Earthlings, you are not alone,there is Life on Mars

Earthlings, you are not alone. Scientists from Nasa have reportedly found “compelling” new evidence of life on Mars. A special mission to the Red Planet has revealed the presence of a form of pond scum — the building blocks of life as we know it, reports the Sun. Experts from Nasa put forward the claim as they unveiled the results of the recent Opportunity and Spirit probes, which were sent millions of miles through the solar system to discover signs of extraterrestrial life. The researchers say that the results are so promising that the agency has already planned a host of other missions to discover whether there is extraterrestrial life in the universe. The recent missions have gathered evidence of sulphates on Mars, a strong indication there is water on the planet and, therefore, life. Previous missions to Mars have concluded there is probably water on the planet. But the Nasa researchers said the recent missions have gone further than any others in proving there is life on Mars. They were particularly excited about the discovery of a sulphate called gypsum which, it has emerged recently, is found in large quantities among fossils in the Mediterranean. “One, thanks to Opportunity and the rovers and orbital imaging it is clear that there are literally vast areas of Mars that are carpeted with various sorts of sulphates, including gypsum.,” the Sun quoted Bill Schopf, a researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, as saying. Almost 30 Nasa missions to discover life in space – including one to bring back rocks from Mars — have already been planned.

Source(s) :Times of India

Posted in BIODIVERSITY, Space | 1 Comment

Animal Clean-Up After Oil Spill

When it comes to organizing efforts to rescue wildlife affected by oil spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico that made landfall in Louisiana late Thursday, timing is everything.

The first step is to search for, and collect, both live and dead oiled wildlife in the area. Next, the animals are given a full physical examination. The animals are warmed, fed, hydrated and rested for a period of around 48 hours before they are washed in a series of tubs filled with a mixture of diluted cleaning agent and hot, softened water.

The cleaned animals are then placed in outdoor pools, or other appropriate housing. This “pre-release conditioning” can take anywhere from three days to several months, depending on the condition of the animal. The animals then receive another medical examination and are banded or tagged before released back into a clean habitat. The final step is a post-release assessment, which often entails tagging the animals with radio devices and monitoring them.
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Giant NASA Balloon Crashes, Destroys Telescope

A gigantic NASA balloon designed to carry science instruments to the edge of space crashed during takeoff from Australia’s Alice Springs launch site, destroying a multimillion-dollar telescope.

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT), owned by University of California at Berkeley, was designed to study the polarization of gamma rays and other astrophysical phenomena. It was serving as a test bed for instruments being developed for the Advanced Compton Telescope, scheduled to be launched in 2015, according to the project’s website.

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Soil Production of C02 May Decline As World Warms

Contradicting earlier studies showing that soil microbes will emit more carbon dioxide as global warming intensifies, new research suggests that these microbes become less efficient over time in a warmer environment and would actually emit less CO2. The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, could have important implications for calculating how much heat-trapping CO2 will accumulate in the atmosphere as temperatures rise.

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, as well as Colorado State and Yale universities, found that soil microbes, in the form of bacteria and fungi, rapidly exhale CO2 for a short period of time in a warmer environment. But as higher temperatures persist, the microbes begin to use carbon less efficiently in their respiration process, which causes the microbes to decrease in number and emit less CO2 into the atmosphere.

“Microbes aren’t the destructive agents of global warming that scientists had previously believed,” said the study’s lead author, Steve Allison of UC Irvine. But Allison and his co-authors cautioned that further study is necessary to determine how soil enzymes might evolve as temperatures rise, which could affect the carbon balance in soils.

Source(s) :

ENN

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Nature Geoscience

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