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- The Norwegian Nobel Committee on 5 october announced their decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.
- While Mukwege has devoted his life to defending victims of war-time sexual violence, Murad has been noted to speak of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others.
- She is a survivor of human trafficking and is also the goodwill ambassador of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime or UNODC.
- The committee had received nominations for 216 individuals and 115 organizations.
- Last year’s winner was the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
- The 2018 prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor ($1.01 million). Past winners who came under criticism include former US President Barack Obama, who won in 2009 after less than a year in office,
- Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for using a sped-up version of evolution to create new proteins that have led to a best-selling drug and other products.
- Scientists from the United States, Canada and France shared the physics prize on 4 october for revolutionizing the use of lasers in research.
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- YouTube on 5 october unveiled its second Pop-up Space in India, and the first in Delhi-NCR. It was introduced in Hyderabad last year.
- The Pop-Up Space, situated at Kingdom of Dreams herewill host three themed sets from October 5-7.
- Creators will have the opportunity to utilise the venue to produce quality content.
- They will get free access to the state-of-the-art production equipment and themed production sets to produce original and innovative high production quality content for their own YouTube channels.
- Moreover, budding creators will be able to attend events and workshops that will help them improve their presence on YouTube and to collaborate or network with other creators and industry professionals.
- content that creators are putting out,” Marc Lefkowitz, Head of YouTube Creator and Artist Development, APAC, said in a statement.
- “In 2014, we had 16 YouTube channels with more than one million subscribers in India and today that number is over 300. We’re adding two more channels to the list almost every single week, which is an astounding rate of growth.
- We continue to invest heavily in growing and nurturing the creator community and are thrilled to bring the YouTube Pop-Up Space to the capital,” he added.
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- A short bout of sleep during the day may help weigh up pros and cons and gain insight before making a challenging decision, according to a study.
- Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK aimed to understand whether a short period of sleep can help us process unconscious information and how this might affect behaviour and reaction time.
- The study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, measured changes in people's brain activity and responses before and after a nap.
- Sixteen healthy participants across a range of ages were recruited to take part in an experiment.
- Participants carried out two tasks
- The findings suggest that even a short bout of sleep may help improve our responses and process information. The results suggest a potentially sleep-dependent, task-specific enhancement of brain processing that could optimise human goal-directed behaviour, researchers said.
- Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK aimed to understand whether a short period of sleep can help us process unconscious information and how this might affect behaviour and reaction time.
- The study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, measured changes in people's brain activity and responses before and after a nap. Sixteen healthy participants across a range of ages were recruited to take part in an experiment.
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- The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the UN Environment has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development.
- Erik Solheim, Executive Director at UN Environment, and Chandrajit Banerji, Director-General, Confederation of Indian Industry, Thursday signed the MoU at CII’s headquarters in Delhi.
- Chandrajit Banerjee said, “The CII will work towards voluntary codes in Indian industry on the issue of plastics, for which there is already a precedent with benefits to firms in terms of credit and shareholder value.
- Outside of India, CII will engage with industry forums it is linked to in different countries, and especially in Africa via its annual CII-Africa Conclave.”
- Covering all the major areas of interest common to both organisations, the MoU encompasses ‘coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development’, according to an official statement.
- It provides a framework of cooperation and facilitates cooperation in issues of environment, climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation and management, water sanitation, smart cities and urban infrastructure, it said.
- A major activity planned under the MoU, will be the #Un-plastic Initiative of CII and UN Environment, beginning with a Call to Action, including commitments by industry on actions to curb plastic pollution.
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- Rice University scientists have developed something akin to the Venus' flytrap of particles for water remediation.
- Micron-sized spheres created in the lab of Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez are built to catch and destroy bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic chemical used to make plastics.
- The research is detailed in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.
- BPA is commonly used to coat the insides of food cans, bottle tops and water supply lines, and was once a component of baby bottles.
- The good news is that reactive oxygen species (ROS) in this case, hydroxyl radicals are bad news for BPA. Inexpensive titanium dioxide releases ROS when triggered by ultraviolet light
- Close up, the spheres reveal themselves as flower-like collections of titanium dioxide petals.
- The supple petals provide plenty of surface area for the Rice researchers to anchor cyclodextrin molecules.
- Cyclodextrin is a benign sugar-based molecule often used in food and drugs.
- In the lab, the researchers determined that 200 milligrams of the spheres per liter of contaminated water degraded 90 percent of BPA in an hour, a process that would take more than twice as long with unenhanced titanium dioxide.
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