Knowledge Update

​London, Oct 30 (IANS) Oceans may be responsible for making the Earth move in and out of ice ages every 100,000 years, finds a study.

According to the study published in the journal Geology, oceans sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere may have triggered this phenomena. 

Dubbed the "100,000-year problem", this phenomena has been occurring for the past million years or so and leads to vast ice sheets covering North America, Europe and Asia.

By studying the chemical make-up of tiny fossils on the ocean floor, the team discovered that there was more CO2 stored in the deep ocean during the ice age periods at regular intervals every 100,000 years.

This suggested that extra carbon dioxide was being pulled from the atmosphere and into the oceans at this time, subsequently lowering the temperature on the Earth and enabling vast ice sheets to engulf the Northern Hemisphere.

"We can think of the oceans as inhaling and exhaling carbon dioxide, so when the ice sheets are larger, the oceans have inhaled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the planet colder. When the ice sheets are small, the oceans have exhaled carbon dioxide, so there is more in the atmosphere which makes the planet warmer," said Carrie Lear, researcher at the Cardiff University, Britain. 

"By looking at the fossils of tiny creatures on the ocean floor, we showed that when ice sheets were advancing and retreating every 100,000 years, the oceans were inhaling more carbon dioxide in the cold periods, suggesting that there was less left in the atmosphere," Lear added.

Marine algae play a key role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere as it is an essential ingredient of photosynthesis.

CO2 is put back into the atmosphere when deep ocean water rises to the surface through a process called upwelling. But when a vast quantity of sea ice is present, this prevents the CO2 from being exhaled, which could make the ice sheets bigger and prolong the ice age.

The last ice age ended about 11,500 years ago, and began 21,000 years ago, according to earlier study reports.

​New York, Oct 29 (IANS) In yet another attempt to take on photo sharing mobile service Snapchat, Facebook is testing photo effects and masks into its main camera app for stills and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

Beijing, Oct 29 (IANS) There are many reasons why investing in India could boost the Chinese capital's clout in the Indian economy, a Chinese specialist says.

Investing in India is an inevitable choice of capital, which essentially pursues profits, said Ge Cheng, Assistant Research Fellow at the National Institute of International Strategy

​New York, Oct 29 (IANS) Google Glass can make learning Morse code much easier as researchers have developed a system that teaches the code within four hours using a series of vibrations felt near the ear.

​New York, Oct 29 (IANS) Love to eat milk chocolates, but are wary of its negative health effects as a result of higher levels of added sugar and fat? Take heart. Researchers have found a way to introduce the health benefits of dark chocolate -- a powerful source of antioxidants -- into milk chocolates. Researchers from the North Carolina State University, in the US, have developed a method to use peanut skin extracts to make milk chocolate that has even more nutritional benefits of dark chocolate without affecting the taste. They extracted phenolic compounds from peanut skins -- a waste product of peanut production -- and encapsulated them into maltodextrin powder which is an edible carbohydrate with a slightly sweet flavour that comes from starchy foods such as potatoes, rice or wheat. The maltodextrin powder was incorporated into the milk chocolate. "If applied to commercial products, peanut skin extracts would allow consumers to enjoy mild tasting products and have exposure to compounds that have proven health benefits," said lead author Lisa L. Dean from the North Carolina State University. Including these extracts would allow for a value-added use of the discarded skins, because peanut skins are a waste product of the blanching process of the peanut industry, the authors said. Consumer testing of 80 subjects who compared samples of both milk chocolates with peanut extracts and without showed that the fortified chocolates were liked as well as the untreated milk chocolate. These tests also showed that the threshold for detecting the presence of the peanut skin extract was higher than that needed to fortify the milk chocolate to antioxidant levels comparable to dark chocolate, the researchers noted in the paper appearing in the Journal of Food Science.

​New York, Oct 29 (IANS) Love to notch up the race numbers on the treadmill each day? Be careful, as running with heavier shoes may slow your race times, researchers have found.

The study found that running times slows when shoe weight is increased, even if only by a few ounces.

For the study, the researchers from the University of Colorado-Boulder in the US brought 18 runners, measured energy consumption and 3,000-metre race times in runners wearing shoes of various weights.

To measure running economy, each participant ran on a treadmill using three pairs of nearly identical shoes, with subtle differences.

Unknown to the runners, the researchers added small lead pellets inside the tongues of two of the three pairs of shoes to be used by each runner.

While one pair was normal, each shoe of another pair was made 100 grams heavier and a third pair was loaded with 300 grams of lead pellets per shoe.

Each of the runners ran treadmill tests in which oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production were measured with all three differently weighted shoe pairs.

The results showed that energy costs of the runners rose by about 1 per cent with each extra 100 grams of shoe weight.

On the other hand, when shoe mass is reduced, by compromising with cushioning for example, it doesn't mean you will run faster, said lead author Wouter Hoogkamer, postdoctoral student at University of Colorado-Boulder, adding "Lighter is not always better."

Prior studies have also shown that proper cushioning also reduces the energetic cost of running.

So when selecting footwear, be aware of this trade-off between shoe mass and cushioning, concluded the researchers in the paper published online in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

​London, Oct 28 (IANS) Researchers have confirmed an unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur.

The tissues resemble those seen in modern crocodiles and birds, said the study reported in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London.

The fossilised brain, found by fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks near Bexhill in Sussex in 2004, is most likely from a species similar to Iguanodon - a large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, about 133 million years ago, according to the study.

"The chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing," said study co-author Alex Liu from the University of Cambridge.

According to the researchers, the reason this particular piece of brain tissue has been so well preserved is that the dinosaur's brain was essentially 'pickled' in a highly acidic and low-oxygen body of water -- similar to a bog or swamp -- shortly after its death. 

"What we think happened is that this particular dinosaur died in or near a body of water, and its head ended up partially buried in the sediment at the bottom," David Norman from the University of Cambridge, noted.

"Since the water had little oxygen and was very acidic, the soft tissues of the brain were likely preserved and cast before the rest of its body was buried in the sediment," Norman noted.

Working with colleagues from the University of Western Australia, the researchers used scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques in order to identify the tough membranes, or meninges, that surrounded the brain itself, as well as strands of collagen and blood vessels.

The structure of the fossilised brain, and in particular that of the meninges, shows similarities with the brains of modern-day descendants of dinosaurs, namely birds and crocodiles, the study said.

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​Mumbai, Oct 28 (IANS) Tata Steel Minerals Canada, a joint venture between Tata Steel Ltd and New Millennium Iron Corp signed definitive agreements with Resources Quebec (RQ) and Investment Quebec (IQ) for concluding investments of Canadian dollar $175 million, the steel producer said on Friday.

San Francisco, Oct 28 (IANS) Apple has released a significant update to its professional video editing app Final Cut Pro X.

The app now comes with new editing features for the Magnetic Timeline, support for the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro and a redesigned interface with full support for