NASA SCIENTISTS SPOTTED YOUNGEST BLACK HOLE IN MILKY WAY
NASA scientists spotted the youngest black hole yet in the Milky Way galaxy called W49B, which is just 1000-years-old and only 26000 light-years away from Earth. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggested a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black holes formed in the Milky Way galaxy.
NASA explained that W49B appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. Laura Lopez, who led the study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy. Usually when a massive star runs out of fuel, the central region of the star collapses, triggering a chain of events that quickly culminate in a supernova explosion.
Most of these explosions are generally symmetrical, with the stellar material blasting away more or less evenly in all directions. However, in the W49B supernova, material near the poles of the doomed rotating star was ejected at a much higher speed than material emanating from its equator. The remnant now glows brightly in X-rays and other wavelengths, offering the evidence for a peculiar explosion. By tracing the distribution and amounts of different elements in the stellar debris field, researchers were able to compare the Chandra data to theoretical models of how a star explodes. A careful search of the Chandra data revealed no evidence for a neutron star. The lack of such evidence implies a black hole may have formed.
RATAN TATA AWARDED WITH LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2012
Ratan Tata, the former head of Tata Group was awarded the life time achievement award 2012 by Ernst & Young on 21 February 2013. He was given away the award for displaying great role for the Indian businessmen on global business level.
The entrepreneur of the year (2012) award was given away to Adi Godrej, Godrej Group Chairman. It is important to note that entrepreneur of the year award is an only business award which is based on self-nomination.
Also, Ernst & Young announced names of successful entrepreneurs in various categories and these awards were given away to TT Jagannathan, Chairman, TTK Group; Francisco D’Souza, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Cyrus S Poonawalla, Managing
Director, Serum Institute of India and Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman and Managing Director, Apollo
Tyres.
ELA BHATT CONFERRED 2011 INDIRA GANDHI PRIZE
The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 18 February 2013 conferred 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, a renowned Women social worker. The award was given away at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.
Ela Bhatt was given away the award for life time achievements in women empowerment, promotion of grassroot level entrepreneurship as well as contribution towards promotion of equitable development and peace. Ela Bhatt has her organisation SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association). President Pranab Mukherjee while giving away the award announced that SEWA
was a vehicle of self employment and self reliance for the Indian women, while at the same time being synonymous with the rural inclusiveness.
ELA BHATT
• Ela Bhatt is the founder of more than 1 million SEWAs in India.
• Since years, Ela Bhatt has been working for women empowerment and bringing women out of poverty through promotion of Self Help Groups.
• SEWA has empowered women with freedom as well as financial self- reliance.
TWENTY-SEVENTH EDITION OF SURAJKUND MELA ENDED
The twenty seventh edition of the Surajkund International Crafts Mela ended on 15 February
2013 at Surajkund in Faridabad (Haryana). The mela lasted for fifteen days from 1 February to
15 February 2013, presented a kaleidoscopic perspective of the rich Indian culture.
FACTS RELATED TO THE 27TH EDITION OF THE MEAL ARE AS FOLLOWS
• The 27th edition of the mela carried Karnataka as its main theme and the theme was selected after a gap of 18 years.
• Craftsmen from SAARC nations participated for the first time under one roof in the history of mela
• Craftsmen from Eurasian countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan & Kyrgyzstan also displayed their handicrafts and handicrafts during the mela
ABOUT SURAJKUND MELA
Surajkund Mela, for the first time was held in 1987 and since then the colorful traditional craft festival is held from 1 February to 15 February every year on the onset of spring season. The annual fair helps in showcasing the finest handlooms, handicrafts, authentic fragrances and flavours of rich Indian cuisines. State as well as National awardees artisans from every corner of India participate in the mela.
Every year the mela is organised based on the theme of a particular state of India that is chosen as the state of the year. Complete mela carries the look of the selected state
SURAJKUND AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
The name Surajkund means Lake of the Sun and the area lies in the backdrop of Aravalli hills. The area was built by the ruler of Tomar Dynasty, Suraj Pal in tenth century. The place holds a historic sun temple of tenth century. Surajkund being a historical place is also included in the list of Haryana Tourism department.
R. NARIMAN SOLICITOR -GENERAL OF INDIA RESIGNED FROM HIS OFFICE
Rohinton F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of India resigned from his office on 4 February 2013. He was appointed at the second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after Gopal Subramanium resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues with Government in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.
Nariman was designated as a senior advocate at the age of 37, when M.N. Venkatachaliah, the Chief Justice of India amended the rules and reduced the age from 45 years for designating a lawyer as a senior advocate.
In the history of last four decades, only three Solicitor Generals have been successful in completing his five year term in the office and they are - L N Sinha from 1972-77, Dipankar Gupta from 1992-97 and G E Vahanvati from 2004-09.
MOHAN PARASARAN APPOINTED AS THE SOLICITOR GENERAL OF INDIA
Mohan Parasaran, the Additional Solicitor General was on 13 February 2013 appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation.
Mohan Parasaran will serve as the Solicitor General of India for a term of three years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) cleared his name for Solicitor General of India. Rohinton Nariman resigned from his post in Early
February 2013. Mohan Parasaran is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. He was appointed by first UPA Government as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in July 2004.
SOLICITOR GENERAL OF INDIA
The Solicitor General of India is the second highest law officer of India and a subordinate to the
Attorney General for India, who is the Indian government's chief legal advisor.
SIR ISSAC NEWTON’S 300 -YEAR-OLD TEXTBOOKS DISCOVERED
A box of books said to be that of Sir Isaac Newton, in the school physics laboratory of Newcastle-under-Lyme School, Staffordshire in UK were discovered in the first week of February 2013. The textbooks are over 300 years old and contain works of Sir Issac Newton, who is credited with discovery of gravity.
The auctioneers estimated that the discovery could be worth thousands of pounds. The books were discovered by the sixth-form physics student Will Garside while working on the artefacts from the school site.
The books contained Newton’s Laws of Motion as well as the account of principles of gravity spread across over 1000 pages. The discovered books are a set of three volumes and are said to be the property of first headmaster, Francis Elliot Kitchener, who was a keen scientist. The
three books are known as Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, meaning mathematical principles of natural philosophy. They were first published on 5 July 1687.
The work of Sir Issac Newton was translated in English in 1728. Sir Newton was leading scientist in subjects such as alchemy, theology, natural philosophy and astronomy. He was born in 1642 and died in 1727.
REPORT: INDIA ACCOUNTS TO 86 % ORAL CANCER FIGURE
Experts of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) in first week of February released a report on the harmful effects of gutka. It reported that 86 percent of the total oral
cancer figure across the world accounted to India. A total of 75000 to 80000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in India itself.
In case of India the maximum number of cancer was a result of tobacco chewing, because Indians chew tobacco more than smoking. India consists of 14 percent smoking tobacco users and 26 percent chewing tobacco users.
As per the report tobacco is responsible for creating 1.5 lakh cancer patients, 4.2 million heart diseases and 3.7 million lung diseases in India every year, making India an oral cancer capital. The statistics released by the Health Ministry 65 percent cancers in India are caused due to the use of tobacco. Other data released reveled that a third of the annual 5.6 million cancer deaths in India occurs due to the excessive use of tobacco. The rate of oral cancer reported in India is about twice the global average.
In 2008 cancer was the cause of 7.6 million deaths worldwide. In case of men from South-East Asia Region, oral and lung cancers are the most prevalent ones and breast and cervical cancers are mainly found in women.
The Government of India invests a sum of 300 billion rupees per year approximately on treatment of tobacco related illness via both private and public spending. It accounts to one- fourth of the total spending on health issues in the country. About 2500 persons die every day in India due to diseases related to tobacco.
SCIENTISTS CREATED WORLD’S FIRST DIGITAL ATLAS OF BRAIN
Scientists at the Berkeley Lab in their first major breakthrough made possible to get the close view of how a brain develops as well as functions. The scientists would also be able to find out which part of brain is an absentee during the neurological disorders such as epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia. In their major breakthrough, the scientists created the first of its kind genome-wide digital atlas of gene enhancers that are found in the brain.
Genomes, as described by the scientists are the switches which help a gene in getting information about when and where they should be switched on or off. The world’s first atlas of this kind documents the cerebrum, motor functions as well as emotion identifies and also find
out various gene-regulating elements that form the basic causes of neurological disorders.
A geneticist with Berkeley Lab's genomics division, Axel Visel described that the most challenging tasks of the contemporary science is to understand the functioning or malfunctioning of the brain. Therefore, they created the digital atlas of gene enhancers in the human brain. This atlas enabled the scientists to get a detailed study about how the individual genes can be regulated during the development of a brain and also how the genetic mutations can create an impact on the human neurological disorders.
The gene enhancers in reality are the short pieces of DNA in human genome, rather than the actual genes. Therefore these enhancers do not give rise to the proteins. Actually, they are the switches which are used to inform actual genes when they should become active and create a protein. Every cell type of human body composes of different sets of enhancers which are switched on or off. Together, these can help in coordination of activities of 20000 genes in every single cell.
PT. R. SHANKAR HONOURED WITH GRAMMY AWARD
Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf on 9 February 2013 ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013.
Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones attended the pre- Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for accepting the honour which was given to their deceased father. Pandit Ravi Shankar died on 11 December 2012 at 92 years of age. Pandit Ravi Shankar was in the list of seven other artistes named for Lifetime Achievement Award honourees and this also included Carole King and the Temptations. The Indian sitar legend also won best world music album Grammy for The Living Room Sessions Part 1. Pandit Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar was also nominated in this category for album Traveller.
POPE BENEDICT XVI ANNOUNC ED HIS RESIGNATION
Pope Benedict XVI announced on 11 February 2013 that he would resign at the end of the month. He reasoned that he was too infirm to carry on. He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for the election of a new Pope before the end of March 2013.
Pope Benedict XVI is 85 years old. He had become the Pope in 2005. The last Pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who took this step in 1415 to put an end to the Great Western Split among competing papal claimants.
WORLD’S LARGEST PRIME NUMBER DISCOVERED
Researchers from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg in the second week of February 2013 discovered the largest prime number of the world, beating an earlier record of largest prime number by more than 4 million digits. The findings of the researchers were a part of Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). GIMPS is a distributed computing project which was specifically formulated for finding out a certain kind of prime number which was first identified in 17th century.
All the prime numbers in the world can be divided by themselves and 1 only. However there are certain rare kinds of prime numbers called Mersenne primes which have the form 2 multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p denotes a prime number. The new number now shot to 2 multiplied by itself 57885161 times minus 1 and this broke the record of finding the new and even larger primes.
The new largest prime number discovered by the researchers has more than 17 million digits and is an only 48th Mersenne prime found so far. It is the 14th discovery by GIMPS. The earlier record of 2 multiplied by itself 43112609 times minus 1 was also discovered by GIMPS back in
2008 and it had just a few less than 13 million digits. GIMPS discovered all the top ten largest
Mersenne primes.
There are infinite numbers of primes and there is not any specific formula for generating the primes like these. Therefore discovering numbers like these involves intensive computation.
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) software functions on almost 1000 university computers. One of the computers out of these spent 39 days in proving that number discovered was actually prime and later it was verified by other researchers as well.
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