Islamabad : Reduced human activities outside due to COVID-19 lockdown has not only contributed to the revival of nature through lowering pollution level and limiting human interference but also provided an opportunity to the migratory birds to fly freely without any threat of poaching.World...

On April 17, NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir returned to Earth after a 205-day mission aboard the International Space Station. While she was in outer space, though, the world was engulfed by a pandemic.

The two companies, plus the space firm Dynetics, will share $967 million from the space agency.

NASA is asking people to refrain from traveling to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness the historic launch May 27.

Ross Brawn has admitted that his Mercedes team simply wasn't quick enough in Bahrain, after its drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished fifth and sixth

Sebastian Vettel lived up to expectations at Suzuka by taking pole for the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber

Fernando Alonso says he is 'not too worried' about the pace of the Red Bull machines as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber stormed to a dominant 1-2 finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix

Williams new boy Nico Hulkenberg admitted that his team has a lot of work ahead of them after finishing tenth in the Malaysian Grand Prix

When lockdown has ended, we must continue to live simpler lives to benefit both us and the planet, says Mariella Frostrup

The dilemma I know we’re in the middle of a global pandemic with the economy knackered and the free world led by a man like Trump. I know our freedom has been temporarily taken away from us. But I’m dreading the end of lockdown.

For years I’ve craved a slower pace of life. Lockdown has allowed me to spend time with my family – and not on the relentless promise of success in my career. It has allowed me to play and learn with my child, rather than rush to drop-off or pick-up at wraparound care. It has allowed me to walk in woodland rather than standing on a crowded commuter train. In many ways it has been idyllic.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and US global conglomerate GE on Thursday announced a global partnership in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space to boost digital transformation.

Social entrepreneurs and governments speak different languages. However, understanding each other is essential to achieve quality of life through the businesses we start, grow and scale.

In the two decades since apartheid ended, South Africa has made impressive strides to catch up with – and in some cases surpass -- the developed world’s environmental standards.

A moderate expansion is underway in most major advanced and emerging economies, but growth remains weak in the euro area, which runs the risk of prolonged stagnation if further steps are not taken to boost demand, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment.

The Municipality of Torreon sets the foundations to address and implement the 267 recommendations delivered by the OECD in February 2016

The Municipality of Torreon has reached 49% progress in implementing the 267 recommendations delivered by OECD to improve its regulatory framework.

Across OECD countries, more and more individuals have attained tertiary education and the share of those with less education has declined. Although there are more tertiary-educated individuals than ever before, they still achieve good labour market outcomes.

A clever Australian shopper has demonstrated how to neatly fold reusable shopping bags to save pantry or drawer space in the kitchen. The bag is folded in certain ways to avoid unravelling.

A clever Australian shopper has demonstrated how to neatly fold reusable shopping bags to save pantry or drawer space in the kitchen. The bag is folded in certain ways to avoid unravelling.

The concessions given by the UP government to traders will prove to be a pace setter for the revival of economic activity in the state at a time when the nation is going through a rough phase due to the COVID-19 outbreak, UP Vyapaari Kalyan Board chairman Ravi Kant Garg said. He said the exemption from labour laws for three years is bound to open gates for economic growth that was hit by the coronavirus lockdown. Such measures will spur economic activities and boost the investment climate in the state, Garg said while talking to a group of reporters on Saturday evening. He further said that exemption of 46 variety of fruits and vegetables from the clutches of Mandi Adhiniyam Suchana through Krashi Utapadan Mandi Adhiniyam (Sansodhan) ordinance 2020 would boost the trade. It is bound to help farmers as well as traders, he added. Now, the farmer would be free to sell his produce outside Mandi Parishad. Exemption of Mandi shulk (Mandi tax) from 46 variety of grains would provide maximum .

From biogas to solar cookers and improved cookstoves, from agricultural tools to drudgery reducing technologies, most research and development in appropriate technologies has not been backed-up by appropriate market incentives. In contrast, hi-tech is totally market driven, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

If women cannot step out of their homes and offices without the fear of being assaulted for no other reason than their gender, then clearly there is something very wrong, writes Kalpana Sharma.

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5115.T69 1924

Cinemas, stadiums, town squares and other public gathering places are devoid of people as the coronavirus spreads to at least 118 countries around the world.As of Thursday, the Johns Hopkins University tracker says 1,26,258 people have contracted the disease and 4,638 have died across the globe. The vast majority of the victims have been in China but the country said on Thursday that it had only 15 new cases.The outbreak also claimed its most high-profile victim so far when Hollywood star Tom Hanks announced he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had tested positive. The couple, who are in Australia where Hanks is making a film about Elvis, said they had felt "a bit tired, like we had colds" before being "found to be positive"Take a look.

Temperature is a ubiquitous environmental variable used to explore materials structure, properties and reactivity. This article reports a new paradigm for variable-temperature measurements that varies the temperature continuously across a sample such that temperature is measured as a function of sample position and not time. The gradient approach offers advantages over conventional variable-temperature studies, in which temperature is scanned during a series measurement, in that it improves the efficiency with which a series of temperatures can be probed and it allows the sample evolution at multiple temperatures to be measured in parallel to resolve kinetic and thermodynamic effects. Applied to treat samples at a continuum of temperatures prior to measurements at ambient temperature, the gradient approach enables parametric studies of recovered systems, eliminating temperature-dependent structural and chemical variations to simplify interpretation of the data. The implementation of spatially resolved variable-temperature measurements presented here is based on a gradient-heater design that uses a 3D-printed ceramic template to guide the variable pitch of the wire in a resistively heated wire-wound heater element. The configuration of the gradient heater was refined on the basis of thermal modelling. Applications of the gradient heater to quantify thermal-expansion behaviour, to map metastable polymorphs recovered to ambient temperature, and to monitor the time- and temperature-dependent phase evolution in a complex solid-state reaction are demonstrated.

A furnace that covers the temperature range from room temperature up to 2000 K has been designed, built and implemented on the D2AM beamline at the ESRF. The QMAX furnace is devoted to the full exploration of the reciprocal hemispace located above the sample surface. It is well suited for symmetric and asymmetric 3D reciprocal space mapping. Owing to the hemispherical design of the furnace, 3D grazing-incidence small- and wide-angle scattering and diffraction measurements are possible. Inert and reactive experiments can be performed at atmospheric pressure under controlled gas flux. It is demonstrated that the QMAX furnace allows monitoring of structural phase transitions as well as microstructural evolution at the nanoscale, such as self-organization processes, crystal growth and strain relaxation. A time-resolved in situ oxidation experiment illustrates the capability to probe the high-temperature reactivity of materials.

A three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network based on a rare mok topology has been constructed using an organic molecule synthesized in the solid state. The molecule is obtained using a supramolecular protecting-group strategy that is applied to a solid-state [2+2] photodimerization. The photodimerization affords a novel head-to-head cyclo­butane product. The cyclo­butane possesses tetrahedrally disposed cis-hydrogen-bond donor (phenolic) and cis-hydrogen-bond acceptor (pyridyl) groups. The product self-assembles in the solid state to form a mok network that exhibits twofold interpenetration. The cyclo­butane adopts different conformations to provide combinations of hydrogen-bond donor and acceptor sites to conform to the structural requirements of the mok net.

Reducing the sample-exchange time is a crucial issue in maximizing the throughput of macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines because the diffraction data collection itself is completed within a minute in the era of pixel-array detectors. To this end, an upgraded sample changer, SPACE-II, has been developed on the basis of the previous model, SPACE (SPring-8 Precise Automatic Cryo-sample Exchanger), at the BL41XU beamline at SPring-8. SPACE-II achieves one sample-exchange step within 16 s, of which its action accounts for only 11 s, because of three features: (i) the implementation of twin arms that enable samples to be exchanged in one cycle of mount-arm action, (ii) the implementation of long-stroke mount arms that allow samples to be exchanged without withdrawal of the detector and (iii) the use of a fast-moving translation and rotation stage for the mount arms. By pre-holding the next sample prior to the sample-exchange sequence, the time was further decreased to 11 s in the case of automatic data collection, of which the action of SPACE-II accounted for 8 s. Moreover, the sample capacity was expanded from four to eight Uni-Pucks. The performance of SPACE-II has been demonstrated in over two years of operation at BL41XU; the average number of samples mounted on the diffractometer in one day was increased from 132 to 185, with an error rate of 0.089%, which counted incidents in which users could not continue with an experiment without recovery work by entering the experimental hutch. On the basis of these results, SPACE-II has been installed at three other MX beamlines at SPring-8 as of July 2019. The fast and highly reliable SPACE-II is now one of the most important pieces of infrastructure for the MX beamlines at SPring-8, providing users with the opportunity to fully make use of limited beamtime with brilliant X-rays.

The phase transition of E-vanillyl oxime {1-[(E)-(hydroxyimino)methyl]-4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzene, C8H9NO3} has been analysed by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. The high-temperature (HT) phase (P21/a, Z' = 1) transforms into the low-temperature (LT) phase (threefold superstructure, Poverline{1}, Z' = 6) at ca 190 K. The point operations lost on cooling, {m[010], 2[010]}, are retained as twin operations and constitute the twin law. The screw rotations and glide reflections are retained in the LT phase as partial operations acting on a subset of Euclidean space {b E}^3. The full symmetry of the LT phase, including partial operations, is described by a disconnected space groupoid which is built of three connected components.

The structure of sodium saccharinate 1.875-hydrate is presented in three- and (3+1)-dimensional space. The present model is more accurate than previously published superstructures, due to an excellent data set collected up to a high resolution of 0.89 Å−1. The present study confirms the unusual complexity of the structure comprising a very large primitive unit cell with Z' = 16. A much smaller degree of correlated disorder of parts of the unit cell is found than is present in the previously published models. As a result of pseudo-symmetry, the structure can be described in a higher-dimensional space. The X-ray diffraction data clearly indicate a (3+1)-dimensional periodic structure with stronger main reflections and weaker superstructure reflections. Furthermore, the structure is established as being commensurate. The structure description in superspace results in a four times smaller unit cell with an additional base centring of the lattice, resulting in an eightfold substructure (Z' = 2) of the 3D superstructure. Therefore, such a superspace approach is desirable to work out this high-Z' structure. The displacement and occupational modulation of the saccharinate anions have been studied, as well as their conformational variation along the fourth dimension.

Silicon nanowire-based sensors find many applications in micro- and nano-electromechanical systems, thanks to their unique characteristics of flexibility and strength that emerge at the nanoscale. This work is the first study of this class of micro- and nano-fabricated silicon-based structures adopting the scanning X-ray diffraction microscopy technique for mapping the in-plane crystalline strain (∊044) and tilt of a device which includes pillars with suspended nanowires on a substrate. It is shown how the micro- and nanostructures of this new type of nanowire system are influenced by critical steps of the fabrication process, such as electron-beam lithography and deep reactive ion etching. X-ray analysis performed on the 044 reflection shows a very low level of lattice strain (<0.00025 Δd/d) but a significant degree of lattice tilt (up to 0.214°). This work imparts new insights into the crystal structure of micro- and nanomaterial-based sensors, and their relationship with critical steps of the fabrication process.

An attempt has been made to combine small-angle scattering of X-rays or neutrons with scanning electron microscopy in reciprocal space, in order to establish a structural analysis method covering a wide range of sizes from micro- to macro-scales.

A new approach to variable-temperature measurements is presented, where the sample temperature changes continuously as a function of position.

This article presents the capability of the QMAX furnace, devoted to reciprocal space mapping through X-ray scattering at high temperature up to 2000 K.

A detailed theoretical and experimental comparison of dark-field electron holography (DFEH) and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) is performed. Both techniques are being applied to measure elastic strain in an array of transistors and the role of the geometric phase is emphasized.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has opened a new Public Observatory that contains a 16-inch, 3,000-pound Boller and Chivens telescope, on loan from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Through this powerful telescope, museum visitors can now observe the sun (with a special filter), the moon and the brighter stars and planets, such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, during daylight hours. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

The post The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum opens new Public Observatory on the Mall in Washington, D.C. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum recently obtained two monumental instruments on loan from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The post New Acquisition: Corrective instruments from the Hubble Space Telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in March of 2009 to study extrasolar planets. One of its major goals is the detection of terrestrial planets in habitable zones.

The post Kepler spacecraft used by Smithsonian astronomers to find other earths appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Discovery, the longest-serving orbiter in the space shuttle fleet, will be accepted into the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection. The space shuttle has been the icon for American spaceflight for a generation, and Discovery has flown every type of mission during its 27-year career.

The post Space shuttle Discovery to be added to National Air and Space Museum collection appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system.

The post The Kepler spacecraft’s astounding haul of multiple-planet systems appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and
early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it.
This is the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using
this method.

The post Invisible world “spotted” tugging on visible planet by Kepler spacecraft appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The image shows one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our galaxy, a region called Cygnus X.

The post New Spitzer Space Telescope image shows space nursery appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the last 1,000 days the Infrared Array Camera, aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, has been operating continuously to probe the universe from its most distant regions to our local solar neighborhood.

The post Top 10 gallery celebrates the Infrared Array Camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's next Small Explorer (SMEX) mission to study the little-understood lower levels of the sun's atmosphere has been fully integrated and final testing is underway.

The post NASA’s IRIS spacecraft scheduled to launch in April appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum announced that it will receive a $6 million donation from the Thomas W. Haas Foundation to establish an […]

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Santa Claus and his sleigh full of gifts has been upstaged early this holiday season by news of autonomous drones possibly delivering packages to your […]

The post Package-delivering drones? Q&A with Roger Connor of the National Air and Space Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they […]

The post Harsh space weather dooms life on red-dwarf planets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A mysterious X-ray signal has been found in a detailed study of galaxy clusters using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. One intriguing possibility […]

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