the HINDU ANALYSIS : 16 June 2019

Eastern Himalayas : a treasure trove of Balsams, yields 20 new species -

Belonging to Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, these plants are highly sensitive to climate condition like extreme drought and extended exposure to sunlight.

# Between 2001 and 2019, Botanists and taxonomists working on impatiens - discovered 23 new species from the eastern Himalayas.

# Impatiens are a group of plants commonly known as Balsams or Jewel-weeds.

# Consisting of both annual and perennial herbs, balsams are succulent plants with high endemism.

# Due to their bright beautiful flowers, these group of plants are of prized horticultural significance. 

# The details of new species, including several new records have been highlighted in the books, recently published by the Botanical Survey of India.

# Authored by Rajib Gogoi and Souravjyothi Borah and other BSI scientists, the book presents 83 new species, one variety, one naturalised species and two cultivated species of Balsams.

# Of the 83 species, 45 are from Arunachal Pradesh, 24 from the Sikkim and 16 species common to both the states.

# Other than high endemism, what sets Impatiens apart is their sensitivity to climate change.

# Most of the species of impatiens cannot endure persistent drought or extended exposure  to direct sunlight.

NIT Rourkela : Converting fruit waste to ethanol

Marine bacteria isolated from Digha and Shankarpur waters were used.

# Researchers from the department of Biotechnology and Medical engineering at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, Odisha, have discovered a marine bacterial strain {Citrobacter Species}, isolated from the marine water near Digha and Shankarpur Seashore of West-Bengal that can produce ethanol directly from fruit waste.

# Ten strains were found to be highly tolerant to ethanol.

# The strains were tested to various waste materials including kitchen, paper, fruits, garden waste for their ability to produce ethanol.

# Of the ten ethanol resistant strain, a particular species - Citrobacter sp. E4   was found to directly covert fruit waste into ethanol directly without any pre-treatment.

# Under optimum temperature (33.2 C) and optimum pH (7.1), a maximum output of 0.30 g of ethanol obtained from 1 gm of fruit waste.

# It takes 24 hours to convert waste into ethanol.

# The species was further tested and found to be non-pathogenic and antibiotic resistant and ampicillin to name a few.

# Due to high sugar content, fruit waste was found to be the most favourable, whereas paper waste was the least favourable due to the presence of cellulosic substance.

Rings around Saturn

Analysing the data given by cassini probes during its last rendezvous with Saturn finds -

# Saturn has five small moons located in and around its rings.

# These accrete ring material and have distinct shapes.

# The rings are much younger than the planet, giving clues and placing constraints on models of how they are formed.

Origin Of Gold

# According to the new research from University of Guelph, Canada, heavy metals found on earth, such as gold and platinum, probably originated in supernova explosion .
# Challenging the earlier theories involving colliding blackholes or neutron stars, the study points towards the relatively rare collapsors, which are a heavy-element rich supernova explosion of stars about 30 times as massive as the sun.