Red planet Mars all set to be the next fashion ramp

The red soil of Mars is all set to become the next big fashion ramp. With the red planet seeming set to be the next space colony for humans, provided present explorations deem it fit for life, the US space agency Nasa is already working on the wardrobe essentials. Nasa on Thursday unveiled the first space suit to be worn by astronauts to Mars. Called Z-2 spacesuit, only a prototype, it will now be incorporated into the suit to be worn by the first humans to reach the Red planet. The Z-2 will be built using 3D-printed parts and 3D laser scans will ensure each suit fits perfectly. It will be tested in vacuum chambers at Nasa's training pool and at a site that imitates the rocky Martian surface. The suit uses light-emitting patches and luminescent wire that could be customised to identify individuals. Nasa said "Z-2 suit is the newest prototype in its next-generation spacesuit platform, the Z-series. With the agency laser focused on a path to Mars, work to develop the technologies astronauts one day will use to live and work on Mars has already begun. Each iteration of the Z-series will advance new technologies that one day will be used in a suit worn by the first humans to step foot on the red planet". There are many key advances to be found in the Z-2 suit when compared to the previous Z-1. The most significant is that the Z-1 had a soft upper torso and the Z-2 has a hard composite upper torso. This composite hard upper torso provides the much-needed long-term durability that a planetary Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit will require. The boots are much closer in nature to those that would be found on a suit ready for space, and the materials used on the Z-2 are compatible with a full-vacuum environment. Besides the typical fit checks and mobility evaluations, Nasa currently is planning a very comprehensive test campaign for the Z-2 suit. Engineers will conduct multiple vacuum chamber tests, including one series at full vacuum, mimicking the lack of atmosphere found in space. The suit will be tested at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston in the huge indoor pool used to train astronauts to spacewalk. Further testing at a site at Johnson that imitates the rocky Martian surface will help evaluate the suit's mobility, comfort and performance. Ultimately, all of these tests will guide engineers in designing the Z-3. With the Z-2, NASA will employ cover layer design elements, like electroluminescent wiring, never used before in a spacesuit. This design now will be incorporated into the final version of the suit, which is expected to be ready for testing by November 2014.

Brightening Moon to save electricity?

A Sweden-based cosmetics company has proposed a bizarre new method to eliminate the need for streetlights - brighten the surface of the Moon. The idea is to use materials already on the Moon to lighten its surface. The goal is to reflect slightly more sunlight onto Earth, making the night sky brighter, according to the company's thinktank, Foreo Institute. A brighter night sky would mean less need for streetlights, which could potentially translate into less electricity usage and thus fewer globe warming carbon emissions, it said. "We want to raise public awareness about the project and generate consciousness about the global energy crisis," said Paul Peros, CEO of Foreo. The proposal has a hint of a "marketing scheme" to it, but precisely why the cosmetics company came up with this idea remains unclear, LiveScience reported. When asked, a company representative told the website that Foreo is an "innovation company" that engages with experts from diverse fields. However, scientists are sceptical about the idea. "Making the Moon brighter is not something I've ever heard of in geoengineering literature," said Ben Kravitz, a postdoctoral researcher in the atmospheric sciences and global change division of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Foreo's claims to have raised $52 million for research and testing and a timeline on the company's website says its first Moon mission is slated for 2020 with new rovers deploying every three years. According to Foreo, only about 0.1% of the Moon's surface would need to be transformed to reach 80% of the "desired brightening effect". Peros said the company is looking into smoothing over a portion of the Moon's surface to increase reflectivity. "We are looking at the surfaces and composition of the soil and materials on the Moon and how to utilize them," he said. Even if such a mission were successful, it could have side effects. Light at night can disrupt sleep and has been linked to increases in several types of cancer. Foreo says the brightening effect would happen over 30 years, allowing humans time to adjust.

Ancient Mars not warm enough for liquid water: Study

Evidence suggest that Mars was wet, but it was probably not consistently warm enough for making the water flow, a thrilling study reveals. Signs of flowing water on Mars include layered sediments presumed to have been laid down in ancient lakes, as well as rugged canyons and lowlands apparently sculpted by massive floods. These prompted researchers to suggest that the red planet, now frigid and dry, was warm and wet throughout its early history. But that would have required an atmosphere much thicker than today's, a prospect that now seems unlikely, said Edwin Kite, a planetary scientist at Princeton University in the US. The evidence against the idea that ancient Mars held a thick atmosphere for more than a few millennia at a time lies in the sizes of the planet's craters, said the researchers. If Mars had once possessed a denser atmosphere, they said, small objects would have broken up as they passed through it, as they do in Earth's atmosphere, rather than surviving largely intact to blast craters. The researchers used images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to catalogue more than 300 craters pockmarking an 84,000 sq km area near the planet's equator. "It's not the size of the smallest craters, but the size distribution of the entire population that's important," Kite said. "The thickness of the atmosphere was less than one-third what some teams say would be needed to consistently keep Mars' surface above freezing," said Sanjoy Som, an astrobiologist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in the US.

Did Adolf Hitler marry a woman of Jewish descent? DNA tests 'show Eva Braun associated with Ashkenazi Jews'

Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's long-term lover who married the Nazi leader hours before their joint suicide in his Berlin bunker, may have had Jewish ancestry, ground-breaking DNA testing has found. DNA analysis of hair samples from a hairbrush claimed to belong to Braun suggests that the fascist dictator responsible for the murder of millions of Jews may have unwittingly married a woman of semitic descent, in one of his final acts as the Third Reich crumbled. The revelation appears in a Channel 4 documentary, Dead Famous DNA, broadcast next week, in which leading scientists attempt to extract DNA from relics and analyse their genome to solve mysteries associated with them. Forensic scientists sequenced the hypervariable region of the mitochondrial DNA from a sample of hairs extracted from a monogrammed hairbrush found at the end of the Second World War in Braun's apartment at Hitler's Alpine residence, the Berghof in Bavaria, by an American army intelligence officer. They found a specific sequence within the mitochondrial DNA, a small genome within the mitochondria of the cell that is passed down the maternal line from mother to daughter unchanged over the generations, belonging to haplogroup N1b1, which is associated with Ashkenazi Jews. A haplogroup is a particular sequence of mitochondrial DNA which is passed down the maternal line and according to traditional Jewish law, Judaism is passed down through matrilineal descent. Photography assistant Braun fell madly in love with Hitler at just 17-years-old, although he was twenty-three years her senior. Hitler ordered his private secretary Martin Bormann to investigate Braun's family, who sent Eva to a Catholic school, to ensure that they were "Aryan" and that she had no Jewish ancestors. After being assured there were none, the courtship advanced. But Hitler, fearful that the relationship would harm his public image, refused to marry Eva and kept her a state secret, hidden away at his mountain-top residence, the Berghof. Channel 4 used hair initially recovered in the summer of 1945 by Paul Baer, a US 7th Army captain, who was posted to the Berghof and took personal items, including the hairbrush, from Braun's private apartment. There are photographs of Baer at the Berghof in 1945 and the hairbrush has been authenticated by experts. Baer's son sold Braun's hairbrush to a relic dealer who separated the hair and sold it on to hair dealer John Reznikoff. Dead Famous DNA presenter Mark Evans bought eight strands of the hair from Reznikoff for $2,000. The hair was then sent to an international team of forensic scientists for analysis. A Channel 4 spokesman said: "In the nineteenth century, many Ashkenazi Jews in Germany converted to Catholicism, so Eva Braun is highly unlikely to have known her ancestry and - despite research he instigated into Braun's race - neither would Hitler." Whilst the results will provide a talking point, they are not definitive. To prove that the hair came from Eva Braun's head, Mr Evans attempted to get a DNA swab from one of Braun's two surviving female descendants, but both refused. An attempt by the producers to procure Hitler's hair ended in embarrassment when it emerged that clippings sold by controversial historian David Irving to Channel 4 for £3,000 turned out to be fake. Mr Evans said: "This is a thought-provoking outcome - I never dreamt that I would find such a potentially extraordinary and profound result. Racism & Fascism - ideas that one racial group is superior to another - made a mockery of by studying dead famous DNA." Hitler and Braun became lovers in 1932 when Eva was 20, although Hitler insisted that they never show the slightest affection in public. They were married in a small civil ceremony within the Fuhrerbunker in the early hours of April 29, 1945, witnessed by Bormann and Joseph Goebbels. The following day, as the Soviet Army advanced upon Berlin, Eva, 32, bit into a cyanide capsule. Hitler took poison and shot himself in the temple. Afterwards, the two bodies were laid side by side, doused with petrol and burnt.

CBSE to shift history lessons outdoors

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its affiliated schools to take students on excursions to historical sites to make studying history more interesting. A CBSE official said: "This has been done keeping in mind that the subject is normally not considered very interesting. History, if taught by taking students near historical monuments and sites, will become fascinating. This move will be of assistance to students and they will be able to study in an enhanced manner. It will also help students do well in projects." Rakesh Sachdeva, principal, DAV Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 15, and CBSE exams counsellor, echoed similar sentiments: "Visual contact has a different impact on students. For example, if we talk about a monument mentioned in the history book and take them on a visit to the structure, it will be really interesting and easy to learn facts about it." She added, "Expenses do not matter if the kid is learning something out of it". Students and parents too appreciated the board move. Aditi Singh, a Class IX student of Hansraj Public School, said: "It's easier to see the places than cram textbooks. It is going to be a great experience to see the places and monuments. It would seem as if the pictures and words would come out and present themselves in the form of historical places." Jitender Verma, whose child is admitted to a CBSE-affiliated school, said: "It's a good step by the CBSE. I won't mind paying money for the excursion. My child would learn something in a more interesting manner. And if the school plans trips in groups, the fun would be doubled." Some feel that the subject could be made more interesting through video clips and plays. Amita Khurana, principal, Shishu Niketan School, Sector 22, said," Since the board has now asked schools to conduct these trips, the subject will get more interesting. But there are various other options as well like video clippings or movie. As we have smart schools here, we should take advantage of that". R J Khanderao, regional officer, CBSE, said, "Our students would be taken to these places and explained in detail about their historical significance. We have to take students on outdoor visits so that they can have a clear picture."

Nasa searches for ideas to bring asteroids closer to Earth

US space agency Nasa has announced a formal proposal worth $6 million for projects that would help robots and astronauts grab an asteroid from deep space and bring it closer to Earth for further study. In support of Nasa's Asteroid Redirect Mission — a key part of the agency's stepping stone path to send humans to Mars — agency officials are seeking proposals for studies on advanced technology development. Nasa envisages spending up to $6 million on over 25 proposals this year. The proposal should focus on technologies that can be used to identify potential targets like sending robotic spacecraft to capture the selected asteroid and put it in a stable orbit beyond the moon. The technology should also help astronauts get to the space rock and bring back samples in the mid-2020s, Nasa said in a statement. "We are reaching out to seek new and innovative ideas as we extend the frontier of space exploration," said Bill Gerstenmaier, Nasa's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. "To reach Mars, we would rely on new technologies and advanced capabilities proven through the Asteroid Initiative. We are looking forward to exciting ideas from outside Nasa as well to help realise that vision," he added. The proposals have to be submitted before May 5 and the space agency would reward the winners around July 1 for projects that would wrap up in six months. According to Greg Williams, Nasa's deputy associate administrator for plans and policy, the selection process would build on a workshop that generated hundreds of ideas for asteroid exploration last year. Nasa is already supporting projects such as the Asteroid Data Hunter contest, which is offering $35,000 in awards over the next six months to citizen scientists who come up with improved algorithms for identifying asteroids. Next year, the space agency would review mission concepts for redirecting an asteroid up to 10 metre wide — or breaking off a piece of a bigger asteroid and bringing it back.

Four new ozone-depleting gases discovered

In a blow to ozone-protection efforts, scientists have identified four new man-made gases in the atmosphere which are contributing to the destruction of the ozone layer. Two of the newly discovered gases are accumulating at a rate that is causing concern among scientists. New research by scientists at the University of East Anglia, UK, shows that more than 74,000 tonnes of three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been released into the atmosphere. "Our research has shown four gases that were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s which suggests they are human-made," lead researcher Dr Johannes Laube from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences said. "The identification of these four new gases is very worrying as they will contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer," said Laube. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today's air samples with air trapped in polar firn snow - which provides a century-old natural archive of the atmosphere. They also looked at air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania. Measurements show that all four new gases have been released into the atmosphere recently - and that two are significantly accumulating. Emission increases of this scale have not been seen for any other CFCs since controls were introduced during the 1990s, researchers said. But they are nowhere near peak CFC emissions of the 1980s which reached around a million tonnes a year, they said. CFCs are the main cause of the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. Laws to reduce and phase out CFCs came into force in 1989, followed by a total ban in 2010, said Laube. He said this has resulted in successfully reducing the production of many of these compounds on a global scale. However, legislation loopholes still allow some usage for exempted purposes, said Laube. "We don't know where the new gases are being emitted from and this should be investigated. Possible sources include feedstock chemicals for insecticide production and solvents for cleaning electronic components. "What's more, the three CFCs are being destroyed very slowly in the atmosphere - so even if emissions were to stop immediately, they will still be around for many decades to come," he added. The research was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.