ESA plans to build 3D printed Moon base

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to set up a base on Moon by using a 3D printer to build it from lunar materials, scientists say.

Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil, the space agency said.

“Terrestrial 3D printing technology has produced entire structures. Our industrial team investigated if it could similarly be employed to build a lunar habitat,” said Laurent Pambaguian, who heads the project for ESA.

Foster + Partners devised a weight-bearing “catenary” dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micro-meteoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts. A hollow closed-cell structure – reminiscent of bird bones – provides a good combination of strength and weight. The base’s design was guided in turn by the properties of 3D-printed lunar soil, with a 1.5 tonne building block produced as a demonstration.

“3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth,” added Scott Hovland of ESA’s human spaceflight team.

“The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy.

“As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials,” said Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group.

“Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic,” he said in a ESA Statement.

The UK’s Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer, with a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 m frame to spray a binding solution onto a sand-like building material.

3D “printouts” are built up layer by layer ¿ the company more typically uses its printer to create sculptures and is working on artificial coral reefs to help preserve beaches from energetic sea waves.

“First, we needed to mix the simulated lunar material with magnesium oxide. This turns it into “paper” we can print with,” said Monolite founder Enrico Dini.

“Then for our structural ‘ink’ we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid.

“Our current printer builds at a rate of around 2 m per hour, while our next-generation design should attain 3.5 m per hour, completing an entire building in a week,” said Dini.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/esa-plans-to-build-3d-printed-moon-base/1067991/0

‘Ozone thinning has changed ocean circulation’

A hole in the Antarctic ozone layer has changed the way waters in the southern oceans mix, which scientists say could impact global climate change.

The situation has the potential to alter the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, scientist say.

In a study, published in the journal Science, Darryn W Waugh and his team show that subtropical intermediate waters in the southern oceans have become “younger” as the upwelling, circumpolar waters have gotten “older” – changes that are consistent with the fact that surface winds have strengthened as the ozone layer has thinned.

“This may sound entirely academic, but believe me, it’s not,” said Waugh, of the Morton K Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

“This matters because the southern oceans play an important role in the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide, so any changes in southern ocean circulation have the potential to change the global climate,” Waugh said in a statement.

Researchers used measurements taken from the early 1990s to the mid-to-late 2000s of the amount of a chemical compound known as “chlorofluorocarbon-12,” or CFC-12, in the southern oceans.

CFC-12 was first produced commercially in the 1930s and its concentration in the atmosphere increased rapidly until the 1990s when it was phased out by the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.

Researchers were able to infer changes in how rapidly surface waters have mixed into the depths of the southern oceans.

Because they knew that concentrations of CFCs at the ocean surface increased in tandem with those in the atmosphere, they were able to surmise that the higher the concentration of CFC-12 deeper in the ocean, the more recently those waters were at the surface.

The inferred age changes – “younger” in the subtropics, “older” nearer the South Pole – are consistent with the observed intensification of surface westerly winds, which have occurred primarily because of the Antarctic ozone hole, suggesting that stratospheric ozone depletion is the primary cause of the changes in ocean ventilation.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ozone-thinning-has-changed-ocean-circulation/1067962/0

Faking magnitude 8 in the Himalayas, to handle earthquakes better

Rather than wait for an earthquake to happen in the high-risk Himalayan region, disaster managers will simulate the aftermath of one of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale.

“Since there is no method of forecasting an earthquake — the most instantaneous natural disaster — we need to be better prepared,” said Prof Harsh K Gupta, member of the National Disaster Management Authority.

The imagined earthquake will have its epicentre at Sundarnagar in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. It will have struck at 11.30 am on February 13 and ruptured an entire 200-km faultline, causing tremors of varying intensities and affecting 15 spots in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and the Union territory of Chandigarh.

The NDMA and Delhi’s DDMA had conducted the largest ever mock disaster drill on February 15 last year. The Delhi exercise will be the benchmark for the upcoming one. Eventualities such as a chemical explosion, a bridge collapse, fire, a gas leak and building collapses will be simulated at flyovers, markets, offices, government and private schools and colleges, hospitals, railway stations, bus stands, airports and residential areas.

“There are three aspects to it — to develop realistic scenarios to know the vulnerability and preparedness of state machinery as well as the public’s response; to make the government machinery more knowledgeable about such scenarios; and to conduct awareness campaigns and mock drills,” Gupta said.

“We have estimated the population that will be exposed to the risk as against the total population density, and, considering topography and other surface features, the human loss that such a scenario can lead to,” Gupta said. Factoring in the aftershocks that come 20-30 seconds after the first earthquake impact, the NDMA has projected that 231.8 lakh people will be exposed to intensities X-IX on the MSK scale, 323.6 lakh to intensities IX-VIII, and 251.6 lakh to intensities VIII-VII.

“The idea is to first bring about participation of various stakeholders, and check how all the emergency support functionaries — police control room, fire brigades, ambulances, hospitals, administration, disaster management, volunteers — respond, and to calculate their response time,” an NDMA official said. “The drills are likely to be held at bus stands, markets, colleges, schools, administrative offices, railway stations… The Army will be requested for observers to conduct a third-party assessment.”

Over the last four months, authorities in the areas to be covered have mapped their resources, prepared scenarios for the mock drill, identified venues, and trained volunteers as dummies (dead, critically injured, minorly injured). DDMA officials said the process of laying the groundwork began six months ago in a series of meetings initiated between NDMA vice chairman Shashidhar Reddy and other officials, the chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and the Chandigarh governor.

The Himalayan region was counted among the most vulnerable on the global seismic hazard map prepared during the International Decade on Natural Disaster Reduction during 1991-2000. And experts say the number of deaths due to natural disasters during the first 12 years of the 21st century has already crossed the total of the 20th century, despite advancements in science and sociology.

“Risk assessment and preparedness can mitigate effects of disasters to a great extent,” Gupta said. Gupta, a seismologist and a member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk programme as well as the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, is credited with developing India’s tsunami warning system.

In 1977, a cyclone caused 20,000 deaths on the east coast of India. In the years that followed, an early warning system was established, complete with meteorological radars and emergency plans. As a result fewer lives were lost — about 1,000 — when the same area was hit by a cyclone of similar strength in 1996, and again in 2005, when the death toll was just 27.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/faking-magnitude-8-in-the-himalayas-to-handle-earthquakes-better/1067579/0

IBM says it has tool to kill deadly drug-resistant superbugs

Hospital-acquired infections have become a major killer in the United States, mainly because the drug-resistant “superbugs” that cause them have proven nearly impossible to stop.

But now IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology say they have come up with what they’re calling an antimicrobial hydrogel that can successfully fight the superbugs that are behind killers like MRSA.

In an announcement today, IBM Research and its partner on the project said that their antimicrobial hydrogel was designed to cut through diseased biofilms and almost instantly kill off drug-resistant bacteria. The collaborators on the project said that the the synthetic drug is meant for combating the growing infection problems plaguing American hospitals, because it is non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable.

Normally, IBM said in its announcement, antimicrobials are used in standard household cleaners like alcohol and bleach. But those substances haven’t proved effective in fighting deadly skin infections like MRSA because antibiotics are becoming less effective and standard disinfectants aren’t meant for biological situations.

But the new hydrogel was created to be used in creams and other therapeutics that are meant for healing. The hydrogel can be applied to contaminated surfaces, and its positive charge instantly attracts the microbial membranes’ negative charge. The bacteria is then meant to be killed by what IBM termed membrane disruption, a step that staves off any kind of resistance to the hydrogel.

Although it’s not yet clear how this advancement will make its way into actual hospital and other relevant settings, research like this is meant to jump-start the commercial development of actual drugs and other therapies.



Source : http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57565551-76/ibm-says-it-has-tool-to-kill-deadly-drug-resistant-superbugs/

Ruchi Soya eyes 15% rise in FY13 revenues

Ruchi Group of Industries today said it is expecting up to 15 percent growth in revenue following high crushing, better margins and growth in soya meal exports.

“We are expecting 10-15 percent growth in sales this fiscal year mainly on account of  higher crushing, better margins through product innovations and increase in branded sales. Rise in soya meal exports will also help in boosting our revenue,” Ruchi Group of Industries Managing Director Dinesh Sahara told reporters here.

The company’s overall revenue in FY12 stood at Rs 26,000 crore.

Ruchi Group of Industries, which recently launched margarine, is planning to introduce more healthy options of edible oils in future, Sahara added.

Talking about exports, he said, the company is expecting to ship about 1.7-1.8 million tonne soya meal compared to 1.5 million tonne last year.

“We are expecting this rise in exports mainly due to higher global demand as the crops in South America was affected following drought,” he said.

On the soya bean production in the country this kharif season, he said, this year there is likely to be a record crop at about 10.5 to 11 million tonne and the arrivals will peak in mid-October.

“The late rainfall did not have any major impact either on the crop yield or the size and this will boost the overall soya bean meal exports to about 5 million tonne this crop year (October-September) from 4.5 million tonne last year,” Sahara said.

Rape seed or mustard crop is also likely to be 10-15 percent higher than last year at about 6.5 million tonne in this season mainly due to good rainfall and better soil condition in the producing areas, he said.

Last year, the overall mustard output was at 5.34 million tonne.

However, due to decline in production of groundnut and cotton seed the import is likely to be at 9.8 million tonne this oil year (November-October), which is yet to end, he said.

The overall demand, which is also growing at 5 percent yearly, will also add to the rise in imports, he added.

“In the next oil year we expect the overall imports to be half a million more than the current year,” he said.

Ankesh Shahra has been felicitated with the Global Young Entrepreneur Award

Ankesh Shahra has been felicitated with the Global Young Entrepreneur Award during the Annual Globoil Conference held in Mumbai on Monday, October 8. Member of Parliament and lawyer Ram Jethmalani handed over the award and citation to Shahra. Currently based in Singapore, Ankesh is managing the international businesses for Ruchi Soya. It includes establishing a cross-commodity global trading platform headquartered in Singapore, as well as implementing Ruchi Soya's backward integration strategy into agricultural plantations in Asia and Africa. Established in 1997 in India, Globoil - the Premier International Conference & Exhibition on Vegetable Oil, Feed & Feed Ingredients, and Oilseeds & Oleo Chemicals is an established annual feature and holds much value to the players in the vegetable oil trade and industry. Shahra said, "I am very grateful to the committee for their kind consideration, and realise the responsibilities that this award carries and look forward to fulfilling each and every one of them. Food security is indeed a prevalent global concern, and Ruchi is taking strategic steps towards ensuring competitive supply to India in the coming several years." Ankesh has a background in Finance, Economics and International Trade, and represents the third generation of the Shahra family that started the business conglomerate Ruchi Group. The Group has business interests across the sectors ranging from Edible oil, Soya foods, Steel, Dairy, Information technology, Realty and others.