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- The Supreme Court pronounced its verdict 23Oct on a plea seeking a ban on manufacture and sale of firecrackers across the country to curb air pollution.
- It refused to direct a blanket ban on the sale of firecrackers, but said that only green firecrackers will be allowed to as they are less polluting.
- The apex court further banned online sale of firecarckers and restarined e-commerce websites.
- While reserving its verdict on August 28, the apex court had said that it needs to take into account all aspects, including the fundamental right of livelihood of manufacturers and the right to health of over 1.3 billion people in the country while considering a plea for a ban on firecrackers.
- On October 9 last year, the top court temporarily banned the sale of firecrackers ahead of Diwali.
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- Salty pools of water under the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to support the kind of microbial life, according to a study which contradicts existing views on the red planet's potential habitability.
- The findings could inform future missions to Mars by providing better targets to rovers searching for signs of past or present habitable environments, researchers said.
- A team led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the US has calculated that if liquid water exists on Mars, it could under specific conditions contain more oxygen than previously thought possible.
- According to the model, the levels could even theoretically exceed the threshold needed to support simple aerobic life. The existence of liquid water on Mars is not a given.
- Even if it is there, researchers have long dismissed the idea that it might be oxygenated, given that Mars's atmosphere is about 160 times thinner than that of Earth and is mostly carbon dioxide.
- Finding liquid water on Mars is one of the major goals of NASA's Mars programme.
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- Scientists have discovered a drug combination that increases healthy lifespan in worms and fruit flies, an advance they say could lead to longer, healthier lives for humans in the future.
- The study, published in the journal Developmental Cell, lays crucial groundwork for further research into designing drug combinations that produce the same effect in mammals.
- "Many countries in the world, including Singapore, are facing problems related to ageing populations," said Jan Gruber from Yale-NUS College in Singapore.
- The team wanted to find out to what extent healthy lifespan could be extended by combining drugs targeting several pathways known to affect lifespan.
- For instance, the drug rapamycin is currently administered following organ transplants to prevent the body's immune system from rejecting the transplanted organs.
- However, previous experiments showed that it extends the lifespan of many organisms, including the Caenorhabditis elegans (C elegans) worms, fruit flies and mice.
- The researchers administered combinations of two or three compounds targeting different ageing pathways to C elegans.
- Results showed that two drug pairs in particular extended the mean lifespan of the worms more than each of the drugs individually, and in combination with a third compound almost doubled mean lifespans.
- This effect is larger than any lifespan extension that has previously been reported for any drug intervention in adult animals, researchers said. The drug treatments had no adverse effect on the worm's health.
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- President Xi Jinping inaugurated the world’s longest sea bridge connecting the cities of Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau on 23Oct as Beijing steps up efforts to create a new economic hub in south China.
- Dubbed a mega infrastructure project, the 55-km HKZM bridge which includes a seven-km underwater tunnel was inaugurated within weeks of the opening of the high-speed railway link between Beijing and Hong Kong.
- The construction of the $15 billion bridge began in 2009. It is expected to ease cargo flow between Hong Kong and southern China and boost tourism in the region.
- “Made from enough steel to build 60 Eiffel Towers and enough concrete to construct 22 Chrysler Buildings, it can withstand Magnitude-8 earthquakes, and is even prepared for super typhoons. This is something built to last a century of service,” state media reported ahead of the inauguration.
- It will be opened to public on Wednesday with state media reports saying that it “…will slash the travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai from three hours to just 30 minutes”.
- The bridge links Hong Kong’s Lantau island to Zhuhai and the gambling haven of Macau, across the waters of the heavily industrialised Pearl River Estuary.
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- An ancient Greek trading ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found virtually intact at the bottom of the Black Sea, researchers said on 23 Oct
- The vessel is one of more than 60 shipwrecks identified by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project including Roman ships and a 17th-century Cossack raiding fleet.
- During the three-year project, researchers used specialist remote deep-water camera systems previously used in offshore oil and gas exploration to map the sea floor.
- "A small piece of the vessel has been carbon dated and it is confirmed as the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind," the project said in a statement.
- The ship, which is lying on its side with its mast and rudders intact, was dated back to 400 BC a time when the Black Sea was a trading hub filled with Greek colonies.
- The team said the vessel, previously only seen in an intact state on the side of ancient Greek pottery, was found at a depth of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet).
- The water at that depth is oxygen-free, meaning that organic material can be preserved for thousands of years.
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- German high-end carmaker BMW said 23oct. it would recall more than one million additional diesel cars, citing a problem with the exhaust system that “in extreme cases can cause a fire”
- “In some diesel vehicles, glycol cooling fluid can leak” from a faulty component called the exhaust gas recirculation cooler, which can combine with other substances in the system to create the fire risk, the group said.
- BMW said it was contacting sellers who would in turn get in touch with owners of the affected vehicles to arrange a checkup.
- “The exhaust recirculation module will be checked and if there is a fault the parts will be exchanged,” the group said.
- BMW had in August announced a recall for Europe and some Asian countries of over 480,000 vehicles affected by the same problem, and issued an apology in South Korea after around 30 cars caught fire there this year.
- The latest recall brings the total number of cars affected to some 1.6 million around the world.
- Shares in BMW shed 1.4% to trade at 73.38 euros in Frankfurt by 11.45 am, against a DAX index of blue-chip German shares down 2.1%.
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- India's legend cricketer and UNICEF Ambassador for South Asia, Sachin Tendulkar gave away prizes to the winners of South Asia Regional WASH innovation in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan on 22oct
- The event was organised by UNICEF in association with BRAC, a Bangladesh based international organisation.
- The basic aim of the challenge was to identify innovative solutions to promote the practice of hand washing with soap.
- More than 700 teams from South Asia had submitted their ideas about how to get everyone to wash their hands with soap. In the final held on Monday, 12 teams presented their ideas.
- Two teams from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan got top three places. Encouraging the young innovators to keep trying hard, Sachin said that they have taken a big step towards making a massive contribution in doing something good for the planet.
- He said prevention is better than cure and everyone is trying to find ways to prevent water related diseases, which end up taking so many innocent lives.
- Sachin also met Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bhutan and discussed various hand sanitation awareness initiatives. He also interacted with the members of Bhutan’s National Cricket team.
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