Whether you
are a student, a professional, or simply a science enthusiast, this article
will provide you an engaging and informative insights and updates. Plus, as a
compliment, you will get a peep into pretty quirky AI generated images by me
related to those particular topics.
In today's blog, you will read about the following science events of the week:
- The Revival of Islamic Golden Age is being led by Arabs
- Research on mice suggests hunger related to Socialization patterns
- Necessity proves to be the mother of Invention again as Lions return to hunt Marine Species
- After Autonomous Cars; Now we have Autonomous Ships
- The Flu Virus came from Sea: Research
- Asteroid hit by DART; Lost 10 Lakh Kg of Mass
- Lumpy Skin Diseases that Killed 2 Lakh Cattle in India last year occurred due to Climate Change
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| The Revival of Islamic Golden age, Autonomous Ships, DART hits Asteroid, and other scientific events of the Week: Mufawad |
The Revival of Islamic Golden Age is being led by Arabs
The Islamic Empires of the past have produced thousands of manuscripts and innovations that informed our understanding of many scientific fields today. The Islamic Golden Age was a time of cultural, scientific and economic prosperity in the region, with scholars and thinkers flocking to what was known as Baghdad's “House of Wisdom” to exchange ideas and make discoveries. |
| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
During those times, Major advancements were made in maths, medicine and other sciences, including astronomy, to advance tools so Muslims could better carry out their Islamic duties.
Now, the UAE is leading the way, having sent its Hope probe to Mars and launched a lunar rover on a journey to the Moon. Saudi Arabia has also joined the race while launching a long-term space programme and plans to send two astronauts, including a woman, to the orbiting lab this year. The thirst for knowledge and passion to explore what is beyond Earth seems to be still alive in the Arab world.
It is said that the Arab knowledge of the night sky influenced the start of the European Renaissance era, which began in the 14th century. During that golden age of Arabs, pioneering and huge observatories were built, with science of optics was greatly developed, with Ibn Sahl establishing the law of refraction and Ibn Al Haytham producing seminal works on mirrors and lenses.
The astrolabe, an invention by the ancient Greeks, was upgraded by Arab scientists during that age and was also popular among Europeans in the 12th century.
Thabet Al Qaissieh, founder of Al Sadeem Observatory in Abu Dhabi, says (I read in News Nation Report) that space continued to play a significant role in Arab culture, with the Moon used to determine the start of Ramadan, Hijri month, and to describe the beauty of a person. This can have a collective benefit for the wellbeing of everyone in the region.
During the last century, The Arab and Islamic world experienced a degree of scientific advancement and discovery mainly due to progress in other parts of the world. Saudi Arabia sent the first Arab and Muslim to space on board a NASA rocket in 1985, and two years later, Muhammed Faris went to space on a Russian rocket.
However, no long-term space programmes or state financed missions were established for long periods of time in that region. About 30 years would pass until a third Arab astronaut travelled to space, however several Muslim cosmonauts from countries under Soviet control were sent on space expeditions.
It is pertinent to mention that Musa Manarov of Azerbaijan and Abdul Ahad Momand of Afghanistan were the first Afghan in space and spent nine days at the Soviet space station. Toktar Aubakirov became the first Kazakh in space when he travelled to the Mir station in 1991, and Talgat Musabayev took part on three space missions.
Besides that, in 2006, Anousheh Ansari became the first Muslim woman to travel to space. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor of Malaysia went to the ISS on a Soyuz rocket in 2007 for an 11-day mission. Aidyn Aimbetov of Kazakhstan travelled to the ISS in 2015. In 2019, Emirati fighter pilot Hazza Al Mansouri blasted off to the ISS for an eight-day mission, marking the beginning of the UAE's space ambitions.
The UAE launched the Arab world's first interplanetary spacecraft, the Hope probe, in 2021 and has since sent back data on the Red Planet's upper atmosphere and weather. In 2022, a lunar rover, called Rashid, was launched and is scheduled to land on the Moon's surface at the end of April.
The UAE has worked with three American universities to build the Hope probe and launched its space missions on Japanese, American and Russian rockets. Oman, Jordon, Bahrain too have announced plans to build the Middle East's first spaceport.
It is believed that the scientific research production has significantly improved in the Arab-Muslim world in the past 10 to 15 years. The UAE has several historic missions planned for 2023, including UAE’s iconic astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi's six-month trip to the ISS on board a SpaceX rocket. Al Neyadi along with Maj Al Mansouri, another UAE astronaut have each completed five years of training in the US, Russia and Japan, as well as parts of Europe and Canada.
Missions to the ISS and the UAE's growing partnership with NASA and US private space companies have paved the way for the Emirates' more ambitious plans: sending an astronaut to the Moon and eventually, Mars.Besides that the UAE has announced plans to build a city on the Red Planet by 2117.
There are hopes that an Arab Space Agency would be established, similar to the European Space Agency. Arab countries at the early stages of their space programmes could progress faster by teaming up with nations including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The potential for a more collaborative approach across the Middle East in future cannot be ruled out. The Arab world believes that there is a bright future ahead for the them in the field of space and the possibilities are endless.
Research in Mice suggests hunger related to Socialization patterns
In research published in Cell Metabolism in last Week of Feb, scientists treated male mice with a technique that mimics the effects of leptin, a hormone that acts on the brain to suppress appetite. The findings revealed a surprising role for leptin in social behaviour, and helped researchers step towards understanding how animals prioritize different behavioural options in response to ongoing needs.
Neuroscientists Anne Petzold and Tatiana Korotkova at the University of Cologne in Germany, and their colleagues, sought to understand how such decision-making is affected by leptin, which activates a subset of cells in the brain and promotes a feeling of fullness.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
The team examined neurons in the brain's 'hunger center', the lateral hypothalamus, that are activated by leptin. Artificially activating those neurons using optogenetics raised the likelihood that a mouse would approach a member of the opposite sex, suggesting that leptin plays a part in promoting social behaviour.
Even mice that had limited access to food for a day were more likely to bypass their mouse chow (Lab diet for Mice) when their leptin-activated neurons were stimulated with optogenetics.
This study found that in mice that had been given limited access to food for five days, hunger won out over socializing. The team also studied neurons that produce a hormone called neurotensin that is related to thirst, and found that stimulating these neurons promoted drinking over eating or social behaviour.
The study is unique in its complexity, monitoring two classes of neuron under a variety of conditions. Leptin is normally produced when an animal's energy needs have been met, and that feeling of satiety could allow the animal to refocus its attention away from food and towards other interests.
The leptin system is conserved in a wide range of animals, and studying the interaction between leptin and social behaviours in mice could hold clues to understanding the disordered eating exhibited by some people with autism or the social phobia seen in some people with bulimia.
Necessity proves to be the mother of Invention again as Lions return to hunt Marine Species
The Namibia's desert lions have been observed to have re-established themselves on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, where they are the only lions known to target marine prey.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
These Lions in Namibia’s northwest, renowned for eking out a living amid the Namib Desert’s harsh gravel plains and endless dunes, have a history of feeding on marine species, such as Cape fur seals, beached whales, and cormorants.
Remarkably, they are the only lions known to target marine prey. Although in the 1980s, the desert lions abandoned the coast after local farmers wiped out most of the population.
But when lions returned in 2002, it was a sign that the population was recovering. But the animals were no longer hunting marine prey, and lion ecologists worried that the population had lost the knowledge.
Recently, three orphaned lionesses, known as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, have been observed leading a coastal hunting revival on the beaches around Torra Bay.
In 2015, a drought decimated the park's mountain zebras, springboks, oryxes, and ostriches, so the lionesses turned to marine birds, mainly cormorants, flamingos, and red-billed teals. In 2018, scientists spotted the lionesses hunting fur seals, some of the first lions to do so in four decades. In a subsequent diet study, marine foods accounted for 86 percent of those lionesses' diet.
Naude Dreyer, who runs kayaking safaris in Walvis Bay, 350 kilometers to the south, had longed to see a desert lion since he was five years old. He was one of those to Photograph those lions hunting Marine animals (as reported in NY Science)
The lioness that Dreyer photographed was likely ‘Charlie’, She, Alpha, and Bravo have all been fitted with satellite collars called Geofences, and the tracking project is as much for the lions as it is to keep visitors safe. This system transcends the warning beforehand when these lions wade near tourist gatherings.
After Autonomous Cars; Now we have Autonomous Ships
The Soleil, a Japanese car ferry, became the first large vessel to navigate without human intervention in January last year. It is early days, but ships are increasingly deploying sensors and artificial-intelligence (AI) systems to navigate, steer and avoid collisions. These advances should improve safety, increase efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, as 80% of global trade is transported by sea each year.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has committed to halving the industry's greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Seafaring is risky and workers are in short supply, leading to delays and costs. Streamlining passage through locks, reducing energy consumption and negotiating manoeuvres to avoid collisions would enable safer and more optimal use of waterways. Small, fully autonomous boats are already in operation for specialist tasks, and the first larger 'maritime autonomous surface ships' are planned to start commercial operation in the next couple of years.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
Pilot projects include the Norwegian container ship Yara Birkeland, which is expected to convey fertilizer autonomously and with zero emissions from a manufacturing plant to an export port.
In China, a 120-metre-long electric container ship called Zhi Fei has been demonstrated shuttling under remote (and sometimes autonomous) control between two ports in Shandong province.
The Vessel Train, a pilot project funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Netherlands Maritime Technology Foundation in Rotterdam, uses a crewed lead vessel to head a convoy of smaller, automated ones that can access small waterways around ports efficiently.
Autonomous ships will always have a human somewhere in the loop, to check on navigation, perform maintenance, handle cargo, supervise and monitor tasks, and gauge risks.
The first challenge is to add sensors and algorithms based on AI and deep learning to the autopilot systems that are currently used on some crewed ships and boats. Visual and thermal cameras and lasers would give a captain a better view of what is around, helping to avoid collisions, assess risks and plan routes.
Autonomy level two includes remotely controlled vessels that are run by a small on-board crew to act as a back-up and deal with maintenance and cargo.
Remotely controlled vessels without crew (level three) are also already in operation. Small drones have achieved full autonomy (level four). Guidelines must also encompass mixed environments in which autonomous and crewed vessels share the same waters. Researchers need to develop cooperative navigation and communication systems in and between groups of vessels, enabling them to operate as a fleet.
Preliminary guidelines for using automated processes for navigation and systems maintenance have been published by classification societies such as DNV in Norway and the French firm Bureau Veritas.
These guidelines cover processes for qualification of concepts and technologies, and how systems supporting the autonomous and remote operation of vessels should be designed. However, they lack specifics about how they should be applied in poor visibility, during storms or in sea ice.
To extend the guidelines, researchers should define safety and security requirements for autonomous ship technologies in a range of operational contexts. These include smart maintenance procedures, more redundancy in systems, and measures for preventing and responding to cyberattacks.
Infrastructure such as buoys, antennas and IT systems at sea and ashore need to be secure and data links between ships and control centres reliable. Digital twins (computer-based copies of large systems) are helpful for monitoring, verifying and validating functional and safety requirements for autonomous ships through simulation.
The advent of autonomous ships will accelerate trends towards fuller automation in ports, where current focus is on automating cargo handling. This will require more services, such as automated pilotage and tug assistance, arrival management and berth allocation.
Long-established legal concepts underlying maritime law must be reconsidered, such as the concepts of 'seaworthiness' (the condition of the vessel and the ability of crew to operate it), 'master' (a single person in charge of a vessel) and the 'genuine link'.
To ensure cargo flows seamlessly without bottlenecks and delays, autonomous ports will need to interact with one another and along logistics chains, and embed autonomy in legal and regulatory frameworks.
The IMO has begun to develop a code for autonomous ships, which will aim to balance the benefits of these technologies against safety and security concerns, the impact on the environment and on international trade, the potential costs to the industry and the impact on personnel on board and ashore.
Key research questions include how to design land-based communications and smart navigation systems, how to harmonize with other national and international regulations, how to verify conformity with the code, and what skills and training are needed for operators in remote-control centers.
Legal researchers should address civil liability, as those affected need to prove a wrongful action or omission by a person or by the ship. The economic costs and benefits of ship automation and autonomy need to be established if the technology is to be taken up, and it is hard to know how many crew members will be required, on board or on shore.
More evidence is needed regarding the economic, environmental and safety implications of autonomous vessels. Equity is key, as well as the societal costs of lost crew jobs and higher-skilled staff. The existing workforce will need reskilling, and investments will be needed for archiving and sharing data securely.
The concentration of economic power in large corporations that might control global autonomous logistics chains must be looked at, and the public perceives risk around autonomous vessels.
Indigenous peoples have a right to be involved in decision-making on matters related to protection of the marine environment. Autonomous ships are already on the horizon, but scholars need to improve understanding of how waterborne autonomy can be adopted.
The Flu Virus came from the Sea: Research
Researchers have discovered a distant relative of influenza viruses in sturgeon, suggesting that the virus probably originated hundreds of millions of years ago in primordial aquatic animals that evolved well before the first fish.Mary Petrone, a virologist at the University of Sydney, Australia, co-authored the preprint of the study describing the findings, which could help scientists identify viruses with the potential to spark new human epidemics.
The Corals are part of a phylum called Cnidaria, whose ancestors branched off from other animals around 600 million years ago. “Petrone” believes that studying corals could reveal the deeper history of viruses that infect animals, particularly those with RNA genomes.
Zoe Richards, a coral-reef researcher at Curtin University in Bentley, Australia, provided samples of two coral species collected off the coast of Western Australia. Analysis of RNA collected from the corals found evidence of infection with viruses that belong to a grouping called Articulavirales, which includes influenza's family of viruses and a group called Quaranjaviruses.
The new analysis suggests that coral-infecting viruses are part of an ancient viral family that probably emerged around 600 million years ago, and later gave rise to other members of this family.
The discovery of the two early lineages of influenza suggest that influenza probably infected aquatic animals, including fish, before moving onto land, but it's not clear whether influenza moved onto land with early terrestrial vertebrates, or jumped from sea to land more recently.
To determine this, researchers will need to look for relatives of influenza in more animals and gain a better understand how the virus spreads between host species.
Jie Cui, an evolutionary virologist at the Pasteur Institute of Shanghai in China, agrees that influenza and its wider family probably emerged from the sea. "There is great untapped viral diversity in aquatic environments," he says.
Asteroid hit by DART; Lost 10 Lakh Kg of Mass
In September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft smashed into an asteroid called Dimorphos, altering the rock's trajectory through space in a first test of planetary defence.
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| Image generated by Mufawad using AI |
Five studies in Nature describe the final moments of the crash and how it affected the asteroid. As DART hurtled towards Dimorphos at the speed of more than 6 kilometres per second, the thing that hit was one of its solar panels, which smashed into a 6.5-metre-wide boulder. Microseconds later, the main body of the spacecraft collided with the rocky surface next to the boulder, and the US$330-million DART shattered to bits.
The impact of DART on Dimorphos on 26 September ejected at least 10 Lakh kilograms of rock from its 400 Crore kilogram mass, forming a tail that stretched for tens of thousands of kilometres behind the asteroid.
NASA's goal was to alter Dimorphos's orbit enough for astronomers to spot the changes by monitoring the brightness of the pair over time using ground-based telescopes. The discovery of more details is helping researchers to understand why the impact was so successful in shunting the asteroid.
One factor is that the spacecraft hit a spot around 25 metres from the asteroid's centre, maximizing the force of its impact. Another is that large amounts of the asteroid's rubble flew outwards from the impact, pushing the asteroid further off its previous trajectory.
Researchers estimate that this spray of rubble meant Dimorphos' added momentum was almost four times that imparted by DART. Although NASA has demonstrated this technique on only one asteroid, the results could be broadly applicable to future hazards. "It means that we can quickly design a mission to deflect an asteroid if there is a threat, and we know that this has a very high chance of being effective," says Franck Marchis at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California (as I read in The Nature).
