said the company will sell about 25,000 devices in 2009.

Without mentioning its price, he said the production and sale will increase to several hundred thousands in the next three years.

''It will take a little while for people to get comfortable with the magic of water from air, but the need is certainly there,'' company president Jonathan Ritchey was quoted as saying.

The company, which presented its invention at the United Nations recently, said the device will not only make millions of dollars in revenue for it but also solve the water crisis in the third world countries.

The device adapts to the conditions where it is installed, and will do it more efficiently than anything that has been invented before it, company officials told the news channel.

They said their first target market is people spending money on bottled water.

Currently when the big five-litre water containers cost about ten cents a litre to produce, they said, they can create water for three cents a litre.

The device will hit the market next spring, they said.

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Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is a beautiful and much-venerated sacred lake that lies on the border between Peru and Bolivia, near Copacabana. According to Incan mythology, it was from Lake Titicaca that the creator god Viracoca rose up to create the sun, moon, stars, and first human beings. Recently, a large temple was discovered submerged in the lake, adding to its mystery and fascination.

At 3,200 square miles in size and up to 1,000 feet in depth, Titicaca is one of the largest, highest, and deepest lakes in the world. Like Crater Lake in the USA (also regarded as sacred), Lake Titicaca is renowned for its deep blue beauty.

Photo skeide

According to Incan lore, after a great flood, the god Viracocha arose from Lake Titicaca to create the world. He commanded the sun (Inti), moon (Mama Kilya) and stars to rise, then went to Tiahuanaco to create the first human beings, Mallku Kapac and Mama Ocllo. These first humans, the "Inca Adam and Eve," were formed from stone and brought to life by Viracocha, who commanded them to go out and populate the world. Thus Lake Titicaca is the birthplace of the Incas, whose spirits return to their origin in the lake upon death.

Photo Rebidio

Photo The Black Azar

In 2000, an international archaeological expedition discovered an ancient temple submerged in the depths of Lake Titicaca. The huge structure is nearly twice the size of a soccer field (660 feet long), and was found by following a submerged road that begins near Copacabana. The temple is estimated to be between 1,000 and 1,500 years old. The Bolivian government has pledged to provide funds for further study of the ruins, and the eventual plan is to bring the temple to the surface. However, locals are fearful about the effects that such disrespect of the sacred lake might bring.

Photo gardawind

Sunset on the Isla del Sol is magical and best appreciated from the lighthouse on the highest point on the island at 13,441 feet. The sun bathes the sacred mountains in bright colors, and reflects its light in the deep blue of the sacred lake, before sinking below the horizon.

Photo ShortJourneys

In addition to Lake Titicaca itself, several of the 41 islands in the lake are regarded as sacred. Especially important is the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), located on the Bolivia side near Copacabana. The largest of all the lake islands (but still only 5.5 by 3.75 miles in size) , Isla del Sol was regarded as the home of the supreme Inca god Inti.

Photo Guizumm

About 270 feet from Chinaka on the path back to the town of Challapampa is a sacred rock carved in the shape of a puma. Further along the path toward Challapampa are two very large footprints. These are said to have been created when the sun dropped down to earth to give birth to Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, the "Adam and Eve" of the Incas.

Photo Myriamba

There are two mountains on the islands, Paccha Mama (Mother Earth) and Paccha Tata (Father Earth), and both are sacred sites. Each year, on January 18, locals dressed in traditional clothes climb the two hills. The pilgrims descend each hill in two groups, then meet to offer coca leaves, grains and alcohol to the Earth.

Photo THEOW

Photo patacancha

Photo Wanbro

The Island of the Moon (Isla de la Luna) is the legendary home of the Inca goddess Mama Quila. The structures on this island were originally built by the pre-Incan Aymara culture, but the Incas left their mark on the architecture as well (such as the typical trapezoidal doors). During Inca times, the Isla de la Luna housed chosen women known as the "Virgins of the Sun," who lived a nun-like lifestyle. They wove garments from alpaca wool and performed ceremonies dedicated to the sun.

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Candy canes can help fight germs

The traditional candy canes used for decorating Christmas trees can help fight germs and treat digestive disorders, according to a new study.

A study led by McMaster University researcher Alex Ford had found that peppermint oil, found in most candy canes, can act as the first line of defence against irritable bowel syndrome.

"Most of the (effective) species are really from the family Lamiaceae, or mint family," Discovery News quoted Pavel Kloucek, a scientist at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, as saying.

The researchers hope that peppermint oil, and other potent essential oils, may soon be wafted in vapour form over food to inhibit bacterial growth.

For the new study, Kloucek and his team looked at several essential oils to determine how well they could, in vapour form, kill the bacteria responsible for Listeria, Staph, E. coli, and Salmonella infections, and more.

The new study is the first to bring forth the antimicrobial activity of two other mint family members -Mentha villosa and Faassen's catnip -along with another non-mint herb, bluebeard.Moreover, essential oils for horseradish, garlic, hyssop, basil, marjoram, oregano, winter savory, and three types of thyme also showed potent bacteria-busting abilities.

Kloucek said that plant essential oils are lipophilic, i.e. they gravitate towards fat.

"And luckily, in the cell membrane of bacteria, there is plenty of fat, which serves as a seal," he said.

"Essential oils are attracted to this fat and, as their molecules squeeze in between the fat molecules, they cause leakage of the membrane," he added.

If foods were treated with essential oils to prevent illness, the obvious problem to overcome is the oils' potent taste. While strong mint flavour is desirable in a candy cane, it might not work well with other foods. The solution, according to Kloucek and his team, is to carefully match the oil with the food.

The findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Food Control.

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Alcohol-free beer may cut heart disease risk

Here’s some good news for alcohol lovers – a pint of beer sans alcohol can help cut the risk of heart disease.

Scientists from University of Valencia in Spain found that alcohol-free beer can help reduce high levels of cholesterol, and protect the heart.

The tipple not only helps reduce potentially hazardous build up of fat in the arteries, but also increases the levels of antioxidants in drinkers'' blood.

This might be due to the vitamins present in the beer, such as vitamin B6, which helps to lower the effect of a chemical linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease, reports the Telegraph.

For the study, the researchers recruited 29 nuns aged between 58 and 73 and examined the effects of drinking moderate levels of alcohol-free beer.

Over the period of 45 days the women were all asked to drink 500 ml of the beer a day, on top of their normal eating and drinking habits.

The scientists collected blood samples on the morning before the study started and again on the morning after it finished, to test the effects of the drink.

They found that drinking the beer increased the amounts of antioxidants in the women''s blood.

Moreover, those with high cholesterol at the start of the study also found that it had lowered significantly by the end.

The researchers believe that the study proves that alcohol-free beer can cut the risk of heart disease.

The study appears in journal Nutrition.

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Glasses that change with eye power

A British scientist has designed a unique pair of glasses that can be adjusted by a wearer without any optician’s help, and one million pairs of which will soon be distributed in India.

Professor Joshua Silver is hopeful that his self-adjusting glasses could enable a billion people in the developing world to receive spectacles for the first time within just over a decade.

Silver, a retired Oxford University physics professor, is even preparing to launch an ambitious scheme in India to distribute one million pairs in a year. He revealed that he came up with the idea in what he describes as a "glimpse of the obvious", reports the Telegraph.

The adaptive glasses are designed in such a way that they can be "tuned" by the wearer to suit their eyes, and that too without the need for a prescription. In fact, the spectacles can help both short-sighted and long-sighted people.

After 20 years’ of research he has finally come up with a design which can be made cheaply on a large scale. He focussed on the principle that thicker lenses are more powerful than thin ones. Using this principle he designed spectacles that can be adjusted by injecting tiny quantities of fluid.

The tough plastic glasses have thin sacs of liquid in the centre of each lens. They come with small syringes attached to each arm with a dial for the wearer to add or remove fluid from the lens. After adjusting the lenses, the syringes are removed and the spectacles can be worn just like a prescription pair. The invention would provide spectacles for the first time to millions of people in poorer parts of the world, where opticians are in short supply.

ANI

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10 fun facts about the holidays

1. Manolo Blahnik and Bill Nye are celebrate their birthdays on Thanksgiving this year, while Denzel Washington, Annie Lennox, Dido, Helena Christensen and Little Richard will blow out their birthday candles on Christmas. Sir Ben Kingsley, Val Kilmer, Gong Li and Nicholas Sparks, who share a Dec. 31 birthday, will be one year older as they ring in the new year.

2. If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 presents. According to PNC Financial Services, in 2007, these 364 gifts would cost you a hefty $78,100.10 - a 3.1 percent increase from 2006's total of $75,122.03.

3. Ladies, more diamonds are sold around Christmas than any other time of the year.

4. In Mexico, wearing red underwear on New Year's Eve is said to bring new love in the coming year.

5. The Dutch use shoes, not stockings. Traditionally they set out, not hang, wooden shoes the night before Christmas.

6. Santa's reindeer are named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Oh, and of course Rudolph. It turns out, though, that Donner and Blixen have undergone slight name changes since 1823, when "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" was first published. Maybe they just didn't like "Dunder" and "Blixem."

7. Thinking of a holiday business venture? Approximately $2,255,750,000 are generated by photographs with Santa in shopping malls across the U.S.

8. Twenty percent of Americans finish their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. Twenty-eight percent of Americans re-gift.

9. Some priests in Australia advise you to say "happy Christmas," not "merry Christmas," because "merry" connotes getting drunk.

10. A study has shown that Jan. 8 is the busiest day of the year for divorce lawyers; up to 1 in 5 couples will enquire about divorce after the pressures of Christmas. Studies show that fewer than 40 percent of divorcees are happier after ending their marriage.

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Underwater SuperBabies

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Ace Motorcycle Rare Drawings from 1919 Found in Dumpster!

In 1919, at the end of the World War One, a significant set of drawings was created. They would be lost for the next 90 years, until discovered in a trash bin; it seemed their fate was to end up in a land fill. Instead, they will be sold at the Mid-America Auction, which will be held at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas on January 10th 2009.

During the World War I era, a number of early manufacturers went out of business or were bought up by stronger companies. William Henderson, who is still considered America's most creative motorcycle designer, sold his company to a German immigrant, Ignatius Schwinn, who started making bicycles in Chicago in 1895. The Henderson had a fine reputation as being America's most luxurious, elegant, and expensive four cylinder motorcycle. Schwinn felt he had taken ownership of the "best of the best" and added it to his Excelsior Line. Despite signing a non-compete clause, Henderson was unhappy and soon began plans for a finer and even more elegant replacement, the ACE.

Henderson would call it "The Ace Four: the finest thing on two wheels!" He began drawing the plans for his elegant new ACE and searching for investors to help finance the new factory. As soon as his non-compete expired production began. Money would eventually run out, and while searching for the finances needed to complete his machine, production was moved, and even discontinued a couple of times.

One tragic cold day, Dec. 11th 1922, Henderson was test riding the new Ace and was struck by a car and killed. Within weeks his assistant, Arthur Lemon, completed the final drawings, and then sold the rights to Indian Motorcycle Co., America's largest manufacturer. Indian produced the bike as the Ace, then Indian Ace, and finally as their own brand, the Indian Four. During the 1930s, it went on to become America's only luxury motorcycle, akin to a Duesenberg or Cord.

The original drawings, numbering approximately 400 pieces, disappeared from view. Lost in the files of the massive Indian Company, the Henderson Ace drawings were assumed to have been destroyed in 1953, when Indian went out of business. Astonishingly, the new owner, Bill Melvin, found the drawings as they were being placed in a dumpster and headed for a land fill. They had sat under layers of dust in a warehouse for years. Bill Melvin says "After spending much of my adult life looking for this type of treasure, it was overwhelming to find what represents the finest work of the most renowned designer in American motorcycle history. And to think they were headed for a landfill; when I found them, I had goose bumps for a week."

The drawings are each signed and dated by William Henderson and Arthur Lemon; they were done on a cloth material and are in beautiful condition. They still rest in the old envelopes from the Indian factory They have added significance in that many of Henderson's inventions are still in use in today's machines.

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People manufacture their own aspirin

Researchers have come up with new evidence that humans can make their own salicylic acid (SA), the material formed when aspirin breaks down in the body.

SA, which is responsible for aspirin's renowned effects in relieving pain and inflammation, may be the first in a new class of bioregulators, according to a new study.

Gwendoline Baxter of the British National Health Service (NHS) R&D and her colleagues discussed how their past research revealed that SA exists in the blood of people who have not recently taken aspirin.

Vegetarians had much higher levels, almost matching those in patients taking low doses of aspirin. Based on those findings, they previously concluded that this endogenous SA came from the diet, since SA is a natural substance found in fruits and vegetables.

Now the group reported on studies of changes in SA levels in volunteers who took benzoic acid, a substance also found naturally in fruits and vegetables that the body could potentially use to make SA, said a NHS release.

The study appears in the Wednesday issue of the biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Their goal was to determine whether the SA found in humans (and other animals) results solely from consumption of fruits and vegetables, or whether humans produce their own SA as a natural agent to fight inflammation and disease.

"It is, we suspect, increasingly likely that SA is a biopharmaceutical with a central, broadly defensive role in animals as well as plants," they state. "This simple organic chemical is, we propose, likely to become increasingly recognized as an animal bioregulator, perhaps in a class of its own," said Baxter.

IANS

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110 tigers lost in 6 years

India's forests have lost at least 110 royal striped cats, including 17 tigress, in the past six years due to several reasons including poaching and natural deaths, according to a government data.

The figures made available under the RTI Act reflects that the royal predators have been unsafe not only in non-protected area but also inside reserves, given that this year alone 14 cases of tiger mortality including four tigress and two cubs have been reported till November.

Of six cases of poachings, three tigers were killed in the last month itself with one each outside Kanha and Khatiya buffer range in Madhya Pradesh, and another in Dudhwa tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh, according to the data.

Similarly, as many as 30 endangered big cats died in 2007, highest in the past five years, with 16 perishing in reserves while 14 in non-protected areas.

Five big cats died in world famous Corbett Tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh while Bandipur park in Madhya Pradesh lost two tigress whose death reasons could not be assessed due to completely putrefied status of the body.

During the same period, 14 cases of tiger mortality was reported from outside reserves of which five of the big cats were killed in poaching and three due to poisoning.

A man-eater tiger which had strayed in Chandrapur in Maharashtra Nagpur region had to be shot dead by the forest department late last year.

"These are official figures and the actual figures may be higher," Delinda Wright, prominent wildlife expert, noted.

The situation was grim in 2006 too when eight tigress and two male striped cats died inside the reserves in various tiger range states.

Bureau Report

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Silencer for genset invented

A person hailing from East Champaran district has invented a generator silencer which would not only be helpful in keeping the environment clean but would also help to deal with the problem of global warming.

Virendra Kumar Sinha, a resident of Belbanwa colony of the town, has inveneted the silencer cum exhaust filter for the generator set after a hard work of six years. Sinha said his product was put under test in three stages in the laboratory of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Ranchi, where the lab technicians reached on the conclusion that the product was capable of reducing the harmful carbon-dioxide and carbon-monoxide gases to the extent of 60-70% emitted by the genset.

After the lab test at BIT, the product also got patent for the innovation on September 17, 2008 by Indian Patent Office, Kolkata. The patent registration number for the product is A K No.- 1520/Kolkata/2008.

The invention would help in checking the global warming also, Sinha said adding that the exhaust silencer was capable of sucking the carbon gases inside its drum reducing the level of carbon emission into the environment to the level of 70%.

The idea to go for such invention came first when the people of his colony complained that his generator set emits polluted air and makes too much sound, Sinha said.

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New technique to repair damaged lungs for transplant

With most lung patients dying while waiting for transplant because of short organ supply, surgeons in Toronto have developed a new miracle technique to repair damaged lungs that can be transplanted into a patient.

Currently, 90% of donated lungs worldwide are discarded as they are too damaged to be transplanted. Lungs suffer damage during brain death while being ventilated in an intensive care unit or in accidents, rendering them useless for transplant.

Till now, the medical practice has been to keep the donated lungs on ice after they have been harvested from a dead person. But in this freezing state, their cell metabolism is suppressed and they cannot be repaired.

But now surgeons at the renowned Toronto General Hospital - the world's first where experimental lung transplants were performed in the 1980s - has developed a new technique called 'perfusion' to repair damaged lungs.

Instead of storing the donated lungs on ice, this new technique involves keeping them functioning at body temperature for up to 18 hours using a ventilator and a bloodless solution. In this functioning state, the damaged lungs are then subjected to 'perfusion', which includes pumping a solution of oxygen, proteins and other nutrients into them.

According to the surgeons, up to 55 percent of damaged lungs can be repaired through this technique, offering hope to people waiting long for donated lungs.

A video of the repair work on a pair of lungs, which were successfully transplanted into a 56-year-old patient, was demonstrated at the hospital over the weekend. Lying in a glass chamber, the lungs could be seen connected to the new technique and breathing as normally as if they were inside a body.

Because of their inflamed state, this pair of lungs was too damaged to be transplanted. But by keeping them alive and then using the new technique, the Toronto surgeons treated their inflammation and transplanted them into the patient.

Shaf Keshavjee, who led the surgeons, told the media: "To see these lungs that are damaged and 12 hours later are perfect is fascinating. Worldwide, this strategy could easily double the number of lung transplants that are done... It's a phenomenally exciting advance."

Surgeons say this organ refurbishing process could be extended to other damaged organs like the liver and kidneys to repair them for transplants.

IANS

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US gives nod for first commercial spaceport

The US Federal Aviation Administration has given the green light for the world's first commercial spaceport, New Mexico authorities said on Thursday.

The FAA granted Spaceport America a license for vertical and horizontal space launches following an environmental impact study, according to the New Mexico Space Authority (NMSA).

"These two governmental approvals are the next steps along the road to a fully operational commercial spaceport," said NMSA Executive Director Steven Landeene.

"We are on track to begin construction in the first quarter of 2009, and have our facility completed as quickly as possible."

The terminal and hangar facility for horizontal launches is planned for completion by late 2010.

NMSA hopes to sign a lease agreement later this month with Virgin Galactic, a branch of Virgin Atlantic owned by British airline magnate Richard Branson. The firm's SpaceShipTwo passenger craft will be the main attraction at the site.

The system plans to take passengers approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) into the sky. Virgin Galactic plans to welcome 500 passengers per year who will pay USD 200,000 each for a suborbital flight lasting three to four minutes.

There have been several commercial launches from the site since April 2007, with more launches planned.

Spaceport America has also been working closely with aerospace firms Lockheed Martin, Rocket Racing Inc/Armadillo Aerospace, UP Aerospace, Microgravity Enterprises and Payload Specialties.

The Russian federal space agency currently offers the only orbital space tourism flights aboard the Soyuz spacecraft, which allows passengers to visit the International Space Station (ISS) for several days. The price for the trip recently increased from USD 20 million to 35 million.

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Google Earth helped Mumbai attackers

Google Earth is the seventh popular Internet application tool but it is being growingly misused by terror groups to have the first glimpse of sensitive places to plot attacks without moving an inch.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Fahim Ahmed Ansari, arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in February this year with maps and details of the spots hit during the recent terror attacks, in his statement had conceded that his masters showed him the maps on Google Earth to pin-point the specific targets.

The interrogation report of Fahim, who was trained at the Baitul Mujahideen camp in Pakistan in his statement said that a top Lashkar commander 'Kahasa' asked him to show the spots in Mumbai on the Google Earth.

"I was shown the map of Mumbai in Googleearth.com. Kahasa asked me to point out places in Mumbai he noted down and marked those places in the map," he told interrogators, adding, "I was first asked about my residence location and in-laws location in Mumbai."

Sensitive places like offices of Commissioner of Police and DGP, Gateway of India, Navy Nagar, Colaba, Taj Mahal Hotel, Mantralaya, Wankhede Stadium, Race Course, Church Gate Railway Station, Stock Exchange Building, BARC, Kalina Army Gate and other such spots were located and marked on the Google Earth Map.

Fahim, along with Sabauddin, were brought to Mumbai and remanded to police custody till December 31. They are being questioned to ascertain whether they had provided the minute details to Lashkar terrorists to help them plan the terror strike here on November 26.

The Google Earth Map gives a birds-eye view of the city providing detailed topography of the area in the forms of actual photographs. The details provided in the application can be useful for identifying buildings, roads, streets.

Fahim also said that Lashkar top brass was interested in knowing the height of airport wall, wire fencing and location of aircraft runway from the nearest building.

"They also enquired about the possibility of striking an aircraft from the nearest building. Kahasa was also keen to know about the availability of taxis near DGP office," he said in the statement given to UP Police.

The terrorists who attacked the Metropolis were well acquainted with the location of their targets and the streets leading to them. The lone terrorist arrested by Mumbai police, Kasab, reportedly told the investigators that their group was also given detailed location of spots using the software.

In the wake of the misuse of the Google software, a petition was also filed in the Bombay High Court after the Mumbai terror attack to blur the images of sensitive spots shown on the software till the case was decided.

Advocate Amit Karkhanis who filed the petition said that online satellite imaging was used in the satellite planning of the attacks and the online software does not have any control to prevent its misuse or give limited access.

Bureau Report
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Swiss glaciers melting away at an accelerating rate

Two new studies have suggested that the Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct.

According to a report by BBC News, both studies have been done by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

One assessment found that some 10 cubic km of ice have been lost from 1,500 glaciers over the past nine years. The other study, based on a sample of 30 representative glaciers, indicates the group's members are now losing a meter of thickness every year.

"The trend is negative, but what we see is that the trend is also steepening," said Matthias Huss from the Zurich University's Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology.

"What really matters is how much ice we have in the big glaciers, because the small ones will disappear; that seems clear," he explained. "Glaciers are starting to lose mass increasingly fast," he added.

The retreat is being driven largely by longer melting seasons. The other key factor in glacier health - the amount of winter snowfall to replace ice melt - shows no long-term changes.

In one study, Daniel Farinotti, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and his team, tried to assess the total volume of ice in Swiss glaciers -1,500 of them, from the mighty Aletschgletscher to small ice fields that cover less than three square km.

The research used direct measurements where available, and combined this with modeling to estimate ice volumes for areas that are data-deficient.

The assessment found a total ice volume present in the Swiss Alps of about 75 cubic km by the year 1999. It is a bigger figure than previously thought.

"However, 1999 is quite some time ago now, so what we did was try to calculate the volume lost since this baseline; and we estimate a figure of 13% - from 1999 to today," explained Farinotti.

For 2003, remembered for its strong heatwave across Europe, the team estimates that 3-4 percent of the volume in Switzerland at that time was lost in that one year alone.

The study by Huss and his team takes a slightly different approach. It considers just a key group of 30 glaciers, representing all sizes, types, and locations.

Again, using a mixture of direct data and modeling, the scientists analysed the mass trends from 1900 to 2007.

In general, over the period, there is a retreat; and in the last 30-50 years, the shrinkage has accelerated.

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Food poisoning pathogen to create biofuels

Researchers have genetically modified Escherichia coli, a food poisoning pathogen, to create unusually long-chain alcohols, essential in the production of high-energy biofuels.

Longer-chain alcohols, with five or more carbon atoms, pack more energy into a smaller space and are easier to separate from water, making them less volatile and corrosive than the commercially available biofuel ethanol.

The greater the number of carbon atoms, the higher the density of the biofuel. Ethanol, most commonly made from corn or sugarcane, contains only two carbon atoms.

"Previously, we were able to synthesise long-chain alcohols containing five carbon atoms," said James Liao, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

"We stopped at five carbons at the time because that was what could be naturally achieved. Alcohols were never synthesised beyond five carbons."

"Now, we've figured out a way to engineer proteins for a whole new pathway in E. coli to produce longer-chain alcohols with up to eight carbon atoms," he added.

Organisms typically produce a large number of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. In their research, Liao's team examined the metabolism of amino acids in E. coli and changed the metabolic pathway of the bacterium by inserting two specially coded genes.

One gene, from a cheese-making bacterium, and another, from a type of yeast often used in baking and brewing, were altered to enable E. coli's amino acid precursor, keto acid, to continue the chain-elongation process that ultimately resulted in longer-chain alcohols, said an UCLA release.

"This research is significant for two reasons," said Liao, the study's lead author. "From a scientific standpoint, we wanted to show that we can expand nature's capability in making alcohol molecules. We showed we are not limited by what nature creates."

"From an energy standpoint, we wanted to create larger, longer-chain molecules because they contain more energy. This is significant in the production of gasoline and even jet fuel," he added.

"We used E. coli because the genetic system is well known, it grows quickly and we can engineer it very easily," said co-author Kechun Zhang, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher.

The new protein and metabolic engineering method will be highlighted in the Dec 30 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Scientific breakthroughs of 2008

The journal ‘Science’ has prepared a list of top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2008.

The top honours in the list has been given to a research that produced “made-to-order” cell lines by reprogramming cells from ill patients, a method known as cellular reprogramming.

“Our top choice, cellular reprogramming, opened a new field of biology almost overnight and holds out hope of life-saving medical advances,” said deputy news editor Robert Coontz.

The other nine scientific achievements of 2008 are:

Exoplanets: For the first time this year, astronomers directly observed planets orbiting other stars, using special telescope techniques to distinguish the planets’ faint light from the stars’ bright glare.

Expanding the catalog of cancer genes: By sequencing genes from various cancer cells, including pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma, two of the deadliest cancers, researchers turned up dozens of mutations that remove the brakes on cell division and send the cell down the path to cancer.

New mystery materials: In 2008, researchers created a stir by discovering a whole second family of high-temperature superconductors, consisting of iron compounds instead of copper-and-oxygen-compounds.

Watching proteins at work: Biochemists encountered major surprises this year as they watched proteins bind to their targets, switch a cell’s metabolic state and contribute to a tissue’s properties.

Toward renewable energy on demand: This year, researchers found a promising new tool for storing excess electricity generated from part-time sources like wind and solar power, in the form of a cobalt-phosphorus catalyst.

The video embryo: In 2008, researchers observed in unprecedented detail the dance of cells in a developing embryo, recording and analyzing movies that trace the movements of the roughly 16,000 cells that make up the zebrafish embryo by the end of its first day of development.

“Good” fat, illuminated: In a study that may offer new approaches to treating obesity, scientists discovered that they could morph “good” brown fat, which burns “bad” white fat to generate heat for the body, into muscle and vice versa.

Calculating the weight of the World: Physicists now have the calculations in hand to show that the standard model, which describes most of the visible universe’s particles and their interactions, accurately predicts how much mass protons and neutrons have.

Faster, cheaper genome sequencing: Researchers reported a flurry of genome sequences this year – from woolly mammoths to human cancer patients - aided by a variety of sequencing technologies that are much speedier and cheaper than the ones used to sequence the first human genome.

According to the journal, areas to watch out for in 2009 include plants genomics, the elusive Higgs boson, speciation genes, ocean acidification, and neuroscience in court.

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