Newswise – आवारा मुसाफिर

Time out: We all need a three-day weekend

April 13, 2023861 Views

As a four-day work week is trialled in countries across the globe, health researchers at the University of South Australia say they’re ‘all in’ when it comes to a long weekend, especially as new empirical research shows that the extra time off is good for our health. Assessing changes in daily movements before, during and after holidays, researchers found that people displayed more active, healthy behaviours when they were on holiday, even when they only had a three-day break. Across the 13-month study period, people generally took an average two to three holidays, each being around 12 days. The most common holiday type was ‘outdoor recreation’ (35 per cent), followed by ‘family/social events’ (31 per cent), ‘rest and relaxation’ (17 per cent) and ‘non-leisure pursuits’ such as ...

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The “Stonehenge calendar” shown to be a modern construct

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 25, 2023808 Views

Stonehenge is an astonishingly complex monument, which attracts attention mostly for its spectacular megalithic circle and “horseshoe”, built around 2600 BC. Over the years, several theories have been put forward about Stonehenge's meaning and function. Today, however, archaeologists have a rather clear picture of this monument as a “place for the ancestors”, located within a complex ancient landscape which included several other elements. Archaeoastronomy has a key role in this interpretation since Stonehenge exhibits an astronomical alignment to the sun which, due to the flatness of the horizon, refers both to the summer solstice sunrise and to the winter solstice sunset. This accounts for a symbolic interest of the builders in the solar cycle, most probably related to the connect...

अंतरिक्ष विज्ञान

Dark Sky Protection: We are losing the universe

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 14, 2023663 Views

From city lights to satellite constellations, the heritage of the night sky is quickly slipping away Why is the dark night important, and what can we do to protect it? If you happen to live in a large city or major metropolitan area, you certainly have the opportunity to enjoy a vibrant nightlife. What you won’t be able to enjoy, however, is a vibrant night sky. Travel to a more rural area, however, and a summertime evening stroll would likely showcase hundreds of stars and clearly delineated constellations. Aside from those lucky enough to visit National Parks, that is about as good as it gets for most of the people in the United States; a pleasant view of the stars and brightest planets, but nothing that stops you in your tracks. And, believe it or not, the night sky can indeed st...

जलवायु परिवर्तन

Protected areas serve as climate change refugia

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

November 3, 2022709 Views

Provide thermal buffer to biodiversity, besides habitat Climate change is emerging as a top threat to biodiversity according to the latest Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Plant and animal species face greater risks of thermal stress as climate change pushes temperatures beyond their thermal tolerance. A new study, published in Science Advances on Nov. 2, shows that terrestrial protected areas not only provide habitat, but also offer a thermal buffer against climate change, thus serving as climate change refugia for biodiversity. This study was led by scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from China's Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, the...

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Ultrafine dust might cause weather extremes

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

June 1, 2022987 Views

KIT researchers prove global increase of ultrafine particles from exhaust gases of fossil fuels and warn of major weather effects Strong precipitation or extreme drought – the frequency of extreme weather events is increasing worldwide. Existing climate models, however, do not adequately show their dynamics. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) assume that ultrafine particles in the atmosphere have a significant impact on cloud physics and, hence, on weather. Their aircraft measurements confirm an increase in particle number emissions in spite of a decreasing coarse fine dust concentration and blame it to the combustion of fossil fuels in exhaust gas cleaning systems. Junkermann piloted KIT’s ultralight aircraft D-MIFU, the smallest manned research aircraft in the ...

खबरनामाघटनाएंपेराग्वे

Striking new snake species discovered in Paraguay

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

May 17, 2022466 Views

A beautiful non-venomous snake, previously unknown to science, was discovered in Paraguay and described by researchers of the Paraguayan NGO Para La Tierra with the collaboration of Guyra Paraguay and the Instituto de Investigación Biológica del Paraguay. It belongs to the genus Phalotris, which features 15 semi-subterranean species distributed in central South America. This group of snakes is noted for its striking colouration with red, black, and yellow patterns. Jean-Paul Brouard, one of the involved researchers, came across an individual of the new species by chance while digging a hole at Rancho Laguna Blanca in 2014. Together with his colleagues Paul Smith and Pier Cacciali, he described the discovery in the open-access scientific journal Zoosystematics and Evolution. The authors...

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Historic graffiti made by soldiers sheds light on Africa maritime heritage

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

May 8, 2022953 Views

Historic graffiti of ships carved in an African fort were drawn by soldiers on guard duty watching the sea, University of Exeter experts believe. The engravings, found in Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago and made in the mid to late nineteenth century, open a window onto the ships that sailed on the western Indian Ocean at the time. They were made when the area was the southern terminus of a trans-oceanic trade network that used the monsoon winds. Vessels anchored, beached and unloaded their cargoes along the length of the waterfront just outside the Old Fort, or Gereza, of Stone Town, Zanzibar’s capital. Old Fort of Zanzibar Although sometimes sketchy, the images suggest a number of vessel types, including a European-style frigate or frigate-built vessel and a number of settee-...

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Freshwater habitats are fragile pockets of exceptional biodiversity

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

April 23, 2022881 Views

Ponds, lakes, rivers and streams cover only a tiny fraction of Earth's surface, yet they are home to a comparatively large number of different species, according to a study led by University of Arizona ecologists While much research has focused on the striking differences in biodiversity between tropical and temperate regions, another, equally dramatic, pattern has gone largely unstudied: the differences in species richness among Earth's three major habitat types – land, oceans and freshwater. A new study led by ecologists at the University of Arizona reveals the origins of diverse animal and plant species richness in terrestrial, ocean and freshwater habitats at a global scale. It also explores the possible causes of these richness patterns. One of the world's longest rivers, th...

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Researchers detect a tropical plant species presumed to be extinct

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

April 18, 2022850 Views

A research group rediscovered a plant called Gasteranthus extinctus, at Centinela Ridge in Western Ecuador, named to anticipate its extinction Two University of Miami researchers were part of a team that rediscovered a tropical plant species believed to be extinct for almost 40 years. At the encouragement of his advisor, biology associate professor Kenneth Feeley, graduate student Riley Fortier joined a small expedition in November to the Centinela Ridge in western Ecuador, a place well known to biologists for its many rare species. The team was searching for a low-lying South American wildflower named Gasteranthus extinctus, which was discovered in the 1980s. The species was given its unique moniker in 2000 because scientists expected the plant to be extinct, since many of the Ecua...

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World’s largest ice sheet is threatened

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

April 1, 20221099 Views

Warmer summers and meltwater lakes are damaging the fringes A first-of-its-kind study looking at surface meltwater lakes around the East Antarctic Ice Sheet across a seven-year period has found that the area and volume of these lakes is highly variable year-to-year, and offers new insights into the potential impact of recent climatic change on the ‘Frozen Continent’. The research, led by Durham University (UK), used over 2000 satellite images from around the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to determine the size and volume of lakes on the ice surface, also known as supraglacial lakes, across seven consecutive years between 2014 and 2020. Meltwater lake near Shackleton Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Photo: David Small, Durham University The study, which involved Newcastle and ...