The Good Life Solutions

Overcome Workplace Stress Easily

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:37:00 +0000

Overcoming Work Stress: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Work stress is a common experience in today's fast-paced professional world. It can arise from heavy workloads, tight deadlines, conflicts with colleagues, or job insecurity. While stress in moderation can boost productivity, excessive stress can harm both mental and physical health. This guide explores practical strategies to manage and overcome work stress effectively.

Understanding Work Stress

Work stress results from the demands of the job exceeding an individual's ability to cope. Symptoms can be physical (headaches, fatigue), emotional (irritability, anxiety), and behavioral (procrastination, reduced productivity). Recognizing these signs early is key to effective stress management.

Strategies to Overcome Work Stress

1. Time Management

Prioritize tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix (urgent vs. important tasks).

Use tools like planners, calendars, and task management apps to stay organized.

Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps.

2. Healthy Work-Life Balance

Set boundaries by defining work hours and sticking to them.

Engage in hobbies, social activities, and family time outside work.

Take regular breaks during work to prevent burnout.

3. Effective Communication

Speak openly with supervisors about workload and concerns.

Seek support from colleagues and create a collaborative environment.

Learn to say no to excessive tasks that exceed your capacity.

4. Physical and Mental Well-being

Exercise regularly to reduce stress and boost energy levels.

Practice relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or yoga.

Maintain a healthy diet and get adequate sleep.

5. Creating a Positive Work Environment

Personalize your workspace to make it comfortable and motivating.

Foster positive relationships with colleagues to reduce workplace tension.

Listen to music or use noise-canceling headphones if the work environment is noisy.

6. Seeking Professional Help

Consult a therapist or counselor if stress becomes overwhelming.

Use Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) if available in your workplace.

Join stress management workshops or professional development programs.

Long-Term Strategies for Stress Management

Career Planning: Set clear career goals and develop skills to increase job satisfaction.

Mindfulness and Gratitude: Practicing mindfulness helps maintain emotional balance.

Regular Self-Assessment: Periodically evaluate stress levels and adjust coping strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

Work stress is inevitable, but how we manage it makes the difference. By implementing effective time management, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, fostering positive workplace relationships, and prioritizing self-care, individuals can significantly reduce stress and improve overall well-being. Taking proactive steps today will lead to a more fulfilling and stress-free professional life.

Fish at Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 13:16:00 +0000

Best Healthy Diet Plan for Men, Women and Children

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 14:23:00 +0000

Introduction

Humans need a wide range of nutrients to lead a healthy and active life. For providing these nutrients, good nutrition or proper intake of food in relation to the body’s dietary needs is required. An adequate, well balanced diet combined with regular physical activity is a cornerstone of good health. Poor nutrition can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity.

A healthy diet consumed throughout the life-course helps in preventing malnutrition in all its forms as well as wide range of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and conditions. But rapid urbanization/globalization, increased consumption of processed foods and changing lifestyles has led to a shift in dietary patterns.

People are consuming more foods high in energy, fats, free sugars or salt/sodium, and many do not eat enough fruits, vegetables and dietary fibers such as whole grains. So, these all factors are contributing to an imbalanced eating. A balanced and healthy diet will vary depending on the individual needs (e.g. age, gender, lifestyle, degree of physical activity), cultural context, locally available foods and dietary customs but the basic principles of what constitute a healthy diet remain the same.

A balanced diet is one which contains variety of foods in such quantities and proportion that the need of all nutrients is adequately met for maintaining health, vitality and general wellbeing and makes a small provision for extra nutrients to withstand short duration of leanness.

The major food issues of concern are insufficient/ imbalanced intake of foods/nutrients. One of the most common nutritional problems of public health importance in India are low birth weight, protein energy malnutrition in children, chronic energy deficiency in adults, micronutrient malnutrition and diet related non-communicable diseases. Health and nutrition are the most important contributory factors for human resource development in the country.

Healthy dietary practices begin early in life. Recent evidences indicate that under nutrition in utero may set the pace for diet related chronic diseases in later life. Breastfeeding promotes healthy growth and improves cognitive development, and may have longer-term health benefits, like reducing the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing NCDs later in life.

Since a healthy diet consists of different kinds of foods, the emphasis has been shifted from nutrient orientation to the food based approach. Foods can be categorized according to the function as-

Energy rich foods (Carbohydrates and fats)-whole grain cereals, millets, vegetable oils, ghee, nuts and oilseeds and sugars.
Body building foods (Proteins)- Pulses, nuts and oilseeds, milk and milk products, meat, fish, poultry.
Protective foods (Vitamins and minerals) - Green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk and milk products and flesh foods.

Diet during different stages of Life

Nutrition is important for everyone. However, the requirement is different for every individual may it be an infant, growing child, pregnant/lactating women and elderly people. The diet varies from person to person depending upon various factors like age, gender, physical activity, nutritional requirement during different physiological stages of the body and other various factors. Body weights and heights of children reflect their state of physical growth and development, while weights and heights of adults represent steps taken towards good health.

Diet for an Infant:

If you have an infant or kid at your place, make sure that they get enough nutrition in their growing years of age. Babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Breast feeding should be started within an hour after delivery and do not discard first milk (colostrum), as it boosts the immunity of the baby and protects baby from several infections. Exclusive breast-feeding ensures safe nutrition to the infant thereby reducing the risk of infections and also helps in the overall development of the baby Breast-milk is the most natural and wholesome food for growth and healthy development of infants. Breast –fed infants do not need additional water. After six months, you can feed your baby with complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed. Complementary food should be rich in nutrients. These complementary foods can be prepared at home from commonly used food materials such as cereals (wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, etc.); pulses (grams/dals), nuts and oilseeds (groundnut, sesame, etc.), oils (groundnut oil, sesame oil etc.), sugar and jaggery. You can feed your baby to variety of soft foods like potatoes, porridge, cereals, or even eggs. According to WHO,

Infants should be breastfed exclusively during the first 6 months of life.
Infants should be breastfed continuously until 2 years of age and beyond.
From 6 months of age, breast milk should be complemented with a variety of adequate, safe and nutrient dense complementary foods.

Infants cannot eat large quantities of food at a single time so they should be fed small quantities at frequent intervals (3-4 times a day). Also, the food should be of semi-solid consistency so that the infants can swallow it easily. A balanced diet is the key to protect your child against nutritional deficiencies. Protein Energy Malnutrition more commonly affects children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. Malnutrition is defined as "a state of poor nutrition caused by insufficient or unbalanced diet".

Points to Remember:

Start breast-feeding within an hour after delivery and do not discard colostrum.
Breast-feed exclusively (not even water) for six months.
Continue breast-feeding in addition to nutrient-rich complementary foods preferably up to 2 years.
Breast-milk alone is not enough for infants after 6 months of age. Complementary foods should be given after 6 months of age, in addition to breast-feeding.
Feed low-cost home-made caloric and nutrient rich complementary foods.
Observe hygienic practices while preparing and feeding the complementary food for infants.
Read nutrition label on baby foods carefully as children are most prone to infections.
Avoid junk foods.

Diet for a Growing Child:

Children who eat a balanced diet lay the foundation for a healthy and active lifestyle and this further lowers the risk of long term health issues. Childhood is the most critical time for growth as well as for development of the mind and to fight infections. So, it is very essential that the children get a good dose of energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals. It is very important to follow that hygienic practices are followed while preparing and feeding the complementary food to the child; otherwise, it might lead to diarrhoea. A well formulated balanced diet is necessary for children and adolescents to achieve optimum growth and boost their immunity. Balanced Diet, playing outdoors, physical activities of child are essential for optimum body composition and to reduce the risk of diet related chronic conditions later in life and to prevent any sort of vitamin deficiency. Adolescence has various other factors attached to it: rapid increase in height and weight, hormonal changes and mood swings.

Development of bone mass is going on during this period so inclusion of dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt) and vegetables like spinach, broccoli and celery which are rich in calcium is a must.

Children require good amount of carbohydrates and fats for energy. Therefore, it is very essential to give them a daily intake of energy rich foods as whole grains (wheat, brown rice), nuts, vegetable oils, vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruits like banana.

In case of children, proteins are essentials for muscle building, repair and growth and building antibodies. So give them diet which has meat, eggs, fish and dairy products.

A child needs vitamins for the body to function properly and to boost the immune system. A variety of fruits and vegetables of different colours should be added in child’s food. Vitamin A is essential for vision and a deficiency of the same can lead to night blindness (difficulty in seeing in night). Dark green leafy vegetables, yellow, orange coloured vegetables and fruits (such as carrots, papaya, mangoes) are good sources of Vitamin A.

Vitamin D helps in bone growth and development and it is essential for absorption of calcium. Children get most of their Vitamin D from sunlight and a small amount from some food items like (fish oils, fatty fish, mushrooms, cheese and egg yolks).

Teenage girls experience more physiological changes and psychological stress than boys because of onset of menarche (onset of menstruation) .Therefore, teenage girls should eat diet which is rich in both vitamins as well as minerals to prevent anemia.

Now a days, children are more inclined towards junk food but it is very important to motivate your kids in teenage to eat nutrition rich foods. Many children have poor eating habits, which can lead to various long-term health complications, such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. As a parent, keep making frequent changes in their menu to avoid boredom of eating the same food every day. Adolescence is the most vulnerable stage for developing bad food habits as well as bad habits like smoking, chewing tobacco or drinking alcohol. These should be avoided. In addition to consumption of a nutritious well balanced diet, appropriate lifestyle practices and involvement in outdoor activities such as games/sports should be encouraged among children as well as adolescents. Regular physical exercises increase strength and stamina, and are necessary for good health and well being.

Points to Remember:

Take extra care in feeding infants and include soft cooked vegetables and seasonal fruits.
Give plenty of milk and milk products to children and adolescents as calcium is needed for growth and bone development.
Encourage your child for outdoor activities and promote appropriate lifestyle practices like washing your hands before meals, brushing your teeth twice a day, hygiene practices to name a few.
Avoid overeating during a single meal. Eat at frequent intervals.
Exposure to sunlight helps maintains vitamin D which helps in calcium absorption.
Never starve the child. Feed energy-rich cereals-pulse diet with milk and mashed vegetables.
Give plenty of fluids during illness. A child needs to eat more during and after episodes of infections to maintain proper nutritional status.
Use oral rehydration solution (ORS) along with zinc tablet to prevent and control dehydration during diarrhea episodes.
Drink 2-2.5 liters of water to hydrate the body. It is preferred to have water/buttermilk/lassi/fruit juices/coconut water over soft drinks and other packaged drinks.

Diet for Pregnant and Lactating Mother:

Motherhood is a testing phase in every women’s life may it be physiologically, mentally as well as nutritionally. If you are pregnant or someone in your family is expecting a baby, make sure that they eat well. Additional food and extra attention is required during pregnancy as well as lactation. Extra food is required to meet the nutritional requirement of the baby in your womb. Additional foods are required to improve the weight gain in pregnancy (generally 10-12 kgs) and birth weight of infants (about 2.5kgs-3kgs). The nutritional requirement of a pregnant woman keeps changing depending upon the various trimesters of pregnancy. In some cases, micronutrients (like folic acid/ iron tablets) are specially required in extra amounts to reduce the risk of malformations in baby and increase birth weight of baby and to prevent anaemia in expecting mothers.

Extra intake of Calcium is required, during pregnancy and lactation phase, for proper formation of bones and teeth of the baby, for secretion of breast-milk which is rich in calcium and to prevent osteoporosis in the expecting and lactating mothers. Therefore, their diet should contain calcium rich foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese, green leafy vegetables, legumes and seafood. Vitamin A is required during lactation to improve child survival. Apart from these, nutrients like Vitamin B12 and C are also needed to be taken by lactating mother.

Iron is needed for hemoglobin synthesis, and to provide immunity against diseases. Deficiency of iron leads to anaemia. Iron deficiency is common particularly in women of reproductive age and children. Iron deficiency during pregnancy increases maternal mortality and low birth weight infants. Plant foods like green leafy vegetables, legumes and dry fruits contain iron. Iron can also obtained through sources like meat, fish and poultry products. Consume vitamin C- rich fruits like gooseberries (amla), guava, oranges and citrus rich fruits for better absorption of iron from your diet.

Iodine deficiency during pregnancy results in still births, abortions and cretinism therefore use iodized salt in your food.

So, now you know why good nutrition is essential. Well, it’s important for a pregnant mother to maintain fetus as well as her own health, to provide strength required during labor; and for successful lactation. Make sure that the diet taken during pregnancy is light, nutritious, easy to digest and rich in all essential nutrients.

Booklet for expecting mothers

(Reference: nrhm.gov.in)

Points to Remember:

Eat more food during pregnancy both in quality and quantity.
Eat more whole grains, sprouted grams and fermented foods.
Eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables.
Do not consume alcohol and tobacco. It is harmful for the health of mother as well as child.
Take medicines only when prescribed by doctor.
Take iron, folate and calcium supplements regularly as prescribed by the doctor.
Green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts and liver are good sources of folic acid.

Diet for an Adult Male & Female:

As an adult male and female, you must take care of your diet. Adults generally complain of time crunch and with sedentary lifestyle, it becomes even more difficult to follow a strict diet. Adults should use salt in moderation as high intake of salt might lead to high blood pressure. One should avoid preserved foods such as pickles/ papads and also canned foods as it contributes to higher intake of salt. An adult female should take a diet which is rich in calcium (Milk & dairy products) as well as iron (green leafy vegetables-spinach, broccoli etc.) Limit use of saturated fats and trans fats such as ghee, butter, cheese, vanaspati ghee and add more fibrous food in diet in the form of whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

According to WHO, a healthy diet for adults contains:

Fruits, vegetables, legumes (e.g. lentils, beans), nuts and whole grains (e.g. unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat, brown rice).
At least 400grams (5 portions) of fruits and vegetables a day. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava and other starchy roots are not classified as fruits or vegetables.
Unsaturated fats (e.g. found in fish, avocado, nuts, sunflower, canola and olive oils) are preferable to saturated fats (e.g. found in fatty meat, butter, palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee and lard). Industrial trans fats (found in processed food, fast food, snack food, fried food, frozen pizza, pies, cookies, margarines and spreads) are not a part of a healthy diet.
Less than 5 g of salt (equivalent to approximately 1 teaspoon) per day and use iodized salt.

WHO- Healthy Diet

Diet for Elderly People:

Individuals of 60 years and above constitute the elderly .The diet for elderly people should include nutrient rich foods to enable them to be fit and active. Senior citizens need more of vitamins and minerals to be healthy and active.

The body composition changes with the advancing age and all these changes affect nutritional needs of the elderly. Elderly or aged people require reduce amount of calories as their lean muscle mass and physical activity decreases with ageing. Elderly need more calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin A and antioxidants to prevent age-related degenerative diseases and for healthy ageing. It is very essential to maintain your health as ageing process starts and it increases the life expectancy. It is very important for elderly people to exercise as it helps to regulate body weight and flexibility in the joints. The risk of degenerative diseases also considerably decreases with regular exercise session.

Elders generally complain of loss of appetite or sometimes difficulty in chewing. A soft diet should be given to elders, with inclusion of fruits and vegetables in their diet. Calcium rich foods like dairy products (low fat), milk (toned) and green leafy vegetables should be included in the daily diet to maintain bone health, so as to prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures. Consume pulses, toned milk, egg-white etc. in good quantities as they are rich in proteins. Elderly people should cut down on their saturated fats, sweets, oily food, salt and sugar level. Use of ghee, oil, butter should be completely avoided. Also, avoid eating spicy food.

The diet for elderly people needs to be well cooked, soft and should be less salty and spicy. Ensure to eat small quantities of food at more frequent intervals and drink water at frequent intervals to avoid dehydration and constipation. Consult a doctor for an individualized diet depending upon the medical condition in the case of persons suffering from chronic diseases and bed ridden patients.

Points to Remember:

Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods.
Match food intake with physical activity.
Avoid fried, salty and spicy foods.
Consume adequate water to avoid dehydration.
Exercise regularly or go for a walk.
Avoid smoking, chewing of tobacco and tobacco products (Khaini, Zarda, Paan masala) and consumption of alcohol.
Go for regular checkups. Check regularly for blood sugar, lipids and blood pressure.
Avoid self medication.
Adopt stress management techniques (Yoga and Meditation).

Role of different kinds of food material on health

Vegetables and fruits in diet
Different kinds of Fats/oils
Salt intake
Whole grains
Water and beverages
Processed and ready to eat food
Instant foods , fast foods, street foods, unhealthy foods

(a)Vegetables and fruits in diet-

Vegetables and fruits are rich source of micronutrients (iron, calcium, vitamin C, folic acid, carotenoids and phytochemicals) and macronutrients (complex carbohydrates/ fibre).

Some vegetables and fruits provide very low calories, while some others provide good calories as these are rich in starch (such as potato, sweet potato, fruits as banana). Therefore, vegetables and fruits can be used to increase or decrease calories in the diet.

At least 400grams (5 portions), of fruits and vegetables per day should be consumed in the diet by an individual.

Vegetables and fruits consumptions can be improved by-
Always include vegetables and fruits in the diet
Eat fresh, locally available, seasonal vegetables and fruits.
Eat a variety of choices of fruits and vegetables (“rainbow of coloured foods”) in a diet plan as different coloured fruits and vegetables contain different nutrients (phytochemicals).
Eat fresh fruits and raw vegetables as snacks.

(b)Different kinds of Fats/oils-

Fats/oils are concentrated source of energy. Dietary sources of fats are classified as-

Animal fat –Major sources of animal fats are ghee, butter, milk, cheese, eggs and fat of meat and fish. They contain cholesterol and high amount of saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids.

Vegetable fat- Seeds of some plants are sources of vegetable oils as groundnut, mustard, sesame, coconut, canola, olive and soya bean.

Edible plant foods have a low content of fat and saturated fatty acids but they are good source of mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).

Visible and invisible fats-

Visible fats are those that are separated from their natural sources such as ghee/butter from milk, cooking oils from oil bearing seeds and nuts. It is easy to monitor their intake.

Invisible fats are those, which are present in almost every article of foods such as cereals, pulses, nuts, milk, and eggs and are difficult to estimate.

It is recommended that between15-30% of total calories in the diet should be provided in the form of fats (visible + invisible). Diets of infant and children should include adequate amounts of fats to fulfill their higher energy needs than adults.

Excessive fats in the diet increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke and cancer. The risk of developing these diseases can be lowered by reducing saturated fats to less than 10% of total energy intake, and trans fats to less than 1% of total energy intake, and replacing both with unsaturated fats (MUFAs+ PUFAs).

Vanaspati ghee - When vegetable oils are hydrogenated, it converts them in to semisolid or solid form which is called as vanaspati or vegetable ghee. During process of hydrogenation unsaturated fatty acids are converted in to saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids. As saturated fats and trans fats are risk factors for development of non-communicable diseases (coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity), use of vanaspati ghee should be limited in the adult population. Vanaspati ghee is mostly used in bakery products, sweets, and snacks products.

Fat intake can be reduced by:

changing how the food is cooked such as use vegetable oil (not animal oil); remove the fatty part of meat; and boil, steam or bake rather than fry;
avoiding processed foods containing trans fats (eg. preparation prepared from vanaspati ghee);
Limiting the consumption of foods containing high amounts of saturated fats (e.g., cheese, ice cream, fatty meat, palm and coconut oil, ghee, lard). Unsaturated fats (e.g. found in fish, avocado, nuts, sunflower, canola and olive oils) are preferable to saturated fats (e.g. found in fatty meat, butter, palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee and lard)

(c) Salt (sodium and potassium) intake-

Salt is an important ingredient of the diet. Most people do not know the amount of salt they consume. High salt consumption and insufficient potassium intake (less than 3.5 g) contribute to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends use of less than 5g of salt per day.

Salt consumption can be reduced by –

Limiting addition of salt during cooking.
Not having salt on the table.
Do not add additional salt to the already prepared dish.
Limiting the consumption of salty snacks, processed foods (like papads, pickles, sauces, ketchup, salted biscuits, chips, cheese and salted fish).
Increasing potassium intake by consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables as potassium decreases the negative effects of sodium (salt).
Choosing products with lower salt (sodium) content.
Use only Iodized salt for consumption and should be stored in an air tight container to avoid moisture.

(d) Sugars-

Free sugars are all sugars added to foods or drinks during cooking or by the manufacturer or consumer, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. Free sugars increase the risk of dental caries (tooth decay) and can lead to overweight and obesity. The intake of free sugars should be less than 10% of total energy intake.

Sugar intake can be reduced by-

limiting the consumption of foods and drinks containing high amounts of sugars (e.g. sugar-sweetened beverages, sugary snacks and candies); and
eating fresh fruits and raw vegetables as snacks instead of sugary snacks.

(e) Whole grains-

A whole grain contains all edible parts of the grain, including the bran, germ, and endosperm. A diet rich in whole grains (like, whole wheat, brown rice, oats, unprocessed maize, millets) has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer. Whole-grain diets also improve bowel health by helping to maintain regular bowel movement and promote growth of healthy bacteria in the colon.

(f) Water and beverages-

Water accounts about 70% of human body weight. Water is lost from body through sweat, urine and faeces. Enough of safe water should be drunk to meet daily fluid requirements.

Milk- Milk is a wholesome food and beverage for all age groups. Milk proteins are valuable supplements to most vegetarian diets. Milk is a rich source of calcium (poor source of iron) which helps in the building up of strong bones. Thus milk is a good source of proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins (except vitamin C), and minerals. Milk fats are saturated fats hence those who have to take low fat diet, can consume skimmed/toned milk.

Toned Milk- It is blend of natural milk and made-up milk. It contains one part of water, one part of natural milk and 1/8part of skim milk power. Since milk fat is of the saturated type, those who have to be on a low fat diet can consume skimmed/toned milk.

Vegetable milk-Milk prepared from certain vegetable foods (groundnut, soyabean) is termed vegetable milk. It may be used as substitute for animal milk.

Soft drinks-These may be:

Natural soft drinks (natural fruit juices)-which provide in addition to energy, some vitamins (beta carotenes, vitamin C) and minerals (potassium, calcium). As natural fruit juices are rich in potassium, they are ideal beverages for persons suffering from hypertension.

Artificial or synthetic soft drinks -which are prepared by using preservatives, artificial colours and flavours and are usually carbonated (contain phosphoric acid which may affect enamel of teeth).

Beverages like buttermilk, lassi, fruit juices, and coconut water are better options for beverages than synthetic drinks.

Tea and coffee – These are used for their flavour or their stimulating effects. Tea and coffee consumption is advised in moderation. Tannin present in tea and coffee interferes with iron absorption hence they should be avoided one hour before and after meals. Teas particularly green and black are good sources of flavonoids, (substances believed to have antioxidant properties). Tea may be preferred over coffee.

Sports Beverages- Regular sports drinks contain energy-yielding carbohydrates plus electrolytes, including sodium, potassium, and chloride for providing energy and maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance.

Energy Drinks- Energy drinks provide carbohydrates and caffeine (70 to 85 mg of caffeine per eight-ounce serving) and some drinks contain B complex vitamins, amino acids and herbal extracts such as gingko.

Tender coconut water-It is a nutritious beverage can be used as oral rehydration medium, however in patient having hyper kalaemia such as renal failure, acute adrenal insufficiency and in patients with low urine output, it should be avoided.

Alcohol- Excessive alcohol intake weakens the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy) and also damages the liver (cirrhosis), brain and peripheral nerves. It also increases serum triglycerides.

Avoid alcohol and those who choose to drink, should limit its use.

(g) Processed and ready to eat foods-

Processed foods- Foods that are subjected to technological modifications either for preservation or for converting into ready-to-use/eat foods, eliminating laborious household procedures, are called “processed foods”. Food processing techniques include freezing, canning, baking, drying and pasteurising products. Food processing is used to preserve highly perishable products like milk, meat, fish and fresh fruits and vegetables. Food processing also facilitates seasonal availability of foods and transportation over long distances.

During processing sometimes ingredients such as salt, sugar and fat are added to make them more appealing, change in food structure and to prolong their shelf life. They may lack dietary fibre and micronutrients. Thus, awareness about their consumption should be there, when processed foods constitute a major part of the meal.

(h) Instant foods, fast foods, street foods, unhealthy foods (Junk foods)-

Instant foods- Foods that undergo special processing for ready to be served once dissolved or dispersed in a liquid with low cooking time such as noodles, corn flakes, soup powder.

Fast foods-Foods which are rapidly prepared and quickly served in a packaged form for take away. These are calories rich foods (burgers, pizzas, fries, hamburgers, patties, nuggets, indian foods like pakora, samosa, namkeen etc). Storage, handling and contamination are the major concerns for such foods.

Street foods- Ready to eat foods and beverages prepared and, sold by hawkers or vendors in streets or other public places, such as chaat, golgappe, samosa, tikki, noodles, chowmein, burgers etc. Food hygiene is an important issue in street foods (prevention of food contamination).

Unhealthy foods or Junk foods- these are energy dense foods with high sugar/ fat/ content and low nutrient value in terms of protein, fibre, vitamin and mineral, such as salt Chips, chocolate, ice-cream, soft drinks, burgers, pizzas etc.

Safe and Clean Food

Best practices for storage

With the proper storage tools a person can store many different types of foods indefinitely. Learning how to store food is simple to understand and very cost effective. Improper storage of food items allows bacteria to grow and thrive, causing food spoilage which leads to food wastage and potential food poisoning.

Consider the following when storing food:

Agricultural commodities should be dried adequately and protected from moisture in a safe storage structure (eg. tin with a tight lid) to prevent damage from moulds.
Ensure all foods are covered and stored in appropriate food containers.
Before any food source is to be stored, clean the containers with soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly. Make sure the lid (Cup) of container is airtight and spill proof.
Label the container with the date of packing and expiry date.
Store in a dark storage area, where temperatures, moisture levels and sunlight do not fluctuate.
Keep storage areas clean, not cluttered and pest-free.
Food storage and packaging materials area should be situated away from toilets, dust, smoke, objectionable smell and other contaminants.
Store food items or ingredients off the floor and away from the wall.
Store fresh fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, lettuce, herbs, and mushrooms in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40° F or below.
Refrigerate all produce that is purchased pre-cut.
If possible, store raw and cooked/ready-to-eat (RTE) food items in separate chillers or freezers.
Establish personal hygiene while storing.
Some traditional household practices such as application of edible oils to grains, placing dried neem leaves in storage bins etc., are known to prevent infestations.

Handling of perishable foods

To ensure the food you consume is fresh and safe to eat, below are some easy tips:

General tips

Buy only the best quality food if you plan to store it for any length of time.
Fresh and cured meats, fish and shellfish, dairy products and prepared foods should only ever be bought from a refrigerated display.
Cross contamination can be avoided by keeping cooked and raw food separately.
Refrigerated cooked food should be heated before consumption.
Repeated heating should be avoided.
Foods with strong smell, such as sea foods and some cheeses, should be wrapped.
The 'best before' date is your best guide to storage of a particular perishable food.
Proper storage keeps your food safe from the growth of food poisoning bacteria,

Dairy Products

Fresh milk, cream and some soft cheeses have only a short shelf life and lose quality rapidly if exposed to warm temperatures during storage. These should be kept in refrigerator.

Fresh fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables should be handled carefully to avoid bruising and breaking the skin. Such damage will cause deterioration and rotting.
Most fresh fruits should be stored in the coolest part of the house when space is not available.
Some fruits such as pineapple and bananas are chill sensitive and should not be stored in the refrigerator.
To reduce shriveling or wilting due to water loss, keep leafy and root vegetables, such as silverbeet, broccoli, carrots and parsnips, in perforated plastic bags, preferably in the refrigerator.
By removing leafy tops from carrots, parsnips, turnips and beetroot, their storage life can be extended too many weeks or even several months in the refrigerator.
Keep potatoes in a cool, dark, well ventilated place to avoid greening and sprouting; remove from plastic bags and place in a strong paper bag, box or in a wire or plastic bin. Potatoes should not be kept in the fridge.
Keep nectarines, peaches and plums in the refrigerator, unless you want to ripen them.
Tomatoes should be ripened at room temperature, away from direct sunlight. When fully ripe, especially in hot weather, they may be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
To reduce mould growth in onions, whole pumpkin, marrows and squashes, store at room temperature under dry conditions, in a net or loose.

Egg

Eggs, contrary to what many people believe, should be stored in the refrigerator. This will maintain egg quality and considerably lengthen storage life. They should preferably be stored in their cartons to reduce moisture loss through the shell.

Non-Vegetarians

Raw meat, poultry and seafoods

Meat items should be stored in the coldest part of your refrigerator. These foods should be stored under refrigeration, preferably at a temperature of 10 C or less, which retards multiplication of microorganisms.
Before storing chilled chicken for a couple of days, it is a good idea to take off the plastic wrapping, wash the chicken thoroughly, dry it with a paper towel then store as above.
Fresh whole fish should be gutted and washed if it is to be stored for more than 24 hours.

Cooked meat, poultry and seafoods

Meat, poultry and seafoods must be refrigerated as soon as possible after cooking.
To avoid condensation, do not cover hot meat pieces before refrigerating.
Store cooked products above any raw meat, poultry or seafoods to avoid cross contamination.

What about personal hygiene?

Food handlers should observe good personal hygiene to maintain food safety. They should be free from obvious signs of illness, wounds and sores.
Use of spoons and ladles should be encouraged to avoid contamination. Avoid cooked food is touched by the hands while preparing, serving and eating.
Hands should be washed thoroughly before starting the preparation of food and after every interruption.
Household pets like cats and dogs often harbour dangerous pathogens. They should be kept away from places where food is cooked, stored or served.

Removal of the Pesticide Residues from the Food products by different methods (How to minimize effects of pesticides)

Most of the pesticide residues can be removed by adopting four methods of residues removal. These methods should be easily adopted at the house hold level to remove the pesticide residual contamination. These methods are washing, blanching, peeling and cooking.

Washing

The first step in the removal of pesticide residues from the food products is washing. Washing with 2% of salt water will remove most of the contact pesticide residues that normally appear on the surface of the vegetables and fruits. About 75-80% of pesticide reduces are removed by cold water washing.
The pesticide residues that are on the surface of the grapes, apples, guava, plums, mangoes, peaches, pears etc, fruity vegetables like tomatoes, brinjal, and okra require 2-3 washings.
The green leafy vegetables must be washed thoroughly. The pesticide residues from green leafy vegetables are removed satisfactorily by normal processing such as washing blanching and cooking.

Blanching

A short treatment in hot water or steam applied to most of the vegetables. Certain pesticide residues can effectively be removed by blanching. But before blanching it is very important to thoroughly pre-wash the vegetables &fruits etc.

Peeling

Contact pesticides that appear on the surface of the fruits and vegetables can be removed by peeling.

Cooking

Animal Products

Animal products are also the major source of contamination for pesticide residues in human diets since the animals feed on fodder, which are sprayed with pesticides. Pressure cooking, frying and baking will remove pesticide residues from the animal fat tissues.

Dairy products

Boiling of milk at elevated temperatures will destroy the persistent pesticide residues.

Vegetable Oils

Refined oils will have fewer amounts of pesticide residues. Household heating of oils up to a particular flash point will remove pesticide residues.

What are the common adulterants?

Foods may be adulterated with non-food material or inferior quality product. Spoilt, stale or poor quality food is made attractive and fresh by adding harmful colors or other chemicals.
Frequently adulterated food items are milk and milk products, cereals, pulses and their products, edible oils and spices. The different classes of adulterants include non-permitted colors like yellow; non-edible oils like castor oil; cheaper agricultural produce like various starches in milk powder; extraneous matter like husk, sand and sawdust; and metal contaminants like aluminum or iron filings.
Consumption of adulterated foods could lead to disease outbreaks of epidemic proportions. Buying from a reliable and reputed source, careful checking of foods before purchase and insisting on certified brands will all minimize the risk of food adulteration..

Healthy Cooking Practices

Foods, in their natural state, contain different nutrients in varying amounts. Cooking improves the digestibility of most foods. Raw food get softened on cooking and become easily chewable. Proper methods of cooking render food healthy. Positive food concepts and cooking practices are foundation for good health by improving the appearance, taste, flavour and texture, thereby enhancing acceptability. Cooking process also helps to eliminate disease causing organisms and destroy natural inhibitors of digestion. Cooking food is a common thing in our homes, but it is good if we follow healthy cooking practices. We can classify the food cooking process in three stages such as:

Precooking Preparation
Washing and cutting of raw food
Cooking Methods

Precooking Preparation:

According to the food preparation, the cooking process of any food may include washing, grinding, cutting, fermentation, germination and cooking. In Indian cuisine, fermentation (process used in making idli, dosa, dhokla) and germination (sprouting) are common practices. These methods improve digestibility and increase nutrients such as B-complex vitamins and Vitamin C.

Washing and Cutting of raw food:

Raw food may contain pesticide residues, parasites and other extraneous material. In order to clean the same, foods should be washed well before cooking and consumption to remove these contaminants. Vegetables and fruits should be washed thoroughly with clean water before cutting. Cutting of vegetables in to small pieces exposes a greater surface area of the foodstuff to the atmosphere, resulting in loss of vitamins due to oxidation. Therefore, vegetables should be cut in to large pieces. Cut vegetables should not be soaked at all in water as water-soluble minerals and vitamins get washed away. However, certain precautions should be taken while washing and cutting to minimize the loss of nutrients. Avoid repeated washing of food grains like rice and pulses as it might lead to loss of certain minerals and vitamins.

Cooking Methods:

There are many methods of cooking like boiling, steaming, pressure cooking, frying, roasting and baking. Boiling is the most common method of cooking, but because of this process some heat-labile and water-soluble vitamins like vitamin B-complex and C is lost. Cooking rice with excess of water may lead to the loss of nutrient value so just use sufficient water to be fully absorbed. To avoid loss of vitamins, use of baking soda for hastening cooking of pulses should not be practiced. Repeated heating of oils particularly Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA)-rich oils results in formation of peroxides and free radicals hence, should be avoided by using just enough oil. Similarly, oils which have been repeatedly heated should not be mixed with fresh oil but should be used for process such as seasoning.

Some common Indian food beliefs, fads and taboos:

Food habits are formed early in childhood, passed on from the elders in the family and perpetuated to adulthood. Food beliefs either encourage or discourage the consumption of particular type of foods. There can be neutral, harmless or harmful practices. Unfortunately, most of the food fads and prejudices (taboos) are associated with women and children, who are also the most vulnerable to malnutrition. Exaggerated beneficial or harmful claims in respect of some foods, without scientific basis constitute food fads. In addition, the belief of heat producing and cold inducing foods is widely prevalent. Here are some examples:

Jaggery, sugar, groundnuts, fried foods, mango, bajra, jowar, maize, eggs and meat are considered as hot.
Buttermilk, curd, milk, green gram dhal, green leafy vegetables, ragi, barley flour and apples are considered as cold inducing foods.
Papaya fruit is strongly suspected to lead to abortion, though there is no scientific basis.
Vegetarianism is often practiced in India on religious grounds. Since vitamin B12 is present only in foods of animal origin, vegetarians should ensure an adequate consumption of milk.
During certain illnesses like measles and diarrhoea, dietary restriction is practiced.

Diet and Weight Management

A healthy eating plan gives your body the nutrients it needs every day. It shall have enough calories for good health, but not so much that it makes you overweight.

A healthy eating plan is the one with low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt), and added sugar. Following a healthy eating plan will lower your risk for overweight /obesity, heart disease and other related conditions.

Healthy foods include:

Fat-free and low-fat dairy products, such as low-fat yoghurt, cheese, and milk.
Protein foods, such as lean meat, fish, poultry without skin, beans, and peas.
Whole-grain foods, such as whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, and brown rice. Other grain foods include pasta, cereal, bagels, bread, tortillas, couscous, and crackers.
Fresh fruits, canned, frozen, or dried.
Fresh vegetables, canned (without salt), frozen or dried.

Canola and olive oils, and soft margarines made from these oils, are heart healthy. However, you should use them in small amounts because they’re high in calories.

You also can include unsalted nuts, like walnuts and almonds, in your diet as long as you limit the amount you eat (nuts also are high in calories).Foods that are high in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol, raise your risk for heart disease, so they should be limited.

Saturated fat is found mainly in fatty cuts of meat, such as ground beef, sausage, and processed meats (for example, bologna, hot dogs, and deli meats), Poultry with the skin, high-fat dairy products like whole-milk cheeses, whole milk, cream, butter, and ice cream, lard, coconut, and palm oils, which are found in many processed foods.

Trans fat is found mainly in foods with partially hydrogenated oils, such as many hard margarines and shortening, baked products and snack foods, foods fried in hydrogenated shortening.

Cholesterol mainly is found in egg yolks, organ meats, such as liver, shrimp, whole milk or whole-milk products, such as butter, cream, and cheese.

Reducing foods and drinks with added sugars, like high fructose corn syrup, is important. Added sugars will give you extra calories without nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Added sugar is found in many desserts, canned fruit packed in syrup, fruit drinks, and non diet drinks. Check the list of ingredients on food packages for added sugars like high-fructose corn syrup. Drinks that contain alcohol also will add calories, so it’s a good idea to limit your alcohol intake.

Food habits have changed not only amongst the urban elites, but even in the rural population. With mechanization of the labour, most of the rural populations who were physically very active, have now become less laborious. The quantity of food consumption remained the same or increased. More energy intense food consumption habits with less physical activities is the main cause of lifestyle disorders like diabetes, hypertension even among the rural population. This can be seen when anyone who has eaten out lately. In fact, over the past 40 years, portion sizes have grown significantly. Cutting back on portion size is a good way to eat fewer calories and balance your energy intake.

Studies have shown that we all tend to consume a certain quantity of food. Knowing this, you can lose weight if you eat foods that are lower in calories and fat for a given amount of food. For example, replacing a full-fat food product with a low-fat product that weighs the same helps you cut back on calories. Another helpful practice is to eat foods that contain lot of water, such as vegetables, fruits, and soups.

Being physically active and eating fewer calories will help you lose weight and keep weight off over time. Weight should be reduced gradually.

Tips to reduce body weight:

Never use drugs for losing weight, it can be dangerous
Diets which you are using to reduce weight should be rich in proteins and low in carbohydrates and fats
Increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables
Eat at frequent intervals
Decrease the consumption of sugar, salt, fatty foods, refined foods, soft drinks and fast food.
Prefer low- fat milk/ toned milk.
Include physical activity in your daily routine like aerobics, walk, yoga etc.

Health Tips

Prefer homemade foods against fast food.
Avoid junk foods as they are a major cause of obesity.
Eat raw fruits and vegetables whenever possible. It is even preferable to have fruits and raw vegetables instead of munching on snacks.
Limit consumption of sugar and unhealthy processed foods.
Keep your salt intake to less than 5 grams per day as it helps to prevent hypertension, and reduces the risk of heart disease. Prefer iodized salt.
Avoid trans fats that is found in processed food, fast food, snacks, fried food, frozen pizza and cookies.
Serve yourself small portions of high calorie foods and large portions of healthy foods like vegetables, salads and soups.
Good nutrition need not always be expensive. You can get all the nutrients from low cost foods items as well like beans and lentils, eggs, jaggery, seasonal fresh fruits and green leafy vegetables.
Don’t be choosy over the foods you eat. It might relish your taste buds but it would lead to imbalanced nutrition.
Eat fresh foods with the minimum of processing.
Eat raw vegetables whenever possible. If you need to cook them, use as little water as possible because many nutrients are destroyed by heat or boiled water.
Eat fruits and vegetables with skins (apart from carrots, which can absorb toxins from the soil). Wash them thoroughly first.
Don't cut, wash or soak fruits and vegetables until you are ready to eat them.
Avoid replacing meals with snack foods.

The U.S. is getting serious about space junk

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 14:18:00 +0000

The U.S. government is taking legal steps to limit the amount of space junk — the cloud of dangerous debris still orbiting the Earth — after more than six decades of space races, rocket launches, planetary missions and booming satellite activity.

The key measure is the imposition last week by the Federal Communications Commission of a five-year lifetime for new satellites after they complete their mission, by which time they’ll have to deorbit and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Before now, a 25-year lifetime has been in place as a guideline, but it’s never been legally enforced.

The new rule applies only to satellites launched by U.S. operators, and it won’t solve the space junk problem on its own. But experts agree it’s a good start and in line with international efforts.

“It’s about establishing rules for space and having a legal framework that people have to adhere to,” said space debris expert Carolin Frueh, an associate professor of aeronautic and astronautic engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. “That’s a big step.”

Earth’s orbital space is vast, and there are only about 5,000 active satellites. But it’s estimated that there might be millions of pieces of space junk circling our planet — from entire stages of rockets, which can weigh several tons, to inactive satellites, lost bits of space equipment, stray nuts and bolts, and the broken fragments of orbital collisions.

Most of those pieces are tiny — smaller than a nickel. But they’re orbiting at more than 15,000 mph, and experts estimate there are about 30,000 pieces of space junk large enough and fast enough to be a serious problem — and potentially a disaster.

There have already been some close calls. In June the International Space Station changed its orbit to avoid debris from a Soviet-era satellite, which had been blown up in a Russian test of a new anti-satellite missile. So far the ISS has had to avoid orbiting space debris more than 30 times during its 23-year mission. It’s also been damaged by space junk, and on another occasion the ISS crew were ready to leave in case of a collision.

An artist's depiction of orbiting debris and satellites around Earth.NASA

And the problem will get worse. One report estimated that about 10,000 more dangerous pieces of space junk will be in orbit by the end of this century.

“Space debris is not yet at the stage where we cannot do any more space missions,” said Thomas Schildknecht, a professor of astronomy at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the director of the Zimmerwald Observatory. “But the risk is increasing, and if we don’t pay attention, then in 10 years from now we’ll be at the level where we can’t do anything.”

Schildknecht’s team has been tracking the most dangerous pieces of space debris for several years and now uses lasers to track their trajectories. As well as predicting dangerous collisions, astronomers use their database to schedule observations when their view won’t be disrupted by stray space junk.

“We get precise information so we can inform astronomers when there is something flying by, so they can choose their observing times a little differently,” he said. “It’s already a problem.”

Schildknecht’s database is one of the sources consulted by commercial space firms like COMSPOC, a Pennsylvania-based company that, among other things, offers to keep satellite operators apprised about any threats in their orbits, including space debris, so they can avoid them if possible.

The company’s chief scientist, Dan Oltrogge, said he welcomes the FCC’s new five-year lifetime and thinks it could be even stricter.

He noted that the rule won’t affect new constellations like Starlink from Elon Musk’s SpaceX — a network of thousands of satellites to provide internet almost anywhere on the globe — because those satellites are already in a low orbit and are expected to deorbit after about a year.

“They’re demonstrating that not only should you do it in five years, you should do way better than that,” he said.

Many experts think the only solution to the space junk problem will be to send up robot spacecraft to gather it all and deorbit it for good.

The Japanese startup Astroscale captured a simulated piece of space junk in a test last year and has a deal with the satellite constellation operator OneWeb to deorbit its satellites.

In 2019, the European Space Agency selected the private company ClearSpace to remove objects from orbit using a robot spacecraft with large claws. Tests are expected to start in orbit in 2026.

And the Seattle-based startup Starfish Space is developing a space-tug called Otter to service satellites in orbit and push space debris into low orbits where it will fall to Earth. The company expects to launch by 2024.

Such active measures are also a key part of a bill for an ORBITS Act that would require NASA and the space industry to explore new solutions to the problems of space junk.

Purdue’s Frueh suggested another solution to the problems of space debris will be to not leave junk in orbit to begin with.

“Moving in the direction of active removal is certainly what we need,” she said. “But it will not be a standalone measure. … We also need to design our missions with space debris problems in mind, and to bring things down as soon as possible after a mission is completed.”

Source-www.nbcnews.com

When Indians will Get Covid-19 Vaccine? Is The Covid Vaccine Safe? Frequently Asked Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 10:20:00 +0000

Before discussing the matter, I want to share how many vaccine candidates are being developed around the world. Some of them have already applied for authorisation where some are in different stages of trials to test safety and efficacy.

The first one is "The Covishield vaccine" which is being made by Serum Institute of India partnered with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The second one is "Covaxin", being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have already applied for authorisation.

The third one is "ZyCov-Di", being developed by Ahmedabad-based Zydus-Cadila.

The fourth one is a Vaccine which is being developed by Hyderabad-based Biological E, the first Indian private vaccine making company, in collaboration with MIT.

The fifth one is "HGCO19", India's first mRNA vaccine made by Pune-based Genova in collaboration with Seattle-based HDT Biotech Corporation, using bits of genetic code to cause an immune response.

The sixth one is "The Sputnik V" vaccine candidate developed by Dr Reddy's Lab and Gamaleya National Centre in Russia.

The seventh one is a nasal vaccine by Bharat BioTech.

The eight one is a second vaccine being developed by Serum Institute of India and American vaccine development company Novavax.

As per the sources, India had already booked millions of doses from a number of vaccine makers around the world. A few vaccine candidates were likely to get emergency-use authorisation from the drug regulator in the next few weeks. The vaccination programme aims to reach around 300 million people by early August, 2021.

Indian government is in touch with a number of local and international vaccine makers and informing them about our requirements and finding out about their production capacities.

As per the sources, world's largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech alone have the capability of making 65 million doses a month. India also has a "good stockpile" of vaccines which can be quickly converted into vials, if vaccines get regulatory approval.

Frequently Asked Questions

How will the vaccination programme be rolled out?

Around 300 million Indians will be vaccinated between January and early August. For this vaccination process, we need to begin with an estimated 10 million health workers, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other front line workers.

The next groups eligible for vaccinations would include people above and below 50 years of age with underlying conditions and co-morbidities.

India have already achieved the fame of world's biggest immunisation programme, inoculating more than 40 million newborns and pregnant women against 12 diseases every year. It also has a well-oiled electronic system to stock and track these vaccines.

How does India plan to vaccinate 1 billion people?

154,000 of the country's 223,000 nurses and midwives engaged in this programme will be deployed to give Covid vaccines to people. It will be also inviting final year nursing students to volunteer.

Some 29,000 existing cold storage facilities would be used to stock the vaccines - nearly all vaccines need to be transported and distributed between 2C and 8C in what comprises the so-called cold chain.

And the most important thing is the cold storage facility for storing the vaccines in the country like India where preservation of vaccines is so difficult. In India, extreme cold storage chain facilities - up to -80C - are already available in a number of agricultural and animal husbandry research centres in Haryana, Karnataka and West Bengal, among other places.

Is the Covid vaccine safe?

The safety trial has begun for all the vaccine candidates in the lab with tests and research on cells and animals and move to the next stage of testing depends on if there are no outstanding safety concerns.

Indian health minister Harsh Vardhan said, that "there has been a little over one crore cases of the killer virus in the country. "Of that, 95 lakh 50 thousand cases have recovered successfully. India has one of the highest recovery rates in the world at 95.46%".

He also said, there are lots of confusion among people for the safety of the vaccines. He added, before injecting vaccine, we need to be concerned about the safety of the people. Each center will have medical facility such that if anyone feels uncomfortable or uneasiness after being vaccinated, he/she will be taken to the immediate care facility. It is advised for the people that everyone has to wait in the vaccine center for 30 minutes after being vaccinated.

Who can approve vaccines or treatments?

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), UK gives approval for vaccine if that a vaccine is both safe, effective and makes sure there are no further side effects or long-term risks. Independent experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) decide how best to use a vaccine and who should get it.

Will a vaccine make anyone ill?

Vaccines do not give anyone a disease. Instead, they teach your body's immune system to recognise and fight the infection they have been designed to protect against. Some people may suffer mild fever or muscle pain on the side of injecting. This is not the disease itself, but the body's response to the vaccine.

What about allergies?

The MHRA says it hasn't identified any "serious adverse reactions" during the trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Two people out of many thousands who got the jab on the first day of UK rollout had allergic reactions. But Both are recovering well.

NASA Moves Forward with Campaign to Return Mars Samples to Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 10:06:00 +0000

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are moving to the next phase in a campaign to deepen understanding of whether life ever existed on Mars and, in turn, better understand the origins of life on Earth.

NASA has approved the Mars Sample Return (MSR) multi-mission effort to advance to Phase A, preparing to bring the first pristine samples from Mars back to Earth. During this phase, the program will mature critical technologies and make critical design decisions, as well as assess industry partnerships.

The first endeavor of this campaign is in progress. NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launched in July and is set to land on the Red Planet Feb. 18, 2021. The car-size rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life. Using a coring drill at the end of its robotic arm, Perseverance has the capability to gather samples of Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust), and hermetically seal them in collection tubes. Perseverance can deposit these samples at designated locations on the Martian surface or store them internally.

In the next steps of the MSR campaign, NASA and ESA will provide respective components for a Sample Retrieval Lander mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission, with launches planned in the latter half of this decade. The Sample Retrieval Lander mission will deliver a Sample Fetch Rover and Mars Ascent Vehicle to the surface of Mars. The rover will retrieve the samples and transport them to the lander. The Perseverance rover also provides a potential capability for delivery of collection tubes to the lander. A robotic arm on the lander will transfer the samples into a container embedded in the nose of the Mars Ascent Vehicle.

Once sealed, the system will prepare for the first launch from another planet. In Mars orbit, the Earth Return Orbiter will rendezvous with and capture the sealed sample container, and then place the samples in an additional high-reliability containment capsule for return to Earth in the early 2030s.

"Returning samples of Mars to Earth has been a goal of planetary scientists since the early days of the space age, and the successful completion of this MSR key decision point is an important next step in transforming this goal into reality," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "MSR is a complex campaign, and it encapsulates the very essence of pioneering space exploration – pushing the boundaries of what's capable and, in so doing, furthering our understanding of our place in the universe."

Bringing Mars samples back to Earth will allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars, and will allow future generations to study them using technology not yet available. Curating the samples on Earth will allow the science community to test new theories and models as they are developed, much as the Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done for decades.

The MSR campaign also advances NASA's efforts to send humans to the Red Planet. It will involve landing heavier spacecraft on the Martian surface than ever before. It would also involve launch from and rendezvous operations around another planet for the first time. With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface in 2024 to prepare for humanity's next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.

"MSR will foster significant engineering advances for humanity and advance technologies needed to successfully realize the first round-trip mission to another planet," said Jeff Gramling, Mars Sample Return program director at NASA Headquarters. “The scientific advances offered by pristine Martian samples through MSR are unprecedented, and this mission will contribute to NASA’s eventual goal of sending humans to Mars."

NASA established a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board earlier this year to evaluate its early concepts for partnership with ESA to return the first samples from another planet. The board’s report with NASA’s responses released in October found the agency is now ready to undertake its Mars sample return campaign. NASA convened a second group of independent experts, the MSR Standing Review Board (SRB), to provide ongoing assessment of the MSR program. The SRB also recommended the program move into Phase A.

"Beginning the formulation work of Phase A is a momentous step for our team, albeit one of several to come," said Bobby Braun, Mars Sample Return program manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads development for NASA’s MSR effort. "These reviews strengthened our plan forward and this milestone signals creation of a tangible approach for MSR built upon the extraordinary capabilities of the NASA centers, our ESA partners, and industry."

ESA is providing the Earth Return Orbiter, Sample Fetch Rover, and the lander's robotic arm to the partnership. NASA is providing the Sample Retrieval Lander, Mars Ascent Vehicle, and the Capture/Containment and Return System payload on the Earth Return Orbiter. Multiple NASA Centers are involved in this effort, contributing in their areas of strength.

(Source- www.nasa.gov)

NASA and The United State Department of Agriculture Signed Agreement to Improve Agricultural, Earth Science Research

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:36:00 +0000

NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening their longstanding partnership on space-based assets benefitting life on Earth.

The agreement brings together NASA’s experience with technology development and space-borne Earth science measurements and USDA’s scientific experience and knowledge of agricultural production, resource conservation, food security and safety, and forests and working lands.

NASA and USDA will explore research gaps of importance to the agricultural community that could be addressed through innovative Earth observation systems and technologies developed over the next decade. The collaboration also will address recommendations made in the 2017 National Academies’ Earth Science Decadal Survey.

“When we combine research on the International Space Station with the amazing capabilities that Earth observation provides, I believe that NASA, in partnership with USDA, could transform farming and bolster agricultural production in ways we can’t even imagine today,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Microgravity research can unlock secrets in a wide variety of fields, and I’m particularly excited about our agency’s potential impact on next-generation agricultural techniques.”

The agreement also will leverage USDA’s connections with the agricultural community and the global marketplace.

“As we’ve seen over the past 100 years, increasing innovation in agriculture is limitless,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “This partnership between USDA and NASA will bring together the best research, science, and technology we have to offer to help produce more food to feed the growing world. We are continuing an already great collaborative effort to utilize space-based technologies across sectors and into agriculture.”

The partnership outlined in the agreement will benefit a variety of Earth and space-based goals, including activities in support of NASA’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon and establish sustainable exploration with our commercial and international partners. Plant-related research on the International Space Station, and other space or ground platforms, may lead to creative new ways to improve American and global agriculture, protect the environment, and contribute to better human health.

In addition, the agencies collaborate to inspire youth in America to pursue careers in STEM and agriculture through various education and communication activities, such as the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education.

(Source- https://www.nasa.gov)

Chang'e 5's Reentry capsule has successfully landed with Moon Samples

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:30:00 +0000

China's most sophisticated and challenging space adventure – the Chang'e 5 robotic lunar mission – ended successfully early Thursday morning with its load of rocks and dust from the moon landing on the grasslands in northern China.

The China National Space Administration said in a statement that Chang'e 5's reentry capsule touched down on its preset landing site in Siziwang banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region at 1:59 am.

The recovery team will make initial processing of the capsule and then use a plane to transport it to Beijing where it will be opened for technicians to remove the container holding lunar samples, the administration said.

The re-entry and landing started around 1 am when mission controllers uploaded high-accuracy navigation data to the orbiter-reentry capsule combination that was traveling around the Earth.

The capsule then separated from the orbiter about 5,000 kilometers above the southern Atlantic Ocean and began to descend toward Earth. It entered the atmosphere at the second cosmic velocity, or 11.2 kilometers per second at 1:33 am, and soon bounced off the atmosphere to further slow down its ultrafast speed that could cause damage to the vehicle. Later, the craft reentered the atmosphere at a much slower speed of about 7.9 km per second, also known as the first cosmic velocity.

When the module was about 10 km above the ground, it released its parachutes and smoothly landed on the snow-covered grasslands. Recovery personnel sent from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center soon came to the landing site in helicopters and off-road vehicles.

The successful landing marked the completion of the historic 23-day Chang'e 5 expedition, the first in more than 40 years, to bring lunar samples back to Earth, also making China the third country to achieve this feat after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Next, the sealed samples will be transferred to specially designed laboratories for analyses, experiments and tests so scientists can determine the extraterrestrial substances' composition, structure and traits, thus deepening their knowledge about the history of the moon and the solar system.

A certain proportion of the samples will also be on public display to enhance science awareness among the public, especially young generations, sources close to the mission have said.

Chang'e 5, China's largest and most advanced lunar probe, consisted of four main components -- an orbiter, lander, ascender and reentry capsule. The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket early on Nov 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province, setting out on China's most difficult space activity and the world's first lunar sample-return mission since 1976.

The probe separated into two parts -- the orbiter-reentry capsule combination and the lander-ascender combination -- while in lunar orbit early on the morning of Nov 30.

Late on Dec 1, the lander-ascender combination landed on the moon, becoming the world's third spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface this century after its predecessors – Chang'e 3 and 4.

The landing site was near Mons Ruemker, an isolated volcanic formation located in the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the moon's near side. The area had never been visited before Chang'e 5 mission.

Shortly after landing, the combination began to fulfill its major tasks – to use a drill to obtain 500 grams of underground samples and then use a mechanical arm to scoop up 1.5 kg of surface dust. Samples were packed into a vacuum container inside the ascender.

The lander also unfurled the first free-standing Chinese national flag on the moon.

The ascender activated an engine late on Dec 3 to lift itself into an elliptical lunar orbit to prepare for docking with the reentry capsule, marking the first time a Chinese spacecraft has blasted off from an extraterrestrial body.

It rendezvoused and docked with the orbiting combination early on Dec 6 and transferred lunar samples into the reentry capsule. The ascender separated from the combination later that day and was commanded to impact on the moon on Dec 8.

The combination made two orbital injection operations over the weekend after traveling in a near-circular lunar orbit for nearly six days. After the injection maneuvers, the pair entered a moon-Earth transfer trajectory on Sunday and began to fly back toward Earth.

According to the space administration, the Chang'e 5 mission was designated to fulfill several objectives. In terms of space engineering, it should demonstrate and verify technical plans and apparatus for autonomous lunar sampling and packing, moon-based launching as well as lunar orbital docking. In the scientific context, it was tasked with investigating the landing site's geological and topographic features, and enabling scientists to analyze lunar samples' structure and physical traits so they can deepen their research into moon's origin and evolution.

Project planners also wanted the mission to help to foster the country's knowledge, technology and talent pool for its future manned lunar missions and other deep-space expeditions.

The first man-made object from Earth to ever reach the moon was the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2. Instead of landing, it actually crashed into the moon in September 1959. The first soft-landing on our celestial neighbor was made by the Soviet Luna 9, in February 1966.

As the result of long-time persuasions by scientists, the Chinese government approved in January 2004 an overall plan for the country's lunar exploration program and officially opened the research and development work.

The first Chang'e probe was launched in October 2007. Since then, China has launched five lunar probes, including Chang'e 5, and one experimental spacecraft.

Before Chang'e 5, the Chang'e 4, which remains operational on the moon, was the most remarkable lunar mission by China as it is the first endeavor by any nation to conduct surface observation of the moon's far side, which never faces Earth, thereby accomplishing a goal sought by scientists for decades.

The design work on Chang'e 5 began in January 2011 and was concluded in December 2012, and then designers and engineers started building the probe's prototype. Construction for the Chang'e 5 began in December 2015 at the China Academy of Space Technology.

The mission was originally scheduled to be done by the end of 2017, but the plan had to be postponed due to technical problems on the Long March 5 rocket, which had a launch failure in July of that year.

(Source- http://www.cnsa.gov.cn)

PSLV-C50 has successfully launched CMS-01 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre- ISRO

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:14:00 +0000

PSLV-C50, which is the 52^nd mission of PSLV, has been successfully launched CMS-01 from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch was tentatively scheduled at 1541 Hrs IST on December 17, 2020 subject to weather conditions.

CMS-01 is a communication satellite envisaged for providing services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum. The Extended-C Band coverage will include Indian mainland, Andaman-Nicobar & Lakshadweep Islands. CMS-01 is the 42^nd Communication Satellite of India.

PSLV-C50 is the 22^nd flight of PSLV in 'XL' configuration (with 6 strap-on motors). This will be the 77^th launch vehicle mission from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

More About CMS-01:

CMS-01 is a communication satellite envisaged for providing services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum, which will include the Indian mainland, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. The 42nd communication satellite of India, it will have a mission life of seven years.

More About PSLV-C50:

The 44-metre-high four staged/engine PSLV-C50 is the 22nd flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with six strap-on motors hugging the first stage).
The PSLV in the normal configuration is a four-stage/engine expendable rocket powered by solid and liquid fuels alternatively with six booster motors strapped on to the first stage to give higher thrust during the initial flight moments.
The Indian space agency has PSLV variants with two and four strap-on motors, larger PSLV-XL and the Core Alone variant without any strap-on motors. The choice of the rocket to be used for a mission depends on the weight of the satellite and the orbit where the satellite has to be orbited.

A Study found Remdesivir may be highly effective against coronavirus

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:29:00 +0000

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications said, Remdesivir may be highly effective antiviral against SARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19 Virus. Previously, According to the World Health Organization, it has been found that the drug has no impact on death rates from the disease.

The researchers from the University of Cambridge gave the drug to the patient with Covid-19 and a rare immune disorder. They found improvement in the symptoms and the disappearance of the Virus.

Benefits of Remdesivir for COVID-19

Remdesivir is an antiviral medication that targets a range of viruses. It was originally developed over a decade ago to treat hepatitis C and a cold-like virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Remdesivir wasn’t an effective treatment for either disease. But it showed promise against other viruses.

Researchers tested remdesivir in clinical trials during the Ebola outbreak. Other investigational medications worked better, but it was shown to be safe for patients. Studies in cells and animals suggested that remdesivir was effective against viruses in the coronavirus family, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Remdesivir works by interrupting production of the virus. Coronaviruses have genomes made up ribonucleic acid (RNA). Remdesivir interferes with one of the key enzymes the virus needs to replicate RNA. This prevents the virus from multiplying.

Researchers began a randomized, controlled trial of the antiviral in February 2020 to test whether remdesivir could be used to treat SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. By April, early results indicated that remdesivir accelerated recovery for hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19. It became the first drug to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat people hospitalized with COVID-19.

Researchers have now completed the trial, known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT-1). The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The final report appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine on October 8, 2020.

Scientists randomly assigned 1,062 hospitalized COVID-19 patients to receive remdesivir or a placebo plus standard treatment. The patients received an intravenous infusion of remdesivir or placebo for up to 10 days.

The final results showed that the antiviral treatment was beneficial, consistent with the preliminary findings. Patients who received remdesivir were quicker to recover, which was defined as being medically stable enough to be discharged from the hospital. The median recovery time was 10 days with remdesivir compared to 15 days for the placebo group. Patients given remdesivir were more likely to have improved by day 15.

Remdesivir also improved mortality rates for those receiving supplemental oxygen (4% with remdesivir versus 13% with placebo at day 29 of treatment). All-cause mortality among all patients was 11% with remdesivir and 15% with placebo at day 29, but this difference between the treatment groups was not large enough to rule out chance. The preliminary findings hadn’t shown an effect on mortality.

The study also suggested that remdesivir treatment may prevent patients from progressing to more severe respiratory disease. Those treated with remdesivir were less likely to need high levels of respiratory support. Remdesivir appeared to most benefit patients who were receiving supplemental oxygen.

“Our findings show that remdesivir is a beneficial treatment for patients with COVID-19,” says study author Dr. John Beigel of NIAID. “It may also help to conserve scarce health care resources, such as ventilators, during this pandemic.”

The findings show that remdesivir alone isn’t a sufficient treatment for all patients but does provide some benefit. Studies are underway to evaluate remdesivir in combination with other therapies.

Closet Alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, Culminating on The Night of Dec. 21

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:05:00 +0000

Skywatchers are eagerly waiting for watching the evening sky because over the next weeks, the brightest planets Jupiter and Saturn will come together, culminating on the night of Dec. 21.

The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years.

The two giant planets of our solar system travel together across the sky and Jupiter caught up to and passed Saturn. This astronomical event is known as Jupiter caught up to and passed Saturn

“You can imagine the solar system to be a racetrack, with each of the planets as a runner in their own lane and the Earth toward the center of the stadium,” said Henry Throop, astronomer in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “From our vantage point, we’ll be able to be to see Jupiter on the inside lane, approaching Saturn all month and finally overtaking it on December 21.”

the closet alignment will appear just for a few days and on 21st of December, they will appear so closely and brightly.

How to Watch This Natural Phenomenon?

The planets will be easy to see with the unaided eye by looking toward the southwest just after sunset. Find a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky, such as a field or park. Jupiter and Saturn are bright, so they can be seen even from most cities. An hour after sunset, look to the southwestern sky. Jupiter will look like a bright star and be easily visible. Saturn will be slightly fainter and will appear slightly above and to the left of Jupiter until December 21, when Jupiter will overtake it and they will reverse positions in the sky. The planets can be seen with the unaided eye, but if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to see Jupiter’s four large moons orbiting the giant planet.

( Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA, ESA Choose Astronauts for SpaceX Crew-3 Mission to Space Station

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 10:22:00 +0000

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have selected three astronauts to serve as crew members for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, which is expected to launch in the fall of 2021.

The trio will consist of NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, who will serve as commander and pilot, respectively, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who will serve as a mission specialist. A fourth crew member will be added at a later date, following a review by NASA and its international partners.

This will be the first spaceflight for Chari, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. He was born in Milwaukee, but considers Cedar Falls, Iowa, his hometown. He is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and joins the mission with extensive experience as a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in his career. Chari was selected earlier this month as a member of the Artemis Team and is now eligible for assignment to a future lunar mission.

Marshburn is a Statesville, North Carolina, native who became an astronaut in 2004. Prior to serving in the astronaut corps, the medical doctor served as flight surgeon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and later became medical operations lead for the International Space Station. The Crew-3 mission will be his third visit to the space station and his second long-duration mission. Marshburn previously served as a crew member of STS-127 in 2009 and Expedition 34/35, which concluded in 2013.

Maurer comes from Sankt Wendel, in the German state of Saarland. Like Chari, Maurer will be making his first trip to space with the Crew-3 mission. Before becoming an astronaut, Maurer held a number of engineering and research roles, both in a university setting and at ESA. In 2016, Maurer spent 16 days on an undersea mission as part of a NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, space analog.

When Chari, Marshburn, and Maurer arrive at the orbiting laboratory, they will become expedition crew members for the duration of their six-month stay. The crew will have a slight overlap with the Crew-2 astronauts, who are expected to launch in the spring of 2021. This will not be the first commercial crew mission to overlap. The Crew-1 astronauts, who are currently on station, and the Crew-2 astronauts, also are expected to coincide in their sojourns for a short time. Increasing the total number of astronauts aboard the station is allowing the agency to boost the number of science investigations conducted in the unique microgravity environment.

This will be the third crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its fourth flight with astronauts, including the Demo-2 test flight, to the space station through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The goal of the program is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective crew access to the space station and low-Earth orbit in partnership with American aerospace industry. NASA’s contract with SpaceX is for six total crew missions to the orbiting laboratory. Commercial transportation to and from the station will provide expanded utility, additional research time, and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbital outpost.

For more than 20 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 242 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

The station is a critical test bed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight. As commercial companies focus on providing human transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit, NASA is free to focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.

(Source- NASA Latest News Releases)

UN chief Antonio Guterres - Proposal to declare Climate Emergency to all countries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 10:22:00 +0000

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on governments Saturday to declare a “state of climate emergency” and make good on their promises to slash carbon pollution as they recover from the pandemic.

Speaking at the opening of the Climate Ambition summit, held online to mark five years since the Paris climate deal, Guterres warned that nations’ current commitments were “far from enough” to limit temperature rises to 1.5C degrees Celsius.

“If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3.0 degrees this century,” he said.

“That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached,” he added.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, China’s President Xi Jinping and France’s Emmanuel Macron are among the leaders taking part in the virtual summit.

More than 75 heads of state are expected to announce renewed emissions-cutting targets or signal great intent to help the most vulnerable nations deal with increasingly frequent climate disasters.

The Paris deal enjoined nations to limit warming to “well below” 2C (3.6 Farenheit) through sweeping cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

But progress has stalled even in the face of growing public anger over the state of the planet and a string of scientific reports warning of the dangers of inaction.

The UN says emissions must fall 7.6 percent annually through 2030 to keep the 1.5C temperature cap in play.

In 2020, as the pandemic brought lockdowns and restrictions on movement, emissions fell a record seven percent, the UN said this week.

Yet Guterres said governments were missing the chance to green their economic recoveries.

He said G20 nations — responsible for the lion’s share of carbon pollution — were spending 50 percent more in their rescue packages on sectors linked to fossil fuels than to low-carbon energy.

“This is unacceptable. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet,” he said via video-link.

Guterres urged countries that had already announced net-zero targets to make good on their promises and to accelerate emissions cuts in line with the science.

“Every country, city, financial institution and company needs to adopt plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 — and start executing them now, including by providing clear short-term targets,” he added.

China Moon Probe Chang'e-5 begins its Journey Back to Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 09:50:00 +0000

A Chinese spacecraft, Chang'e-5 carrying rocks and soil from the moon has begun its journey back to Earth. The Chang'e-5 was launched on Nov. 24 and a lander vehicle touched down on the moon on Dec. 1. The mission was expected to take around 23 days in total. The mission's plan was to collect 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of samples, although it has not been disclosed how much was actually gathered.

Chang'e 5, China's largest and most sophisticated lunar probe, has four main components-an orbiter, lander, ascender and reentry capsule. The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on Nov 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, setting out on China's most challenging lunar adventure and the world's first mission since 1976 to bring lunar samples to Earth.

Lunar samples collected by China's Chang'e 5 robotic probe has started their journey toward Earth, according to the China National Space Administration.

The lander-ascender combination landed on the moon, becoming the world's third spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface this century after its predecessors-Chang'e 3 and 4.Shortly after the landing, it began to use a drill to obtain samples from 2 meters beneath the lunar surface.

The 400-kilogram ascender docked with the 2.3-metric ton orbiter-reentry capsule combination early on Sunday morning and then transferred a sealed container holding 2 kilograms of lunar samples into the capsule.

After arriving in Earth orbit, the pair will separate in due course, and the reentry capsule will conduct a series of complicated maneuvers to return to a preset landing site in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region in mid-December.

Engineers at the 25th Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp Second Academy designed and built the devices. They applied multiple advanced technologies to the apparatus, making them the best of their kind in the world, said Sun Wu, the equipment's chief designer at the institute.

NASA, US, European Partner Satellite Returns First Sea Level Measurements

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 10:57:00 +0000

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, a joint U.S.-European satellite built to measure global sea surface height, has sent back its first measurements of sea level. The data provide information on sea surface height, wave height, and wind speed off the southern tip of Africa.

"We're excited for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to begin its critical work studying sea level and helping us understand the many aspects of our planet's global ocean," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "I know Mike would be thrilled that the satellite bearing his name has begun operating, but he'd also be looking forward to studying the data from this important mission, as we all are."

Since the successful Nov. 21 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket, engineers and scientists have spent several weeks switching on and checking out the satellite and its instruments, making sure everything is operating as it should.

"Christmas came early this year," said Josh Willis, project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "And right out of the box, the data look fantastic."

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will continue a decades-long effort to measure global ocean height from space, which started in the early 1990s. Since then, the rate of sea level rise has doubled with a current rate of 0.16 inches (4 millimeters) per year. The rise is caused almost entirely by a combination of meltwater from land-based glaciers and ice sheets and the fact that seawater expands as it warms.

"Data from Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will help us evaluate how the Earth is changing," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "When we combine the data from instruments like the altimeter on Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich with data from other satellites like GRACE-FO and IceSat-2, we can tell how much of the sea level rise is due to melting ice and how much is due to expansion as the oceans warm. Understanding these underlying physical mechanisms is what allows NASA to improve projections of future sea level rise.”

The initial orbit for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich was 11.4 miles (18.4 kilometers) lower than its ultimate operational orbit of 830 miles (1,336 kilometers) above Earth. Engineers plan to move the satellite into its operational orbit by mid-December, where it will trail the Jason-3 satellite by 30 seconds. During this tandem flight, scientists and engineers will spend the next six to 12 months cross calibrating the data collected by both satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements between the two. Once assured of the data quality, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then become the primary sea level satellite. The first publicly available sea level data will be available in about six months, with the rest available within a year.

"We are now gearing up the operational systems supporting the processing of the instruments' data by EUMETSAT and partner organizations, as they are all contributing to this complex process,” said Manfred Lugert, program manager for the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission at the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). “This will keep us busy for the next few months, as the independent scientific validation and fine tuning need to be undertaken very carefully." Lugert expects the first operational products from the mission would be available to those who need them by mid-2021.

In addition to measuring sea level, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is monitoring atmospheric temperature and humidity, which will help improve weather and hurricane forecasts. Engineers and scientists turned on that instrument Nov. 27, and the initial data look good.

More About the Mission

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is named in honor of the former director of NASA's Earth Science Division, who was a leading figure in advancing ocean observations from space. Freilich passed away Aug. 5, 2020. "I think he would be proud," said Willis. "Like Mike himself, we expect great things from the satellite that bears his name, and so far, it's looking good."

The spacecraft is one of two identical satellites that will extend a nearly 30-year sea level record collected by an ongoing collaboration of U.S. and European satellites by another decade. That record began in 1992 with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and continued with Jason-1 (2001), OSTM/Jason-2 (2008), and Jason-3, which has been observing Earth's oceans since 2016. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will pass the baton to its twin, Sentinel-6B, in 2025.

Both spacecraft are a part of the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission, which will collect accurate measurements of sea surface height for more than 90% of the world's oceans. The satellites will also monitor atmospheric temperature and humidity, as well as wave height and wind speed, which will provide crucial information for operational oceanography, marine meteorology, and climate studies.

ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT, NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are jointly developing the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission, with funding support from the European Commission and support from France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The mission is part of Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation program, which the European Commission manages.

NASA's contributions to the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission are three science instruments for each of the two satellites: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate, the Global Navigation Satellite System - Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA also contributed launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the U.S. members of the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages the agency’s contribution to the mission.

COVID-19 test results in less than 30 minutes by a new Smartphone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 10:41:00 +0000

Scientists have developed a new technology that uses a smartphone to provide accurate results in less than 30 minutes. It is a technology of CRISPR based.

According to the research published in journal Cell, the new diagnostic test cannot only generate a positive but measures the viral load also in a given sample.

'All CSRISPR diagnostic tests require the viral RNA to be converted into DNA and amplified before it can be detected ', the researchers said.

In contrast,' the new approach skips all the conversion and amplification steps by using CSRISPR to detect the viral RNA directly ', they added.

Jennifer Doudna, a senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes in the U.S, said, ' One reason we are excited about the diagnostics is for the potential of quick and accurate result and specially helpful in places with limited access to testing or when rapid testing is needed. It could eliminate a lot of bottlenecks. '

Researchers said, ' In the new test, Cas13 protein is combined with a reporting molecule that becomes fluorescent and mixed with a patient sample from a nasal swab. '

' The sample is placed in a device attached to a smartphone. If the sample contains SARS-CoV2, Cas13 will be activated and will cut the reporting molecule,causing the emission of fluorescent signal. '

The smartphone's camera can be converted into a microscope that can detect the fluorescent and report the test as positive, according to the researchers.

The assay can be done in any smartphone by making the technology easily accessible.

For samples with low viral load, the researchers said, the device requires up to 30 minutes to distinguish it from negative test.

5 Hidden Gems Are Riding Aboard NASA's Perseverance Rover

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 10:34:00 +0000

The symbols, mottos, and small objects added to the agency's newest Mars rover serve a variety of purposes, from functional to decorative.

More than halfway to the Red Planet, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover isn't just shuttling sophisticated science instruments and tubes to be filled with Earth-bound rock samples. It's carrying symbols, mottos, and objects that range from practical to playful – everything from meteorite fragments to chips carrying the names of 10.9 million people.

The "extras" are part of a tradition that harks back to the early space age and is now called "festooning" in NASA lingo. A plaque aboard Pioneer 10 and 11 displays a man and a woman for distant spacefarers who might find the spacecraft. The Golden Record aboard Voyager 1 and 2 serves a similar purpose. Metal from the wreckage of the Twin Towers on 9/11 was installed on the rovers Opportunity and Spirit, while Spirit also carried a memorial to the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia.

"These kinds of embellishments add artistic elements on missions that are otherwise solely dominated by science and technology, as well as lasting tributes to colleagues who have helped pave the way for humanity's exploration of space," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, who has helped festoon almost all of NASA's Mars rovers, including Perseverance. Bell is the principal investigator of Perseverance's Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras that will capture gorgeous color panoramas of the Martian surface.

The 1909 penny aboard the Curiosity rover nods not just to the hundredth anniversary of the Lincoln penny, but also to how geologists often include a penny for scale when analyzing images of rock features. In fact, the object serves a similar purpose on Curiosity: Scientists use it as a calibration target – a kind of default they can use to check the settings of the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera. Because cameras frequently take images of these targets, they're the ideal places to add a motto or decorative symbols for viewing by the public.

As with Curiosity, Perseverance was built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission. Much of the festooning aboard the rover serves a dual purpose. Here are some prime examples.

Mastcam-Z Made You Look

Serving as Perseverance's main "eyes," Mastcam-Z is the latest in a line of instruments that Bell has helped develop. The instrument's primary calibration target, which doubles as a sundial for educational purposes, includes color and grayscale swatches. These help scientists ensure the cameras' color settings are correct, given that the position of the Sun and the dustiness of the sky can affect the lighting in images.

Spirit and Opportunity carried similar sundials, which bore the motto "Two Worlds, One Sun," while Curiosity's sundial reads, "To Mars to Explore." Mastcam-Z's sundial motto is "Two Worlds, One Beginning," referring to the idea of Earth and the Red Planet growing out of the same proto-stellar dust.

Besides the motto and swatches, the sundial displays small line drawings of early life forms on Earth, including cyanobacteria, a fern and a dinosaur. There's also a man and woman similar to those on the Pioneer plaques and the Golden Record. It's all in tribute to Perseverance's astrobiology mission, searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet's surface.

Just out of view, on the outer edge of the calibration target, there's a bonus inscription: "Are we alone? We came here to look for signs of life, and to collect samples of Mars for study on Earth. To those who follow, we wish a safe journey and the joy of discovery." Surrounding the message is the phrase "Joy of Discovery" in a variety of languages.

Finding SHERLOC

To the millions of people who geocache, using their smartphone GPS to hunt for objects hidden by fellow enthusiasts, satisfaction goes hand in hand with finding the most remote geocaches. Now there's one geocache more remote than any other: a special coin aboard Perseverance. Made of helmet-visor material and inscribed with the address of the instrument's fictional detective namesake, it's part of the calibration target for SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), an instrument on the end of Perseverance's 7-foot-long (3-meter-long) robotic arm.

SHERLOC is partnered with a camera worthy of its namesake detective: WATSON (the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering). Whenever WATSON takes a picture of the target, geocaching fans can go looking for the images as they show up in Perseverance's image gallery at mars.nasa.gov.

SHERLOC's calibration target is packed with other goodies, too. In order to fine-tune the instrument's settings, scientists added a slice of Martian meteorite. Along with the visor material, four other samples of spacesuit materials also reside on the target so that NASA can observe how they hold up on the irradiated, dusty Martian surface.

SuperCam's Mars Meteorite

As rock collectors, geologists lean toward their favorite subject for festooning. That's why the scientists who built SuperCam selected their own slice of Martian meteorite. SuperCam is a laser instrument that zaps rocks and "soil," then measures the resulting vapor to determine their composition. This particular piece of rock on SuperCam made a roundtrip voyage to the International Space Station before scientists added it to Perseverance.

The parts of SuperCam on Perseverance's mast, or "head," were provided by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency, along with the meteorite.

Almost 11 Million Names

Since the days of Spirit and Opportunity, JPL has been providing people around the world a chance to "fly" to Mars by sending their names there. Microchips stenciled with names submitted by the public have been carried by all of NASA's landed Mars missions going back to Pathfinder in 1997. Curiosity, the last rover to touch down on Mars, carries a microchip with 1.2 million names. Perseverance beat that, carrying three small chips stenciled with 10.9 million names. Those chips even bear the 155 finalist essays submitted for Perseverance's "Name the Rover" contest.

Visible to the cameras on the rover's mast, the chips share space on a metal plate located at the center of Perseverance's aft crossbeam and adorned with a laser-etched graphic depicting Earth and Mars joined by the star that gives light to both. The phrase "Explore as one," written in Morse code in the Sun's rays, connects the two. But the simple illustration also connects this mission with the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft and their festooning.

A COVID Memorial on Mars

The year 2020 will be remembered for the novel coronavirus pandemic. Engineers managed to stay on course to complete building and testing Perseverance in clean rooms in California and Florida while observing pandemic-related safety precautions. The rover team wanted to recognize the challenges faced by the global community and honor the many healthcare workers who have risked their lives to help those affected by the pandemic. A special aluminum plate on the rover's left side bears an image of planet Earth supported by the Rod of Asclepius, an ancient Greek symbol displaying a snake-entwined rod to symbolize healing and medicine

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with the European Space Agency, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

(Source-https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/5-hidden-gems-are-riding-aboard-nasas-perseverance-rover)

NASA Defines Science Priorities for First Crewed Artemis Landing on Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 10:10:00 +0000

NASA has identified the agency’s science priorities for the Artemis III mission, which will launch the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024. The priorities and a candidate set of activities are included in a new report.

The Artemis III Science Definition Team, which comprises federal employees and consultants with expertise in lunar science, began meeting in September to define compelling and achievable science objectives for all aspects of the Artemis III mission, including sampling strategies, field surveys, and deployable experiments.

The Moon often is referred to as the cornerstone of the solar system, and these high-priority investigations will help scientists better understand fundamental planetary processes that operate across the solar system and beyond. In addition, the team prioritized investigations that will help NASA understand the risks and potential resources of the Moon’s South Pole, where the agency hopes to establish its Artemis Base Camp concept by the end of the decade.

“The Moon holds vast scientific potential and astronauts are going to help us enable that science,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Even before Artemis III lands, our agency’s science and human exploration teams are working together as never before to ensure that we leverage each other’s strengths. This report helps outline a path forward toward the compelling science we can now contemplate doing on the lunar surface in conjunction with human explorers.”

Questions the team explored include how to approach investigations and key science activities on the lunar surface and how to incorporate science into the concept of operations for the crewed mission to the lunar surface. The team also solicited papers from, and drew from many existing reports outlining the highest science priorities of, the lunar science community, which has been preparing for the return of humans to the Moon’s surface for decades.

“Science will be integral to Artemis missions, and we look forward to planning missions of human and scientific discovery that draw on the thoughtful work of this team,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “The work NASA is already doing in science will help prepare for the Artemis III landing in 2024 and maximize the science value of having humans back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.”

As was the experience during Apollo era of human exploration, every second of an astronaut’s time on the lunar surface will be meticulously planned, and the report will provide a resource for mission planners who will be developing crew surface activities.

Activities related to field geology, sample collection and return, and deployed experiments all are part of the necessary mix of work to advance a science program at the Moon. Collectively, this candidate set of activities will address the highest science priorities that can be achieved at the lunar South Pole.

The team also provided overarching context by assessing what science goals could be realistically executed during the Artemis III surface mission. NASA will develop a detailed mission operations plan when human landing system capabilities, a landing site, and other architectural details come into sharper focus. The procedures and operations techniques developed for Artemis III also will inform future Artemis missions.

“We wanted to bring together what was most compelling to the science community at the Moon with what astronauts can do on the lunar surface and how the two can mutually reinforce each other,” said team co-chair Renee Weber, chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who led the effort. “The team’s hard work will ensure we’re able to take advantage of the potential of the Artemis III mission to help us learn from the Moon as a gateway to the rest of the solar system.”

NASA’s Science and Human Exploration and Operations mission directorates will work together to integrate recommendations into the science strategy of the agency’s Artemis Plan as plans move ahead for the Artemis III crewed launch in 2024.

Artemis III has the potential to enable the science community to make significant progress on many of the identified priority science goals, including increasing our understanding of how the Moon formed and evolved, how it interacts with the Sun, and how water and other resources arrived at the Moon, are transported, and currently are preserved.

Blue Origin Owned by Jeff Bezos will take The First Woman to The Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 10:32:00 +0000

The space company, Blue Origin owned by Jeff Bezos, will take the first woman to the moon's surface.

NASA said, its first privately built lunar landers capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Jeff Bezos said in a post on Instagram, " This(BE-7) is the engine that will take the first woman to the surface of the moon by 2024"

The BE-7 engine has been developing for years and now this has tallied 1,245 seconds of test-fire time and will power the company's National Team Human Landing System lunar lander.

NASA Selects Heliophysics Missions of Opportunity for Space Science Research and Technology Demonstration

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 06:33:00 +0000

NASA has selected two SmallSat missions – a study of Earth’s outer most atmosphere and a solar sail spaceflight test mission – to share a ride to space in 2025 with the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).

The missions – the Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE) and Solar Cruiser – were selected as Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Missions of Opportunity. GLIDE will help researchers understand the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere – the exosphere – where it touches space. Solar Cruiser demonstrate the use of solar photons for propulsion in space.

The launch of the IMAP mission in 2025 to the first Lagrangian equilibrium point (L1), about 1 million miles towards the Sun, will be a pathfinder for NASA’s new RideShare policy. With the policy, the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) will plan – from the inception of major missions – to take advantage of excess launch capacity and provide increased access to space for SmallSats. IMAP will help researchers better understand the interstellar boundary region, where the solar wind and the solar magnetic field it transfers to the edge of the solar system collide with galactic material and the galactic magnetic field.

Focusing on small satellites and tech demonstrations helps prove the capabilities of these smaller missions and pairing them with existing missions for launch provides more avenues for learning about the solar system and developing innovative technical capabilities.

“The study of the solar influence on interplanetary space and the area around our Earth has made great advances just in the past decade,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “I’m confident the next decade promises even more new discoveries and historic technology innovations.”

The science selection was made competitively from proposals to help better understand the fundamental nature of space and the interaction between space and Earth’s environment. As the selected science mission, GLIDE will study variability in Earth’s exosphere by tracking far ultraviolet light emitted from hydrogen. The exosphere is the outer region of Earth’s atmosphere that touches space – a region where atoms can escape Earth. Observing the global structure of the exosphere requires a telescope that is outside of the outer reaches of the atmosphere, which extend almost to the Moon. The IMAP launch trajectory to the inner Lagrangian point, the point of the Earth-Sun system that provides an uninterrupted view of the Sun, will provide just such a perspective for the GLIDE mission and is ideally suited for the first continuous observations of the exosphere and its variations in response to solar storm disruptions.

GLIDE will fill a measurement gap, as only a handful of comparable ultraviolet light images have previously been made from outside the exosphere. The mission will gather observations at a high rate, with a view of the entire exosphere, ensuring a global and comprehensive set of data. Understanding the ways in which Earth’s exosphere changes in response to influences of the Sun above or the atmosphere below, will provide us with better ways to forecast and, ultimately, mitigate the ways in which space weather can interfere with radio communications in space.

The principal investigator for GLIDE is Lara Waldrop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The GLIDE investigation is budgeted for $75 million.

Solar Cruiser was selected as the technology demonstration mission. Consisting of a nearly 18,000-square-foot (nearly 1,700-square-meter) solar sail, it will demonstrate the ability to use solar radiation as a propulsion system. Such a system could provide access to new orbits enabling high-value science, including SmallSat observations from deep space, out of the ecliptic plane, and in stationary orbits in the Earth’s geo-tail. Solar Cruiser will demonstrate one such orbit, where a spacecraft maintains position along the Earth-Sun line at a point closer to the Sun than L1. By positioning a monitoring spacecraft closer to the Sun, space weather scientists hope to obtain more advanced warnings of solar storms headed to Earth.

The principal investigator for Solar Cruiser is Les Johnson at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Solar Cruiser investigation is budgeted for $65 million.

A second STP science Mission of Opportunity, the Spatial/Spectral Imaging of Heliospheric Lyman Alpha (SIHLA), also was provided funding toward a final selection decision at a later date based on budget and RideShare opportunities. SIHLA would use an innovative technique to map the entire sky to determine the shape and underlying mechanisms of the boundary between the heliosphere, the area of our Sun’s magnetic influence, and the interstellar medium, a boundary known as the heliopause.

“Launching several missions together helps us maximize science while keeping costs down,” said Nicky Fox, Heliophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’re expanding the range and composition of a robust fleet of missions studying the Sun and space weather, and these two new selections will help advance into areas where we need to know more.”

From the start of IMAP mission formulation, SMD planned to include secondary spacecraft on the launch under the agency’s SMD Rideshare Initiative, which cuts costs by sending multiple missions on a single launch. This launch will also include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow-On mission, which will expand that agency’s space weather forecasting.

“Expanding our capabilities and knowledge through experimental missions using SmallSats and tech demos enables us to do and try so many more things,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our Sun has thrown a lot of interesting questions at us lately, and we’re using every avenue to study space weather and its impact on our planet and our solar system.”

Funding for these missions comes from the Heliophysics Solar Terrestrial Probes program, which is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

(The above article has been taken from Latest NASA News Releases)

NASA Highlights New Findings, Upcoming Missions at Virtual AGU Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 07:46:00 +0000

NASA and researchers from around the world will present new findings on a wide range of Earth and space science topics at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Dec. 1-17, held virtually this year. Media registration is open for the event.

Briefing topics include: new insights into the Sun and what we have learned so far from the Solar Orbiter mission, what remote sensing data has revealed about environmental trends emerging due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, an update on Jupiter’s cyclones from the Juno mission, lessons learned from studying life in Earth’s atmosphere and how they could apply to Venus, and a roundtable about the agency’s upcoming asteroid missions and activities.

Agency scientists and their colleagues who use NASA research capabilities also will present noteworthy findings during scientific sessions that are open to registered media.

The agency also will host a virtual exhibit at AGU, which will feature a Science Theater, live chat times, the NASA Science calendar, specially curated resources, and more. The exhibit will be open Dec. 1-17 with virtually staffed days Dec. 7-11.

Hardware has Orion’s Parachutes ‘Covered’ for Artemis I Mission

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 07:45:00 +0000

Affixed to the top of Orion for the Artemis I mission is the shiny, newly installed forward bay cover. This critical piece of hardware will protect the top part of Orion’s crew module as the capsule blazes back through Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of more than 25,000 mph. After reentry, jettison mechanisms will generate enough thrust to push the cover away from the spacecraft and allow the three main parachutes to unfurl, stabilizing and slowing the capsule to 20 mph or less for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

Data Sonification: A New Cosmic Triad of Sound

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 07:41:00 +0000

A new trio of examples of ‘data sonification’ from NASA missions provides a new method to enjoy an arrangement of cosmic objects. Data sonification translates information collected by various NASA missions -- such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope -- into sounds.

This image of the Bullet Cluster (officially known as 1E 0657-56) provided the first direct proof of dark matter, the mysterious unseen substance that makes up the vast majority of matter in the Universe. X-rays from Chandra (pink) show where the hot gas in two merging galaxy clusters has been wrenched away from dark matter, seen through a process known as “gravitational lensing” in data from Hubble (blue) and ground-based telescopes. In converting this into sound, the data pan left to right, and each layer of data was limited to a specific frequency range. Data showing dark matter are represented by the lowest frequencies, while X-rays are assigned to the highest frequencies. The galaxies in the image revealed by Hubble data, many of which are in the cluster, are in mid-range frequencies. Then, within each layer, the pitch is set to increase from the bottom of the image to the top so that objects towards the top produce higher tones.

The Crab Nebula has been studied by people since it first appeared in Earth’s sky in 1054 A.D. Modern telescopes have captured its enduring engine powered by a quickly spinning neutron star that formed when a massive star collapsed. The combination of rapid rotation and a strong magnetic field generates jets of matter and anti-matter flowing away from its poles, and winds outward from its equator. For the translation of these data into sound, which also pans left to right, each wavelength of light has been paired with a different family of instruments. X-rays from Chandra (blue and white) are brass, optical light data from Hubble (purple) are strings, and infrared data from Spitzer (pink) can be heard in the woodwinds. In each case, light received towards the top of the image is played as higher pitched notes and brighter light is played louder.

On February 24, 1987, observers in the southern hemisphere saw a new object in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. This was one of the brightest supernova explosions in centuries and soon became known as Supernova 1987A (SN 87A). This time lapse shows a series of Chandra (blue) and Hubble (orange and red) observations taken between 1999 and 2013. This shows a dense ring of gas, which was ejected by the star before it went supernova, begins to glow brighter as the supernova shockwave passes through. As the focus sweeps around the image, the data are converted into the sound of a crystal singing bowl, with brighter light being heard as higher and louder notes. The optical data are converted to a higher range of notes than the X-ray data so both wavelengths of light can be heard simultaneously. An interactive version lets the user play this astronomical instrument for themselves.

The data sonification project is led by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) as part of the NASA's Universe of Learning (UoL) program. NASA's Science Activation program strives to enable NASA science experts and to incorporate NASA science content into the learning environment effectively and efficiently for learners of all ages. The collaboration was driven by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand (CXC), astrophysicist Matt Russo and musician Andrew Santaguida (both of the SYSTEMS Sound project.)

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. NASA's Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Sonoma State University.

(Taken from NASA Latest News)

Covid-19: Scientists develop novel method to detect single virus particles

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:13:00 +0000

Scientists have developed a new method for identifying single virus particles based on changes in electrical current when they pass through ultrasmall pores, an advance which they claim may lead to new rapid Covid-19 tests.
The study, published in the journal ACS Sensors, demonstrated a new system for identifying single virus particles using an algorithm trained to detect changes in the current passing across silicon nanopores.

According to the scientists, including those from Osaka University in Japan, the work may lead to fast and accurate screening tests for diseases like Covid-19 and influenza.
In the new method, the scientists said a layer of the compound silicon nitride just 50 nanometres (nm) thick has tiny nanopores added.
The layer is suspended on a silicon wafer, they said, adding that when a voltage difference is applied to the solution on either side of the wafer, ions travel through the nanopores in a process called electrophoresis.
According to the study, the motion of the ions can be monitored by the current they generate, and when a viral particle enters a nanopore, it blocks some of the ions from passing through, leading to a transient dip in current.
Each dip reflects the physical properties of the particle, such as volume, surface charge, and shape, the scientists said, adding that this measure can be used to identify the kind of virus.
Using artificial intelligence (AI), the research team built a classification algorithm trained with signals from known viruses to determine the identity of new samples.
The scientists said the computer can discriminate the differences in electrical current waveforms that cannot be identified by human eyes, which enables highly accurate virus classification.
In addition to coronavirus, they said the system was tested with pathogens such as adenovirus, influenza A, and influenza B.
"By combining single-particle nanopore sensing with AI, we were able to achieve highly accurate identification of multiple viral species," explained study senior author Makusu Tsutsui from Osaka University.
The researchers believe coronaviruses are especially well suited for this technique since their spiky outer proteins may even allow different strains to be classified separately.
"This work will help with the development of a virus test kit that outperforms conventional viral inspection methods," said Tomoji Kawai, another co-author of the study.
Compared with other rapid tests like PCR or antibody-based screens, the researchers said the new method is much faster and does not require costly reagents.
They believe the new technique may lead to improved diagnostic tests for emerging viruses that cause infectious diseases such as Covid-19.

(Source-Times of India)

Study says Rapid testing can eliminate spread of Covid-19 within weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Raja Roy Choudhury) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:07:00 +0000

A study published by Harvard University and University of Colorado Boulder claims that rapid testing is capable of eliminating the spread of the coronavirus within a few weeks.
According to a journal study published by the researchers of the University of Colorado Boulder and Harvard University, the frequency of testing is more important to attain 'personalized stay-at-home orders' and eliminate the spread of COVID-19.

The lead author Daniel Larremore, an assistant professor of computer science at CU Boulder said in the report, "Our big picture finding is that, when it comes to public health, it's better to have a less sensitive test with results today than a more sensitive one with results tomorrow."Larremore added, "Rather than telling everyone to stay home so you can be sure that one person who is sick doesn't spread it, we could give only the contagious people stay-at-home orders so everyone else can go about their lives."

As per the reports of Science Daily, the researchers from BioFrontiers Institute and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health collaborated with Larremore to explore whether test sensitivity, frequency, or turnaround time is most important to curb the spread of Covid-19. The study got published in the journal Science Advances which describes the viral load climbs and falls inside the body during infection, when people tend to experience symptoms, and when they become contagious.

(Source-Times Of India)