NASA Envisions Alien Worlds

Out of the Dust, a Planet is Born
In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing, detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by the Spitzer Space Telescope, in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. The possible planet is theorized to be at least as massive as Jupiter, and may have a similar appearance to what the giant planets in our own solar system looked like billions of years ago.

Huygens on Titan
In 2005 the robotic Huygens probe landed on Titan, Saturn's enigmatic moon, and sent back the first ever images from beneath Titan's thick cloud layers. This artist's impression is based on those images. In the foreground, sits the car-sized lander that sent back images for more than 90 minutes before running out of battery power. The parachute that slowed Huygen's re-entry is seen in the background, still attached to the lander. Smooth stones, possibly containing water-ice, are strewn about the landscape. Analyses of Huygen's images and data show that Titan's surface today has intriguing similarities to the surface of the early Earth.

Steaming Hot Planet
This artist's impression shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of this type of system provided the breakthrough.The planet, HD 189733b, lies 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. It was discovered in 2005 as it transited its parent star, dimming the star's light by some three percent

Exoplanet HR 8799b
This is an artistic illustration of the giant planet HR 8799b.The planet was first discovered in 2007 at the Gemini North observatory. It was identified in the NICMOS archival data in a follow-up search of NICMOS archival data to see if Hubble had also serendipitously imaged it.The planet is young and hot, at a temperature of 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. It is slightly larger than Jupiter and may be at least seven times more massive. Analysis of the NICMOS data suggests the planet has water vapor in its atmosphere and is only partially cloud covered. It is not known if the planet has rings or moons, but circumplanetary debris is common among the outer planets of our solar system.

laring Red Dwarf Star
This is an artist's concept of a red dwarf star undergoing a powerful eruption, called a stellar flare. A hypothetical planet is in the foreground. Flares are sudden eruptions of heated plasma that occur when the field lines of powerful magnetic fields in a star's atmosphere "reconnect," snapping like a rubber band and releasing vast amounts of energy equivalent to the power of 100 million atomic bombs exploding simultaneously.Studying the light from 215,000 older red dwarfs collected in observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found 100 stellar flares popping off over the course of a week.

Men and women are from the same planet

Men want sex & women want love. Women chat more while men like to brood. So how do these creatures from Mars and Venus overcome their differences, to become Earthlings. Experts and some new studies tell us how…

MEN are from Mars and women are from Venus but the twain shall always meet. They meet on Earth of course.

It’s another thing that there’s a lot of struggle that preludes this much-anticipated meeting — there are bottlenecks, traffic jams and speed breakers in this journey. And the main culprit seems to be the ‘wiring’ of their brains.

A recent Swedish research for instance says that women are moodier than men and are prone to depression – once again restating the fact that the two genders have a different brain wiring. Researches time and again have said that men and women are wired differently. But there’s something more than just the wiring.

• Six Foods to Help you Have Great Sex

Behavioural experts say it is not just the wiring that causes the ‘differences’ (pun intended). "More than genetic make-up, it's their social conditioning that is responsible for the way they behave,” says psychologist Anu Goel.

Genetic make-up ensures their brains function differently and their hormones seem to pull them in separate ways. And social conditioning makes the differences starker.

• 10 commandments for men

LOVE VS SEX

THE LOVE versus sex debate has been going on since time immemorial. Scientists have blamed a larger hypothalamus (the sex centre of brain) in men that forces them to think about sex 25 hours a day. And we women believe them readily. We take pride in the fact that we are more emotional and sensitive.

It all goes back to the caveman era. “Over the years women developed more caring abilities. They learnt from their mothers to be more nurturing, emotional and sensitive. That’s why they look for love to get intimate with any man,” says Dr Gitanjali Sharma, Delhi-based family and marriage counsellor.

And traditionally... after all that hunting, the only thing man learned to get intimate was through sex.

“The idea of intimacy in both the genders has been different. While women look for a long term commitment, men are quite happy with a fling,” says psychologist Dr Nisha Khanna.

But the traditional gender roles have been changing over a period of time. “There are women who are predatory too now. Otherwise it has always been the man who believes in first getting into a woman’s pants and then into her head,” says adman Prahlad Kakkar.

And now, there’s in fact new research that challenges the caveman theory. Scientists at Oxford University studied 19 pre-historic humans and found that only one in ten males moved out of the cave to look for food. It was the woman of the cave, who moved out to hunt for the family.

Maybe this particular group of pre-historic humans had men who were particularly lazy, but that just proves one thing — women might have been great multi-taskers even in the Neanderthal era.

• Are you scared of a committed relationship?

CHIT CHAT
MEN AND women approach a problem in different ways. “So when they have a fight, a woman picks up her phone and calls her gal pals to vent her emotions, while the man sits in front of the TV and switches channels,” says Pooja Bedi. "Women are more communicative, and men love to brood,” she adds.

A study published by the New Scientist magazine found that female macaques (the next best thing to humans, the scientists could find for their experiments) were more chatty and friendly. They made more friendly noises than the males, who preferred to play the angry young man.

They also found that men liked to gossip while playing football or while sitting in a bar. But women just liked to be together.

They are more emotionally literate and have a higher EQ.

"Men are conditioned in a way that they should be less communicative. But through communication, woman forms emotional bonds,” says Sharma.

In the book, The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, the author says that women talk three times more than men.

The book claims that the brains of a man and a woman function differently. On an average, a woman blurts out about 20,000 words a day ascompared with 7,000 for theaverage man.

• Debate: Will you wait for Mr. Right?

WORKING WITH TEN ARMS
CONTRARY to most theories, Kakkar speaks in defence of his tribe and says that it’s not true that men cannot multi-task. "They just have the privilege of not to multi-task,” he says. He adds that it is the woman who has been multi-tasking for ages. A woman has the ability to bring in some amount if sophistication to whatever she does,” he says.

Last year a University of Hertfordshire study found that women were capable of performing a number of simple tasks like searching for a key and solving easy maths problems simultaneously.

Psychologists agree with the study. They say that men think in compartments.

“Their brain has different compartments for different tasks and when a man exits one compartment, he’s completely out it. For example, if he is at home playing with his kids, and he gets a call from office, he will leave whatever he is doing and attend the call. He can’t carry out both the things simultaneously,” says Sharma.

Women, on the other hand transform into the ten-armed goddess while balancing home and work – something that men will hopefully learn slowly.

FEELING BLUE?
WOMEN talk more, so does that mean that men will always have to put up with the taunts women throw at them when they get moody?

The Swedish study mentioned above says that women are prone to mood swings, anxiety and depression due to low levels of serotonin or ‘happy hormones’.

"There are other social factors too, that make women more susceptible to depression. It again stems from the fact that women are more emotional. Also a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle plays a major role in a woman’s behaviour,” says Sharma.

Sudden emotional outbursts can leave some unsuspecting men flummoxed. Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar was heard saying once: “If I am the director, it’s my party. I will cry if I want to. I will be in all my hormonal glory. I’m not going to be embarrassed by it. As a man, you have chosen to be part of my set, so you handle it, boy.”

Men have somehow learnt the art of handling a moody woman. But he still has a long way to go especially while dealing with a moody female boss. “If it is a male boss, you can argue and set things right. But with a female boss you really have think before you open your mouth,” says IT professional Sumit Verma.

It is difficult to win an argument with a woman because she is a better communicator.

JALEBI BAI

This year seems to be the year of item numbers... why you may ask and we say with Deepika geared up for her item number in Dum Maaro Dum and Malaika and Katrina creating a rage with their gyrations from 'Munni' and 'Sheila', how can we forget the original item girl Mallika Sherawat.

Well, Madame Sherawat will soon be seen in the sound track from Reliance Entertainment and Maruti International's Double Dhamaal, directed by Indra Kumar, which will set the screens on fire.

News is that the sultry Mallika Sherawat just finished shooting for a sexy and steamy number titled 'Jalebi Bai' for the movie. Sources present on the set revealed that the actress is looking super hot and ultra glam at the same time.

The four day schedule of the song was shot at Mehboob Studios, where a lavish set of a casino was created to give the song the right look and feel. The sources also commented on Mallika's dance in the racy number and said, "She's got her enticing moves right and is sure to give the Munnis and the Sheilas a run for their money!"

The song has been choreographed by Ganesh Acharya and music is by Anand Raj Anand, while the film will release this June.

Updates Frm The Ruts: Cameron rules out return of Kohinoor

Updates Frm The Ruts: Cameron rules out return of Kohinoor: "Cameron rules out return of Kohinoor on July 29th, 2010 Visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron has clearly ruled out the return ..."

Cameron rules out return of Kohinoor

Cameron rules out return of Kohinoor

on July 29th, 2010

Visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron has clearly ruled out the return of the Kohinoor diamond to India, saying if such demands were agreed to, it would lead to empty rooms in British Museums.

“I know there is also a great argument about the original provenance of the Kohinoor diamond. I’m afraid this will disappoint viewers, but it’s going to have to stay put,” Cameron said in an interview to NDTV news channel.

The issue about the fabled diamond, which was mined in the Deccan and is now part of the British crown jewels, had been raised by British MP of Indian origin Keith Vaz just before Cameron began his two-day visit to India.

Vaz had said in a statement: “I believe that this is the perfect opportunity for the prime minister to discuss the issue of the Kohinoor. It would be very fitting for the Kohinoor to return to the country in which it was mined so soon after the diamond jubilee of the Indian republic and 161 years after its removal from India.”

Cameron, however, pointed out that the return of the diamond would set a precedent, which could lead to the emptying of museums in Britain.

“What tends to happen with these questions is that if you say yes to one, you suddenly find the British Museum will be emptied,” he asserted.

Greece has also been vocal about its demand for return of the marble frieze looted from the Parthenon by the Earl of Elgin 200 years ago.

India and Britain will be signing a bilateral deal related to culture during Cameron’s visit that ends Thursday.

Jeremy Hunt, the British secretary of state for culture, media and sports, pointed out that Cameron’s trip was “to discuss about cultural exchanges and to create a climate for holding several cultural exchange programmes.”

But he parried a question from us on whether Britain was open to exhibiting the Kohinoor in India saying, “it’s a controversial issue and (he) would not like to comment”.

Trial shows an AIDS gel can protect women???????

       SOUTH AFRICA - A trial of women in South Africa shows that a gel made using Gilead Sciences Inc's HIV drug tenofovir lowered the rate of HIV infections in women by 39 percent over two and a half years.


It is the first trial to show a microbicide might protect women from the deadly and incurable virus, which has killed 25 million people since the AIDS pandemic started in the 1980s and which infects 33 million today.


Here are some facts about the trial:


* The trial was run by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa or CAPRISA at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.


* It enrolled 889 South African women aged 18 to 40 who were HIV-negative, sexually active, and at high risk of becoming infected with HIV.


* All were given packets of applicators filled with gel and told to insert one dose up to 12 hours before sex and a second no more than 12 hours afterwards.


* Half the women got placebo gels and half received gels containing a very low dose of tenofovir, an inexpensive HIV drug.


* At the end of the study 422 women remained in the tenofovir arm and 421 in the placebo arm, a retention rate of 95 percent, which suggests the gel was not unpleasant to use.


* At 30 months, 98 women were infected with HIV -- 38 of them had been given tenofovir and 60 were on placebo. This is a 39 percent reduction in HIV incidence for tenofovir.


* At 12 months into the study, women who got tenofovir were 50 percent less likely to be infected than women who got placebo.


* 54 of the women became pregnant and delivered 31 babies. None had any congenital problems and the miscarriage rate was normal.


* Blood tests showed the tenofovir stayed in the vagina and did not cause effects elsewhere in the body. This suggests side-effects will be low and also suggests that women who become infected with HIV will still be able to take pills without being resistant to their effects.


* In a surprise finding, researchers said the gel also reduced the risk a woman would get genital herpes by 51 percent.


* The main side-effect was slightly more mild diarrhea in the women who got tenofovir.

Rising Indian Ocean levels may worsen flooding in India

Washington, July 14 (IANS) Rising levels in parts of the Indian Ocean may worsen monsoon flooding in India and Bangladesh.According to a study led by Weiqing Han, the associate professor in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, US, this is attributed to warming caused by manmade increases of greenhouse gases.
The parts affected by the rising sea levels are the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, reports Nature Geoscience.
The key player in the process is the Indo-Pacific warm pool, an enormous, bathtub-shaped area of the tropical oceans stretching from the east coast of Africa west to the International Date Line in the Pacific.
The warm pool has heated by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, or 0.5 degrees Celsius, in the past 50 years, primarily caused by manmade increases of greenhouse gases, said Han, according to a Colorado University statement.
Along the coasts of the northern Indian Ocean, seas have risen by an average of about 0.5 inches, or 13 mm, per decade, the study said.
The Indian Ocean is the world's third largest ocean and makes up about 20 percent of the water on earth's surface.