Knowledge Update

​Washington, March 21 (IANS) The last volcanic activity on the Red Planet ceased about 50 million years ago -- around the time when our planet's plant and animal species, including dinosaurs, went extinct, reveals new research.

The giant Martian shield volcano Arsia Mons produced one new lava flow at its summit every one to 3 million years during the final peak of activity. 

The last volcanic activity there ceased about 50 million years ago around the time of the Earth's Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.

"We estimate that the peak activity for the volcanic field at the summit of Arsia Mons probably occurred approximately 150 million years ago -- the late Jurassic period on Earth -- and then died out around the same time as the Earth's dinosaurs," said Jacob Richardson, a post-doctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

"It's possible, though, that the last volcanic vent or two might have been active in the past 50 million years, which is very recent in geological terms," Richardson added.

Located just south of Mars' equator, Arsia Mons is the southernmost member of a trio of broad, gently sloping shield volcanoes collectively known as Tharsis Montes. 

Richardson presented the findings, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, on Monday. 

The high-resolution imaging was provided by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A better understanding of when volcanic activity on Mars took place is important because it helps researchers understand the Red Planet's history and interior structure.

​New York, March 21 (IANS) Chimpanzees living in the wild -- with favourable ecological factors, abundant supply of high-energy and nutritious foods and low predation levels -- can have long life spans, a study has found.

"Our findings show how ecological factors, including variation in food supplies and predation levels, drive variation in life expectancy among wild chimpanzee populations," said lead author of the study Brian Wood, Assistant Professor at Yale University.

In the study, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the team analysed a sample of 306 chimpanzees of a community, called Ngogo, at Kibale National Park in Uganda.

They found that these chimpanzees had an average life expectancy of about 33 years, nearly twice as high as that of other chimpanzee communities and within the 27 to 37-year range of life expectancy at birth of human hunter-gatherers.

According to the study, favourable ecological conditions largely account for the Ngogo community's high life expectancy -- the highest on record for any group of wild chimpanzees.

The forest in Ngogo provides a relatively consistent and abundant supply of high-energy and nutritious foods, including easily digestible figs.

This rich food supply helps buffer the Ngogo chimpanzees against periods of hunger, and helps fuel their ability to stave off diseases that would otherwise lead to higher mortality, the research said.

Further, the Ngogo chimpanzees also benefit from a low risk of predation, no major disease epidemics, either introduced by humans or due to other causes, like those that have affected wild chimpanzees at several other research sites.

The study is important for understanding the evolution of chimpanzees and hominin life histories as they help us to imagine the conditions that could have changed mortality rates among our early hominin populations, Wood said.

"It has long been proposed that there are extreme differences in the life expectancies of human hunter-gatherers and chimpanzees," said David Watts, Professor at Yale University.

"In fact, the Ngogo community's pattern of survivorship more closely resembles that of human hunter-gatherers than those documented for other chimpanzee communities," he said.

​London, March 21 (IANS) The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year recorded so far has continued into 2017, pushing the world into "truly uncharted territory", according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The WMO's assessment of the climate in 2016, published on Tuesday, reports unprecedented heat across the globe, exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging rise in sea levels, the Guardian reported.

Global warming is largely being driven by emissions from human activities, but a strong El Nino -- a natural climate cycle -- has added to the heat in 2016. 

The El Nino is now waning, but the extremes continue to be seen, with temperature records tumbling in the US in February and polar heatwaves pushing ice cover to new lows, the WMO report said.

"Even without a strong El Nino in 2017, we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system. We are now in truly uncharted territory," said David Carlson, director of the WMO's world climate research programme.

Last year saw the hottest global average among thermometer measurements stretching back to 1880, reports the Guardian. 

But scientific research indicates the world was last this warm about 115,000 years ago and that the planet has not experienced such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for 4 million years.

This year already saw temperature records continue to tumble, in the US where February was exceptionally warm, and in Australia, where prolonged and extreme heat struck many states. 

According to the report, global sea level rise surged between November 2014 and February 2016, with the El Nino event helping the oceans rise by by 15mm. 

That jump would have taken five years under the steady rise seen in recent decades, as ice caps melt and oceans get warmer and expand in volume. 

​New York, March 21 (IANS) A team of researchers has developed a cheap, portable camera that can photograph the retina without the need for pupil-dilating eye drops.

Made out of simple parts mostly available online, the camera's total cost is about $185.

"As residents seeing patients in the hospital, there are often times when we are not allowed to dilate patients -- neurosurgery patients for example," said Dr Bailey Shen, an ophthalmology resident at University of Illinois' Chicago College of Medicine.

"There are times when we find something abnormal in the back of the eye but it is not practical to wheel the patient all the way over to the outpatient eye clinic just for a photograph," Shen added.

The prototype camera can be carried in your pocket and can take pictures of the back of the eye without eye drops. The pictures can be shared with other doctors, or attached to the patient's medical record.

The camera is based on the Raspberry Pi 2 computer, a low-cost, single-board computer designed to teach children how to build and programme computers. 

A handful of other components -- a lens, a small display screen and several cables -- make up the rest of the camera.

Shen and his co-author Dr Shizuo Mukai, associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and a retina surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, describe their camera and provide a shopping list of parts, instructions for assembly and the code needed to programme the camera in the Journal of Ophthalmology.

"This is an open-source device that is cheap and easy to build," said Mukai. "We expect that others who build our camera will add their own improvements and innovations."

"The device is currently just a prototype, but it shows that it is possible to build a cheap camera capable of taking quality pictures of the retina without dilating eye drops, " Shen said. 

Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) In a development that could transform the management of cancer patients, a Bengaluru-based laboratory has claimed to have cracked the difficulties related to tracing malignant cells and avoid repeated biopsies.

Doctors often are forced to conduct repeated biopsy tests to detect certain types of cancers related to skin, lung and colon. 

But with the new method -- liquid biopsy test -- developed for the first time in India by MedGenome, a genomics-based research and diagnostics company, physicians can identify genetic alterations, interpret, assess and treat various forms of cancer, the company said.

The test has also been validated in a scientific study, in academic collaboration with Tata Memorial Centre Hospital (TMH), Mumbai, and its state-of-the-art R&D satellite Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC).

The test facilitates detection of mutation where there is difficulty of obtaining biopsy or in the event of a damaged biopsy material and non-availability of tissue biopsy.

The development assumes significance in view of the fact that by 2020 India may have an estimated 1.73 million new cases of cancer and over 880,000 cancer deaths. Around 70 per cent of all cancer patients approach the doctor only when the symptoms noticeably appear and the chances of cure are very low as the by then disease has advanced.

"Management of cancer will undergo a massive transformation in India with NGS (next generation sequencing)-based liquid biopsies. We are constantly striving to get the most advanced genetic testing technology/technique at affordable prices to the patients and Oncotrack is one such offering," said Sam Santhosh, MedGenome Chairman.

Dr. Kumar Prabhash, Medical Oncologist at TMH, opines: "As the care gets more personalised, doctors will be equipped to make correct diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of diseases. Cell-free tumour DNA (ctDNA) analysis will help in avoiding repeat biopsies of difficult-to-get tumours and also in monitoring the overall response to treatment on real time basis."

In medical terms, the liquid biopsy-based test is a non-invasive screening that analyses cell-free DNA that is isolated from the patients' blood. Using high-end sequencing technology, the screening process identifies specific gene mutations that are linked with melanoma, lung and colon cancers. 

This empowers cancer specialists, the oncologists, to look for actionable alterations in a patient's treatment and management, without having to do an invasive biopsy or where biopsy is not an option, Medgenome said.

"Liquid biopsy has the capacity to interpret infinite mutations which will pave the way for new drug discovery, research and therapies. Over 35 oncologists in India have already screened patients using our Oncotrack. Further, since it has a very patient-friendly approach, we are confident it will be very well accepted by the doctors and patients," said Dr V.L. Ramprasad, COO, MedGenome.

Oncotrack is a proven molecular tool after histopathology diagnosis and detecting molecular changes at baseline and at the time of relapse in lung and colon cancer for deciding the right treatment. 

MedGenome is a market leader for genomic diagnostics in South Asia and a leading provider of genomics research services globally. MedGenome offers genomics solutions in cancer immunotherapy, diabetes etc., and works with various commercial and academic researchers globally on genomic research projects. It is also a founding member of GenomeAsia 100K initiative to sequence 100,000 genomes in South, North and East Asia, Ramprasad said.

​Moscow, March 20 (IANS) Increased digital clutter, owing to an explosion in the usage of apps, is leaving smartphones vulnerable to security threats, a new survey said on Monday.

​Beijing, March 20 (IANS) The Chinese government on Monday reported several companies and local administrations that have breached environmental protection measures within the country.

​Las Vegas, March 20 (IANS) Software giant IBM on Monday launched a new cognitive assistant that leverages the capabilities of IBM Watson to help IT professionals effectively manage and protect networks of smartphones, tablets, laptops, internet of things (IoT) devices and other endpoints.

​San Francisco, March 20 (IANS) In a fresh bid to take on rivals like Apple, Google and Snap, Facebook is reportedly foraying into consumer hardware products that may involve next-gen cameras, augmented reality (AR) devices, drones and even a brain scanning technology. At its "Building 8" facility, the company is working on at least four unannounced consumer hardware products, Business Insider reported on Monday. The hardware group is expected to play a key role in Facebook's developer conference in April. Facebook is yet to confirm this but according to the report, the company is set to take a big step toward becoming a multi-product hardware company. "Building 8 will include a big retail push complete with warehouse operations, different retail experiences, and a 'global contact centre footprint'," the report said. To make efficient hardware for its Oculus virtual reality headsets and internet drones, Facebook has also built a new facility at its US campus which is called "Area 404". The 22,000-square-foot lab at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters will help the social networking giant perform fast prototyping and modelling of new hardware products and components, reports said. This facility, mostly operational, will reportedly support Facebook's Connectivity Lab which focuses on bringing internet access to developing countries and remotest areas via drones and satellites. The lab will also help towards developing better virtual reality headset. Facebook is also working on its solar-powered craft Aquila that will beam the internet down to the estimated four billion people worldwide. However, in its first test flight, Aquila crash-landed because of strong winds that rendered its autopilot system confused. "Over the next year we're going to keep testing Aquila -- flying higher and longer, and adding more planes and payloads. It's all part of our mission to connect the world and help more of the four billion people who are not online access all the opportunities of the internet," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had written in a post.

​San Fransisco, March 20 (IANS) Apple's recently submitted application for an unnamed "wireless device" to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval turns out to be a door access system, most likely to be used for the Apple Park campus. "The manual for model 'A1844, which supports both NFC and Bluetooth Low Energy, includes wiring instructions, and in fact says that users have to present the company provided credential to the reader," appleinsider.com reported on Monday. The new 175-acre Apple Park near Cupertino will be open to employees from April, while the construction of buildings and parklands is scheduled to continue through the year, the US tech giant announced earlier this year. In honour of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' memory and his contribution to Apple, and his vision to make Apple Park a centre for creativity and collaboration, the theatre at the campus will be named the Steve Jobs Theatre. Apple Park will include a visitors centre with an Apple Store and cafe open to the public, a 100,000-square-foot fitness centre for Apple employees and development facilities and the Steve Jobs Theatre. The Park has been designed in collaboration with "Foster + Partners" and it replaces five million-square-foot of asphalt and concrete with grassy fields and over 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees, and is powered 100 per cent by renewable energy. In the past few months, Apple has submitted two other wireless devices for FCC approval, identified as A1845 and A1846.