US scientists to map Ganga stretch in Bihar, India

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Scientists from the United States would work with the researchers of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TNBU) to analyse the quality of water of river Ganga and prepare a map of riverbed through Global Positioning System (GPS). The Inland Waterways Authority of India will support  the effort with a well equipped vessel to aid the research, between October 21 and 31.The School of Natural Resources and Environment of Michigan University would provide a specially developed computer programme and Doppler machines to study a 250-km stretch between Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur and Patna. The scientists from United States have shown interest in Ganga. The team from the US will be led by Dr Mike Wiley and includes the noted specialist on Zooplankton, Dr Umair, who will also train TNBU scientists to carry on deeper investigations. The scientists hope that some newer forms of life could be uncovered in the process of the research.

Sources

GIS Development

Bihar Times

Posted in GPS, India, map making, water | 2 Comments

Natural Nukes May Have Crippled Early Life

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Rashid Faridi



Early Earth

Discovery News reports that Ancient nuclear reactors buried in lake and shallow ocean sediments may have cooked early microbes.Radiation from the deposits could have delayed the onset of our modern-day, oxygen-rich atmosphere, and even had a hand in shaping the genetics of primordial life.

These Natural nuclear reactors dating to 2 billion years ago have been found in Gabon, Africa. Though long since exhausted, scientists know from the unusually low quantity of the Uranium-235 isotope in the rock that they once went critical, and hosted a sustained fission reaction that went on for as long as two hundred thousand years.According to Laurence Coogan and Jay Cullen of the University of Victoria such deposits could have been common a billion years earlier,  . The first oxygen-producing bacteria colonized lakes and shallow seas, and likely created oxygen ‘oases’ in  an otherwise nitrogen-dominated world.

According to Cullen these Oxygen oases would have been hot spots for uranium concentration, because oxygen dissolved in water would draw uranium out of rocks and sediments. Back then, there was so much more 235U that a softball-sized chunk of uranium would be enough for it to go critical.

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Posted in earth, opinions | 1 Comment

Seeing again:Artificial Retina

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

An artificial retina could give sight to the blind, according to new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.The device can be plugged directly into the optic nerve and is based on widely used cochlear implants.The artificial retina is designed to help people with advanced macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, progressive diseases that permanently blind patients, usually older patients.

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Posted in inventions | 1 Comment

Kashmir’s main glacier Kolahoi melting at alarming speed

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Indian Kashmir’s biggest glacier, which feeds the region’s main river, is melting faster than other Himalayas glaciers, threatening the water supply of tens of thousands of people.Rising temperatures are rapidly shrinking Himalayan glaciers, underscoring the effects of climate change that has caused temperatures in the mountainous region to rise by about 1.1 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years.

The biggest glacier in Indian Kashmir, the Kolahoi glacier spread over just a little above 11 sq km (4.25 sq mile), has shrunk 2.63 sq km in the past three decades, a new study said.

“Kolahoi glacier is shrinking 0.08 square kilometers a year, which is an alarming speed,” said the study, presented at a workshop on “Climate Change, Glacial Retreat and Livelihoods,” in Srinagar,  Kashmir’s summer capital.

The three year-long study was led by glaciologist Shakil Ramsoo, of the department of geology at the University of Kashmir.

The Kolahoi glacier is the main source of water for Kashmir’s biggest river, the Jhelum, and its many streams and lakes.

According to a United Nations Environment Programme and World Glacier Monitoring Service study, the average melting rate of mountain glaciers has doubled since the turn of the millennium, with record losses seen in 2006 at several sites.

the melting of Kashmir glaciers could have serious fallout as most Kashmiris rely on glaciers for water.

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Posted in GIS, Glaciers, Global Warming, India | 1 Comment