MURCIA, Spain – Spanish scientists have launched a new project in a bid to save the noble pen shell or mollusc (Pinna nobilis), a critically endangered species that purifies water naturally, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Endangered Species. The species is endemic — which means that it can only be found there — to the Mediterranean Sea. They play a key role in the ecosystem due to their water filtration abilities. Their numbers have dropped dramatically over the last few years due to overfishing, of their natural habitat, and because of poachers taking…
Author: zenger.news
“My eyes have been burning for the past three days due to smoke from the Similipal Biosphere Reserve fire that started around Feb. 24,” Sudhanshu Khandapatra, 31, of a village in the Mayurbhanj district of eastern Indian state Odisha, told Zenger News. His village, Jayantipatta Samil Jamudiha, at the foothills of Thakurmunda mountain ranges is less than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the forest fire site. He is clueless about how he will save his two small children. “They have been crying constantly due to the discomfort,” Khandpatra, who ekes out his living by making paper plates along with his wife,…
The Supreme Court of India on March 5 said the new guidelines issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to regulate web streaming platforms have “no teeth” as there is no provision of prosecution for non-compliance of rules. The Supreme Court also said that a law must be framed to put in place a mechanism to control these streaming platforms instead of mere guidelines. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued the guidelines last week to monitor content on social media and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and others. Under these rules, the streaming platforms — known as over-the-top…
Imagine a 19th Century house with Burmese teak pillars and doors, marble tiles from Italy and ceiling tiles from Spain, chandeliers from Portugal, and mirrors from Belgium. You could let your hair down in one such house in the village cluster known as Chettinad in the southern state of Tamil Nadu this summer. Better still: these villages are not overrun with tourists as it is still relatively off the radar. About 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the southern metropolis of Chennai, these villages have been nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List because of these palaces and bungalows. “The…
The Indian fashion industry’s most famous falling-out has come to an end. After 15 years of holding separate biannual fashion weeks, fashion industry bodies Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and RISE Worldwide (formerly IMG Reliance), and beauty major Lakmé have called a truce. The trio announced on March 1 they would be holding a joint “phygital” (physical and virtual) FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week from March 16-21. This collaboration is for just this season for now. The opening show of the FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week on March 16 will be presented by leading Indian designer Anamika Khanna. In 2006, corporate biggies IMG Reliance and…
About 600 million years ago, the Dickinsonia — a flattened oval creature that was one of the earliest multicellular lifeforms on earth — roamed the rocky regions in central India. Now, a group of scientists has discovered its fossils on the roof of the UNESCO heritage Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. The Dickinsonia lived during the late Ediacaran Period (635-541 million years ago) and comes right before the Cambrian Period — “the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record”, according to experts. It was once believed that the first and oldest fossil animals were to…
CHENNAI, India — When Krish Ashok, a technologist and food science enthusiast based out of Chennai, shared pictures of his father and great-grandmother, animated through a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool with the senior members in his family, they were deeply moved. “They were shaken by what they saw,” Ashok told Zenger News. Deep Nostalgia, which animates old photos, is the latest AI tool that has taken the Internet by storm. But, it has also sparked a conversation about the ethical implications of such tools — and not everyone is comfortable with it. The video reenactment technology’s web-based version was overrun by eager…
“Space has always intrigued me,” said Diya Dadoo, an eighth-grade Indian student who recently detected an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. “To know that a small contribution of mine has been noted in astronomical history makes me extremely happy.” She is one of the 24 Indian school students who detected 18 new asteroids as part of a global astronomical project ‘International Asteroid Discovery Project’, according to the International Astronomical Union. The project was conducted by India-based learning organization STEM and Space along with International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen science project by NASA. “Locating the asteroids was quite a difficult task. We used…
NEW YORK — More than 50 years ago, three members of a paramilitary, radical leftist group were killed in New York City when bombs they were building accidentally detonated. The 1970 explosion leveled a townhouse in Greenwich Village on West 11 Street and killed Weather Underground members Terry Robbins, 22, Ted Gold, 22, and Diana Oughton, 28. Two other members, Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson, escaped the carnage and disappeared. Authorities later learned the bombs, which included more than 57 sticks of dynamite and a 1916 Civil War anti-tank shell, were being constructed to target an Army’ dance at nearby Fort…
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — As demand for secure water increases, a team of international hydrogeologists has developed the first open-access map of the rate of groundwater recharge in Africa. They believe it will help to sustain water supplies on the continent. “Recharge rates are a key component for assessing groundwater development potential, but have not been mapped across Africa, other than from global models,” the researchers state in their study. “Here, we quantify long-term average distributed groundwater recharge rates across Africa for the period 1970–2019 from 134 ground-based estimates and upscaled statistically.” Professor Alan M. MacDonald, principal hydrogeologist at the British Geological…