Category: Science

Elon Musk overtakes Amazon’s Bezos to become world’s richest person

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk surpassed Amazon.com Inc’s top boss Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Including Thursday’s gains in Tesla shares, Musk, 49, had a net worth of more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, the report said.

Musk’s personal wealth has been boosted by last year’s more than eight-fold surge in the shares of Tesla, which became the world’s most valuable carmaker.

He has a 20% stake in the carmaker and about $42 billion of unrealized paper gains on vested stock options, according to the Bloomberg report.

Tesla shares were up as much as 7.4% on Thursday at a record high of $811.61.

The Forbes Billionaires List, however, said Musk still trails Amazon’s Bezos by $7.8 billion.

Forbes has a more conservative estimate based on the Tesla stake that he has pledged as a collateral for personal loans. To take that into account, it applies a 25% discount to his shareholding, according to its report in November.

Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal Holdings Inc, now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.

Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

He set up the Boring Company to make affordable tunnels below busy city streets for an all-electric public transportation system to avoid the nasty traffic jams in U.S. cities.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

UK scientists probe new coronavirus variant’s spread in children

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Scientists in the UK are investigating the impact of a new mutant variant of coronavirus, named VUI-202012/01, on children and whether its faster transmission in parts of England is down to the younger segment of the population.

The government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) is monitoring the data to analyse this arc of the variant, which has led over 40 countries, including India, to suspend travel to and from the UK in order to try and contain the more infectious mutation. Earlier strains of coronavirus found it harder to infect children than adults, with one explanation being that children have fewer of the doorways called the ACE2 receptor the virus uses to enter a human body’s cells.

Professor Wendy Barclay, from Nervtag and Imperial College London, said the mutations to the virus appeared to be making it easier to breach those doorways. “Therefore children are equally susceptible, perhaps, to this virus as adults, and therefore given their mixing patterns, you would expect to see more children being infected,” she explained.

Experts do not believe that the new version is any greater threat to children’s health and the scientist behind the world’s first approved vaccine against COVID-19 has said the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs will work against the strain, though further investigation remains underway. “The likelihood that our vaccine works is relatively high,” said Ugur Sahin, chief executive of the German co-developer of the vaccine BioNTech.

Speaking on Bild TV’ in Germany, Sahin said his company would investigate the mutation in the coming days and that he viewed the matter with a degree of soberness. His message of some confidence comes as the UK reached the half a million milestone for vaccinations of the jabs, delivered to the elderly and most vulnerable sections of the country’s population.

“I can today announce that over half a million people, more than 500,000 people in the UK, have now received their first dose,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at a 10 Downing Street briefing on Monday evening. “I find that a reason for hope and for confidence,” he said.

His address came as nearly 1,500 lorries piled up on the borders as France sealed off the UK amid fears of the new rapid spreading variant. Government ministers have been working to get the block lifted, with mass testing of the drivers being one option in order for the flow of goods to resume and truckers able to get back home in time for Christmas. “Testing of some sort is part of the discussions that the transport secretary is having with his counterpart in France right now,” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said.

“Getting those tests up and running can happen pretty quickly, but in terms of the details of that, that is something both the transport secretary and his counterpart will be discussing,” she said. From initial reports of the new variant being more confined to London and southern parts of England, the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has now confirmed that it is to be found “everywhere”. This would mean that a more nationwide stay-at-home lockdown might be on its way to add to the millions already under the Tier 4 level of the most stringent curbs and shutdown of businesses and activity.

Scotland Yard issued a statement urging the public to comply with the measures, which ban different households from mixing to try and curb the rapid spread of the deadly virus. “Our message is clear. Anyone who thinks the rules are there to be broken, ignored, or do not apply to them is very mistaken. The rules are that you should stay at home. It is for your safety, the safety of your family and friends, and the safety of your communities, said Commander Alex Murray, the Metropolitan Police lead for COVID.

The police forces across the UK have the authority to impose hefty fines for breaches of the rules and the most egregious cases can also lead to arrest. The warnings come as the UK registered a daily infections total of 33,364 on Monday, with the death rate from COVID-19 mounting to 67,616.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China Chang’e-5 moon probe lands back on Earth, says state media

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China’s Chang’e-5 moon probe has landed in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, the official Xinhua news agency reported, completing its return to Earth and bringing back the first lunar samples since the 1970s.

The return capsule touched down in the Siziwang, or Dorbod, banner of Inner Mongolia, in the early hours of Thursday local time, Xinhua said, citing the China National Space Administration.

The Chang’e-5 mission, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, was to collect lunar material to help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission tested China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

This makes China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, joining the United States and the Soviet Union.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China to launch moon probe this week, seeking first lunar rock retrieval since 1970s

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks in the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth’s natural satellite since the 1970s.

The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

If successful, the mission will make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the Soviet Union decades ago.

Since the Soviet Union crash-landed the Luna 2 on the moon in 1959, the first human-made object to reach another celestial body, a handful of other countries including Japan and India have launched moon missions.

In the Apollo programme, which first put men on the moon, the United States landed 12 astronauts over six flights from 1969 to 1972, bringing back 382 kg (842 pounds) of rocks and soil.

The Soviet Union deployed three successful robotic sample return missions in the 1970s. The last, the Luna 24, retrieved 170.1 grams (6 ounces) of samples in 1976 from Mare Crisium, or “Sea of Crises”.

China’s probe, scheduled to launch in coming days, will attempt to collect 2 kg (4 1/2 pounds) of samples in a previously unvisited area in a massive lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms”.

“The Apollo-Luna sample zone of the moon, while critical to our understanding, was undertaken in an area that comprises far less than half the lunar surface,” said James Head, a planetary scientist at Brown University.

Subsequent data from orbital remote sensing missions have shown a wider diversity of rock types, mineralogies and ages than represented in the Apollo-Luna sample collections, he said.

“Lunar scientists have been advocating for robotic sample return missions to these many different critical areas in order to address a host of fundamental questions remaining from earlier exploration,” Head said.

The Chang’e-5 mission may help answer questions such as how long the moon remained volcanically active in its interior and when its magnetic field – key to protecting any form of life from the sun’s radiation – dissipated.

THE MISSION

Once in the moon’s orbit, the probe will aim to deploy a pair of vehicles to the surface: a lander will drill into the ground, then transfer its soil and rock samples to an ascender that will lift off and dock with an orbiting module.

If this is successful, the samples will be transferred to a return capsule that will return them to Earth.

China made its first lunar landing in 2013. In January 2019, the Chang’e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon, the first by any nation’s space probe.

Within the next decade, China plans to establish a robotic base station to conduct unmanned exploration in the south polar region.

It is to be developed through the Chang’e-6，7 and 8 missions through the 2020s and expanded through the 2030s ahead of manned landings.

China plans to retrieve samples from Mars by 2030.

In July, China launched an unmanned probe to Mars in its first independent mission to another planet.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Aatmanirbhar Bharat 3.0: Government announces grant of Rs 900 crore for COVID-19 vaccine R&D

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday that the government will provide Rs 900 crore for research and development activities related to COVID-19 vaccine to The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology.

1️⃣2️⃣

₹ 900 crore is being provided to @DBTIndia for research activities related to #COVID19 vaccine development

This does not include cost of vaccine or logistics for vaccine distribution (whatever is required for that will be provided)

– @nsitharaman#AatmaNirbharBharat 3.0 pic.twitter.com/tKuD4h6VIq

— PIB in Maharashtra 🇮🇳 (@PIBMumbai) November 12, 2020

The announcement clarifies that this grant does not cover the actual cost of vaccine and distribution expenses, which will be made separately as and when the vaccine is available.

Excitement over the news of potentially effective vaccines for COVID-19 has been tempered by concerns over the logistical challenges of ensuring access to billions of people. Meanwhile, caseloads are rising, leading governments to re-instate restrictions on business and other activities to battle the pandemic.

Russia recently has claimed that its Sputnik V vaccine is 92 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, the country’s sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday, as Moscow rushed to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the race for a shot.

Russia’s results are only the second from a late-stage human trial, following on swiftly from data released on Monday by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, which said their shot was also more than 90 percent effective.

Please catch all the details of the new stimulus announcements here: FM Presser LIVE

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cabinet apprised of MoU between India, Spain for collaborations in astronomy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Union Cabinet was apprised on Wednesday of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Spain for scientific and technical collaborations in the field of astronomy.

The MoU was signed between Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the GRANTECAN, S.A. (GTC), Spain, a statement said.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was apprised of signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the GRANTECAN, S.A. (GTC), Spain to develop scientific and technical collaborations in the astronomy field, the statement said.

The activities to be carried out under this MoU will lead to new scientific results, new technologies, capacity building through increased scientific interaction and training, and joint scientific projects, it added.

The joint research projects, training programmes, conferences, seminars under the MoU will be open to all qualified scientists, students and technologists and will be supported solely on the basis of scientific merit and experience, it added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

This is why discovery of water on the Moon is so important

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed the discovery of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon.

The presence of water on the shadowed parts of the Moon was previously known to scientists; however, this discovery points to the fact that water may be distributed across the lunar surface — in more abundant quantities than previously thought.

Why is it so important?

The detection of molecular water and not just hydroxyl (as was previously known) has boosted NASA’s hopes of establishing a lunar base on our only natural satellite.

The lunar base aims to tap into the natural resources present on the Moon rather than making frequent round-trips to Earth.

However, before going on that path, researchers need to understand the nature of water on the Moon. Positive results in this direction would determine the accessibility for use, said Jacob Bleacher, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

The location of the lunar base would largely depend on where the water is.

Dr Hannah Sargeant, a planetary scientist from the Open University in Milton Keynes, told BBC News, this means developing “a more sustainable way of exploring space.”

A sustainable way of exploring space means using local resources from the Moon’s surface, and water is the primary resource.

What does it mean for us?

Further explaining the meaning of the discovery, Dr Sargeant said this discovery could broaden the list of places where NASA might want to build a base.

While the list of missions to the Moon’s polar regions is quite extensive, the plans to build a permanent habitation on the Moon’s surface is a long-term mission, quite an important one at that.

• More options

She said the team is already working on Moon base ideas and where the base would be located, this discovery – while does not give much time – gives more options. NASA is expecting to establish a base by the end of the decade.

• Lunar Economy

Experts say that this could form the basis of a future lunar economy once they figure out how to extract the water and ice.

• Cheaper fuel

Consequently, it would be much cheaper to make rocket fuel on the Moon rather than sending it from Earth.

In the future, if the explorers want to return to Earth, they can use hydrogen and oxygen as fuels to power space vehicles.

• Cheaper space travel

Re-fuelling at the Moon instead of coming all the way to Earth would bring down the cost of space travel, which would eventually make space travel more affordable. Moon could also be used as a rest-stop for further space explorations, changing the picture of space travel.

Meanwhile, Sputnik News has slamed NASA scientists for not realizing the fact that Soviet Union’s Luna 24 probe made this discovery in 1976.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Russia slams NASA, claims it already found water on Moon 50 years ago

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US space agency recently made a helluva announcement where they informed the world that they have discovered water on the moon’s surface.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) confirmed that for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon has been discovered by the space agency.

We just announced that – for the first time – we’ve confirmed H2O💧 in sunlit☀️ areas of the Moon. This indicates that water might be distributed across the lunar surface. https://t.co/Gn0DSu5K95

— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) October 26, 2020

For the 1st time, molecular water was discovered on a sunlit surface of the Moon, suggesting water may not be limited to cold, shadowed places. Goddard postdoc Dr. Casey Honniball, made the discovery using NASA’s @SOFIAtelescope airborne observatory. https://t.co/TUFKK8Rl9x pic.twitter.com/1wiy05yS4r

— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) October 26, 2020

Explaining the potential of the discovery and what it means for the scientists’ understanding of the moon so far, the agency tweeted, “This discovery challenges our understanding of how water behaves on the Moon. We thought that the water on the sunlit part of the Moon would have evaporated – but we found it! Now we must dig into how this water is created and how it persists.”

It said that the findings will also help NASA establish a lunar base by tapping into the Moon’s natural resources.

However, NASA’s pathbreaking discovery of water on the moon has not gone down well with Russia with its media agency Sputnik claiming that the discovery made by the US had in fact already been found by the USSR almost 50 years ago.

The Sputnik in its report alleged that “if NASA scientists had read a bit more work from their Soviet colleagues, they might have realized that the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 probe made this discovery in 1976.”

“The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dispatched dozens of probes to various objects in outer space, including the moon and Venus, making major contributions to humanity’s knowledge of the solar system. However, their work was often ill-read by Western scientists,” the media report said.

Talking about a paper published in 1978 in the journal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the media report said that the aforementioned report had pretty exhaustively explained the discovery of water on the lunar surface in the Mare Crisium crater.

The report further mentioned astronomy professor Arlin Crotts from the Columbia University, who had said that the soil samples brought from the moon back to Earth by the Luna 24 probe had shown using infrared absorption spectroscopy that the soil was composed of roughly 0.1 percent water by mass, with more water appearing further below the surface you went.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Alembic Pharma Q2 net profit up 35 pc at Rs 333 crore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Drug firm Alembic Pharmaceuticals on Thursday reported a 35.36 percent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 333.37 crore for the quarter ended September, mainly on account of robust sales.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 246.27 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Alembic Pharma said in a filing to BSE.

Consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,457.10 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 1,240.87 crore for the same period a year ago, it added.

“It was a strong quarter for the company, led by growth in the domestic business. The International and API Business, also continued to perform well,” Alembic Pharmaceuticals MD Pranav Amin said.

Shares of Alembic Pharmaceuticals ended at Rs 1,011.60 on BSE, up 1.46 percent from its previous close.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow