Mosquitoes may eradicate malaria soon

First thing that comes to mind would be “it is not possible”. But it is actually true as reported in the daily mail news. US scientists have engineered a mosquito which cannot be infected by the parasite (plasmodium, a one celled parasite). Series of laboratory tests also shows that, it has a greater chance of survival.

It is believed that the engineered mosquito (it is known as the GM variety), which outlives its unmodified rivals, will dominate in the wild and prevent the spread of the deadly parasite.

Though a senior research fellow in microbiology at the University of Bath Dr. Mark Enwright welcomed the promising research, but he feared the unknown consequences when this engineered mosquitoes are released into the wild.

The research team was led by Dr. Mauro Marelli and their finding was reported in the journal proceedings of the natural Academy of sciences. Adding to their findings, the rate of survival of the genetically engineered mosquito surpasses that of the unmodified ones.

Planes maybe powered with plant soon

A study published in the journal Energy and Environmental science shows the approach of researchers towards streamlining biomass processing for the production of aviation fuels.

Jet fuels are known to be very costly, asides that the emission of gases that contribute to the detriment of our environment is still a fresh wound in our hearts. But this may soon be a thing of the past as biofuels maybe a low-cost and environment friendly alternative. As said by scientist who have developed a new technology to transform lignocellulosic biomass into an aviation fuel surrogate.

Researchers also noted the most important challenge in the biofuel industry to be the inability to get more advanced biofuels into the transportation pool (large amount of the biofuel are gotten from corn ethanol and vegetable oil-based biodesel.

Through catalytic chemistry, a technology has been designed to transform lignocellulosic biomass into a jet fuel surrogate. This was pioneered by a multi-university team led by George Huber, professor of chemical and biological engineering at the university of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lignocellulosic biomass was clearly defined as an abundant natural resource that includes inedible portions of food crops as well as grasses, trees and other ‘’woody’’ biomass. Transportation fuels and commodity chemicals can be produced from processed lignocellulose.

Presenting a comprehensive approach by the research team shows how a biomass can be processed for the production of aviation fuels. This will be achieved by the production of furfural and levulinic acid (sugars commonly present in lignocellulosic biomass). When these two compounds are transformed, it leads to a mixture of chemicals that are indistinguishable from the primary components of petroleum.

We are patiently waiting for that.

The biggest Dinosaur unearthed

A team of paleontologists from the museum of paleontology Egidio Feruglio, Argentina   , led by Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol, unearthed the fossils of the biggest dinosaur ever. The fossil was tripped over by a local farm worker in the desert near La Flecha.

Argentinosaurus which previously holds the record of being the biggest giant animal known, that walked on earth is now being ripped off of its title, with this new discovery, as this current giant herbivore surpasses the weight of Argentinosaurus by 7 tonnes. This was revealed to the BBC new by the researchers.

Its thigh bones are 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall, weighing 77 tonnes. It also stated that it was as heavy as 14 African elephants.

Based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found, this giant did live in the forest of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago. All the bones (about 150 bones) unearthed were in remarkable condition.

Caution should be taken, in noting this giant herbivore as the biggest that walked on earth, as there is a high probability that there are more giants yet to be unearthed. This view is also supported by a dinosaur expert from London’s natural history museum, Dr. Paul Barrette.

Countries with multiple time zones

Multiple time zones within a country occur when the country’s territory is so big, that it can accommodate more than one time zone. Countries with multiple time zones include;

Country (Countries)                                                  Number of Time zones

France                                                                         12 (Twelve)

United States of America                                            11 (Eleven)

Antarctica                                                                    10 (Ten)

Russia and United Kingdom                                        9 (Nine)

Australia                                                                      8 (Eight)

Canada                                                                         6 (Six)

Brazil, Denmark and New Zealand                             5 (Five)

Mexico, Indonesia and Kiribati                                   3 (Three)

Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile,                       2 (Two)

Ecuador, Netherland, Mongolia, Kazakhstan,

Portugal and Spain

New species of Plant that feed on Metals discovered

New species of plant called Rinorea niccolifera have been discovered (by scientist from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos), to be a new plant species with an unusual lifestyle, it belongs to the family Violaceae. It eats Nickel for a living, as it accumulate up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned. The new species was discovered on the western part of Luzon Island in the Philippines, an area known for soils rich in heavy metals. It is a hyper accumulator, as it can be grown and harvested in order to recover commercially valuable metals in plant shoots from metal-rich sites.

SIM

SIM is an acronym for Subscriber Identity Module. It is a card used in Mobile telephones. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke and Devrient who sold the first 300 SIM cards to the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja.

SIM is an integrated circuit that safely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and other forms of related identification to authenticate subscribers on mobile telephony devices such as; Computer and mobile phone. When this circuit is embedded into a removable plastic card it is called SIM card.

SIM cards also vary in the amount of data they can hold. It varies between 16KB, 32KB, 64KB and 128K. but it is enough to hold your: cell phone number, text messages, PIN lock address or contact book, service features and preferences, rate plan and LAI (Location Area Identity). There are three operating voltage for SIM cards: 5V, 3V and 1.8V. The SIM is also in different sizes: Full-size SIM (1FF); Mini-SIM (2FF); Micro-SIM (3FF); Nano-SIM (4FF).

The mobile phone can also be locked to a specific SIM card by some networks, in this case no other SIM card can work in the phone except when it has been unlocked and this happens mostly in countries where phones are subsidized (such countries include United states, Canada, UK, Poland etc.). But in countries where phones are not subsidized, phones are not locked to its SIM card, so the users can switch SIM at their convenient time (such countries include Nigeria, India, etc.).