Hubble views a stellar duo in Orion Nebula

Kangana on ‘Pathaan’ success: ‘India has only loved the Khans’

The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has also captured a smaller companion star in the upper left of this image. Both stars lie in the Orion Nebula, a colossal region of star formation roughly 1,450 light-years from Earth. V 372 Orionis is a particular type of variable star known as an Orion Variable. These young stars experience some tempestuous moods and growing pains, which are visible to astronomers as irregular variations in luminosity. Orion Variables are often associated with diffuse

The discovery of an asteroid the size of a small shipping truck mere days before it passed Earth on Thursday, albeit one that posed no threat to humans, highlights a blind spot in our ability to predict those that could actually cause damage, astronomers say. NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth ‘s surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth , it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land.

Poultry

We get it: Raw chicken is slimy when it comes out of the package, and you want to wash it off. But according to the USDA, it’s safer to destroy bacteria when you cook it. A recent study looked at people who washed raw poultry for a meal. Sixty percent had bacteria in their sink afterward, and 26% had transferred bacteria to their salad lettuce.

Prewashed Salads

If the bag says your greens have been prewashed, there’s no need to send it through the salad spinner. Many prepared lettuces go through a triple wash system to remove natural debris.

Eggs

Right before a chicken lays an egg, a thin coating called a bloom covers the shell. This keeps bacteria out of its tiny pores. Commercial egg producers clean eggs in a way that keeps that layer intact. Washing eggs at home doesn’t remove germs; it lets them inside instead.

Always keep your eggs in the refrigerator, and cook them thoroughly.

Red Meat You can’t wash all the bacteria off red meat. Some is deep in the fibers. Any that come off will crosscontaminate your sink and everything in it. The safest way to kill all the bacteria on red meat is to cook it to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees.

Mushrooms

On one hand, the USDA recommends that you wash any produce that doesn’t say “pre-washed” on the label. On the other, mushrooms are little sponges that suck up water -- and maybe some bacteria with it. Clean your store-bought mushrooms with a damp nebulae, and V 372 Orionis is no exception; the patchy gas and dust of the Orion Nebula pervade this scene. This image overlays data from two of Hubble’s instruments. Data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 at infrared and visible wavelengths were layered to reveal rich details of this corner of the Orion Nebula. Hubble also left its own subtle signature on this astronomical portrait in the form of diffraction spikes that surround the bright stars. The four spikes around the brightest stars in this image form when an intense point source of light, such as starlight, interacts with the four vanes inside Hubble that support the telescope’s secondary mirror. The diffraction spikes of the NASA/ESA/ CSA James Webb Space Telescope, on the other hand, are six-pointed due to Webb’s hexagonal mirror segments and 3-legged support structure for the secondary mirror. (ESA)

‘Queen’ actress Kangana Ranaut, who is gearing up for her next directorial ‘Emergency’, feels that the Indian audience have always loved the three Khans of Bollywood and the success of Shah Rukh Khan’s recent release ‘Pathaan’ is a testimony to the same.

While taking to Twitter, Kangana, who recently made a come back on the micro-blogging site, tweeted as a response to a producer’s tweet which read, “Big Congratulations to @iamsrk & @deepikapadukone for the runaway success of #Pathaan!!! It proves 1) Hindu Muslims love SRK equally 2) Boycotts controversies don’t harm but help the film 3) Erotica & Good music works 4) India is super secular”.

Kangana, quoted the tweet as she wrote, “Very good analysis. This country has only and only loved all Khans and at times only and only Khans. And obsessed over Muslim actresses.” Her tweet further mentioned, “So it’s very unfair to accuse India of hate and fascism. There is no country like Bharat in the whole world.”

(IANS)

Scientists have discovered regions on the coronavirus which do not change, or ‘coldspots’, and that antibodies specific for these coldspots may help fight future coronaviruses, according to a new study.

The coronavirus keeps evolving, and in so doing it evades our immune defenses. But does the entire coronavirus evolve, or do some portions remain unchanged?

According to the study, sieving through over 10 million coronavirus sequences, two PhD students at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Switzerland and affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana, discovered that some portions of the virus spike, or the molecule on the virus that is key to infect human cells, were remarkably conserved.

“We call these ‘coldspots’, most of the virus is rapidly changing, but we discovered 15 regions that do not,” said Virginia Crivelli, one of the researchers.

By analysing samples from COVID-19 convalescent individuals, the researchers found that some had antibodies specific for the coldspots, the study said.

“These antibodies are very rare, but thanks to a new method, we were able to find them,” said Filippo Bianchini, the other researcher.

The antibodies blocked virus infection in laboratory experiments, even to the latest variants of concern, and protected from disease in preclinical

Asteroid’s sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection

But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. Objects that size are difficult to detect until they wander much closer to Earth , complicating any efforts to brace for one that could impact a populated area. The probability of an Earth impact by a space rock, called a meteor when it enters the atmosphere, of that size range is fairly low, scaling according to the asteroid’s size: a 5-meter rock is estimated to target Earth once a year, and a 50-meter rock once every thousand years, according to NASA .

But with current capabilities, astronomers can’t see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior. “We don’t know where most of the asteroids are that can cause local to regional dev- astation,” said Terik Daly , a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The roughly 20-meter meteor that exploded in 2013 over Chelyabinsk , Rus-

Should You Wash Chicken?

minutes in cold water. Put delicate berries in a colander and spray them with distilled water right before you use them. Are Food Washes Worth It?

Produce washes you buy at a store are safe. But that doesn’t mean they are sia is a once-every-100-years event, according to NASA ‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory . It created a shockwave that shattered tens of thousands of windows and caused $33 million in damage, and no one saw it coming before it entered Earth ‘s atmosphere. Some astronomers consider relying only on statistical probabilities and estimates of asteroid populations an unnecessary risk, when improvements could be made to NASA ‘s ability to detect them.

“How many natural hazards are there that we could actually do something about and prevent for a billion dollars? There’s not many,” said Daly , whose the best way to wash your produce. Distilled or cold, clean tap water does the trick just fine. Soak your fruits and veggies for a minute or two to lessen the chances of getting sick.

Medically Reviewed by Kathleen M. Zelman, RD, LD, MPH work focuses on defending Earth from hazardous asteroids. One major upgrade to NASA ‘s detection arsenal will be NEO Surveyor , a $1.2 billion telescope under development that will launch nearly a million miles from Earth and surveil a wide field of asteroids. It promises a significant advantage over today’s groundbased telescopes that are hindered by daytime light and Earth ‘s atmosphere. That new telescope will help NASA meet a goal assigned by Congress in 2005: detect 90% of the total expected amount of asteroids bigger than 140 meters, or those big enough to destroy anything from a region to an entire continent.

“With Surveyor , we’re really focusing on finding the one asteroid that could cause a really bad day for a lot of people,” said Amy Mainzer , NEO Surveyor principal investigator. “But we’re also tasked with getting good statistics on the smaller objects, down to about the size of the Chelyabinsk object.” NASA has fallen years behind on its congressional goal, which was ordered for completion by 2020. The agency proposed last year to cut the telescope’s 2023 budget by three quarters and a twoyear launch delay to 2028 “to support higher-priority missions” elsewhere in models, the study said. Will the new antibodies be effective against the next coronavirus(es)?

“It is likely that new coronaviruses that infect humans will emerge. Our findings indicate that it may be already possible to develop countermeasures that are broadly effective against present and also future coronaviruses,” said Davide Robbiani, senior author on the study and IRB director.

The study is published in the journal Science Immunology. (PTI)

NASA ‘s science portfolio. Asteroid detection gained greater importance last year after NASA slammed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft into an asteroid to test its ability to knock a potentially hazardous space rock off a collision course with Earth . The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.

“NEO Surveyor is of the utmost importance, especially now that we know from DART that we really can do something about it,” Daly said. “So by golly, we gotta find these asteroids.” (Reuters) cloth instead. If you gather mushrooms like morels in the wild, soak them in salted lukewarm water for 30 minutes. Then rinse with clean water until all the dirt is gone.

Fish

Fish is in the same category as poultry and red meat: If you wash it, you will spread bacteria around your kitchen. Cook it off instead. The only exceptions to this rule are clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops that you get fresh. They may need a rinse to get rid of sand and dirt.

Pasta

There’s no food safety reason to wash off your pasta, either before you cook it or afterward. Some people rinse pasta after it’s cooked to remove some of the starch, but this makes it harder for sauce to cling to the noodles.

Avocado

You don’t eat the peel of the avocado, so why should you wash it? Because when you slice it, you can transfer bacteria and dirt from the peel to the avocado.

Cantaloupe and Other Melons

Melons grow on the ground, so pests and microorganisms from dirt and fertilizer are all over them.

Cantaloupe in particular has netted skin that traps bacteria. Wash all melons carefully right before you cut into them so you don’t move bacteria from the rind to the flesh.

Grains

Most of the grains you buy in the U.S. go through processing and are shelf-stable. There’s no safety-related reason to wash them. But some grains, like quinoa and farro, come out of the bag pretty dusty. If you want to rinse them, feel free.

Canned Drinks

Your call. If you’re worried about what might have touched the can before you put your lips on it, give the top of it a good wash. It’s OK to use soap in this case because cans aren’t porous.

Beans

Both dried and canned beans are safe without washing them. But you won’t hurt dried beans if you wash the dust off of them. And if you rinse canned beans, you can cut the amount of sodium by almost half, on average. For example, a can of undrained kidney beans has 327 milligrams of sodium. If you rinse and drain them, they have 164 milligrams.

Tip: How to Wash

Produce

Wash your hands with hot water and soap first. Use clean, cold water to wash the produce, and dry with a paper towel. Use a vegetable brush on thick-skinned produce, like apples and melons. Soak cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuce for 2

"Women Society" Naga United Village held it's Annual General Meeting on 28th Jan. 2023. Mrs. Kedovino Lydia President, chaired the meeting. After invocation by Mrs. Khegholi Zhimo, Asso. Pastor Sumi Baptist Church NUV. Special Guest Mrs Lulu Rio, EO Nagaland State Co-operative Marketing and Consumers Federation spoke on women empowerment and stressed on the need for women to be conscious of their rights. She also spoke on the importance of a woman in moulding and shaping the Society. She urged the women flock to be smart and also think about venturing out of the four corners of their houses. She also spoke on the various schemes available exclusively for women in departments such as Social Welfare, Dept of Women Development, Dept of Agriculture etc. She later donated tools and seeds to the society. Chakhesang Baptist Church presented a song while Mrs Supou Associate Women Pastor said the benediction.