Science & Technology - Briefs

GENETICS Godplayer The question the world is asking is should scientists be allowed to play God? US researchers have recreated the blueprint of life—an achievement of such dimensions that it has been hailed as a landmark victory.

Ancient story new discovery

A Sydney-based astronomer has used ancient culture and modern technology to identify a meteorite crater in central Australia. Macquarie University PhD candidate Duane Hamacher has spent the past 18 months researching how aboriginal people incorporated the night sky into their culture. He says he used a story of the Arrente people and Google maps to find a crater, unknown to geologists.

See end to end

Unlike  the spectacle lenses that control visible light, instruments like radars control radio waves or microwaves which are a much bigger part of the electromagnetic spectrum. A simple glass or plastic lens cannot do this as they are too large and heavy. Instead, materials engineered to collect the electromagnetic rays efficiently are used.

Microbes are always smarter

The  antibiotic industry boomed during the 1950s. The wonder drugs were fed to human beings and animals alike. They slowly permeated the environment—factory effluents seeped into groundwater; manure and sewage contaminated the soil. Microbes adapted to the changing environment by mutating, quickly. They entered the food chain and ended in humans, as usual, but without the fear of losing out to the immune system.

Sedimental attraction

Deltas  around the world are either eroding or have stopped progressing. Climate change, sea level rise, flood management measures take the blame. Since a delta is formed where a river meets a standing body of water, there is talk about diverting more water and sediments into the bay to save the ones drowning, such as the Mississippi delta.

Fear of asteroids is expensive

Imagine being roused from year-long sleep by a strange creature floating in zero gravity, just before landing on a distant inhabited moon.

Science & Technology - Briefs

HEALTH SCIENCES Superior brains

Chemical imbalance

The waters in the Sunderban delta are fast changing in quality. The western waters are fresher, lighter and less saline while the eastern sector is saltier and less transparency. Both are warmer—a sure consequence of climate change.

Beauty has its uses

A comparison  between four ornamental and three wetland plants for their ability to remove pollutants from water identified the ornamental canna plant (Canna xgeneralis) as the winner.

Gravity deniers after

Dictionary>> Physics • UK/Australia