Science
News This Week:
1)
Pregnancy in mammals evolved with help from roving DNA:
'Jumping
genes' changed uterus to stop laying eggs. Roving pieces of DNA helped early
mammals ditch egg-laying in favor of giving birth to live young. These “jumping
genes,” or transposable elements, flipped the switch on thousands of genes,
turning off ones that build hard eggshells and turning on ones that allow a
fetus to develop in the uterus. Researchers report the finding in the Feb. 3
Cell Reports.
“Transposable
elements … rewired when and where genes are expressed by giving them new
regulatory information,” says study coauthor Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary
biologist at the University of Chicago.
In early
mammals, traveling DNA moved to new spots in the genome and carried machinery
that allowed certain genes to be activated in the presence of a hormone called
progesterone, which controls many aspects of pregnancy. These moves flipped on
or off genes in the uterus.
Lynch and
his team used RNA sequencing to identify which genes were expressed in the
uteruses of pregnant mammals such as dogs and pigs and in egg-laying animals,
including chickens and frogs. The researchers then determined when and how in
mammals’ evolutionary history these genes probably were switched on or off.
Many of
the genes that turned on allow the mother’s body to recognize that she is
pregnant and suppress her immune system so her body doesn’t sense the foreign
DNA in the fetus and reject it. Animals that become pregnant have the advantage
of carrying their developing young with them, instead of laying eggs in one
spot, leaving them vulnerable to predators or unpredictable weather.
2) New
origin of universe model pours water on Big Bang theory:
A new
model in which the cosmos is filled with a “quantum fluid” suggests that there
was no Big Bang – and could explain the origin of two mysterious components of
the universe.
The
prevailing model of cosmology, based on Einstein’s theory of general
relativity, puts the universe at around 13.8 billion years old and suggests it
originated from a “singularity” – an infinitely small and dense point – at the
Big Bang. To understand what happened inside that tiny singularity, physicists
must marry general relativity with quantum mechanics – the laws that govern
small objects. Applying both of these disciplines has challenged physicists for
decades. “The Big Bang singularity is the most serious problem of general
relativity, because the laws of physics appear to break down there,” says Ahmed
Farag Ali, a physicist at Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt. In an
effort to bring together the laws of quantum mechanics and general relativity,
and to solve the singularity puzzle, Ali and Saurya Das, a physicist at the
University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada, employed an equation that predicts
the development of singularities in general relativity. That equation had been
developed by Das’s former professor, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, when Das was an
undergraduate student at Presidency University, in Kolkata, India, so Das was
particularly familiar and fascinated by it.
When Ali
and Das made small quantum corrections to the Raychaudhuri equation, they
realised it described a fluid, made up of small particles, that pervades space.
Physicists have long believed that a quantum version of gravity would include a
hypothetical particle, called the graviton, which generates the force of
gravity. In their new model — which will appear in Physics Letters B in
February1 — Ali and Das propose that such gravitons could form this fluid. To
understand the origin of the universe, they used this corrected equation to
trace the behaviour of the fluid back through time. Surprisingly, they found
that it did not converge into a singularity. Instead, the universe appears to
have existed forever. Although it was smaller in the past, it never quite
crunched down to nothing, says Das.
“Our
theory serves to complement Einstein’s general relativity, which is very
successful at describing physics over large distances,” says Ali. “But
physicists know that to describe short distances, quantum mechanics must be
accommodated, and the quantum Raychaudhui equation is a big step towards
that.”The model could also help solve two other cosmic mysteries. In the late
1990s, astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe is
accelerating due the presence of a mysterious dark energy, the origin of which
is not known. The model has the potential to explain it since the fluid creates
a minor but constant outward force that expands space. “This is a happy
offshoot of our work,” says Das.Astronomers also now know that most matter in
the universe is in an invisible mysterious form called dark matter, only
perceptible through its gravitational effect on visible matter such as stars.
When Das and a colleague set the mass of the graviton in the model to a small
level, they could make the density of their fluid match the universe’s observed
density of dark matter, while also providing the right value for dark energy’s
push2. “This is the first time that anyone has shown that these two major
problems in cosmology can be solved simultaneously by the quantum Raychaudhuri
equation,” says Ali. “We feel a deep sense of satisfaction that this model may
resolve some of the most important cosmological issues in one stroke,” adds
Das.
3) Newly
identified brain circuit could be target for treating obesity:
Nerve
cells that control overeating are distinct from those active in normal feeding,
study shows. Manipulating specific sets of brain cells can quash a mouse’s
overindulgence of sugar.
The cells
are part of a previously unknown brain circuit that controls compulsive sugar
consumption in mice, researchers report in the Jan. 29 Cell. This circuit
appears to be distinct from the one that controls normal eating, suggesting
that it could be a target for treating obesity caused by overeating in humans.
“One of
the biggest challenges with treating obesity that comes with compulsive
overeating disorder is that most treatments are just a Band-Aid, treating the
symptoms instead of the core problems,” says MIT neuroscientist Kay Tye. “The
real underlying problems are the cravings that lead to compulsive eating and
the behavior of compulsive overeating itself.”
4)
Gravitational waves from early universe remain elusive:
A Joint
analysis of data from the Planck space mission and the ground-based experiment
BICEP2 has found no conclusive evidence of gravitational waves from the birth
of our universe, despite earlier reports of a possible detection. The
collaboration between the teams has resulted in the most precise knowledge yet
of what signals from the ancient gravitational waves should look like, aiding
future searches.
Planck is
a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA contributions. BICEP2 and
its sister project, the Keck Array, are based at the South Pole and FUNDED by
the National Science Foundation, also with NASA contributions."By
analyzing both sets of data together, we could get a more definitive picture of
what's going on than we could with either dataset alone," said Charles Lawrence,
the U.S. project scientist for Planck at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, California. "The joint analysis shows that much of the signal
detected by BICEP2/Keck is coming from dust in the Milky Way, but we cannot
rule out a gravitational wave signal at a low level. This is a good example of
how progress is made in science, one step at a time."
Planck
and BICEP/Keck were both designed to measure relic radiation emitted from our
universe shortly after its birth 13.8 billion years ago. An extraordinary
source of information about the universe's history lies in this
"fossil" radiation, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB).
Planck mapped the CMB over the entire sky from space, while BICEP2/Keck focused
on one patch of crisp sky over the South Pole.In March of 2014, astronomers
presented intriguing data from the BICEP2/Keck experiments, finding what
appeared to be a possible signal from our universe when it was just born. If
the signal were indeed from the early cosmos, then it would have confirmed the
presence of ancient gravitational waves. It is hypothesized that these waves
were generated by an explosive and very rapid period of growth in our universe,
called inflation, which took place when the universe was only a tiny of a
fraction of one second old.
Specifically,
the BICEP/Keck experiments found evidence for a "curly" pattern of
polarized light called B-modes. These patterns would have been imprinted on the
CMB light as the gravitational waves slightly squeezed and stretched the fabric
of space. Polarization describes a particular property of light. Usually, the
electric and magnetic fields carried by light vibrate at all orientations
equally, but when they vibrate preferentially in a certain direction, the light
is polarized.
"The
swirly polarization pattern, reported by BICEP2, was also clearly seen with new
data from the Keck Array," said Jamie Bock of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, and JPL, a member of both the BICEP2/Keck and Planck
teams."Searching for this unique record of the very early universe is as
difficult as it is exciting, since this subtle signal is hidden in the
polarization of the CMB, which itself only represents only a feeble few percent
of the total light," said Jan Tauber, the European Space Agency's project
scientist for Planck.One of the trickiest aspects of identifying the primordial
B-modes is separating them from those that can be generated much closer to us
by interstellar dust in our Milky Way galaxy.The Milky Way is pervaded by a
mixture of gas and dust shining at similar frequencies to those of the CMB, and
this closer, or foreground, emission affects the observation of the oldest
cosmic light. Very careful data analysis is needed to separate the foreground
emission from that of the CMB.
"When
we first detected this signal in our data, we relied on models for galactic
dust emission that were available at the time," said John Kovac, a
co-principal investigator of the BICEP2/Keck collaboration at Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "These seemed to indicate that the
region of the sky chosen for our observations was relatively devoid of
dust."
The
BICEP2/Keck experiments collected data at a single microwave frequency, making
it difficult to separate the emissions coming from the dust in the Milky Way
and the CMB. On the other hand, Planck observed the sky in nine microwave and
sub-millimeter frequency channels, seven of which were also equipped with
polarization-sensitive detectors. Some of these frequencies were chosen to make
measurements of dust in the Milky Way. By careful analysis, these
multi-frequency data can be used to separate the various contributions of
emissions.The Planck and BICEP2/Keck teams joined forces, combining the space
satellite's ability to deal with foregrounds using observations at several
frequencies, with the greater sensitivity of the ground-based experiments over
limited areas of the sky."The noise in the instruments limits how deeply
we can search for a signal from inflation," said Bock. "BICEP2/Keck
measured the sky at one wavelength. To answer how much of the signal comes from
the galaxy, we used Planck's measurements in multiple wavelengths. We get a big
boost by combining BICEP2/Keck and Planck measurements together, the best data
currently available."
The final
results showed that most of the original BICEP2/Keck B-mode signal, but not
necessarily all of it, could be explained by dust in our Milky Way. As for
signs of the universe's inflationary period, the question remains open.The
joint Planck/BICEP/Keck study sets an upper limit on the amount of
gravitational waves from inflation, which might have been generated at the time
but at a level too low to be confirmed by the present analysis."The new
upper limit on the signal due to gravitational waves agrees well with the upper
limit that we obtained earlier with Planck using the temperature fluctuations
of the CMB. The gravitational wave signal could still be there, and the search
is definitely on," said Brendan Crill, a member of both the BICEP2 and Planck
teams from JPL.
5) Using
stem cells to grow new hair:
In a new
study from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham),
researchers have used human pluripotent stem cells to generate new hair. The
study represents the first step toward the development of a cell-based
treatment for people with hair loss. In the United States alone, more than 40
million men and 21 million women are affected by hair loss. The research was
published online in PLOS One yesterday. "We have developed a method using
human pluripotent stem cells to create new cells capable of initiating human
hair growth. The method is a marked improvement over current methods that rely
on transplanting existing hair follicles from one part of the head to
another," said Alexey Terskikh, Ph.D., associate professor in the
Development, Aging, and Regeneration Program at Sanford-Burnham. "Our stem
cell method provides an unlimited source of cells from the patient for
transplantation and isn't limited by the availability of existing hair
follicles."
The
research team developed a protocol that coaxed human pluripotent stem cells to
become dermal papilla cells. They are a unique population of cells that
regulate hair-follicle formation and growth cycle. Human dermal papilla cells
on their own are not suitable for hair transplants because they cannot be
obtained in necessary amounts and rapidly lose their ability to induce
hair-follicle formation in culture.
"In
adults, dermal papilla cells cannot be readily amplified outside of the body
and they quickly lose their hair-inducing properties," said Terskikh.
"We developed a protocol to drive human pluripotent stem cells to
differentiate into dermal papilla cells and confirmed their ability to induce
hair growth when transplanted into mice."
"Our
next step is to transplant human dermal papilla cells derived from human
pluripotent stem cells back into human subjects," said Terskikh. "We
are currently seeking partnerships to implement this final step."
6)
Meteorite may represent 'bulk background' of Mars' battered crust:
A 7034, a
meteorite found a few years ago in the Moroccan desert, is like no other rock
ever found on Earth. It's been shown to be a 4.4 billion-year-old chunk of the
Martian crust, and according to a new analysis, rocks just like it may cover
vast swaths of Mars.
In a new
paper, scientists report that spectroscopic measurements of the meteorite are a
spot-on match with orbital measurements of the Martian dark plains, areas where
the planet's coating of red dust is thin and the rocks beneath are exposed. The
findings suggest that the meteorite, nicknamed Black Beauty, is representative
of the "bulk background" of rocks on the Martian surface, says Kevin
Cannon, a Brown University graduate student and lead author of the new paper.
The
research, co-authored by Jack Mustard from Brown and Carl Agee from the
University of New Mexico, is in press in the journal Icarus.When scientists
started analyzing Black Beauty in 2011, they knew they had something special.
Its chemical makeup confirmed that it was a castaway from Mars, but it was
unlike any Martian meteorite ever found. Before Black Beauty, all the Martian
rocks found on Earth were classified as SNC meteorites (shergottites,
nakhlites, or chassignites). They're mainly igneous rocks made of cooled
volcanic material. But Black Beauty is a breccia, a mashup of different rock
types welded together in a basaltic matrix. It contains sedimentary components
that match the chemical makeup of rocks analyzed by the Mars rovers. Scientists
concluded that it is a piece of Martian crust -- the first such sample to make
it to Earth.
Cannon
and Mustard thought Black Beauty might help to clear up a longstanding enigma:
the spectral signal from SNC meteorites never quite match with remotely sensed
specra from the Martian surface. "Most samples from Mars are somewhat
similar to spacecraft measurements," Mustard said, "but annoyingly
different."So after acquiring a chip of Black Beauty from Agee, Cannon and
Mustard used a variety of spectroscopic techniques to analyze it. The work
included use of a hyperspectral imaging system developed by Headwall photonics,
a Massachusetts-based company. The device enabled detailed spectral imaging of
the entire sample."Other techniques give us measurements of a dime-sized
spot," Cannon said. "What we wanted to do was get an average for the
entire sample. That overall measurement was what ended up matching the orbital
data."The researchers say the spectral match helps put a face on the dark
plains, suggesting that the regions are dominated by brecciated rocks similar
to Black Beauty. Because the dark plains are dust-poor regions, they're thought
to be representative of what hides beneath the red dust on much of the rest of
the planet.
"This
is showing that if you went to Mars and picked up a chunk of crust, you'd
expect it to be heavily beat up, battered, broken apart and put back
together," Cannon said.
That the
surface of Mars would be rich in Black Beauty-like breccias makes a lot of
sense, given what we know about Mars, the researchers say.
"Mars
is punctured by over 400,000 impact craters greater than 1 km in diameter
...," they write. "Because brecciation is a natural consequence of
impacts, it is expected that material similar to NWA 7034 has accumulated on
Mars over time."In other words, Mustard says, the bulk of rocks on the
surface of Mars probably look a lot like Black Beauty: "dark, messy and
beautiful."
Recent Week
Science News
7) Shots
of brain cells restore learning, memory in rats:
Technique
may someday ease radiation-related side effects for cancer patients, study
suggests. tem cells can help heal long-term brain damage suffered by rats
blasted with radiation, researchers report in the Feb. 5 Cell Stem Cell. The
treatment allows the brain to rebuild the insulation on its nerve cells so they
can start carrying messages again.
The
researchers directed human stem cells to become a type of brain cell that is
destroyed by radiation, a common cancer treatment, then grafted the cells into
the brains of irradiated rats. Within a few months, the rats’ performance on
learning and memory tests improved.“This technique, translated to humans, could
be a major step forward for the treatment of radiation-induced brain … injury,”
says Jonathan Glass, a neurologist at Emory University in Atlanta.Steve
Goldman, a neurologist at the University of Rochester in New York, agrees that
the treatment could repair a lot of the damage caused by radiation. “Radiation
therapy … is very effective, but the problem is patients end up with severe
disability,” he says. “Fuzzy thinking, a loss in higher intellectual functions,
decreases in memory — all those are part and parcel of radiation therapy to the
brain.” For children, the damage can be profound. “Those kids have really
significant detriments in their adult IQs,” Goldman says.Radiation obliterates
cells that mature into oligodendrocytes, a type of cell that coats the
message-carrying part of nerve cells with insulation. Without that cover, known
as the myelin sheath, nerve cells can’t transmit information, leading to memory
and other brain problems.Scientists developed a technique that may one day
repair some of the side effects of radiation to the brain.
1. Rats
underwent radiation, which destroyed the forerunners of cells that make the
insulation on information-carrying neurons.
2.
Scientists grafted forerunner cells grown from human stem cells into the rats’
brains. The cells matured, found the stripped neurons and started making more
insulation.
3. The
rats improved on tasks that tested their learning, memory and motor
coordination, such as staying balanced on a rotating pole.
“All the
highways in the brain are covered with this myelin,” says Viviane Tabar, a coauthor
of the new study and neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in
New York City. “You want to replenish the cells that are knocked out by
radiation and … fix the deficit, the myelin problem.”
To
bolster the brain’s supply of oligodendrocytes, Tabar and her team grew
forerunners to the myelin-making cells from human stem cells. The researchers
injected these precursor cells into different areas in the brains of 18 rats
that had been given a regimen of multiple radiation doses similar to what
cancer patients receive.The researchers then tested the rats to see if their
learning, memory and balance problems would improve. After 10 weeks, the
treated rats performed better than the irradiated rats that had not received
the infusion of new cells.Rats given the new cells in their forebrains were
better at recognizing when an object had been moved or noticing that
researchers presented them with an unfamiliar object. Rats injected in their
cerebellum, which is responsible for motor control, were able to trot on a
rotating pole for a longer time without falling off. Rats needed injections in
both parts of the brain to get all the learning and motor benefits.The
researchers also took images of the rats’ brains to track the progress of the
injected cells. Most of the new cells survived and restored myelin to the
denuded nerve cells.The rats did not experience any side effects from the
treatment. The new cells did not spawn any tumors or morph into other types of
cells. Tabar says she plans to repeat the experiment with a larger group of
rats and include treatments (such as chemotherapy) that people receive while
undergoing radiation.
8) Sea
slug has taken genes from algae it eats, allowing it to photosynthesize like a
plant:
How a
brilliant-green sea slug manages to live for months at a time
"feeding" on sunlight, like a plant, is clarified in a recent study
published in The Biological Bulletin. The authors present the first direct
evidence that the emerald green sea slug's chromosomes have some genes that
come from the algae it eats.
These
genes help sustain photosynthetic processes inside the slug that provide it
with all the food it needs.Importantly, this is one of the only known examples
of functional gene transfer from one multicellular species to another, which is
the goal of gene therapy to correct genetically based diseases in
humans."Is a sea slug a good [biological model] for a human therapy?
Probably not. But figuring out the mechanism of this naturally occurring gene
transfer could be extremely instructive for future medical applications,"
says study co-author Sidney K. Pierce, an emeritus professor at University of
South Florida and at University of Maryland, College Park.The team used an
advanced imaging technique to confirm that a gene from the alga V. litorea is
present on the E. chlorotica slug's chromosome. This gene makes an enzyme that
is critical to the function of photosynthetic "machines" called
chloroplasts, which are typically found in plants and algae.
It has
been known since the 1970s that E. chloritica "steals" chloroplasts
from V. litorea (called "kleptoplasty") and embeds them into its own
digestive cells. Once inside the slug cells, the chloroplasts continue to
photosynthesize for up to nine months--much longer than they would perform in
the algae. The photosynthesis process produces carbohydrates and lipids, which
nourish the slug.How the slug manages to maintain these photosynthesizing
organelles for so long has been the topic of intensive study and a good deal of
controversy. "This paper confirms that one of several algal genes needed
to repair damage to chloroplasts, and keep them functioning, is present on the
slug chromosome," Pierce says. "The gene is incorporated into the
slug chromosome and transmitted to the next generation of slugs." While
the next generation must take up chloroplasts anew from algae, the genes to
maintain the chloroplasts are already present in the slug genome, Pierce says.
"There
is no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal
cell," Pierce says. "And yet here, they do. They allow the animal to
rely on sunshine for its nutrition. So if something happens to their food
source, they have a way of not starving to death until they find more algae to
eat. "
This
biological adaptation is also a mechanism of rapid evolution, Pierce says.
"When a successful transfer of genes between species occurs, evolution can
basically happen from one generation to the next," he notes, rather than
over an evolutionary timescale of thousands of years.
9)
15-million-year-old mollusk protein found:
A team of
Carnegie scientists have found "beautifully preserved" 15
million-year-old thin protein sheets in fossil shells from southern Maryland.
Their findings are published in the inaugural issue of Geochemical Perspectives
Letters. The team--John Nance, John Armstrong, George Cody, Marilyn Fogel, and
Robert Hazen--collected samples from Calvert Cliffs, along the shoreline of the
Chesapeake Bay, a popular fossil collecting area. They found fossilized shells
of a snail-like mollusk called Ecphora that lived in the mid-Miocene
era--between 8 and 18 million years ago.
Ecphora
is known for an unusual reddish-brown shell color, making it one of the most
distinctive North American mollusks of its era. This coloration is preserved in
fossilized remains, unlike the fossilized shells of many other fossilized
mollusks from the Calvert Cliffs region, which have turned chalky white over
the millions of years since they housed living creatures.Shells are made from crystalline
compounds of calcium carbonate interleaved with an organic matrix of proteins
and sugars proteins and sugars. These proteins are called shell-binding
proteins by scientists, because they help hold the components of the shell
together.They also contain pigments, such as those responsible for the
reddish-brown appearance of the Ecphora shell. These pigments can bind to
proteins to form a pigment-protein complex.
The fact
that the coloration of fossilized Ecphora shells is so well preserved suggested
to the research team that shell proteins bound to these pigments in a complex
might also be preserved. They were amazed to find that the shells, once
dissolved in dilute acid, released intact thin sheets of shell proteins more
than a centimeter across. Chemical analysis including spectroscopy and electron
microscopy of these sheets revealed that they are indeed shell proteins that
were preserved for up to 15 million years."These are some of the oldest
and best-preserved examples of a protein ever observed in a fossil shell,"
Hazen said.
Remarkably,
the proteins share characteristics with modern mollusk shell proteins. They
both produce thin, flexible sheets of residue that's the same color as the
original shell after being dissolved in acid. Of the 11 amino acids found in
the resulting residue, aspartate and glutamate are prominent, which is typical
of modern shell proteins. Further study of these proteins could be used for
genetic analysis to trace the evolution of mollusks through the ages, as well
as potentially to learn about the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay during the era
in which Ecphora thrived.
Movies News
This Week:
From the
streets of Chicago to the far-flung galaxies whirling through space, “Jupiter
Ascending” tells the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who was born under a
night sky, with signs predicting she was destined for great things. Now grown,
Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning
other people’s houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine
(Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth
to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting
for her all along—her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an
extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.
In a time
long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between
the forces of the supernatural and humankind once more. Master Gregory (Jeff
Bridges) is a knight who had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother
Malkin (Julianne Moore), centuries ago. But now she has escaped and is seeking
vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarnation, Mother Malkin is preparing
to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world. Only one thing stands
in her way: Master Gregory. In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face
with the evil he always feared would someday return. He has only until the next
full moon to do what usually takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward
(Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other. Man's only hope lies in
the seventh son of a seventh son.
SpongeBob
goes on a quest to discover a stolen recipe that takes him to our dimension,
our world, where he tangles with a pirate.
In this
final installment, the Ninjas and their friends find themselves pitted against
the most evil and memorable monsters of them all - Dracula, Frankenstein, the
Mummy, the Werewolf, and MORE! Loaded with martial arts action, bloody horror,
gun play, magic, comedy, pop-culture references, and a tightly woven
twist-filled plot.
Previous Week Realease
Karl
Urban (Star Trek Into Darkness) and James Marsden (2 Guns) star in the tense
psychological thriller THE LOFT, the story of five married guys who conspire to
secretly share a penthouse loft in the city--a place where they can carry out
hidden affairs and indulge in their deepest fantasies. But the fantasy becomes
a nightmare when they discover the dead body of an unknown woman in the loft,
and they realize one of the group must be involved. Paranoia seizes them as
everyone begins to suspect one another. Friendships are tested, loyalties are
questioned and marriages crumble as the group is consumed by fear, suspicion
and murder in this relentless thriller.
6) Project Almanac:
As a
group of friends discover plans for a time machine, they build it and use it to
fix their problems and personal gain. But as the future falls apart with
disasters, and each of them disappear little by little, they must travel back
to the past to make sure they never invent the machine or face the destruction
of humanity.
During
the era of British India, lives a happy go lucky, school drop-out Shivkar
Bapuji Talpade aka Shivi (Ayushmann Khurrana), who falls in love with a local
stage dancer Sitara (Pallavi Sharda). This makes Shivi's father throw him out
of the house and he bumps into a crazy scientist Pandit Subbaraya Shastri
(Mithun Chakraborty). Shastri is constantly been chased by British soldiers for
his weird experiments but lesser they know that Shastri is secretly building a
flying machine. Seeing Shivi's great knowledge of Vedas, Shastri shares his
secret book based on ancient Indian aeronautics, which he was using to build an
air-plane. Shastri offers Shivi to be his assistant but Shivi refuses. Shivi
later proposes to Sitara to marry her, but Sitara resists on the grounds that
society will not accept their marriage and goes away to Hyderabad.Heartbroken,
Shivi goes back to Shastri and accepts his offer to assist him. Together they
work for several months to design a perfect machine which can fly but kept
failing. On running out of funds they request a local king to sponsor their
experiments. Finally, they manage to build a small air-plane and had a
successful unmanned test flight in presence of many eye witnesses, but the
air-craft crashes within few seconds. Shivi later learned that Sitara is back
in Bombay and now lives in a poor condition under heavy debts. Shivi and Sitara
reunite, but in order to get her out of debt, Shivi sells Shastri's secret book
to a British officer. Feeling betrayed, Shastri could not survive this trauma
and dies. Shastri's death makes Shivi feel so guilty, that he decides to fulfil
Shastri's incomplete dream along with Sitara and his nephew Narayan.
In his
quest to build a perfect flying machine, Shivi goes to Banaras to meet a guru,
to whom Shastri used to refer. The guru gave Shivi a code "4121",
which later helped Shivi to figure out that mercury will be the best fuel for
engine. Before Shivi could complete his machine, British officers arrest him on
his brother's complaint. After been rescued by a freedom fighter, Shivi finally
takes the air-craft to sea beach. In the end, before soldiers could arrest him
again, Shivi flies away along Sitara and becomes worlds' first humans to ride
in a flying machine.
The story
follows members of a fictional secret operation called Baby, a temporary task
force headed by Feroz (Denzongpa) whose mission is to protect India from
terrorists and whose mandate is coming to a close.
While
attempting to rescue a fellow Indian security agent in Turkey, Ajay Rajput
(Akshay Kumar) discovers a terrorist plot against a Delhi mall which he and Jai
(Daggubati) are able to prevent. In the process they learn that this was only
the first in a series of massive attacks that have been planned. Terrorist
mastermind Maulana (Naz) , who is causing trouble near the Pakistan-India
border, arranges for Bilal (Kay Kay Menon) to escape from prison. A team from
Baby is dispatched, but all of the squad members on the mission except Ajay are
killed in an explosion. To collect further information from a terrorist
logistics planner in Nepal, Ajay and officer Priya (Pannu) travel to Nepal
pretending to be husband and wife. Their plan to capture the terrorist Wasim
Khan (Sushant Singh) goes wrong and Priya is trapped alone with Khan when he
discovers she is spying on him. Ajay arrives to find that Priya has rendered
Khan unconscious.
Feroz
sends Ajay, Jai and Shukla to their deep asset Ashfaq in Saudi Arabia where
Bilal is making his plans. After they kill Bilal and are about to return, they
find that Maulana is also at the site. Jai knocks him out and they decide to
bring Maulana back to India, sedated, under the pretext that he is a relative
they need to get to India for a liver transplant. After the discovery of
Bilal's death, the Arab police chief Hani Mohammad (Hasan Noman) first attempts
to close the airport to prevent the murderer's escape and the police almost
apprehend the Baby agents. However, a short time later when he calls and finds
out there are in fact 3 people on the plane headed to India under a medical
visa, he smiles and lets them escape.After Baby's success at bringing Maulana
in to the Indian security, Baby is given permanent status
Political
News in Two Weeks:
1) Delhi
high on ink, records 67 per cent voter turnout:
Delhi
registered a record voter turnout in the assembly polls which closed at 6 pm,
according to preliminary data received from Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi,
67 per cent voter turnout was recorded.
However,
the final figure may go up as at some polling booths people are still in the
queue. Voting began at 8 am on Saturday for the 70-member assembly.
Chief
Election Commissioner H S Bramha said the election process so far has been
peaceful. People in long queues are being seen at various polling booths as
they await their turn to cast votes.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, party Vice
President Rahul Gandhi, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, BJP's chief ministerial
candidate Kiran Bedi, Union Ministers Harsh Vardhan and Maneka Gandhi, Delhi Lt
Governor Najeeb Jung, Congress' Ajay Maken and BJP's Varun Gandhi were among
the early voters. The Delhi polls are seen as a direct contest between AAP and
BJP and being billed as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a
description rejected by his party leaders.
This is
the second assembly polls in Delhi within little over one year. The assembly
polls in December 2013 had thrown a hung verdict with BJP winning 31 seats and
AAP making a stunning debut by wresting 28 seats while Congress got only 8 in
the 70-member assembly.The elections are significant as a defeat for BJP may
bolster the opposition while a victory for the party will increase its
confidence ahead of assembly polls in Bihar later this year.
2) Saradha
scam: Matang Sinh sent to police custody for 5 days:
Former
Union minster Matang Sinh, who was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation
in connection with Saradha chit fund scam on January 31, was on Saturday
remanded to police custody for five days.
ACJM
(in-charge) of Alipore court Manikuntala Roy granted CBI the remand of Sinh
till February 11. CBI had sought custody for seven days.The judge also granted
the defence counsel’s prayer that a lawyer be provided with him (Sinh) during
interrogation during his custodial stay.The counsel, appearing for the accused,
while pleading for the bail application, said the accused was a grade II liver
transplant patient and hence needed special medical attention and that his
immunity level was very low and sending him to police custody might endanger
his life.The counsel maintained that Sinh was cooperating with the
investigating agency and that he was arrested on the day when he went to the
CBI office on January 31.Sinh told the court that he was a liver transplant
patient and had undergone the operation seven years ago in London and had
developed several complications since then.The accused also mentioned in the
court that the investigation officer in this case visited his home and hospital
in Delhi and was sympathetic to his medical condition.He said he was also a
blood pressure and hypertension patient and took 22 kinds of life-saving
medicines.
The
defence counsel also prayed that a lawyer be provided to him if his bail was
rejected by the court.
The prosecution
counsel said that Sinh was part of a larger conspiracy and the accused was the
beneficiary of the Saradha Group of companies.The prosecution counsel also said
he had entered into various illegal agreements with Sudipto Sen (Saradha group
chairman) and actively contributed to diversion of funds in Saradha Group and
so his custodial interrogation was required.
3) Rebel
Manjhi sidelined, JD-U elects Nitish Kumar as its leader:
Sidelining
defiant Jitan Ram Manjhi who has refused to step down, Janata Dal-United
Legislature Party on Saturday elected Nitish Kumar as its leader who will stake
claim to form government in Bihar.Kumar, who had resigned as chief minister in
the wake of party’s disastrous performance in Lok Sabha polls in May last year,
was elected at a meeting attended by 97 of 111 JD-U MLAs and 37 of the total 41
members of Legislative Council.The meeting, called by party president Sharad
Yadav, took place shortly after Manjhi’s unsuccessful bid to have a Cabinet
recommendation for dissolution of the assembly.
Earlier,
a last-ditch attempt was made for a patch up between Manjhi and the group led
by Kumar but it failed.Kumar’s election at the meeting, dubbed by the chief
minister as “unauthorized”, paves the way for him to take over the mantle again
by replacing Manjhi whom he had handpicked to after he had resigned.At the
Cabinet meeting convened by Manjhi just before the Legislature Party meeting, a
proposal was mooted for dissolving the assembly. It was supported by seven
ministers besides Manjhi, while 21 pro-Nitish Kumar ministers opposed it, state
finance minister Bijendra Yadav told reporters.Kumar said Yadav will establish
contact with Governor Kesrinath Tripathi to stake claim to form the
government.He said that majority was with him “and if needed, we will parade
our majority numbers”, apparently referring to support of Rashtriya Janata Dal,
Congress and Communist Party of india which takes his number well ahead of the
majority mark in the 243-member assembly.Yadav said a total of 130 JD-U
legislators, comprising MLAs and MLCs, are in support of Nitish Kumar.
Notice
had been sent to 111 MLAs and 41 MLCs for attending the meeting convened by
Yadav. As expected, Manjhi, some ministers and legislators supporting him
stayed away from it.Addressing JD-U legislators, he said he had been forced to
accept the challenge in view of “dirty” politics played by the Bharatiya Janata
Party against his party.
Kumar
said he would take the fight against the BJP to its logical conclusion in the
assembly polls due later this year.
“Now I
have accepted the challenge and I will lead from the front and take the fight
against the BJP which is playing ‘dirty tricks’ against his party to a logical
conclusion in assembly poll later this year,” he said.
Kumar has
assumed leadership eight months after he quit CM on May 19 owning moral
responsibility for JD-U's poor show in the Lok Sabha election.Apprehending that
the BJP might play against him, Kumar said, “It will be seen whether people in
power today hold value of democracy or try to throttle democratic values.”In
the JD-U Legislature Party meeting, Masaurhi MLA Arun Manjhi, considered a
supporter of Manjhi, proposed Kumar’s name, which was approved by the MLAs.
On Manjhi
Cabinet’s proposal for dissolving assembly, Kumar said it did not enjoy the
backing of a majority. “The tradition is that even if one member registers
protest on any item in the Cabinet it is withdrawn. Here 21 ministers are
rejecting a proposal to recommend dissolution of the Vidhan Sabha,” Kumar
said.Earlier, a letter bearing signature of 21 ministers who had rejected the
proposal to dissolve the assembly, was sent to President Pranab Mukherjee and
the Governor to convince them that if Manjhi went ahead and recommended
dissolution of the House it was not backed by a majority.Meanwhile, a press
release issued by Principal Secretary Cabinet Coordination department B Pradhan
said the Cabinet had authorised Chief Minister Manjhi to take “an appropriate
decision at an appropriate time” on the proposal to dissolve the assembly.
4) Modi
govt takes UPA line, won't disclose Netaji Bose files:
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Taking
the line adopted by the previous Congress-led UPA government, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's Office has refused to disclose records related to Subhash Chandra
Bose's death as it rejected the argument that there was a larger public
interest involved in making them public.The Right to Information Act allows for
a public authority to disclose records which are otherwise exempt from
disclosure if public interest outweighs the harm protected.Activist Subhash
Agrawal had sought from the Prime Minister's Office the records related to the
freedom fighter and leader of the Indian National Army to clarify the mystery
surrounding his alleged death in a plane crash 70 years back.
Agrawal
had also asked for information of the steps taken by the top office to make
such records public and the action taken on requests seeking such documents.But
toeing the line of the UPA government, the PMO had cited an exemption clause in
the RTI Act which allows withholding of information that could prejudicially
affect relations with a foreign country. The PMO, however, did not even give
the names of the countries with which the relations may get affected once the
said information is made public.
When the
first appeal was filed before a higher officer in the top office, the Appellate
Authority, Krishan Kumar, had rejected the argument that public interest would
be served through the disclosure of the documents related to Bose's death.Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, while campaigning for polls, had claimed that there was
a larger public interest involved in the disclosure of the documents, but the
PMO under Modi does not seem to be in agreement."It is observed that the
disclosure of the records was withheld under Section 8(1)(a) of RTI Act on the
grounds that it would prejudicially affect relations with foreign
countries."The determination as to whether a particular body of records
has such ramifications has been left to the judgement of the competent
authority authorised to determine the same," Kumar had said.
5)
Sunanda's son quizzed, cops may call Tharoor again:
Sunanda
Pushkar's son Shiv Menon was on Thursday questioned by the Special
Investigation Team in connection with her mysterious death even as the police
are likely to question former Union minister Shashi Tharoor and his domestic
help again to reconstruct the chain of events in the case.Menon reached the SIT
office in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj at around 1.20 pm this afternoon and the
questioning continued till late in the evening. Police sources said that Menon
was asked how the relationship was between Tharoor and Sunanda.Sources also
said that police will question almost all the people whom they think are
important for a solution to the case.
"After
quizzing Menon, we are considering questioning Tharoor and (his domestic help)
Narayan Singh again to reconstruct the theory," said a senior police
official.
Meanwhile,
Police Commissioner BS Bassi said, “Tharoor, Narayan and some workers who were
around are also included in the case because some new things have come to light
now... That's why there would be a need for questioning again. Whenever it is
required, we will be calling them for questioning.”
Bassi
said that police may hold talks with others as well whom they feel is necessary
to approach. "We will also be holding talks with the additional people
whom we feel are necessary (to the solution of the case). Those whom we feel we
have to confront on the basis of evidence, we will confront them too... We need
to talk to people who were present there when Sunanda Pushkar died," Bassi
said.Asked if police will call Subramanian Swamy for questioning, the police
commissioner said, "I wouldn't want to close any option... if the SIT
feels, they will surely call him (Swamy). Until the SIT takes a decision on
this, it won't be right for me to speculate on anything."
Bassi
also said that there are some exhibits about which police want to get an
opinion from abroad. He added that there are also some analyses that the police
want done and they would soon send certain exhibits abroad towards that end.
The police team probing the case has questioned at least 15 people in this connection.Congress
MP Shashi Tharoor and his staff members and close friends were among those
quizzed by Delhi Police.Former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and senior
journalist Nalini Singh, too, have been questioned by police.52-year-old
Sunanda was found dead in her suite at a five- star hotel in south Delhi on the
night of January 17, 2014, a day after she was involved in a spat with
Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on micro-blogging website twitter over the
latter's alleged affair with Tharoor. Police had last month filed a murder case
in their pursuit of the matter
6) Agni 5
project director shunted, alleges victimisation:
In yet
another controversy to hit the Defence Research and Development Organisation, R
K Gupta, the project director of nuclear-capable Agni 5 missile programme, has
been moved out following which he has complained to the defence ministry
alleging victimisation.
While
DRDO sources termed the transfer as "routine", the officer has
alleged that he was singled out by two senior officials within the
organisation, including former chief Avinash Chander, who demitted his office
on January 31.
The
incident came just days after the successful canister launch of the
inter-continental missile on January 31.
Gupta has
complained to the mnistry that he received the letter, dated January 9, only on
February 2 when he reached his office after the successful launch.
"With
all humility and respect, I wish to bring to your notice that on February 2, I
was relinquished from the post of project director Agni-V. I am shocked that...
such bad treatment is meted out to such a senior scientist with an excellent
track record throughout service tenure," he said in his letter to Defence
Secretary R K Mathur, who is also holding the additional charge of DRDO.
Incidentally
Gupta's name had come up in connection with the sudden termination of Chander's
contract by the government, 15 months ahead of his tenure.
It was
then rumoured that one of the reasons for Chander's removal was three
complaints filed by individuals including by Gupta who has denied any such
move.
DRDO
sources insisted that such transfers are routine when a project enters into a
different phase."The Agni 5 is no longer in development phase. It is in
production and induction phase and hence transfers are routine since the
services of an officer can be used somewhere else. A new person to take care of
production is also brought in," a source said.
7)
Trinamool MP Srinjoy Bose quits, says politics not his cup of tea:
In a jolt
to Trinamool Congress, facing the heat of the Saradha scam, its Rajya Sabha
member Srinjoy Bose resigned from the party and also as MP on Thursday saying
he has realised that politics was not his "cup of tea".
Bose's
resignation came barely a day after he was released from jail on conditional
bail after spending 75 days in the Central Bureau of Investigation and judicial
custody after his arrest by the central investigating agency in connection with
the scam in November.
"I
would like to inform that with immediate effect, I have resigned from my
membership of the Rajya Sabha. I have also decided to resign from the primary
membership of the party -- the Trinamool Congress," he said in a release.
His
resignation prompted TMC national spokesperson and chief whip of TMC parliamentary
party in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien to allege that Bose had been put "under
tremendous pressure".
"We
have been saying for some time now that he (Bose) has been put under tremendous
pressure by the party in power at the Centre. He was released on bail yesterday
(Wednesday). He resigned today (Thursday). We are happy that he got
'freedom'," he said in a statement put up on TMC's website.
Party
secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said there was pressure on Bose to resign
from the party and Parliament. "Maybe pressure of the BJP, maybe pressure
of a news channel," was Chatterjee's cryptic reply when quizzed by newsmen
in Burdwan at a programme.
Bose,
editor-in-chief of a Bengal daily and former editor of Trinamool Congress
mouthpiece Jago Bangla, said it was during his days in custody that he
understood "politics is not my cup of tea".
Pressure
from his family had also shaped his decision. "There has also been a lot
of pressure from my family, especially from my mother and my wife which finally
made me take the decision," the release said.
Bose
thanked TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making him an MP.
"I would also like to express my deepest gratitude and thanks to all
persons who have stood by my family during this extreme difficult time,"
he said.
Sports News
This Week:
1)
Paes-Hingis win Australian Open mixed doubles title:
Martina
Hingis and Leander Paes pose with the winner's trophy after their victory over
Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles final of the 2015
Australian Open in Melbourne.
2) Serena
Williams wins 2015 Australian Open title:
Serena Williams
holds the trophy after defeating Maria Sharapova in the women's singles final
at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia on January 31, 2015
3) Novak
Djokovic wins 2015 Australian Open title:
Serbia's
Novak Djokovic holds the trophy after defeating Britain's Andy Murray in their
Australian Open final in Melbourne.
4) Captain
Dhoni sees open World Cup, pressure on hosts:
The
cricket World Cup could be won by any one of the "balanced" six or
seven teams in the fray, according to India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.South
Africa and Australia are seen as the favourites for the Feb. 14-March 29
tournament, while co-hosts New Zealand also loom as most people's third pick
given a strong run of form at home against fellow contenders Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"I
feel this World Cup, most of the teams, they are quite balanced, and most of
the teams are looking good," Dhoni said in a pre-World Cup media
conference on Saturday."When I say most, it's in excess of six or seven
teams that I'm talking about. So I feel it will be a very special World Cup for
all the teams.
"It's
a matter of which team is more consistent during the World Cup, what kind of
momentum they take with them into the knockout stages and all of that will be
crucial."
Dhoni was
unconcerned about his own side's lack of positive results heading into the
World Cup after they lost their test series to Australia then all three of
their one-day matches in a triangular tournament that also included England.The
wicketkeeper, however, said they had been written off previously only to come
right when they needed to."When we went and played the Champions Trophy
(in 2013) we were in a similar situation like this and the guys stepped up,
that's what I feel is important," he added."What we have seen is how
you rise to an occasion like this and how you take the confidence forward to
something that's more important."The last World Cup had created enormous
pressure on the host nation and Dhoni said that would have some impact on
Australia and New Zealand, though the expectations would probably not be the
same as his side experienced in 2011.
"It
is slightly tough. It's not something that a lot of home teams have won,"
said Dhoni. "The expectation of the people, it's very high."I think
the same will apply to the Australians and the New Zealand side, but at the
same time, their culture is slightly different, so what's a kind of expectation
level that we'll have to wait and watch."Dhoni's wife gave birth to their
first child on Friday and while he was delighted by the arrival of his daughter
he was totally focussed on the World Cup."Mum and daughter both are
good," he said."But (the) World Cup is a very important campaign, and
everything can wait as of now."
Book of
These Week:
Sapiens: A
Brief History of Humankind : by Yuval Noah Harari
From a
renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and
evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology
and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to
be “human.”
100,000
years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just
one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance?
Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How
did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books
and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And
what will our world be like in the millennia to come?
In
Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very
first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating –
breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions.
Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology and economics, he
explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the
animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become
happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the
heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the
course of the centuries to come?
Bold,
wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew
about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future. -
See more at: http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-9781846558245.aspx#sthash.B8JpQOTU.dpuf
Featuring
27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and
insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for
aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and
Sharon Moalem.
Yuval
Harari:
Harari originally specialized in medieval history and military history, completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford (Jesus College) in 2002 and publishing numerous books and articles, including Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100-1550; The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture, 1450-2000; “The Concept of ‘Decisive Battles’ in World History”; and “Armchairs, Coffee and Authority: Eye-witnesses and Flesh-witnesses Speak about War, 1100-2000”.
He now
specializes in World History and macro-historical processes. His research
focuses on macro-historical questions such as: What is the relation between
history and biology? What is the essential difference between Homo sapiens and
other animals? Is there justice in history? Does history have a direction? Did
people become happier as history unfolded?
His most
recent book is entitled Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (originally
published in Hebrew under the title A Brief History of Mankind, and later
translated into close to 30 languages). The book surveys the entire length of
human history, from the evolution of Homo sapiens in the Stone Age up to the
political and technological revolutions of the 21st century. The Hebrew edition
has become a bestseller in Israel. It has generated much interest both in the
academic community and among the general public and has turned Harari into an
instant celebrity.YouTube Video clips of Harari’s Hebrew lectures on the
history of the world have been viewed by tens of thousands of Israelis; He is
also giving an free online course in English entitled A Brief History of
Humankind. More than 100,000 people throughout the world have already taken
this course.
Harari
twice won the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality, in 2009 and 2012.
In 2011 he won the Society for Military History’s Moncado Award for outstanding
articles in military history. In 2012 he was elected to the Young Israeli
Academy of Sciences.He lives with his husband in moshav Mesilat Zion near
Jerusalem
Mythology
By Philip Wilkinson & Neil Philip
"Eyewitness
Companions offer an essential reference library, perfect for novices or anyone
who just wants to know more about their favourite pastime." Heyday
Undertake
a quest of discovery - and learn about some of the greatest myths and
characters the world has ever known - without leaving your armchair.
Get the
story behind famous tales, from Greek mythology to the lesser known myths from
the Americas, Oceania and Africa. Enjoy timeless epics vividly retold and
beautifully illustrated, from creation myths to tales of heroism. Plus, come
face-to-face with gods and monsters in the who's who of characters from
mythmaking cultures.
A fresh
and exciting look at the great stories, epics, and legends of the past.
Philip
Wilkinson
Philip Wilkinson is the author of non-fiction books for children and adults. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He worked as an editor prior to becoming an author
Neil
Philip:
Nature Magazine
National Geographic
Cartoon Games
History Channel
Online Movies
Scientific American
Filmfare Mag
Online Britannica
Time Mag
Unexplained Mysteries
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