Knowledge Update

Washington, May 10 (IANS) Presence of warm water in the Pacific Ocean due to a stalled El Nino in 2014 stacked the deck for a monstrous version of the warming climate cycle to occur in 2015, a study says.

Easterly winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean stalled a potential El Nino in 2014 and left a swath of warm water in the central Pacific. This left over warm water gave the current El Nino a head start, the researchers explained.

El Nino and La Nina are the warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific Ocean called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. 

The warm and cool phases shift back and forth every two to seven years, and each phase triggers predictable disruptions in temperature, wind, and rain across the globe. 

During El Nino events, water temperatures at the sea surface are higher than normal. Low-level surface winds, which normally blow east to west along the equator, or easterly winds, start blowing the other direction, west to east, or westerly.

In the spring of 2014, strong westerly winds near the equator in the western and central Pacific Ocean created a buzz among scientists - they saw the winds as a sign of a large El Nino event to come in the winter of 2014, said lead author of the study Aaron Levine, a climate scientist at US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington.

But as the summer progressed, El Niño did not form the way scientists expected it to. Sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific never warmed enough to truly be called an El Nino, and the buzz fizzled out.

But then, in the spring of 2015, episodes of very strong westerly wind bursts occurred and became more frequent throughout the summer. 

Following a pattern set by previous large El Ninos, 2015 to 2016 became one of the three strongest El Ninos on record, along with 1982 to 1983 and 1997 to 1998, Levine said.

The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

​Washington, May 10 (IANS) Turning the traditional knowledge on its head that young Earth had a thicker atmosphere, scientists, including an Indian-origin researcher, have found that air at that time exerted at most half the pressure of today's atmosphere.

The new finding reverses the commonly accepted idea that the early Earth had a thicker atmosphere to compensate for weaker sunlight.

The finding also has implications for which gases were in that atmosphere and how biology and climate worked on the early planet.

"For the longest time, people have been thinking the atmospheric pressure might have been higher back then, because the sun was fainter," said lead author Sanjoy Som, who did the work as part of his doctorate in earth and space sciences at University of Washington.

The team used bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to reach this conclusion.

"Our result is the opposite of what we were expecting," he added in a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Som is currently doing astrobiology research at NASA's Ames Research Centre in California.

The idea of using bubbles trapped in cooling lava as a "paleobarometer" to determine the weight of air in our planet's youth occurred decades ago to co-author Roger Buick, professor of earth and space sciences.

A potential site in western Australia was discovered by co-author Tim Blake of University of western Australia.

There, the Beasley River has exposed 2.7 billion-year-old basalt lava.

A stream of molten rock quickly cools from top and bottom, and bubbles trapped at the bottom are smaller than those at the top.

The size difference records the air pressure pushing down on the lava as it cooled, 2.7 billion years ago.

Rough measurements in the field suggested a surprisingly lightweight atmosphere.

More rigorous x-ray scans from several lava flows confirmed the result: The bubbles indicate that the atmospheric pressure at that time was less than half of today's.

Earth 2.7 billion years ago was home only to single-celled microbes, sunlight was about one-fifth weaker and the atmosphere contained no oxygen.

But this finding points to conditions being even more otherworldly than previously thought.

A lighter atmosphere could affect wind strength and other climate patterns and would even alter the boiling point of liquids.

Other geological evidence clearly shows liquid water on Earth at that time so the early atmosphere must have contained more heat-trapping greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide and less nitrogen.

The result also reinforces Buick's 2015 finding that microbes were pulling nitrogen out of Earth's atmosphere some three billion years ago.

"People will need to rewrite the textbooks," the authors noted.

The researchers will now look for other suitable rocks to confirm the findings and learn how atmospheric pressure might have varied through time.​

London, May 10 (IANS) In a finding that could change the way the most common form of stroke is treated globally, researchers have shown that modified dosage of a clot-busting drug can reduce risk of serious bleeding in the brain and improve survival rates.

Intravenous rtPA (or alteplase) is given to people suffering acute ischaemic stroke and works by breaking up clots blocking the flow of blood to the brain.

However, it can cause serious bleeding in the brain in around five per cent of cases, with many of these proving fatal.

Compared to standard dose (0.9mg/kg body weight), the lower dose (0.6mg/kg) of rtPA reduced rates of serious bleeding in the brain, known as intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), by two thirds, showed the results of the trial of more than 3,000 patients in 100 hospitals worldwide.

"Most patients who have a major stroke want to know they will survive but without being seriously dependent on their family. We have shown this to be the case with the lower dose of the drug,” said one of the researchers Tom Robinson, professor at University of Leicester in Britain.

The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"At the moment you could have a stroke but end up dying from a bleed in the brain. It's largely unpredictable as to who will respond and who is at risk with rtPA,” lead author of the study Craig Anderson, professor at Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney in Australia.

"What we have shown is that if we reduce the dose level, we maintain most of the clot busting benefits of the higher dose but with significantly less major bleeds and improved survival rates. On a global scale, this approach could save the lives of many tens of thousands of people,” Anderson noted.​

Washington, May 9 (IANS) In a move that could immensely benefit private space technology companies, NASA has released 56 formerly patented agency technologies into the public domain, making its government-developed technologies freely available for unrestricted commercial use.

​London, May 8 (IANS) A spurt in number of billionaires and increasing wealth creation by any means have made India rank ninth among the crony capitalist countries, said a study in "The Economist" latest issue.

​Beijing, May 8 (IANS) China's exports rose 4.1 percent year on year in April while imports dipped 5.7 percent, customs data showed on Sunday.

It led to a monthly trade surplus of 298 billion yuan ($45 billion), up from March's 194.6 billion yuan, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs, reports

​London, May 8 (IANS) Researchers have developed a set of algorithms that could help teach computers to process and understand human languages better.

While mastering natural language is easier for humans, it is something that computers have not yet been able to achieve. Humans understand language through a variety of

​Rome, May 6 (IANS) World food prices rose slightly in April, marking a third consecutive monthly increase after four years of decline, but they remained almost 10 percent lower than a year earlier, the UN food agency said.

​Beijing, May 6 (IANS) China's annual luxury goods trade show opened in Beijing on Friday with dancing robots, porcelain cream-and-marigold British high tea sets and classic handbuilt roadster automobiles. Held at the Beijing Exhibition Centre and anticipated to draw a crowd of 50,000 people, the three-day fair features a range of globally-renowned luxury brands for technology, fashion and leisure, according to organisers from the Beijing Zhenwei Exhibition Company. "Luxury China 2016 will also specially invite entrepreneurs of large enterprises, high-end consumer groups from specific cities to pay a special visit to the exhibitions, offering various enterprises the greatest opportunity of meeting supply and demand," said Beijing Zhenwei on the event-listing site China Exhibition. With a middle class that has surged to some 109 million people last year, adding 43.4 million new urban middle class arrivals since 2000, according to financial services company Credit Suisse, the appetite for luxury goods has surged, EFE news reported. Globally, Chinese buyers now account for some 20 percent of the total consumers of the luxury goods market, says global management firm McKinsey and Company. The interest in robotics has also gained momentum in 2016 with the unveiling of security robot AnBot earlier this week, last month's creation of the lifelike humanoid robot 'Jia Jia' and Friday's mini-bot synchronised dance show to the tune of Michael Jackson's 1982 Grammy-nominated song, "Beat it". The trade show runs until Sunday.​

​London, May 9 (IANS) In the race to capture the burgeoning global smartphone market, British automotive brand Jaguar Land Rover, currently owned by Tata Motors, is all set to launch smartphones and accessories by early 2017. For this, Land Rover has tied up with consumer electronics company Bullitt Group to develop a bespoke smartphone and range of accessories. “Incorporating iconic Land Rover design and innovative technology into the mobile phone sector with Bullitt Group presents an exciting challenge and fantastic opportunity to take the brand into a new dimension,” said Lindsay Weaver, director of licensing and branded goods at Jaguar Land Rover, in a statement recently. “An engineering and design team from Jaguar Land Rover special operations will be assigned to the partnership and subsequently deliver a number of bespoke applications tailored to Land Rover brand and product values,” Weaver added. According to Bullitt Group, the firm will partner with Land Rover to define and develop a groundbreaking portfolio of mobile devices and peripherals which will take the brand into a new and exciting commercial terrain. “With a combination of durability and elegance, the new range will be designed to be an active lifestyle partner, aimed at people who like to take on new challenges and go 'above and beyond' the ordinary,” said a statement. The portfolio will launch in early 2017 and will embody the core values of the Land Rover brand, featuring some truly innovative capabilities and technology. “We are confident the new range of products will perfectly encapsulate everything that Land Rover represents, appealing to those who already love the brand and providing an introduction to those who are yet to discover it,” noted Peter Stephens, CEO of Bullitt Group. Bullitt Group has been working with various clients on their tough and rugged smartphones in the past.​