China to build largest animal cloning centre

PTI | Nov 25, 2015, 07.35 AM IST

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BEIJING: China is planning to build the world's largest animal cloning centre that will produce one million cattle embryos annually and rapidly improve the quality of livestock, a report said.

The $31.3 million commercial cloning centre will be built in Tianjin's Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area (TEDA), a government-sponsored business development park. Among the animals to be cloned in the centre include sniffer and pet dogs, high-grade beef cattle, racehorses and "non-human primates". These animals will be used for commercial services and improving breeds. The project could rapidly improve the quality of livestock and bring the controversial science one step closer to mainstream acceptance.

Sinica, a subsidiary of Wuxi-based Boyalife Group which focuses on stem cell and regenerative medicine research, signed the agreement with TEDA on Friday. Boyalife chairman Xu Xiaochun said the factory also plans to set up acloning lab, a gene bank and a science education centre.

NASA Finding Bolsters Indian Theory on Black Hole

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NASA Finding Bolsters Indian Theory on Black Hole

World | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: November 24, 2015 15:17 IST

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NASA Finding Bolsters Indian Theory on Black Hole

It came as a surprise when NASA announced last month that two of its space telescopes caught a huge burst of X-ray spewing out of a super massive black hole.

Bangalore: An Indian astrophysicist says the recent observation by NASA scientists of giant flares of X-rays from a black hole confirms his theory that the so-called black holes are not "true" black holes but actually ultra hot balls of fire like our Sun.

According to mainstream astrophysicists, extremely massive stars collapse into ultra compact objects called black holes whose gravitational field is so powerful that even light cannot escape from its imaginary boundary called "event horizon".

Naturally, it came as a surprise when NASA announced last month that two of its space telescopes caught a huge burst of X-ray spewing out of a super massive black hole.

What is unique about this giant flare is it appeared to be triggered by the eruption of a massive corona (charged particles) from the "black hole". If nothing can get out of a black hole, how did the corona come out of it?

Abhas Mitra -- till recently head of theoretical astrophysics at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai and currently Adjunct Professor at the Homi Bhabha National Institute -- says NASA's observation has only bolstered his theory that "true" black holes do not exist and that the so-called black holes are in fact hot balls of magnetized plasma (ionized
gas stripped of electrons).

As a massive star contracts to the size of a black hole, the radiation trapped within the extremely hot star must exert an outward force to counter the gravitational pull resulting into a state of eternal contraction with an infinitesimally slow rate, Mr Mitra explained.

"Thus, instead of true black holes predicted by Einstein's theory, we proposed that massive stars end up as balls of fire -- termed Magnetospheric Eternally Collapsing Objects or MECOs."

Mr Mitra, a distinguished alumnus of Mumbai University, said NASA's observation of giant X-ray flares from black hole can be most naturally explained by this MECO paradigm.

MECOs possess accretion disks around them, something similar to the rings of Saturn, and also may be immersed in a sea of interstellar gases, he said.

"Gas streams pulled inward by gravity get extremely hot by friction and may radiate X-rays."

Mr Mitra said relevant proofs behind this new paradigm have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals beginning 2000.

"Our best example of a magnetized ball of fire is our Sun which is surrounded by a tenuous aura of plasma called Corona," he said.

"Instabilities associated with this magnetized plasma result in intermittent eruptions from the Sun in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections."

While a true black hole cannot possess any intrinsic magnetic field, there can be magnetic field associated with the disk or gas surrounding a MECO.

Strong magnetic fields have indeed been detected around several so-called "black holes" suggesting that they are actually MECOs and not true black holes.

The super strong flare witnessed by NASA, which appeared to originate right from the central part of MECO, is akin to the well-known phenomenon of 'Coronal Mass Ejection' from the Sun, Mr Mitra said.

"This latest astrophysical observation by NASA should prompt astrophysicists to take a closer look at the MECO paradigm," Mr Mitra said.

Story First Published: November 24, 2015 15:17 IST

World's first `porous' liquid to filter carbon emissions developed

PTI | Nov 17, 2015, 07.12 AM IST

LONDON: In a breakthrough, scientists have developed the world's first 'porous' liquid that can potentially be used to capture harmful carbon emissions to prevent them from entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast in UK, along with colleagues at the University of Liverpool and other international partners, invented the new liquid and found that it can dissolve unusually large amount of gas, which are absorbed into the `holes' in the liquid. The research could pave the way for many more efficient and greener chemical processes, including the procedure known as carbon capture -trapping carbon dioxide from major sources, for example a fossil-fuel power plant, and storing it to prevent its entry into the atmosphere.

"Materials which contain permanent holes, or pores, are technologically important. They are used for manufacturing a range of products from plastic bottles to petrol," said Stuart James of Queen's School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

"However, until recently, these porous ma terials have been solids. What we have done is to design a special liquid from the 'bottom-up' -we designed the shapes of the molecules which make up the liquid so that the liquid could not fill up all the space," James said. "Because of the empty holes we then had in the liquid, we found that it was able to dissolve unusually large amounts of gas," he said. "A few more years' research will be needed, but if we can find applications for these porous liquids they could result in new or improved chemical processes," James said.