​An app that sends alerts if satellites are spying on you

PTI | Oct 22, 2013, 02.34 AM IST
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NEW YORK: A new smartphone app that tells you when and what imaging spacecraft might be watching you has been developed in the US.

The app, SpyMeSat, provides notifications when spy satellites and unclassified imaging satellites are zooming above your head and may be taking your picture.

All of the imaging satellites in SpyMeSat are in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 805km, SPACE.com reported. Enabled SpyMeSat satellites include such zoom-lens notables as GeoEye, the French space agency's SPOT-5, India's CartoSat-2A, DigitalGlobe's WorldView satellites and Canada's RADARSAT-2.

"I actually got the idea for the app from talking to friends outside the aerospace industry who were always very interested in space and satellites and imaging from space. This app answers those questions in a fun and interactive way," said Alex Herz, president of Orbit Logic in Greenbelt, Maryland which developed the app.

The app uses available public information about commercial and international imaging satellites. It also uses orbit data from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). SpyMeSat does not include all imaging spacecraft. No classified imaging satellites, from any nation, have their orbit information published, so these satellites do not show up in the app.
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Virus study confirms ancient human migration

PTI | Oct 22, 2013, 03.36 PM IST
READ MORE University of Wisconsin Madison|human virus|human genomes|herpes simplex virus type 1|genetic code
Virus study confirms ancient human migration
A study of the full genetic code of a common human virus confirms the "out-of-Africa" pattern of human migration.
WASHINGTON: A study of the full genetic code of a common human virus confirms the "out-of-Africa" pattern of human migration, scientists said.


The virus under study, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), usually causes nothing more severe than cold sores around the mouth, said Curtis Brandt, senior author of the study and a professor of medical microbiology and ophthalmology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Brandt and co-authors Aaron Kolb and Cecile Ane compared 31 strains of HSV-1 collected in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

"The viral strains sort exactly as you would predict based on sequencing of human genomes. We found that all of the African isolates cluster together, all the virus from the Far East, Korea, Japan, China clustered together, all the viruses in Europe and America, with one exception, clustered together," Brandt said.

"What we found follows exactly what the anthropologists have told us, and the molecular geneticists who have analysed the human genome have told us, about where humans originated and how they spread across the planet," he said.

Studies of human genomes have shown that our ancestors emerged from Africa roughly 150,000 to 200,000 years ago, and then spread eastward toward Asia, and westward toward Europe.

In the new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers broke the HSV-1 genome into 26 pieces, made family trees for each piece and then combined each of the trees into one network tree of the whole genome.

It was this grouping that parallelled existing analyses of human migration.

The new analysis could even detect some intricacies of migration. Every HSV-1 sample from the US except one matched the European strains, but one strain that was isolated in Texas looked Asian.

"How did we get an Asian-related virus in Texas?" Kolb said. Either the sample had come from someone who had travelled from the Far East, or it came from a native American whose ancestors had crossed the "land bridge" across the Bering Strait roughly 15,000 years ago.

"We found support for the land bridge hypothesis because the date of divergence from its most recent Asian ancestor was about 15,000 years ago. The dates match, so we postulate that this was an Amerindian virus," Brandt said.

"Our results clearly support the anthropological data, and other genetic data, that explain how humans came from Africa into the Middle East and started to spread from there," Brandt said.

In the virus, as in human genomes, a small human population entered the Middle East from Africa.

"There is a population bottleneck between Africa and the rest of the world; very few people were involved in the initial migration from Africa," Brandt said.

"When you look at the phylogenetic tree from the virus, it's exactly the same as what the anthropologists have told us," he said.
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Exotic scents made from genetically modified yeast


​Exotic scents made from yeast

Andrew Pollack, NYT News Service | Oct 22, 2013, 02.33 AM IST
READ MORE Silk|Genetic
Emeryville (California) Vanilla, saffron, patchouli. For centuries, spices and flavourings like these have come from exotic plants growing in remote places like the jungles of Mexico or the terraced hillsides of Madagascar. Some were highly prized along ancient trading routes like the Silk Road.

Now a powerful form of genetic engineering could revolutionize the production of some of the most sought-after flavours and fragrances. Rather than being extracted from plants, they are being made by genetically modified yeast or other micro-organisms cultured in huge industrial vats. "It's just like brewing beer, but rather than spit out alcohol, the yeast spits out these products," said Jay D Keasling, a co-founder of Amyris, a company that is a pioneer in the field. However, while yeast makes alcohol naturally, it would not produce the spices without the extensive genetic rejiggering, which is called synthetic biology. The advent of synthetic biology raises thorny economic and regulatory issues, such as whether such yeast-made ingredients can be called natural and whether developing countries dependent on these crops will be hurt.

Supporters say the technique could benefit food and cosmetic companies, and ultimately consumers, by reducing wild swings in price, availability and quality that come from dependence on agriculture. It may even relieve pressure on some overharvested wild plants like sandalwood. The products, which taste or smell nearly the same as the real thing, are coming quickly and even moving beyond flavours and fragrances to include other commodities, like rubber and drugs.

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