General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - May 2015

May 2015

Jul 17, 2017

Artificial sweeteners linked to risk of weight gain, heart disease and other health issues

Artificial sweeteners may be associated with long-term weight gain and increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
Consumption of artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose and stevia, is widespread and increasing. Emerging data indicate that artificial, or nonnutritive, sweeteners may have negative effects on metabolism, gut bacteria and appetite, although the evidence is conflicting.
To better understand whether consuming artificial sweeteners is associated with negative long-term effects on weight and heart disease, researchers from the University of Manitoba's George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation conducted a systematic review of 37 studies that followed over 400 000 people for an average of 10 years. Only 7 of these studies were randomized controlled trials (the gold standard in clinical research), involving 1003 people followed for 6 months on average.
The trials did not show a consistent effect of artificial sweeteners on weight loss, and the longer observational studies showed a link between consumption of artificial sweeteners and relatively higher risks of weight gain and obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other health issues.
"Despite the fact that millions of individuals routinely consume artificial sweeteners, relatively few patients have been included in clinical trials of these products," said author Dr. Ryan Zarychanski, Assistant Professor, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. "We found that data from clinical trials do not clearly support the intended benefits of artificial sweeteners for weight management."

Jul 16, 2017

'Saraswati': A Supercluster Of Galaxies Discovered By Indian Scientists

A team of Indian astronomers has discovered an extremely large supercluster of galaxies -- as big as 20 million billion suns -- which they have named Saraswati, Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) said on Thursday.
This is one of the largest known structures in the neighborhood of the universe, 4,000 million light-years away from Earth and roughly more than 10 billion years old, IUCAA said.
Scientists of this Institute were also involved in the path-breaking discovery of gravitational waves last year.
The supercluster was discovered by Shishir Sankhyayan, a Ph.D. student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Pratik Dabhade, IUCAA research fellow, Joe Jacob of the Newman College, Kerala, and Prakash Sarkar of the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur.

Jul 15, 2017

Three Indian Vulture Species on List for Highest Protection

Ten critically endangered vulture species in the world , including three from India, are set to get the highest degree of protection. Three of the nine species of vultures in India - oriental white-backed, slender-billed and long-billed- are on the brink of extinction. The Bombay Natural History Society with the assistance of British charity Royal Society for the protection of Birds is breeding them in captivity. Currently, they are classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ or ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red list of species threatened with extinction. The meeting was concluded in Bonn.

Jul 13, 2017

Smallest Star Ever Known in Universe

A team of astronomers has discovered the smallest star ever known in the galaxy.

The star is called EBLM J0555–57Ab and is slightly bigger than Saturn. It is located about 600 light-years from Earth and can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

Jul 12, 2017

Brown Dwarfs

A new study conducted by scientists has found that Milky Way may have over 100 billion brown dwarfs.
Brown dwarfs are objects intermediate in mass between stars and planets, with masses too low to sustain stable hydrogen fusion in their core, the hallmark of stars like the sun.
The initial discovery of brown dwarfs was made in 1995.

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