Age is indeed just a number when someone is determined to follow their passion or adopt a new habit. Standing up to this phrase, an 89-year-old Japanese man became the oldest man to hit the waves and surf.
Seiichi Sano, who will turn 90 this year, has made it to the Guinness World Records after surfing for less than 10 years, and he is not yet ready to take a rest. Seiichi was 88 years and 288 days old when he was registered and verified as the world’s oldest surfer by the record-keeping organisation on 8 July 2022. Notably, this is not the only feat that he has achieved in his golden years. Seiichi also climbed the highest mountain in Japan, Mount Fuji at the age of 80.
Speaking about his interest in surfing, Seiichi shared that he is not keen on mastering the skill but does it just for enjoyment. There are times when he simply enjoys sitting on the board and taking in the view.
“You do it for three days, then you take a break, and you do it again for three days, and so on. If you go into new things with a mindset that you don’t have to continue trying forever, I think most people actually continue for a very long time,” he said further.
He also expressed his wish to contribute to his hometown and influence more people by becoming a world record holder.
How did Seiichi Sano end up becoming a surfer in his 80s?
Born on 23 September 1933 in Hokkaido, Seiichi later moved to Tokyo where he did his schooling and then took up several odd jobs. He eventually started his own business which took most of his years.
After turning 80, Seiichi started trying new things in his life, including the attempt to climb Mount Fuji. As soon as he accomplished that, he decided to try out surfing and there he was in front of a beach with a surfboard and a wet suit.
Since then, he has been regularly riding the waves, even in the chilly winter months. “People tell me surfing is dangerous, but I had far more scary moments in a car than on a surfboard!”, he said.
Cash-strapped Pakistan has started the process to outsource three airports in a bid to generate foreign exchange reserves, The News said in a report.
The decision has been taken by the country’s Economic Coordination Committee.
The airports that will be outsourced are the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, and the Islamabad International Airport, the report added.
The committee under finance minister Ishaq Dar kick-started the outsourcing process of three airports within the scope of the Public-Private Partnership Act-2017 to engage private investors/airport operators through a competitive and transparent process to run the airports, develop appertaining land assets and enhance avenues for commercial activities and to garner full revenue potential, the report added.
The report also added that Pakistan’s aviation sector is struggling with the national carrier accumulating losses of nearly 400 billion Pakistani rupees.
New Delhi: Ukrainian Minister of Energy German Galushchenko has said that major oil companies have made record profits due to the conflict in Ukraine and should pay to rebuild the country’s war-torn infrastructure.
The minister told Politico that oil and gas majors have generated windfall profits of over $200 billion due to wild swings in global energy prices, and should transfer some of those funds to Ukraine.
“A lot of energy companies get enormous windfall profits due to the war. So we estimated this at more than $200 billion,” Galushchenko said on a visit to Brussels. “They get this money because we are fighting, because of the war.”
Galushchenko also argued the West needed to close sanctions loopholes on Russian energy sales to prevent an “endless war” in Ukraine, and said Kyiv could provide alternative nuclear fuel so some EU countries could wean themselves off their dependence on Russian supplies.
According to the report, he warned that Moscow would be able to wage a perpetual war in Ukraine for as long as the Kremlin is able to rake in cash from selling fossil fuels.
Despite sanctions against Russian oil imports imposed by the EU and a price cap set by the G7 club of rich democracies, he warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was still finding ways to beat international embargoes.
“If on one side you’re trying to restrict them and on the other you’re giving them opportunities, you’ll allow them to make endless war,” he complained, arguing the Kremlin was using its energy export earnings “not to help Russian people to live better” but “to produce weapons” and keep the war going.
“This money costs Ukrainian lives,” he told Politico.
Sanctions sent energy prices soaring
Sanctions imposed on Russia by the West over the past year in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine have sent energy prices soaring.
The sanctions were imposed after Moscow recognised the independence of its puppet states, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, on 21 February 2022 in a speech by Vladimir Putin.
With the commencement of attacks on 24 February 2022, a large number of other countries began applying sanctions with the aim of devastating the Russian economy.The sanctions were wide-ranging, targeting individuals, banks, businesses, monetary exchanges, bank transfers, exports, and imports.
The sanctions included cutting off major Russian banks from SWIFT, the global messaging network for international payments, although there would still be limited accessibility to ensure the continued ability to pay for gas shipments.
Sanctions also included asset freezes on the Russian Central Bank, which holds $630 billion in foreign-exchange reserves,to prevent it from offsetting the impact of sanctions and implicated the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
By 1 March 2022, the total amount of Russian assets frozen by sanctions amounted to $1 trillion.
Oil majors record combined profit of $196.3 bn
In 2022, oil majors Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and TotalEnergies posted a combined profit of $196.3 billion, marking an all-time high for the industry.
“I think it would be fair to share this money with Ukraine. I mean, to help us to restore, to rebuild the energy sector,” Galushchenko said, adding that the record profits had been achieved purely because of the conflict in his country.
According to the latest assessment by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the UN, the estimated cost of the country’s reconstruction and recovery will be over $400 billion.
New Delhi: UK’s security minister Tom Tugendhat has come up with a plan wherein the country’s intelligence services will use information compiled by artificial intelligence to help detect foreign threats that might be overlooked by humans.
Tugendhat said a new government department – the Open Source Intelligence Hub (OSINT) – will use information gathered from open sources to assist its more traditional intelligence services, MI5 and MI6.
Lessons from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine have shown how information from open sources can help identify threats, provided analysts are not swamped by data, Tugendhat said.
“Traditional spying will still lift the curtain on the plans of our enemies,” The Telegraph quoted Tugendhat as saying. “We still need to listen and look where they want to hide,” he added.
He said that “intelligence has changed” over the past decade, prompting the UK’s intelligence services to devise new methods to identify and eliminate foreign threats.
The new hub will also add “richness and detail” to existing methods of information gathering, he said.
According to the report, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will put the formal plans, which are yet to be established, in place in May.
Not spying on British public
Tugendhat stressed the new unit would not be used to spy on the British public.
“There’s a whole series of ways in which people are putting information out there,” he told The Telegraph.
“This isn’t a question of the government sucking everything in, but rather, understanding what’s already out there. Most intelligence is about shaping an argument and in a democracy that has to be done publicly.
“If you look at what we did in the run up to Ukraine, we opened up a lot of intelligence to partners around the world, but also to people in the UK…to explain what we were seeing, why we thought the build up of Russian forces was credible, why it was genuinely a threat to Ukraine and why we were taking it so seriously.
“We had to do things that intelligence agencies don’t traditionally do, which was to declassify and open up (information).
“What became obvious was that it didn’t need to be secret intelligence that was declassified.
“We need to find ways in which we can point out what’s really happening in the world, to people who need to know it. In a democracy, that means our citizens in ways that are usable,” he added.
The move comes a little more than two weeks after UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set aside £3.5 billion ($4.3 billion) in the government’s budget to fund programs in London’s science and technology sectors, which he predicted last year would transform it into a tech “superpower.”
Targeting Russian disinformation
The minister said the new unit will also target disinformation from Russia and elsewhere, fact-checking and calling out lies aimed at targeting British society.
“We’re seeing our security undermined by the attempt to tear us apart, to spread disinformation, to spread lies in our communities,” Tugendhat said.
“We see it through social media channels and we’re aware that some social media channels give control to foreign states, who could in theory use it to promote divisive or problematic campaigns that would tear us apart,” Tugendhat told The Telegraph.
Donald Trump has made history. Perhaps not in the way he would have liked to. On Thursday, he became the first United States president to be indicted in a criminal case. A Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him for his role in a five-year-old scandal: the $130,000 (Rs 1.06 crore) hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump released a statement shortly after the news of the indictment broke, calling it a ‘witch hunt’ and saying it was a move by the Democrats to interfere with his 2024 bid for president. “This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump wrote in his statement. “The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.”
According to Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina, the former US president is expected to surrender to Manhattan authorities next week. Moreover, he would be arraigned as soon as Tuesday, reported ABC News.
But what exactly is the case all about? Still confused why Trump was indicted? Read on to understand the matter better.
When Trump and Stormy Daniels met
The seeds of Donald Trump’s indictment by the Manhattan district attorney’s office were planted 17 years ago, at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada, where he met famous porn star Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) in July 2006.
According to Daniels, Trump — who was then the star of the reality show The Apprentice — invited her to his hotel room dinner. As they chatted, he told her he could make her a guest on his show, and the evening turned intimate. Trump denies that any of that occurred.
She adds that they met on two more occasions, but never got intimate and then she eventually stopped taking his calls.
In 2016, when Donald Trump was running for president, Daniels’ agent approached media outlets, including The National Enquirer, to sell her story. At first, there were no takers for her story.
Trump’s indictment stems over payments his lawyer made to adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, about an alleged affair between the two. File image/Reuters
Then a tape released in which Trump, unwittingly on a live microphone, was recorded describing in lewd terms how he groped women. Realising that claims of him being unfaithful to his wife would derail his chances of becoming president, Trump’s then lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through a shell company he had set up. He was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
According to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against Cohen in connection with the payments in 2018, Trump’s company “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for the Daniels payment to cover tax payments.
Cohen said Trump directed him to arrange the Daniels payment. Federal prosecutors say the payments amounted to illegal, unreported assistance to Trump’s campaign. They argued that since this money was spent to help Trump win the election, it should have been disclosed as campaign spending and subject to legal limits on donations.
Charges against Trump
The indictment has not yet been unsealed, so it’s not totally clear. However, sources close to the case were quoted as telling CNN that Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
The former US president has denied any wrongdoing and even refutes knowing Stormy Daniels. His sons — Eric and Donald Trump Jr — both reacted after the indictment, calling it ‘an opportunistic targeting of a political opponent’.
This is third world prosecutorial misconduct. It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.
Our corrupt elites aren't threatened by violent criminals on the streets because all of them have private security. They don't care if normal people are being terrorized. But they are threatened by Trump, which is why they're willing to turn us into a Banana Republic to stop him! https://t.co/y5TdrdT2K7
Predictably, top Republican leaders and some of the party’s most loyal Trump allies jumped to his defence after the indictment.
Former US vice president Mike Pence, who has been critical of his former political partner, said that the “decision today is a great disservice to the country and the idea that for the first time in American history a former president would be indicted on a campaign finance issue to me, it just smacks of political prosecution”.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement said: “Mr Trump is subject to the same laws as every American. He will be able to avail himself of the legal system and a jury, not politics, to determine his fate according to the facts and the law. There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case. I encourage both Mr Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and according to the law.”
And what about Stormy Daniels, who has been at the centre of this storm. Following the indictment, she tweeted a two-word response — “Thank you”.
Trump followers stand in support after the news that he has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury near Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. AP
What comes next
Trump will be arraigned and the dates for the case will be set. According to reports, this will happen next week.
CBS News’ legal analyst Rikki Klieman said that Trump will experience the usual steps like fingerprinting, being photographed for a mugshot, and appearing in court, but “not the way it usually happens.”
“Donald Trump will also be surrendering by arrangement with the district attorney's office, and he will be surrounded by his Secret Service agents, as he always is, because he’s entitled to that protection as a former president,” Klieman said.
“Trump will then be processed. He will have a mugshot. He will get a booking number. He will give fingerprints... and ultimately whether or not he will be handcuffed is discretionary for the police, in this case the NYPD,” Klieman added. “If he is with Secret Service people, there is no need to handcuff him to bring him into the courtroom to be arraigned.”
Preparations are being put in place for the next steps — security barriers have already been set up around the Manhattan courthouse and the district attorney's office for more than a week.
Additionally, police officials have been put on alert in the event of any protests.
An anti-Trump protester holds signs outside Manhattan Criminal Court after former US president Donald Trump's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury. Reuters
And the trial begins…
A trial in the case would be more than a year away, meaning it would possibly take place in 2024 — the presidential election year.
Analysts say that Trump will use the matter for political leverage and boost his support among his loyalists. The former president is expected to target Alvin Bragg and President Joe Biden — which may help him in the elections.
Today’s date i.e., 31 March commemorates the beginnings and endings of a number of historic events that may have had a significant impact on people or changed history. While the USS Missouri was decommissioned for a second and final time on this date, the famous Eiffel Tower was also inaugurated on 31 March 1889. All of these events have left a major impact on world history, thus making it significant for people to know about them in detail. Speaking of which, let’s check the timeline of these historical events that took place on this date in the past.
31 March: Historical events
1889 – Eiffel Tower was inaugurated
Right after ending its construction work, the 984-foot Eiffel Tower was inaugurated in Paris on this date back in 1889. Created by Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the tower, it was finished in a record time of 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days.
1918 – Daylight Saving Time went into operation
In a sequence of events that took place in March 1918, after the Standard Time Act was passed by Congress and was later signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the US for the first time.
1931 – Nicaragua earthquake
A 6.1-moment magnitude struck Nicaragua’s capital city Managua on 31 March 1931 which caused major damage and a widespread fire. This also destroyed several buildings and further led to the death of over 2,000 people.
1968 – Lyndon B. Johnson’s withdrawal speech
In a shocking announcement, then-US President Lyndon B Johnson on 31 March 1968 stunned the nation by informing that he no longer was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president.
1992 – USS Missouri was decommissioned
On this date back in 1992, the 887-foot USS Missouri was decommissioned for a second and final time. A historic day that met with pride and sadness, the ship was also the last U.S. battleship still in service.
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Russia wants to promote cross-border trade settlement with India in INR. Here’s why
New Delhi: Russia wants to promote cross-border trade settlement with India in rupee. Moscow said transaction in Indian rupees and rubles creates “much more stable platform” for its companies and diminishes losses faced while settling payment in US dollar and euro.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Russia-India business forum programme in New Delhi, head of the department for external economic and international relations of Moscow, Sergey Cheryomin, said: “We have to promote trades in rupees and rubles because it creates much more stable platform for our companies. Nowadays, they have a lot of doubts for the cross-border transactions.”
De-dollarisation need of the hour
Cheryomin went on to say that settling of international trade using dollar and euro bring lot of losses. “You lose commission, sometime money is blocked, sometime compliance is not giving commission for the transactions that really hampers bilateral trade,” told news agency ANI.
He said banks of both Russia and India should be “more active” in establishing a relationship with each other.
In July last year, India’s central bank – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – had introduced an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/imports in INR.
The rupee trade mechanism will help in internationalising the Indian rupee in the long run. A currency can be termed “international” when it is widely accepted worldwide as a medium of exchange.
Cheryomin further said trade between Russia and India has been “stably growing” and is expected to reach $50 billion or more.
For the unversed, Russia is among 18 countries that have granted approval to “domestic and foreign AD (Authorised Dealer) banks in 60 cases for opening SRVAs of banks from 18 nations” for settling payments in Indian rupees.
Cheryomin said cooperation between Indian payment system RuPay and Russia’s Mir are bright and would give fillip to tourism.
“We have very good prospects in cooperation between the Russian payment system Mir and the Indian payment system RuPay. We have to use both platforms for that, especially that can boost tourism between countries,” Cheryomin said.
Cheryomin was speaking at the Russia-India business forum programme in New Delhi.
Speaking about India’s G20 presidency, Cheryomin said, “India has a very good perspective in assembling different opinions and moderating the conversation between G20 countries and especially in the field of cooperation between huge metropolis.”
He said Russia thinks that it has good perspectives for promoting its experience for G20 cities in smart cities, safe city solutions in education and healthcare in sustainable development.
New Delhi: Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday said that Moscow has stopped sharing detailed information on its nuclear weapons with the US as outlined in the New START treaty, even as Russia’s military began drills with its Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers in Siberia.
According to an Aljazeera report, citing Russian news agencies, Ryabkov said Moscow had halted all information exchanges with Washington after suspending its participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the treaty, saying Moscow could not accept US inspections of its nuclear sites under the agreement when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.
“There will be no notifications at all,” said Ryabkov when asked if Moscow would also stop issuing notices about planned missile tests.
“All notifications, all kinds of notifications, all activities within the framework of the treaty will be suspended and will not be conducted regardless of what position the US may take,” he added.
US stops sharing nuke data
The US had on Tuesday said that it would cease providing Moscow with detailed data on its nuclear weapons stockpiles in response to Russia’s suspension of participation in New START.
“Russia has not been in full compliance and refused to share data which we … agreed in New START to share biannually,” Al Jazeera quoted John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesperson, as saying.
“Since they have refused to be in compliance … we have decided to likewise not share that data,” he added.
Speculation that Ryabkov’s comments on Wednesday might also refer to Russia’s suspension of information on ballistic missile launches – a hugely provocative move – under the 1988 agreement was quickly discounted.
Pavel Podvig, an expert on Russian nuclear forces, tweeted that Ryabkov’s reference to the termination of notices in the context of New START indicated that Russia will keep issuing them in conformity with the 1988 pact.
‘Russia’s refusal to comply legally invalid’
The White House, which has previously accused Russia of multiple violations of the treaty, has said Russia’s refusal to comply is “legally invalid” and the decision to withhold the nuclear data is yet another violation.
Despite being extended shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January, 2021, New START has been severely tested by Russia’s war in Ukraine and has been on life support for more than a month since Putin announced Russia would no longer comply with its requirements.
The treaty, which then-Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed in 2010, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.
The inspections have been dormant since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussions on resuming them were supposed to have taken place in November 2022, but Russia abruptly called them off, citing US support for Ukraine. In February, Russia formally suspended it participation in the treaty.
A federal court decided yesterday that Google purposefully destroyed evidence and must be sanctioned, rejecting the company’s claim that it was not required to automatically keep private chats involving workers subject to a judicial hold.
US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco said in his order that Google “fell strikingly short” in its duties to preserve records. The ruling is part of a multidistrict litigation that includes a consumer class action with as many as 21 million residents; 38 states and the District of Columbia, and companies including Epic Games Inc and Match Group LLC.
Google to be sanctioned? “Following substantial briefing by both sides and an evidentiary hearing that included witness testimony and other evidence, the Court concludes that sanctions are warranted,” wrote US District Judge James Donato. Later in the decision, he wrote that “Google intended to subvert the discovery process, and that Chat evidence was ‘lost with the intent to prevent its use in litigation’ and ‘with the intent to deprive another party of the information’s use in litigation.”
He claimed that Google’s internal conversations released in answer to a court order last month “provided additional evidence of highly spotty practises in response to the litigation hold notices.” Donato, for example, cited a freshly produced conversation in which “an employee said he or she was ‘on legal hold,’ but preferred to keep chat history off.”
Donato’s decision came in a multi-district collusion case involving Epic Games, the attorney generals of 38 states and the District of Columbia, Match Group, and a class of customers. The case is being tried in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs claim that “Google illegally monopolised the Android app distribution market by engaging in exclusionary conduct, which has harmed the different plaintiff groups in various ways,” according to Donato.
Google lied in court, destroyed evidence, says Judge According to Donato’s decision, Google gave false information to the court and litigants about its private chat auto-deletion practices. Unless individual document custodians allow the “history-on” option, Google deletes chat communications every 24 hours.
In this instance, 383 Google workers are susceptible to the legal hold, with approximately 40 of them named as custodians. The court noted that Google could have set the chat history to “on” as the default for all those workers but decided not to.
“In an October 2020 case management statement, Google falsely assured the Court that it had ‘taken appropriate steps to preserve all evidence relevant to the issues reasonably evident in this action,’ without mentioning Chats or its decision not to pause the 24-hour default deletion,” Donato wrote. “Google did not disclose the Chat practises to the plaintiffs until October 2021, many months after the plaintiffs first inquired about them.”
Another “major concern,” according to Donato, is the “intentionality manifested at every level within Google to hide at the ball with respect to Chat.” Individual users were aware of the litigation risks and appreciated Chat’s ‘off the record’ feature, as previously addressed. Google, as a business, had the capability of preserving all Chat communications systemwide once litigation had begun, but chose not to do so, without any consideration of financial expenses or other considerations that might have helped to explain that decision.”
Google could be sanctioned in another case as well Google could be sanctioned and also face penalties in a completely different antitrust lawsuit filed by the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Last month, the US requested penalties, claiming that “Google’s daily destruction of written records prejudiced the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid discussions between Google’s executives, including likely trial witnesses.”
Following Google’s decision in Northern California federal court yesterday, a US Department of Justice attorney filed a notification of penalties with the DC-based court. Google is also opposing the motion for sanctions in that instance.
New Delhi: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is likely to work out portfolio-sharing ahead of possible ministerial appointments today.
According to a report in the Kathmandu Post, ” A meeting of the alliance on Wednesday finalised the numbers of the ministries to be led by the nine parties, according to leaders involved in the negotiations.”
“The prime minister is said to be doing homework to present a tentative division of ministerial portfolios at Thursday’s meeting,” the report added.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal got a vote of confidence for the second time in 70 days, this time with a different set of coalition partners.
He secured 172 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives. Other 89 lawmakers voted against him whereas one abstained.
Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, CPN-Unified Socialist, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and Aam Janata Party voted in his favour. CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party voted against him. Nepal Workers and Peasants Party abstained.
Dahal on Sunday exuded confidence that he will comfortably win a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives.
Dahal, 68, sought a vote of confidence as two parties in the seven-party alliance – Rastriya Prajatantra Party and CPN-UML – withdrew support to his government. They refused to endorse Prachanda’s proposal to back Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel for the post of president.
Dahal, who was sworn in as the country’s Prime Minister in December, comfortably passed the first floor test on January 10 with 268 votes after all parties except the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha voted in favour of the government.
Think that Tyrannosaurus rex was the largest dinosaur to have ever roamed the surface of the earth? Well, London’s Natural History Museum is now displaying the remains of the largest dinosaur ever discovered, and no, it isn’t the T-Rex.
People have always been fascinated by dinosaurs, mainly thanks to theJurassic Parkmovies. However, because most people learnt about dinosaurs from a series of films released over 20 or so odd years ago, their knowledge of dinosaurs is very limited, unless of course, they are into palaeontology in some way.
Meet the titan – Patagotitan mayorum The Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur is the heaviest mammal ever to roam our world, weighing 57 tonnes and extending 121 feet from head to tail. The sheer size of this titanosaur, named Patagotitan mayorum, makes other prehistoric species look puny.
That necessitated meticulous planning by museum specialists, who could only just accommodate the replica skeleton inside their huge 30ft-high Waterhouse Gallery. The species was discovered in 2010 by an Argentine farmer who discovered a massive dinosaur bone sticking out of the arid ground.
It turned out to be a femur or the main bone from the thigh. The femur from the Patagotitan measures nearly 8ft long and weighs around 500 kilogrammes on its own.
Approximately 280 bones from six Patagotitan people were gathered and merged to form a nearly complete skeleton. Argentina’s experts used 3D scanners to create a digital duplicate before making a life-sized version out of polyester resin and fibreglass.
The valuable cargo was transported in 32 boxes and two aircraft to the Natural History Museum, where it will now make its European premiere.
Setting up the display When it walked the Earth 101 million years ago, a real-life Patagotitan would have weighted the equal of nine African elephants, but its replica skeleton is only a fraction of the weight. At 2.67 tonnes, however, extreme caution was still required when setting up the display.
Professor Paul Barrett, the museum’s chief dinosaur expert, explained, “It’s so big, we had to reinforce the floor.”
Part of the discussion about how it fits in the area revolved around where to place it in relation to the strongest sections of the floor. “In an exhibition, the centrepiece is typically the last item that goes in, but we had to put this first and then construct everything around it,” said Barrett
“But it’s just amazing, utterly stunning,” she says. “I’m used to seeing big dinosaur bones, but seeing this is a real, breathtaking experience for me.” she added
“It’s the biggest dinosaur ever on exhibit here,” says the curator. And not just any dinosaur, but one of the candidates for the title of largest animal ever to exist.
The display also includes the original Patagotitan femur bone, a fossilised egg, and even fossilised faeces, all of which help viewers comprehend what life was like for the world’s largest dinosaur. A close-up of one of the tailbones shows a deep scrape caused by a sharp tooth cutting through the titanosaur’s skin and into the tailbone.
Scientists are unsure whether this gouge was made during an assault by a predator – most likely a big carnivorous beast called Tyrannotitan – or by a scavenger after it perished.
Life of a Patagotitan Being such a massive beast necessitated a massive food, and Patagotitans consumed 129kg of rough, spiky vegetation every day, the equal of 516 round lettuces. Experts think this ancient beast filled its cavernous maw before gulping down leaves whole because animals that chewed their food could not have such a lengthy neck.
“Throughout the exhibition, we explore how these relatively unknown dinosaurs were able to exist at such an astonishing size, and we hope visitors will revel in the childlike delight that comes with standing next to a creature like Patagotitan,” said Dr Alex Burch, Director of Public Programmes at the museum.
“To see it is to be humbled by the natural world’s overwhelming grandeur and dynamism,” he added.
The museum’s curators hope that the display will inspire people to safeguard the world’s largest animals. “There is nothing that comes close to Patagotitan roaming the Earth today, so in this instance, seeing is believing,” Dr Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum.
From elephants and rhinoceros to blue whales, the big creatures we share the world with today continue to play important ecological roles, but they are increasingly at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and other catastrophic human effects,” he added.
The show will be available to the public from March 31, 2023 to January 20, 2024.
Kyiv: Russian private mercenary army Wagner Group has reportedly captured the AZOM industrial complex in the northern part of the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces have advanced into another five percent of the city of Bakhmut over the last seven days, which is located in the Donetsk Oblast region in eastern Ukraine. The Russian military currently occupies around 65 percent of the city of Bakhmut.
The ISW quoted Russian military bloggers who claimed on March 28 that fighters belonging to the Wagner Group had captured the AZOM complex in Bakhmut.
The claim by the Russian military bloggers are “relatively consistent” with geolocated footage that confirms the presence of Russian forces at the complex.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group acknowledged on Wednesday that fighting for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut had inflicted severe damage on his own forces as well as the Ukrainian side.
Bakhmut, a small city in eastern Ukraine that has for months been the target of an offensive by Russia, has seen intense fighting and destruction in what has become the longest, bloodiest battle of the war. The Wagner Group of Russia has played a crucial role in the fighting.
“The battle for Bakhmut today has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army, and unfortunately, it has also badly damaged the Wagner Private Military Company,” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message.
Russian officials say their forces are still capturing ground in street-by-street fighting inside Bakhmut, but have so far failed to encircle it and force the Ukrainians to withdraw, as had seemed likely weeks ago.
British military intelligence said on Wednesday the Ukrainians had successfully pushed the Russians back from one of the city’s main supply routes.
GitHub, the Microsoft-owned hosting company, has cut off its complete engineering staff in India, affecting roughly 142 engineering positions across its Indian operations.
Although the business has not formally disclosed the number of workers laid off, it has confirmed the action. “Workforce reductions were made today as part of difficult but necessary decisions and realignments to both protect the health of our business in the short term and grant us the capacity to invest in our long-term strategy moving forward,” GitHub said in an official statement.
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke sent an email to workers explaining why the engineering team was being laid off and revealing new budgetary realignments.
Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, sent an email to workers explaining the layoffs and defending the steps. “We are announcing a number of difficult decisions, including the departure of some Hubbers and the implementation of new budgetary realignments, designed to protect our business’s short-term health while also allowing us to invest in our long-term strategy,” Dohmke wrote in an email.
In the same email, he also stated that the business will prioritise AI integration “with urgency.” “The age of AI has begun, and we have been at the forefront of this transformation with GitHub Copilot, our most successful product launch to date.” “With urgency, we have an enormous opportunity to build an integrated, AI-powered GitHub,” the communication stated.
This is not the first time GitHub has instituted layoffs; the business revealed a 10% workforce reduction just last month. The business has also put a stop to new hires until further notice.
GitHub’s Indian engineering team was the company’s second-largest coder group after the US, and the cuts are anticipated to have a major effect on the company’s operations in India. Despite the cutbacks, GitHub remains dedicated to its long-term plan and the integration of artificial intelligence into its platform.
Furthermore, it is claimed that the layoff was not based on employee performance; rather, the entire team was requested to resign. “The entire engineering staff was requested to depart. Hundreds of engineers were affected. “It had nothing to do with performance,” the insider added. In lieu of severance pay which was calculated as two months’ salary,, all laid-off workers were required to execute a stringent Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
India, China and its borders continue to be a perennial issue. And now the recent comments made by the prime minister of Bhutan on the matter has left New Delhi wary. Experts are now wondering if Bhutan’s Lotay Tshering may be taking a more pragmatic approach to the border dispute, potentially at India’s expense.
Let’s take a closer look at what Bhutan’s Lotay Tshering said and the possible implications of his statement.
What the Bhutan PM said
Speaking to Belgian daily La Libre while on a state visit to Germany, Bhutan prime minister Lotay Tshering commented on the Doklam plateau dispute as well as the presence of Chinese villages inside Bhutan.
On the matter of Doklam, Tshering said, “It is not up to Bhutan alone to solve the problem. “There are three of us. There is no big or small country, there are three equal countries, each counting for a third.”
He added, “We are ready. As soon as the other two parties are ready too, we can discuss.”
In the same interview, Lotay Tshering also addressed the reports of China building villages inside Bhutan’s borders. The Himalayan kingdom’s prime minister claimed that these purported settlements do not fall in Bhutanese territory. “A lot of information is circulating in the media about Chinese facilities in Bhutan. We are not making a (big) deal about them because they are not in Bhutan. We have said it categorically, there is no intrusion as mentioned in the media. This is an international border and we know exactly what belongs to us.”
On the same issue, he added, “We are not experiencing major border problems with China, but some territories have not yet been demarcated. After one or two more meetings, we will probably be able to draw a dividing line.”
Bhutan has historically maintained close relations with India, but the recent statement is an indication that Thimphu may be veerign towards China. File image/PTI
Why these comments are worrying
Let’s break down what the Bhutan prime minister said and why his statements would not be of comfort for New Delhi.
Lotay Tshering said that the Doklam plateau issue is one that needs to be resolved by three parties — India, Bhutan and China.
The Doklam plateau has been a point of contention between India and China and was also the site where the troops of both nations were involved in a tense standoff lasting more than two months in 2017. Indian soldiers had entered the Doklam plateau to prevent China extending a road that it was illegally constructing in the direction of Mount Gipmochi and an adjoining hill feature called the Jhampheri ridge.
For years, the tri-junction point between the three nations has been at a spot called Batang La. China’s Chumbi Valley lies to the north of Batang La, Bhutan lies to the south and east and India (Sikkim), to the west. However, Beijing claims that the tri-junction is Gyemochen.
This is because the Batang La tri-junction offers China with very little depth to deploy its forces. As defence expert Nitin A Gokhale wrote in a Rediff.com report — the border, as it stands today, gives India a tactical advantage since its forces based in north and north-east Sikkim can easily cut off the Chinese deployment in the narrow Chumbi Valley.
Owing to this situation, China has been vying to control the Doklam plateau; any troops stationed there will be away from the eyes or range of the Indian forces and additionally, Beijing would be able to roll down Zimplri ridge and undermine Indian defences in the Siliguri Corridor that connects the rest of India to the seven north-eastern states.
Now, Lotay Tshering’s comments are divergent of what he had said in 2019. At that point Tshering had said, “No side should do anything near the existing tri-junction point between the three countries unilaterally.”
The Bhutan prime minister’s remarks are a concern as it might mean that Thimphu is veering towards the Chinese side and this could be a problem for India’s security.
Besides the issue of Doklam, Tshering also spoke of Chinese infrastructure inside Bhutan. While he refuted claims of any Chinese presence in the country, recent satellite data suggests otherwise. Robert Barnett — a scholar of Tibetan history and affiliate at the Lau China Institute, Kings College London — had also studied international maps of the area and come to the conclusion that Beijing had built villages inside Bhutan.
On Twitter, Barnett explained that three of the villages are in the mid-sector of Bhutan’s northern border, two are in the northeastern region of Lhuentse, while the remaining five are in the western border areas.
– 5 more villages are within Bhutan’s customary western border https://t.co/cDfpP29mLz; https://t.co/7KuIQdVYIQ.
Tshering says “This concerns an international border & we know exactly what belongs to us” (my transln). If so, it seems odd that Bhutan didn’t say this 2 years ago. pic.twitter.com/sIwM1bMOQq
As NDTV reported, Tshering’s remarks are perhaps Bhutan’s inability halt China’s ‘salami-slicing’ of Bhutanese territory. As Dr Brahma Chellaney, India’s foremost strategic affairs expert on China, told NDTV, “The Bhutanese PM's statement suggests that to save face, Bhutan is claiming that the territories China has stealthily occupied are not Bhutanese areas. But this could encourage further Chinese salami slicing of Bhutanese territories.”
Interestingly, the statement comes after Bhutan held talks with China in January this year on boundary negotiations.
Experts now worry that the new stand on Doklam by Bhutan is in exchange for a settlement of the disputed Bhutanese territory to the north.
New Delhi has chosen to stay mum on the issue for now, but its eyes will surely be turned to area and it will be keeping a close watch on the maps being drawn out by the Himalayan kingdom and the Asian Dragon.
A former Google programmer came to the startling realisation that humans will achieve immortality in eight years, and 86 per cent of his 147 forecasts have come true. Ray Kurzweil spoke with Adagio on YouTube about the advancements in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, which he thinks will lead to age-reversing ‘nanobots.’
These small machines will fix damaged cells and tissues that deteriorate as we age, making us resistant to diseases such as cancer.
The prediction that such an accomplishment will be accomplished by 2030 have been met with both enthusiasm and doubt, as curing all fatal illnesses appears to be a long way off from a permanent and practical cure.
Who is Ray Kurzweil and what were his major predictions? Kurzweil was recruited by Google in 2012 to “work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing,” but he had been making technical forecasts for a long time.
He predicted in 1990 that the world’s greatest chess champion would be defeated by a computer by 2000, and it occurred in 1997 when Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov.
In 1999, Kurzweil made another shocking prediction: by 2023, a $1,000 laptop would have the processing ability and storage space of a human brain.
Now, the former Google engineer thinks that technology will become so powerful that it will allow humans to live eternally, a phenomenon known as Singularity.
Kurzweil and Singularity According to LifeBoat, Singularity is a speculative concept of a juncture at which, artificial intelligence exceeds human intellect and alters the course of our development. Kurzweil, a futurist author, prophesied that the technical singularity would occur by 2045, with AI clearing the Turing test in 2029.
It measures a machine’s capacity to show intelligent behaviour that is comparable to, or indistinguishable from, that of a person. He claims that computers are already making us smarter and that linking them to our neocortex will allow people to think more clearly.
How humans will reach mortality? Nanobots and Nanomachines hold the key Contrary to popular belief, he thinks that implanting computers in our minds will benefit us.
‘We’re going to get more neocortex, we’re going to be funny, we’re going to be better at singing,’ says one. ‘We’re going to be hotter,’ he declared.
“We’re going to embody all of the qualities that we appreciate in humans to a larger extent.”
Rather than a future in which machines take over humanity, Kurzweil thinks we will build a human-machine synthesis that will improve us.
Nanobots already a massive part of our lives Nanomachines implanted in the human body have been a staple of science fiction for decades. The US National Science Foundation projected more than ten years ago that ‘network-enhanced telepathy,’ or sending ideas over the internet, would be feasible by the 2020s.
‘Eventually, it will impact everything,’ Kurzweil predicted. ‘We will be able to satisfy all of humanity’s physical requirements. We’re going to broaden our horizons and demonstrate the artistic traits that we respect.’
The process began centuries ago with simple devices such as eyeglasses and ear trumpets that could dramatically improve human lives, he believes
>Then came better machines, such as hearing aids and devices that could save lives, including pacemakers and dialysis machines. By the second decade of the 21st Century, we have become used to organs grown in laboratories, genetic surgery and designer babies.
New Delhi: The US Air Force’s 13 March test of a hypersonic weapon was “not a success,” the service secretary told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Frank Kendall indicated the Lockheed Martin-made AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon program may be in jeopardy and suggested that it’s more likely to adopt a competing system built by Raytheon.
The service, he said, is “more committed to HACM (the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, the service’s other major hypersonic weapon program) at this point in time than we are to Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).”
“The one we just had was not a success,” Russia Today quoted Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall telling members of the House Appropriations Committee’s defence panel during a hearing on the fiscal 2024 budget request on Tuesday.
Referring to a 13 March test of the AGM-183A ARRW, a hypersonic attack cruise missile, off the coast of Southern California, Kendall said, “We did not get the data that we needed from that test, so they’re currently examining that to try to understand what happened.”
According to the report, Kendall gave no specifics on what went wrong with the launch. His comments may have come as a surprise to lawmakers because the Air Force issued a press release last week indicating that the ARRW test “met several objectives.” The release made no mention of the test’s failure, the report added.
ARRW delayed
The ARRW has been under development since 2018 and was delayed after three failed booster tests in 2021. Last May, the Air Force declared the missile’s first successful launch, claiming it reached speeds greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.
US forces don’t yet have a fully operational hypersonic missile system, as Washington has fallen behind Russia and China in the race to develop such weapons. Hypersonic missiles travel at speeds over Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable, making them difficult to shoot down.
Kendall told lawmakers that in light of the latest ARRW test, the Air Force is “more committed” to its other hypersonic program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).
A budgeting decision on whether to adopt the ARRW is expected to be made next year, after as many as two more test launches.
Funds for ARRW
The Air Force received nearly $115 million in research, development, test and evaluation funds for ARRW in financial year 2023, down from $308 million the previous year. The service has requested $150 million in RDT&E funds for ARRW in finanacial year 2024 — but no procurement funds, and budget documents are silent on what the program’s R&D funding could be in subsequent years.
However, HACM received $423 million in FY23, and the Air Force wants to spend nearly $382 million on that program’s RDT&E in FY24. The service’s budget documents map out a plan for spending nearly $1.5 billion more on HACM between FY25 and FY28.
Kendall said that the HACM program has been “reasonably successful” so far.
“We see a definite role for the HACM concept. It’s compatible with more of our aircraft, and it will give us more combat capability overall,” he added.
A huge ‘hole’ about 20 times the size of Earth has torn through the Sun, the second in less than a month. The gaping ‘coronal crater’ is hurling 1.8-million-mile-per-hour solar gusts towards Earth, which will hit us on Friday.
Scientists are keeping a careful eye on the situation to see if the winds will affect the Earth’s magnetic field, spacecraft such as satellites and in-flight rockets, and other vital pieces of tech.
The curious case of the solar hole What we refer to hole here, isn’t a hole per se. It is just a “dead” spot or a spot that has gone comparatively colder as opposed to other areas on the Sun’s surface. That is why dead spots or cold spots usually appear darker in colour than other parts of the moon.
The first hole, discovered on March 23, is 30 times the size of Earth, and it emitted stellar winds that caused spectacular auroras as far south as Arizona.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which examines the Sun, caught both holes. According to NASA, “coronal holes are magnetically open areas that are one source of high-speed solar wind.” The second hole sits on the Sun’s equator, NASA revealed.
“They look black when observed through many wavelengths of intense ultraviolet light, such as the one shown here. The solar wind can occasionally cause aurora at greater altitudes on Earth,” read NASA’s statement.
Solar holes or coronal holes are a frequent occurrence While the image may appear frightening at first glance, it does not suggest that we are in peril.
Coronal holes are a frequent characteristic of the Sun, though they show in various locations – especially near the poles – and with greater regularity at different periods of the Sun’s activity cycle. They are more prevalent when the Sun is at a lower stage in its 11-year cycle.
The holes’ effects are usually harmless, although satellite communications and high-altitude radio transmissions can sometimes be temporarily disrupted.
The second hole that appeared this month is intriguing “The form of this coronal cavity is nothing out of the ordinary. Its location, however, makes it very intriguing,” said Daniel Verscharen, assistant professor of space and climate physics at University College London, to Insider. “I would anticipate some fast airflow from that coronal hole to reach Earth around Friday night into Saturday morning this week.”
On March 24, the first coronal hole caused dazzling auroras that filled up the night sky with electric purples and greens. They were triggered by a G3 storm, which is a strong solar storm capable of disrupting electrical systems and satellite operations, including orientation problems.
New Delhi: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that his country remains open to sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
“In the Netherlands, we don’t see any taboos, we don’t rule anything out, and we consult intensively with our partners. But at the moment, no decisions have been made to train pilots for combat aircraft with us. Nothing has been decided here yet,” Rutte said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Ukrainian government had officially asked the Netherlands for American-made F-16 fighter jets in February.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed hard for combat planes in February when he visited London, Paris and Brussels on just his second foreign trip since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. His plea came days after Western allies pledged to provide Kyiv with tanks.
Moscow’s forces have been pressing in the east of Ukraine while bolstering their defensive lines in the south. The war has been largely static during the winter months, though both sides are expected to launch offensives when the weather improves.
Ukraine’s dogged resistance and Western weapons and intelligence have helped thwart the Kremlin’s ambitions of securing the entire eastern Donbas region. But the risk remains that in some areas Kyiv’s forces could be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of Russian troop numbers.
Tehran: Women in Iran will have to pay a fine of $60,000 for flouting the country’s hijab mandate after a new law to enforce strict dress codes is passed by the parliament.
Lawmaker Hojjat ol-Eslam Hossein Jalali said that other punishments for not wearing a hijab will include revocation of passports and a ban on internet access for women.
The penalties will apply to women who are caught flouting the mandatory hijab rule in public spaces like restaurants, government offices, schools and universities.
As Iran continues to be rocked by protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly, a number of women have given up their hijabs to defy the rules set by the Islamic Republic.
‘Lack of hijab is the new COVID’
An Iranian cleric has irked rights activists by likening defiance against hijab with COVID.
Member of the Assembly of Experts, Mohsen Araki, said that the Islamic Republic “will not allow improper hijab to spread in the Islamic society” and that it is a “new COVID” trying to ruin the society.
“The goal of the enemies is to destroy the independence of Iranian women because a woman without hijab will not be independent and free and will be a person who is bound by others’ lust,” he added.
‘Enforce hijab to avoid women coming out naked’
Last month, An Iranian cleric has asked authorities to ensure every woman wears the hijab before they come out “naked” during summer.
Mohammad Nabi Mousavifard added that the government should not back down in enforcing the hijab mandate.
“We have to pay for the preservation of religious values, even if we need to go to court several times,” he said according to a report by Iran International.
“People and social service providers should stop giving services to people without hijab; People should give women with improper hijab warnings and not be indifferent, otherwise they will come to the street naked in the summer,” the cleric added.
Imam says less rain result of women without hijab
An Iranian imam blamed women who don’t wear hijab for the lack of rainfall in the country which has in turn triggered a water crisis.
Mohammed-Mehdi Hosseini Hamedani, a close aide of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said that by breaking the mandatory rule of wearing a hijab, women in the Islamic Republic have “caused a lack of precipitation across the country.”
The imam further emphasised that all those who don’t wear a headscarf must be confronted by the state.
“It is not possible to imagine that we are living in an Islamic country when we enter some institutions, shopping malls, pharmacies, etc.!” he said while suggesting that authorities should warn shops and malls to deter the entrance of those women who defy the mandatory hijab rules.
New Delhi: After struggling for weeks to expand the Cabinet, the prime minister and top leaders of the major ruling coalition partners are now closing in on a power-sharing deal.
According to a report in the Kathmandu Post, “If the officials at the prime minister’s secretariat are to be believed, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will expand his Cabinet by Wednesday, if not Tuesday.”
Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal wins vote of confidence
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal got a vote of confidence for the second time in 70 days, this time with a different set of coalition partners.
According to a report in the Kathmandu Post, “With the change in the major constituents of the coalition–the Nepali Congress, the largest party in parliament, replacing the second largest CPN-UML–the government is all set to move ahead in a new direction.”
Prime Minister Dahal secured 172 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives. Other 89 lawmakers voted against him whereas one abstained.
Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, CPN-Unified Socialist, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and Aam Janata Party voted in his favour. CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party voted against him. Nepal Workers and Peasants Party abstained.
Dahal, 68, sought a vote of confidence as two parties in the seven-party alliance – Rastriya Prajatantra Party and CPN-UML – withdrew support to his government. They refused to endorse Prachanda’s proposal to back Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel for the post of president.
Dahal, who was sworn in as the country’s Prime Minister in December, comfortably passed the first floor test on January 10 with 268 votes after all parties except the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha voted in favour of the government.
For decades, ever since the first human flew off into space, there has been a desire among humans to go to a different planet, or any other astronomical body, and colonise it. That is one of the reasons why, governments, scientists and tech moguls are spending billions of dollars in exploring planets and other rocks in space that can sustain human life. Now, it seems that we are one step closer to colonising the Moon.
According to a team of Chinese scientists, a new and renewable supply of water has been discovered on the Moon, which could make it simpler for future explorers to reside there. Water embedded in small glass beads in lunar soil where meteorite collisions occurred was discovered in samples taken from the Moon by China in 2020.
The water in these shiny, multicoloured beads was discovered to be reasonably simple to extract, with ideas that they could even be used as propellant or for astronauts to consume.
India’s Chandrayaan mission confirmed water on the Moon in 2008 Experts have known for years that there is water on the Moon in the form of ice in shaded areas at its poles, thanks to one of the biggest breakthroughs in lunar exploration, which was led by India’s Chandrayaan mission, which discovered water on the lunar surface in 2008.
The new discovery, by the Chinese scientists, could be proof of an ongoing water cycle, according to experts.
The samples were retrieved by Beijing’s Chang’e 5 lunar expedition, and the results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday.
According to Hejiu Hui of Nanjing University, who participated in the study, the 32 randomly selected glass beads ranged in size from the width of one hair to several hairs; the water content was only a minuscule fraction of that. Because there are billions, if not trillions, of these impact beads, there could be a significant quantity of water, but mining it would be difficult, according to the researchers.
“Yes, a lot of glass pieces will be needed,” Hui said. “On the other side, there are many, many pearls on the Moon,” he added.
Because of the constant bombardment of hydrogen in the solar wind, these beads could produce water indefinitely.
Is there an undiscovered source of water on the Moon? Surface water on the Moon exhibits diurnal cycles and loss to space, implying that a hydrated layer or reservoir at deep in lunar soils is required to support the retention, release, and replenishment of water on the Moon’s surface.
Previous investigations of the water inventory of small mineral granules in lunar soils, impact-produced agglutinates, volcanic rocks, and pyroclastic glass beads, however, have been unable to explain the preservation, release, and replenishment of water on the Moon’s surface. (i.e., the lunar surface water cycle). As a result, there must be an undiscovered water reserve in lunar sediments capable of buffering the lunar surface water cycle.
These impact pearls can be found all over the place as a consequence of the cooling of melted material released by approaching space debris. Water could be removed by heating the beads, which could be accomplished by future robotic operations. More research is required to establish whether this is feasible and, if so, whether the water is safe to drink.
The results, according to Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Professor Sen Hu, “indicate that the impact glasses on the surface of the Moon and other airless bodies in the solar system are capable of storing solar wind-derived water and releasing it into space.”
How this changes interplanetary travel and space expeditions of the future According to Prof Lewis Dartnell, an astronomer at the University of Westminster, it could have a significant effect on future Moon expeditions. The continuing process of solar wind hydrogen bonding to oxygen and the water produced moving underground to be incorporated into glass beads replenishes the subsurface reservoir,’ he explained.
‘The existence of water on the lunar surface is significant because it would provide a critical resource for long-term human settlement of the Moon. “Of course, water is required for consumption, but it can also be divided using electrolysis to produce oxygen for breathing in the habitats,” he said.
Previous studies found water in glass beads formed by lunar volcanic activity, based on samples returned by the Apollo Moonwalkers more than half a century ago.
