Knowledge Update

Sydney, Nov 18 (IANS) A brief burst of radiation that travelled at least a billion light years through space to reach an Australian radio telescope contains detailed information about the cosmic web - the swirling gases and magnetic fields between galaxies -- regarded as the fabric of the universe, say scientists.

The flash, known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), was one of the brightest seen since FRBs were first detected in 2001, the researchers said.

All FRBs contained crucial information but this FRB, the 18th detected so far, was unique in the amount of information it contained about the cosmic web, said one of the researchers Ryan Shannon from International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley, Australia.

"FRBs are extremely short but intense pulses of radio waves, each only lasting about a millisecond. Some are discovered by accident and no two bursts look the same," Shannon said.

This particular flash described in a new paper in the journal Science, reached CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Australia mid-last year.

"This particular FRB is the first detected to date to contain detailed information about the cosmic web -- regarded as the fabric of the Universe -- but it is also unique because its travel path can be reconstructed to a precise line of sight and back to an area of space about a billion light years away that contains only a small number of possible home galaxies," Shannon added.

Shannon explained that the vast spaces between objects in the Universe contain nearly invisible gas and a plasma of ionised particles that used to be almost impossible to map, until this pulse was detected.

"This FRB, like others detected, is thought to originate from outside of Earth's own Milky Way galaxy, which means their signal has travelled over many hundreds of millions of light years, through a medium that -- while invisible to our eyes -- can be turbulent and affected by magnetic fields," Shannon said.

​Melbourne, Nov 18 (IANS) Australian researchers have developed a revolutionary blood test to diagnose skin cancer much more quickly and efficiently than conventional methods.

The ground-breaking "liquid biopsy" test will be made available at Melbourne's Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI), Victoria state's Health Minister Jill Hennessy said on Friday.

Prior to the development of the new test, melanomas could only be identified by a complex and invasive surgery, results from which could take weeks to be obtained, Xinhua news agency reported.

The blood test can provide the same information in a matter of hours from a simple blood test, potentially saving millions of lives worldwide.

Once the skin cancer has been identified via the new test, oncologists can quickly tailor the most appropriate treatment for each individual patient, potentially preventing the cancer from spreading to the bloodstream.

"We're putting cancer patients first and investing in world-leading cancer research and future technologies that have the power to save lives," Hennessy told reporters in Melbourne.

"It will mean patients can get diagnosed and treated sooner, without having to endure long and anxious waits and invasive and painful surgery."

Frank McGuire, Parliamentary Secretary for Medical Research, said the development was the latest example of Victoria's commitment to cancer research.

"This new blood test is a great example of how we are rapidly turning around breakthroughs in cancer research into clinical practice with real benefits for cancer patients," McGuire said.

In addition to diagnosing the cancer quicker the blood test can also tell doctors when a treatment will stop working, allowing them to change medications before a patient's condition starts to decline.

​New York, Nov 17 (IANS) Researchers in the US have developed a new ultra long-acting pill that can remain in the stomach for up to two weeks after being swallowed and aid in elimination of malaria.

The study found that the sustained therapeutic dose of a drug called ivermectin -- used to treat parasitic infections such as river blindness -- can also help keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes at bay.

In large animal models, the capsule safely stayed in the stomach, slowly releasing the drug for up to 14 days, and potentially providing a new way to combat malaria and other infectious diseases. 

This type of drug delivery could replace inconvenient regimens that require repeated doses. 

"Until now, oral drugs would almost never last for more than a day. The study opens the door to ultra-long-lasting oral systems, which could have an effect on all kinds of diseases, such as Alzheimer's or mental health disorders," said Robert Langer, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. 

The drug, designed by scientists at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital, is a star-shaped structure with six arms that can be folded inward and encased in a smooth capsule.

After the capsule is swallowed, acid in the stomach dissolves the outer layer of the capsule, allowing the six arms to unfold and stay in the stomach. Once the drug is released, the capsule could break down and pass safely through the digestive tract.

This is a platform into which you can incorporate any drug and can be used with any drug that requires frequent dosing. We can replace that dosing with a single administration, the researchers said.

​New York, Nov 17 (IANS) Oil prices declined on Wednesday in volatile trading as the US reported a 7.7-per cent increase of crude oil inventories.

The West Texas Intermediate for December Delivery lost $0.24 to settle at $45.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery erased

San Francisco, Nov 17 (IANS) Facebook has acquired emotion detection start-up FacioMetrics to push its artificial intelligence (AI) research into building facial gesture controls.

FacioMetrics developed an app called Intraface that can detect seven different emotions in people's faces, TechCrunch reported on Thursday.

​New York, Nov 17 (IANS) Microsoft on Thursday released tools that can be used by any developer on any platform, the company said in a statement, and added that developers will now be able to use the tools of their choice to create Android, iOS and Windows apps.

​New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) World-renowned French footwear designer Christian Louboutin says India continues to fascinate people from foreign shores with its indigenous content because designers here are forever exploring the "re-attachment to roots". Thus, "the things that you see in India, you see nowhere else", he feels. In a tete-a-tete with IANS here, Louboutin discussed his latest collaboration with Indian couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee and steered the conversation to how Indian fashion is painting a story that is making waves worldwide. He said: "I love fashion, but it is not my first obsession. So, when I was in India, there were so many things that I wanted to see other than fashion. I ended up really looking at fashion not much time ago. I'm going to talk about the last seven years. "I have seen a different aspect of fashion industry in India, but what I have to say is that there is a strong identity in the Indian fashion which is based on one very simple thing and it is the re-attachment to its roots." Louboutin was quick to add that it "doesn't mean that when you are attached to your roots then you are not thinking, or are not evolving". "That is really important. I come from a city of fashion. Parisians end up being very confident and snobbish about that. That is a reality. We have everything in Paris when it comes to fashion. But after saying all that, the things that you see in India, you see nowhere. "That is why there's the fascination in most countries as people see that they will never see anywhere else. So, on that page, it is a tap of confidence to the quality of beauty in your country," he added. Louboutin -- whose collaboration with Sabyasachi is for a bespoke range of shoes and handbags -- is delighted with the "strong, vivid, continuing change, but with really strong roots" in Indian fashion. The international designer has himself tread a long way from a single storefront in Paris in 1991 to establishing his name across the world. Louboutin, whose father was a carpenter, made red-soles his trademark. It is said that while growing up, Louboutin spent a year in India before heading to Paris in 1981. But fashion was not on his mind when he first came to India. "All the initial years when I was coming to India, I was not looking at fashion. I was looking at what I would call tradition and quality of different traditions in India. There are so many things that India offers, but if you are a French person, then talking about 25 years ago, there are so many things you want to see in India before seeing fashion," said the man who has designed shoes for celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Lopez. When it comes to designing for stars in Bollywood which, according to Louboutin, is all about sparkle and glitz, the designer wants them to approach his brand -- and not the other way around. "For me, the biggest treasure is when people want something that I am doing. Either you go for someone or you like that people are hunting. I would rather be hunted, than hunting people," he said. As far as his brand's expansion is concerned, Louboutin says it will happen when it is meant to happen. For now, there are two Christian Louboutin stores in India -- one in Delhi and one in Mumbai.

​Toronto, Nov 17 (IANS) Struggling to reduce obesity in your kid? Opt for whole milk. A new study shows drinking whole milk may make kids leaner and increase their vitamin D levels, in comparison to low-fat or skimmed milk. In the study, children who drank whole milk (containing 3.25 per cent fat content) had a body mass index (BMI) score of 0.72 units lower than those who drank one or two per cent low-fat milk. That's comparable to the difference between having a healthy weight and being overweight, said lead author Jonathon Maguire, pediatrician at St. Michael's Hospital in Ontario, Canada. It may be because children who drank full-fat milk were likely to end up less hungry, making them less likely to snack on high calorie foods, the researchers explained. Further, children who drank one cup of whole milk each day had better vitamin D levels -- known to protects bones and immune system -- than those who drank nearly three times as much skimmed milk. This could be because vitamin D is fat soluble, meaning it dissolves in fat rather than water. Milk with higher fat content therefore contains more vitamin D. "Children who drink lower fat milk don't have less body fat, and they also don't benefit from the higher vitamin D levels in whole milk," Maguire said, adding "it's a double negative with low fat milk." For this study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers studied 2,745 children ages two to six years. The findings indicate a need to closely examine existing nutritional guidelines that recommend two servings of low fat (one per cent or two per cent) milk for children over the age of two to reduce the risk of childhood obesity, the researchers suggested.

​Mexico City, Nov 17 (IANS) Monarch butterfly hibernation sanctuaries, located in Mexico and Michoacan, will remain open for tourists from November 23, 2016 to March 31, 2017, an wildlife official said.

The Mexican Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) announced this on Wednesday, reported Efe news agency.

The monarch butterfly, characterised by its large distinctive orange, black and white patterned wings, migrates every fall covering 4,200 km from Canada and the US to spend the winter here.

Their arrival was observed in the last two weeks as thousands of Monarchs flew in the skies of the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro and Guanajuato.

CONANP called on citizens to participate in the campaign "Lets Protect the Monarchs". 

In August, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that there was a 40 per cent decline in illegal logging in the Monarch's main habitats here.

 

Beijing, Nov 17 (IANS) China's manned spaceflight Shenzhou-11 began its return to the Earth on Thursday after separating from the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, where it had remained docked for the last one month.

The space capsule manned by astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, disconnected from the Tiangong-2 at 4.41 a.m., and is scheduled to land on the Earth on Friday.

The Shenzhou-11 is expected to remain in space near the laboratory until it receives an order from the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and land, Efe news reported.

Jing and Chen departed aboard the Shenzhou-11 from the launch pad in Jiuquan in the Gobi desert on October 17 and docked at the space lab two days later.

Since then the astronauts have been working and living in the Tiangong-2 that was launched in September, and where they conducted several scientific experiments and advanced preparations for the operation of a future Chinese space station, which is expected to be fully operational by 2022.

The Tiangong-2 will remain in its orbit, some 393 km from the Earth's surface, until it docks with the Tianzhou-1, scheduled to be launched in April 2017.