Knowledge Update

London, Jan 24 (IANS) After analysing minerals from 43 rare meteorites that landed on Earth 470 million years ago, a team of scientists proposes to revise the current understanding of the history and development of the solar system.

There was a giant collision in outer space 460 million years ago. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. 

The discovery confirms the hypothesis presented by geology professor Birger Schmitz at Lund University in Sweden. He found what he referred to as an "extinct meteorite" - a meteorite dinosaur - which was named "Osterplana 065".

The term 'extinct' was used because of its unusual composition, different from all known groups of meteorites, and because it originated from a celestial body that was destroyed in ancient times.

The discovery led to the hypothesis that the flow of meteorites may have been completely different 470 million years ago compared to today, as meteorites with such a composition no longer fall on Earth.

"The new results confirm the hypothesis. Based on 43 micrometeorites, which are as old as Österplana 065, the new study shows that back then, the flow was actually dramatically different," said Schmitz. 

Schmitz conducted the study with colleagues at Lund University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

"We can now recreate late history of not only the Earth but of the entire solar system. The scientific value of this new report is greater than the one last summer", Schmitz added in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We found that the meteorite flux, the variety of meteorites falling to Earth, was very, very different from what we see today," added the paper's lead author Philipp Heck of The Field Museum in Chicago.

Beijing, Jan 24 (IANS) China plans to build a next-generation synchrotron radiation facility in Beijing, according to a researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dong Yuhui said on Monday that the project is expected to start in November 2018 and will be completed in six years. The total investment will reach 4.8 billion yuan ($698 million), the China Daily reported.

The facility, dubbed Beijing Light Source, will meet the national security demands and create aerospace materials among other products. It will provide high-resolution method to know substantial structures better.

Beijing Light Source will be the so-called fourth generation light source and its key performance indicators would be higher than the third-generation ones.

It will create the brightest X-rays worldwide, 70 times brighter than the US National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and 10 times brighter than Sweden's MAX IV, the strongest of its kind in the world.

Bright X-rays could help measure the atomic structure of various substances and the higher brightness will help people to see more details of substances, something akin to using flashlight to see things, Dong said.

Around the world, there are more than 50 such facilities providing support in many research fields. 

The light source plays an important role in the medical field, helping researchers know mechanisms of tumours and cerebrovascular diseases.

New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Love to watch satirical news programmes? It may have a serious impact on your political attitudes and efficacy, a new research has suggested.

The finding showed that people chose satirical news -- often dismissed as mere entertainment -- that matched their pre-existing attitudes such as liberal or conservative.

"Satirical news matters. It is not just entertaining -- it has a real-life impact on viewers as serious news and it reinforces your political attitudes," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, professor at The Ohio State University.

Watching satirical news also affects feelings of political efficacy -- people's belief that they can influence political processes -- as much as watching serious news.

The study further showed that people with little interest in politics were more likely to select satirical over serious news. 

"Satirical news can engage people who otherwise would avoid political news and could act as a gateway into more serious news use for people who aren't currently engaged in politics," Knobloch-Westerwick added in a paper published in the Journal of Communication.

For the study, the team involved 146 college students who selected news clips -- that were liberal, conservative, satirical and serious -- to watch concerning climate change, gun control and immigration.

The results showed that regardless of whether they viewed the serious or the satirical news clips, participants' political views were strengthened if they viewed videos that agreed with their original beliefs.

​New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Nicotine may have a direct impact on the restoration of normal brain activity in people suffering from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia -- a disorder affecting 51 million people worldwide, a study has found.

The findings showed that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days and within a week it was normalised.

"Since the repeated administration of nicotine restores normal activity to the prefrontal cortex, it could pave the way for a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia," said lead author Uwe Maskos from Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Unit or Institut Pasteur -- a French non-profit private foundation.

It has been observed that schizophrenic patients often use smoking as a form of self-medication to alleviate the deficit symptoms caused by their disorder or to combat the serious side effects of their treatment -- lethargy, lack of motivation, etc. 

Patients with schizophrenia -- 80 to 90 per cent of whom are often heavy smokers -- have impairments in the prefrontal cortex -- the brain region associated with cognition, decision-making and working memory.

Recently, the genetic mutation CHRNA5, which encodes a nicotinic receptor subunit, was identified as being associated with the cognitive impairments in schizophrenic patients and with nicotine dependence.

In the new study, scientists introduced the human CHRNA5 gene into mice with the aim of reproducing the cerebral deficits that characterise schizophrenia, namely behavioural deficits in situations of social interaction and while performing sensorimotor tasks.

The results showed that mice with the CHRNA5 mutation had reduced activity in their prefrontal cortex. 

The drop in activity measured in this model is similar to that observed in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and addiction, the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

​London, Jan 24 (IANS) Using the 3D-printing technology, a team of Spanish scientists has for the first time created proper human skin that can be used in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems and also in chemical tests.

According to José Luis Jorcano, professor, department of bioengineering and aerospace engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the new human skin is one of the first living human organs created using bioprinting to be introduced to the marketplace. 

It replicates the natural structure of the skin, with a first external layer, the epidermis with its stratum corneum, which acts as protection against the external environment, together with the dermis -- another thicker, deeper layer. 

The last layer consists of fibroblasts that produce collagen, the protein that gives elasticity and mechanical strength to the skin.

The skin "can be transplanted to patients or used in business settings to test chemical products, cosmetics or pharmaceutical products in quantities and with timetables and prices that are compatible with these uses," Luis Jorcano noted. 

When creating skin, instead of cartridges and coloured inks, injectors with biological components are used. 

The act of depositing these bioinks is controlled by a computer, which deposits them on a print bed in an orderly manner to then produce the skin.

"We use only human cells and components to produce skin that is bioactive and can generate its own human collagen, thereby avoiding the use of the animal collagen that is found in other methods," the researchers noted in a paper published in the scientific journal Biofabrication.

"This method of bioprinting allows skin to be generated in a standardised, automated way, and the process is less expensive than manual production," Alfredo Brisac, CEO of Spanish bioengineering firm BioDan Group pointed out.

Currently, this development is in the phase of being approved by different European regulatory agencies to guarantee that the skin that is produced is adequate for use in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems. 

In addition, these tissues can be used to test pharmaceutical products, as well as cosmetics and consumer chemical products where current regulations require testing that does not use animals.

​London, Jan 23 (IANS) While using Facebook do you tend to seek people or groups that match your opinions? If so, you may tend to become isolated and more narrow-minded, a study has revealed. With most people seeking out only the news and views that tally with their own opinions, the social media networking site may be inadvertently helping people to stick to and strengthen their belief, creating an "echo chamber" where controversial theories, biased views and selective news are often repeated, unchallenged and accepted as fact. "So instead of sharing to challenge or inform, social media users are more likely to share an idea already commonly accepted in their social groups for the purpose of reinforcement or agreement," CNN reported on Monday, quoting Alessandro Bessi of University of Southern California. This leads to the misinformation or fake news to spread unchecked. "Indeed, we found that conspiracy-like claims spread only inside the echo chambers of users that usually support alternative sources of information and distrust official and mainstream news," Bessi added. The study found that anything that conforms to our ideas, we tend to like and share it, leading to reckless sharing sometimes as we share something without really examining the content. This may explain how certain phenomena, leads to proliferation of biased narratives fomented by unsubstantiated rumours, mistrust, and paranoia, researchers noted. The problem of unreliable information going "viral" online had become so serious it was classed of one of the biggest social threats by the World Economic Forum, the researchers stated, in the paper published in the journal PNAS.

​London, Jan 23 (IANS) With social media substituting real-life communication, one-third of people communicate less face-to-face with their loved ones, a key factor for damaging relationships, a study has found. The findings showed that a significant third of people communicate less with their parents (31 per cent), children (33 per cent), partners (23 per cent) and friends (35 per cent) because they can see and communicate with them via social media. "Digital communication is an opportunity to bridge the gaps in our modern lives caused by living in different cities or countries. However, it cannot replace face-to-face communication -- at least not always and not completely," said Astrid Carolus, media psychologist at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. Although social media can help ease communication channels and bridge time zones and distance barriers, it does not always make people happy. It can strain relationships as well as leaving people feeling down and upset, as they constantly compare their lives to those of others. The hunt for "likes" and social validation leads people to share increasing amounts of private information on social media platforms, putting not only themselves but also their friends, family and colleagues at risk. Further, 21 per cent of parents admitted that relationships with their children have been damaged as a result of them being seen in a compromising situation on social media. In contrast, only 14 per cent of parents said they were annoyed by their children's online behaviour. In addition, around one-in-five (16 per cent) people also said that their relationship with their spouse or partner has been damaged as a result of them being seen in a compromising situation on social media. However, many people believe that the quality of their relationships does not suffer at all and is even better as a result of being connected with their loved ones online. "Under certain circumstances they perceive their online communication as "hyper-personal communication" and thus they can misread and over-interpret the messages on social media. We feel especially close, we blind out the rather negative, focus on the possible positive intentions behind a message and over-interpret," Carolus noted.

​Beijing, Jan 23 (IANS) China has 731 million internet users, roughly the size of Europe's population, according to a report.

China has the world's largest internet users followed by India.

​New York, Jan 23 (IANS) Taiwan technology giant Foxconn is teaming up with Cupertino, San Francisco-based Apple to set up a display-panel manufacturing facility in the US with an investment of $7 billion, the media reported on Monday.

Beijing, Jan 23 (IANS) The number of people, who opted for mobile payments in China soared 31.2 per cent in 2016 to reach 469 million, a new study revealed on Monday.

This strong growth was partly due to a continued increase in users connecting to the internet through their mobile phones, which grew 75 million, or 12.1 percent, in 2016, to