Leprosy
Category: Health
- The rise in the number of recorded leprosy cases reported a decade and a half after India was declared leprosy-free in 2005, has turned the spotlight on the hotspots for the disease.
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set the goal of zero children with leprosy and deformities by 2020, and less than one patient per million for other newly diagnosed patients.
- Today, though, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra remain the ‘hotspots’ from which maximum prevalence was detected last year.
- High population density, poor sanitation and inadequate access to nutrition are among the reasons for the number remaining high.
Tropical centipedes
Category: Geography
- Continental drift (the moving apart of continents) almost 100 million years ago created many species of Ethmostigmus centipedes in the world’s tropics.
- In the Indian peninsula, these centipedes first originated in the southern and central Western Ghats, and then spread across the ranges here.
- India is home to six, fairly large Ethmostigmus centipedes: four dwell in the Western Ghats, one in the Eastern Ghats and one in north-east India.
- Africa, south-east Asia and Australia are also home to other species of Ethmostigmus centipedes.
- A single ancestor gave rise to all Ethmostigmus centipedes in the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana (continents including Australia, Africa and peninsular India comprised this single landmass then).
- The subsequent breakup of Gondwana and the drifting away of different landmasses shaped the early evolutionary history of Ethmostigmus.
Orion Source I
Category: Science & technology
- Astronomers have detected chemical fingerprints of common salt (sodium chloride) in an unusual place – around a star.
- Orion Source I is a young star behind the Orion Nebula.
- The salt may be formed from colliding dust grains in the surrounding disk.
Hydrothermarchaeota
Category: Science & technology
- Hydrothermarchaeota, or microbes living in extreme environments may hold clues to the evolution of early life.
- These microbes use carbon monoxide and sulfate as sources of energy – chemosynthesis.
Sepsis
Category: Science & technology
- Sepsis occurs when bacterial infections spiral out of control and cause an inflammatory cascade to propagate through the body.
- The resulting inflammation then damages blood vessels and deprives organs of oxygen and nutrients, leading to organ failure and death.
Bedin 1
Category: Science & technology
- It is a modestly sized, elongated galaxy that measures only around 3,000 light-years at its greatest extent — a fraction of the size of the Milky Way.
- Not only is it tiny but it is also incredibly faint.
- These properties have led astronomers to classify it as a ‘dwarf spheroidal galaxy’.
- Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are defined by their small size, low-luminosity, lack of dust and old stellar populations.
- Bedin 1 was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope.
