While Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation(APSRTC) is transporting essential goods like rice, vegetables and fruits within the State, it has also

An alert loco driver of a goods train saved the lives of at least 20 migrant workers by applying the emergency brakes and halting the train just 100 metres away from them near Pune on Friday evening. The migrants were walking on the tracks between the Uruli and Loni stations. The incident happened barely 14 hrs after 16 migrants were killed on Aurangabad tracks.

Small-animal physiology studies are typically complicated, but the level of complexity is greatly increased when performing live-animal X-ray imaging studies at synchrotron and compact light sources. This group has extensive experience in these types of studies at the SPring-8 and Australian synchrotrons, as well as the Munich Compact Light Source. These experimental settings produce unique challenges. Experiments are always performed in an isolated radiation enclosure not specifically designed for live-animal imaging. This requires equipment adapted to physiological monitoring and test-substance delivery, as well as shuttering to reduce the radiation dose. Experiment designs must also take into account the fixed location, size and orientation of the X-ray beam. This article describes the techniques developed to overcome the challenges involved in respiratory X-ray imaging of live animals at synchrotrons, now enabling increasingly sophisticated imaging protocols.

Where earthquakes are most likely to hit in Devon and Cornwall  Cornwall Live

The day Folkestone was rocked by one of Kent's worst ever earthquakes  Kent Live

Decision day looms over Ellesmere Port shale gas plan  Cheshire Live

Expert confirms true impact of earthquakes in Devon and Cornwall  Devon Live

Mum feels the 'earth move' beneath her at Plymouth car park  Plymouth Live

Minor earthquake hits Cheshire  Cheshire Live

Devon braced for aftershocks following earthquake  Devon Live

Fracking: UK shale gas reserves 'significantly lower than previous estimates'  Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy

Surrey named as one of the UK's earthquake hotspots  Surrey Live

Earthquake recorded off Cornwall coast  Cornwall Live

Riddle of 'bang' in Birmingham intensifies as British Geological Survey issue statement  Birmingham Live

Microcrystal delivery methods are pivotal in the use of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) to resolve the macromolecular structures of proteins. Here, the development of a novel technique and instruments for efficiently delivering microcrystals for SFX are presented. The new method, which relies on a one-dimensional fixed-target system that includes a microcrystal container, consumes an extremely low amount of sample compared with conventional two-dimensional fixed-target techniques at ambient temperature. This novel system can deliver soluble microcrystals without highly viscous carrier media and, moreover, can be used as a microcrystal growth device for SFX. Diffraction data collection utilizing this advanced technique along with a real-time visual servo scan system has been successfully demonstrated for the structure determination of proteinase K microcrystals at 1.85 Å resolution.

Successes in animal health care presents many new challenges for veterinarians. Longer life spans in captivity mean zoo animals are now experiencing age-related health problems that their zoo predecessors never lived long enough to develop—like diabetes in cheetahs, arthritis in big cats and dental issues for coatis.

The post Golden years at the Zoo: Veterinarians work to help animals live longer, stay healthy appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is a major partner in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, which is a group of four telescopes on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory that photograph the sun in 10 different wavelength bands, or colors, once every 10 seconds.

The post NASA’s new eye on the sun delivers stunning images appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A recent experiment by scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama has revealed just how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide will deliver a one-two […]

The post Rising ocean temperatures and acidity may deliver deadly one-two punch to the world’s corals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By compiling and comparing long-term data from stranding records and visual sighting records, both taken from nearly every ocean basin in the world, Pyenson verified that stranding records “faithfully reflect the number of species and the relative abundance” found in live surveys.

The post Stranding records are faithful reflection of live whale and dolphin populations, new study reveals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that’s cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets.

The post Frigid water cloud may be source of water delivered to dry planets by comets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A newly described species of toothed whale that lived some 3-4 million years ago during the Pliocene, is causing scientists to reconsider what is known about its living cold-water relatives: narwhals and belugas.

The post New fossil whale species raises mystery regarding why narwhals and belugas live only in cold water appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new video to help aviators identify the cause of bird strikes has been posted on YouTube by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Airport Wildlife Hazard Program and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The post Aircraft bird-strike reports can save lives. New video shows how to report, collect and ship evidence appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Africa isn’t the kind of place you might expect to find penguins. But one species lives along Africa’s southern coast today, and newly found fossils […]

The post Penguins once thrived in Africa; one endangered species lives there today appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

Hungry rodents that wake up early are much more likely to be eaten than rodents getting plenty of food and shut-eye, according to new results […]

The post Rain forest rodents risk their lives to eat appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the SVF Foundation have launched a new collaboration to strengthen rare and endangered livestock breed conservation through the preservation […]

The post Smithsonian & SVF launch rare-breed livestock conservation partnership appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Unless you live under a lunar rock, you’ve probably heard about or seen director Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster “Interstellar.” Starring Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey, […]

The post Interstellar exploration – five planets where humans may (or may not) be able to live someday appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The majority of stars in our galaxy come in pairs. In particular, the most massive stars usually have a companion. These fraternal twins tend to […]

The post Mismatched Twin Stars Spotted in the Delivery Room appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

While studying the social dynamics of the bearded saki, a primate living in the rainforests of Suriname, primatologist Tremaine Gregory of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology […]

The post Study: Male bonding brings peace, lets primates live in big groups appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New fossils found in Northeastern China have revealed a remarkable evolutionary coincidence: an extinct group of insects known as Kalligrammatid lacewings (Order Neuroptera) share an […]

The post Remarkable butterfly look-alike lived 50 million years before butterflies appeared appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In an age of one-hour delivery and overnight shipping, a corner of the country still gets its mail by mule. That’s right. For a small […]

The post In the Grand Canyon, the U.S. Postal Service still delivers mail by mule appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Animal species can become endangered, but what about languages? Around 80 percent of the world’s population speaks just 20 percent of its 7,000 languages. That […]

The post Why languages become endangered, and how we can keep them alive appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post The Space Shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a 747 jet, is delivered to the Smithsonian on April 17, 2012 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Seeing a massive skeleton on display in a museum gallery is the last step in a long journey from living animal to educational specimen. Where […]

The post Where Dead Whales Go To Live: Smithsonian Whale Warehouse appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Sopra Banking Software (SBS), a global digital banking...

Supporters of the late educator and civil rights advocate Sal Castro are working to keep his Chicano Youth Leadership Conference alive.; Credit: Crystal Marie Lopez/Flickr

When he died in 2013, Sal Castro drew praise as a Southern California civil rights leader who championed educational opportunities for generations of students of Mexican descent.

While a high school teacher in 1968, he helped thousands of students stage massive walkouts in Los Angeles' east side to protest high dropout rates and poor schooling that ignored their cultural background.

Supporters say his most influential legacy is the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference that he founded in 1963 as a weekend camp in the Santa Monica mountains. The gathering functioned as a cultural pep rally and intensive college application session.

“There was quite a large group of people that knew that this is not something that could die with him. That is when we had the idea to form a foundation to make sure that we keep his legacy alive,” said Myrna Brutti, the conference’s director.

Castro struggled to raise money for the conference, which counts among its alumni such well-known leaders as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza.

The Sal Castro Foundation typically spends about $60,000 to pay for the camp, including food and bus transportation. The group raises the money so that students can attend for free.

Applications to the next conference on March 6 have been sent to LAUSD high school campuses, targeting low-income Latinos, with a Feb. 20 deadline. Organizers hope in years ahead to open the conference to other Southland schools.

Brutti, a middle school principal, said she sees many more college application and high school to college bridge programs today. But a large group of high school students still go without college counseling, she said.

“These are 4.0, 3.7, 3.9, 4.2 [grade-point average] students that graduate from high school and go directly into the workforce because no one has taken the time to really go in depth on…what is available to them,” Brutti said.

The conference gives students like high school junior Savannah Pierce a broader view of their post-graduation choices. She attended the conference in October.

“I never really gave much thought to getting a doctorate degree,” Pierce said. “I thought I was going to do my four years of undergraduate and maybe graduate school. I never realized how many options and opportunities there were.”

When Castro talked to students of Mexican descent, he often transitioned seamlessly between English and Spanish, giving brief lessons on Mexican history and notable Mexicans. The current conference leaders are keeping that tradition alive.

“I never realized how deep and important my culture is and how rich it is with knowledge, and how hard people have worked in the past to get me where I am today,” Pierce said.

Other resources for students seeking help with college applications include:

1. California college and career planning

2. The College Board’s college planning helper

3. The Princeton Review’s college helper

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The nations health care industry has foundered in its ability to provide safe, high-quality care consistently to all Americans, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Reorganization and reform are urgently needed to fix what is now a disjointed and inefficient system.

Increasing the minimum age of legal access (MLA) to tobacco products will prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults, particularly those ages 15 to 17, and improve the health of Americans across the lifespan, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Infectious disease outbreaks that turn into epidemics or pandemics can kill millions of people and cause trillions of dollars of damage to economic activity, says a new report from the international, independent Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future.

Today during the National Academy of Sciences 154th annual meeting, in her first speech to the members of the Academy, NAS President Marcia McNutt stressed the ongoing vitality of America’s scientific enterprise, and called on the country to strengthen its support for science and to continue to turn to science for solutions to the nation’s and the world’s most pressing challenges.

The number of patients in the U.S. awaiting organ transplantation outpaces the amount of transplants performed in the U.S., and many donated organs are not transplanted each year due to several factors, such as poor organ function, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

While legal abortions in the U.S. are safe, the likelihood that women will receive the type of abortion services that best meet their needs varies considerably depending on where they live, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Medications to Treat Opioid Addiction Are Effective and Save Lives, But Barriers Prevent Broad Access and Use, Says New Report

Whether a patient has a safe place to live or healthy food to eat has an important influence on their health, but such nonmedical social needs have not traditionally been addressed in routine health care visits.

; Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP

The U.S. Supreme Court has once again punted on the question of gun rights, throwing out as moot a challenge to New York City's strict gun regulations on transporting licensed guns outside the home.

New York City, in the name of public safety, has very strict gun regulations. It allows people to have a permit for guns in their homes, but those regulations originally barred people from transporting their guns anywhere except shooting ranges within the city. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association challenged the regulation as a violation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and lost in the lower courts.

But, after the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, New York state and New York City changed their laws to allow gun owners to transport their guns outside the city to shooting ranges, to competitions, and to second homes. That gave the challengers exactly what they asked for in their lawsuit, and so on Monday, the court, by a 6-to-3 vote, dismissed the case as moot--in short, it no longer presented a live controversy.

The unsigned opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court's four liberals, and Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh.

But Kavanaugh wrote separately to stress that while he agreed with the majority on procedural grounds, he agreed with the dissenters--Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch--on one key issue.

Those three said that the lower courts were using the wrong test to evaluate gun laws, a test that is far too deferential to gun regulators. The dissenters mainly argued however, that the court essentially had been gamed on the mootness question, and that the justices should have decided the case, and decided it for the gun owners.

Gun-safety advocates breathed a sigh of relief that there was no decision adverse to gun regulations. But they worry that gains they are making in some state legislatures may be taken away by a conservative court majority.

"The reality is that the gun-safety movement is winning in state houses and at the ballot box, so the NRA is turning to the court to try to change the tide," says Eric Tirschwell, managing mirector of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Monday's decision was the first in a major gun case in 10 years, the first since a landmark set of decisions in 2008 and 2010. In those cases, a sharply divided court ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is an individual right, not a right associated with the militia, as the court had previously implied. Those decisions marked a huge victory for the NRA and other gun-rights organizations.

In the decade following that decision, however, the court did not agree to hear any of the dozens of challenges to gun restrictions in cases appealed to the court. In part because the composition of the court made outcomes uncertain.

The previous big gun cases were decided by 5-to-4 votes, with Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the fifth and decisive vote. Kennedy, according to court sources, insisted, as the price of his vote, on adding limiting language that likely would have resulted in some, maybe even most, gun restrictions being upheld. With neither side of the court sure how Kennedy would vote on most regulations, neither the pro-gun, nor the pro-gun-control side wanted to risk an adverse ruling.

That changed when Kennedy retired in 2018 to be replaced by Justice Kavanaugh, who has a much more gun-friendly record than Kennedy did.

Nothing Kavanaugh said in his concurring opinion Monday would dissuade anyone from thinking he has changed his mind.

Bottom line here is that when it comes to gun control, there look to be four pretty solid votes against a lot of the measures enacted in recent years after mass shootings. Specifically, laws that bar carrying weapons in public places, and bans on assault weapons and large ammo magazines. All these, plus so called red-flag laws and other measures could be in jeopardy.

The question is where Chief Justice Roberts will be on these and other gun-control questions. To date, he has never been much of a supporter of gun-control laws, but he hasn't been an outspoken opponent, either. All we really know is that he was part of the 2008 and 2010 majority that for the first time declared that the Second Amendment is an individual right, not, as the court had previously implied, a collective right that was attached to the colonial militia.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely this week, and for the first time the arguments were streamed live to the public.; Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

For the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely by phone and made the audio available live.

The new setup went off largely without difficulties, but produced some memorable moments, including one justice forgetting to unmute and an ill-timed bathroom break.

Here are the top five can't-miss moments from this week's history-making oral arguments.

A second week of arguments begin on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Here's a rundown of the cases and how to listen.

1. Justice Clarence Thomas speaks ... a lot

Supreme Court oral arguments are verbal jousting matches. The justices pepper the lawyers with questions, interrupting counsel repeatedly and sometimes even interrupting each other.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has sat on the bench for nearly 30 years, has made his dislike of the chaotic process well known, at one point not asking a question for a full decade.

But with no line of sight, the telephone arguments have to be rigidly organized, and each justice, in order of seniority, has an allotted 2 minutes for questioning.

It turn out that Thomas, second in seniority, may just have been waiting his turn. Rather than passing, as had been expected, he has been Mr. Chatty Cathy, using every one of his turns at bat so far.

Thomas broke a year-long silence on Monday in a trademark case testing whether a company can trademark by adding .com to a generic term. In this case, Booking.com.

"Could Booking acquire an 800 number, for example, that's a vanity number — 1-800-BOOKING, for example?" Thomas asked.

2. The unstoppable RBG

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participated in Wednesday's argument from the hospital. In pain during Tuesday's arguments, the 87-year-old underwent non-surgical treatment for a gall bladder infection at Johns Hopkins Hospital later that day, according to a Supreme Court press release.

But she was ferocious on Wednesday morning, calling in from her hospital room in a case testing the Trump administration's new rule expanding exemptions from Obamacare's birth control mandate for nonprofits and some for-profit companies that have religious or moral objections to birth control.

"The glaring feature" of the Trump administration's new rules, is that they "toss to the winds entirely Congress' instruction that women need and shall have seamless, no-cost, comprehensive coverage," she said.

3. Who flushed?

During Wednesday's second oral argument, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, a case in which the justices weighed a First Amendment challenge to a federal rule than bans most robocalls, something very unexpected happened.

Partway through lawyer Roman Martinez's argument time, a toilet flush could be distinctly heard.

Martinez seemed unperturbed and continued speaking in spite of the awkward moment.

The flush quickly picked up steam online, becoming the first truly viral moment from the court's new livestream oral arguments.

4. Hello, where are you?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, considered one of the most tech-savvy of the justices, experienced a couple of technical difficulties with her mute button.

In both Monday and Tuesday arguments, the first time she was at bat, there were prolonged pauses, prompting Chief Justice John Roberts to call, "Justice Sotomayor?" a few times before she hopped on with a brief, "Sorry, Chief," before launching into her questions.

By Wednesday she seemed to have gotten used to the new format, but the trouble then jumped to Thomas, who was entirely missing in action when his turn came. He ultimately went out of order Wednesday morning.

5. Running over time

Oral arguments usually run one hour almost exactly, with lawyers for each side having 30 minutes to make their case. In an attempt to stick as closely as possible to that format, the telephone rules allocate 2 minutes of questioning to each justice for each round of questioning.

Chief Justice John Roberts spent the week jumping into exchanges, cutting off both lawyers and justices in the process, to keep the proceedings on track. Even so the arguments ran longer than usual.

But in Wednesday's birth control case, oral arguments went a whopping 40 minutes longer than expected.

Justice Alito, for his part, hammered the lawyer challenging the Trump administration's new birth control rules for more than seven minutes, without interruption from the chief justice.

Referencing a decision he wrote in 2014, Alito said that "Hobby Lobby held that if a person sincerely believes that it is immoral to perform an act that has the effect of enabling another person to commit an immoral act, the federal court does not have the right to say that this person is wrong on the question of moral complicity. That is precisely the question here."

Christina Peck is NPR's legal affairs intern.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely this week, and for the first time the arguments were streamed live to the public.; Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

For the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely by phone and made the audio available live.

The new setup went off largely without difficulties, but produced some memorable moments, including one justice forgetting to unmute and an ill-timed bathroom break.

Here are the top five can't-miss moments from this week's history-making oral arguments.

A second week of arguments begin on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Here's a rundown of the cases and how to listen.

1. Justice Clarence Thomas speaks ... a lot

Supreme Court oral arguments are verbal jousting matches. The justices pepper the lawyers with questions, interrupting counsel repeatedly and sometimes even interrupting each other.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has sat on the bench for nearly 30 years, has made his dislike of the chaotic process well known, at one point not asking a question for a full decade.

But with no line of sight, the telephone arguments have to be rigidly organized, and each justice, in order of seniority, has an allotted 2 minutes for questioning.

It turn out that Thomas, second in seniority, may just have been waiting his turn. Rather than passing, as had been expected, he has been Mr. Chatty Cathy, using every one of his turns at bat so far.

Thomas broke a year-long silence on Monday in a trademark case testing whether a company can trademark by adding .com to a generic term. In this case, Booking.com.

"Could Booking acquire an 800 number, for example, that's a vanity number — 1-800-BOOKING, for example?" Thomas asked.

2. The unstoppable RBG

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participated in Wednesday's argument from the hospital. In pain during Tuesday's arguments, the 87-year-old underwent non-surgical treatment for a gall bladder infection at Johns Hopkins Hospital later that day, according to a Supreme Court press release.

But she was ferocious on Wednesday morning, calling in from her hospital room in a case testing the Trump administration's new rule expanding exemptions from Obamacare's birth control mandate for nonprofits and some for-profit companies that have religious or moral objections to birth control.

"The glaring feature" of the Trump administration's new rules, is that they "toss to the winds entirely Congress' instruction that women need and shall have seamless, no-cost, comprehensive coverage," she said.

3. Who flushed?

During Wednesday's second oral argument, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, a case in which the justices weighed a First Amendment challenge to a federal rule than bans most robocalls, something very unexpected happened.

Partway through lawyer Roman Martinez's argument time, a toilet flush could be distinctly heard.

Martinez seemed unperturbed and continued speaking in spite of the awkward moment.

The flush quickly picked up steam online, becoming the first truly viral moment from the court's new livestream oral arguments.

4. Hello, where are you?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, considered one of the most tech-savvy of the justices, experienced a couple of technical difficulties with her mute button.

In both Monday and Tuesday arguments, the first time she was at bat, there were prolonged pauses, prompting Chief Justice John Roberts to call, "Justice Sotomayor?" a few times before she hopped on with a brief, "Sorry, Chief," before launching into her questions.

By Wednesday she seemed to have gotten used to the new format, but the trouble then jumped to Thomas, who was entirely missing in action when his turn came. He ultimately went out of order Wednesday morning.

5. Running over time

Oral arguments usually run one hour almost exactly, with lawyers for each side having 30 minutes to make their case. In an attempt to stick as closely as possible to that format, the telephone rules allocate 2 minutes of questioning to each justice for each round of questioning.

Chief Justice John Roberts spent the week jumping into exchanges, cutting off both lawyers and justices in the process, to keep the proceedings on track. Even so the arguments ran longer than usual.

But in Wednesday's birth control case, oral arguments went a whopping 40 minutes longer than expected.

Justice Alito, for his part, hammered the lawyer challenging the Trump administration's new birth control rules for more than seven minutes, without interruption from the chief justice.

Referencing a decision he wrote in 2014, Alito said that "Hobby Lobby held that if a person sincerely believes that it is immoral to perform an act that has the effect of enabling another person to commit an immoral act, the federal court does not have the right to say that this person is wrong on the question of moral complicity. That is precisely the question here."

Christina Peck is NPR's legal affairs intern.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.