India became Fifth Largest Producer of e-Waste
- According to a joint study by ASSOCHAM-KPMG India, on May 26, 2016 emerged as the world’s second largest mobile market, is also the fifth largest producer of e-waste, discarding roughly 18.5 lakh tonnes of electronic waste each year.
- The rising levels of e-waste generation in India have been a matter of concern in recent years. With more than 100 crore mobile phones in circulation, nearly 25% end up in e-waste annually.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified e-waste management rules, 2016, in which producers are for the first time covered under Extended Producers’ Responsibility (EPR).
- The rules prescribe a waste collection target of 30% waste generated under EPR for the first two years, progressively going up to 70% in the seventh year of the rule. The rules also prescribe stringent financial penalties for non-compliance.
Water Staircases found out to be One of the cause for Ice Melt in Glaciers
- On May 22, 2016 it was found out by the researchers that Internal waves, which move vertically through the ocean, can sometimes pass through ‘water staircases’ in such as manner as to chum up the underlying warm, salty water, thereby increasing the temperature of the top, cooler layers.
- This suggests a possible mechanism by which the upper layers of the Arctic Ocean warm up, causing the ice to melt. Water staircases are steplike variations of density of water due to step like changes in temperature and salinity.
- Though internal waves exist where the density gradually increases with depth, they cannot propagate where the density is uniform, for instance, within the steps of the staircase. While, the passage of waves through a single step was studied earlier, the interaction between waves and multiple steps was not really understood well and is considered for the first time.
New Species of Homed Dinosaurs Discovered in the USA
- The scientists on May 19, 2016 identified the new species of centrosaurine, a member of the large-bodied ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs), is named Machairoceratops cronusi.
- Machairoceratops lived about 77 million years ago during the end of the Cretaceous period, when North America was subdivided by an epicontinental sea (one within a continent) into Western (Laramidia) and Eastern (Appalachia) landmasses.
- Centrosaurine ceratopsids, the group that includes Machairoceratops. were herbivorous dinosaurs known for their iconic, parrot-like beaks, enlarged noses, facial horns, and ornamented frills (neck shields).
- The discovery of Machairoceratops suggests the idea that ceratopsians occupied two distinct regions that were latitudinally separated within Laramidia, and different evolutionary pressures acted upon the groups during the late Cretaceous.
Wildlife Institute of India to Relocate Endangered Dancing Deer’ of Manipur
- The Sangai is an endemic, rare and endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer. It is also State animal of Manipur. It is classified as ‘Endangered’ by the IUCN.
- The Sangai is now restricted to the Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP) in the South-Eastern fringe of Loktak Lake in Manipur. Phumdis, floating vegetation occupy about two-third of the surface area of the lake.
- They feed, live and breed on this 9 km area of Phumdis while walking on the floating .biomass, Sangai often balances itself which looks as if it is dancing on the green grassland and therefore popularly called as ‘dancing deer’ of Manipur.
Scientists Identified Oldest Herbivorous Filter-feeding Marine Reptile
- A crocodile-sized sea reptile, that lived 242 million years ago in what today is southern China found on May 10, 2016. it is the earliest known example of a herbivorous marine reptile. The reptile is named Atopodentatus unicus, Latin for ‘unique strangely toothed’.
- The scientists discovered a ‘bizarre’ fossil of the animal in 2014. Its head was poorly preserved, but it seemed to have a flamingo-like beak. The latest research has found that the beak’ was actually part of a hammerhead-shaped jaw apparatus, which it used to feed on plants on the ocean floor.
- The newly discovered fossils made it clearer how its ‘strange teeth’ were actually configured. Its wide jaw was shaped like a hammerhead, and along the edge, it had peg-like teeth. Then, further into its mouth, it had bunches of needle-like teeth.
New Gene Identified in Carrot
- The scientists unveiled on May 9, 2016 that the gene in carrots which gives rise to carotenoids, a source of vitamin-A and the pigment that turns some fruits and vegetables bright orange or red.
- The gene is named as DCAR_032551. With this, carrot now joins a select club of about a dozen veggies including the potato, cucumber, tomato and pepper whose complete genomes have been sequenced.
- Carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, a natural chemical that the body can transform into vitamih-A. The deeper the orange colour, the more beta-carotene. Vitamin-A is essential for normal growth and development, the proper functioning of the immune system, and vision.
- Carotenoids are also antioxidants, which are thought to protect against heart disease and some forms of cancer by neutralising so-called ‘free radicals’, single oxygen atoms that can damage cells.
