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ARAB TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2015 INTERNATIONAL 18 World News Roundup Ecology ‘Extradite dentist’ Probe launched into killing of lion WASHINGTON, July 31, (AFP): US authorities launched an investigation Thursday into the killing of a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, as the American dentist who hunted the big cat remained in hiding amid mounting global outrage. Trophy hunter Walter Palmer killed Cecil the lion earlier this month after the feline was allegedly lured out of the Hwange National Park boundaries with a dead animal as bait. The professional Zimbabwean hunter who organized the hunt has been charged in Zimbabwe with “failing to prevent an illegal Palmer hunt.” But a court hearing for the landowner accused of allowing the hunt was delayed on Thursday. The US government, meanwhile, has opened a probe into the hunt. Investigating “The US Fish & Wildlife Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of Cecil the lion,” said Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement at the agency. But Palmer remained out of the public eye, and US authorities said efforts they have had no luck so far in their efforts to track him down. “Multiple efforts to contact Dr Walter Palmer have been unsuccessful,” Grace said. “We ask that Dr Palmer or his representative contact us immediately.” Crowds left plush toys of lions, tigers and monkeys at his River Bluff Dental practice in Minnesota. A sign reading “Rot in Hell” was plastered on the office door. An online petition garnered more than 850,000 signatures expressing outrage over Cecil’s slaughter, while more than 100,000 concerned Americans on the White House website urged the government “to fully cooperate with the Zimbabwe authorities and to extradite Walter Palmer promptly at the Zimbabwe government’s request.” A Minnesota congresswoman joined calls to investigate the dentist, a seasoned hunter with a poaching conviction over the 2008 killing of a black bear in the United States. A handout file photo released on Aug 6, 2014 by the European Space Agency shows a close up detail focusing on a smooth region on the ‘base’ of the ‘body’ section of comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera and downloaded on Aug 6. Astronomers proposed a novel explanation on July 6, 2015 for the strange appearance of the Space Philae shows there is more to comets than soft dust Organic molecules found on comet Threatened “To bait and kill a threatened animal, like this African lion, for sport cannot be called hunting, but rather a disgraceful display of callous cruelty,” Betty McCollum said Wednesday. She urged the US Attorney’s Office and the USFWS to “investigate whether US laws were violated related to conspiracy, bribery of foreign officials, and the illegal hunting of a protected species or animal.” Meanwhile, Safari Club International, an international hunting organization that Palmer belonged to, said it also supported a probe and that it had revoked his membership. “SCI has imposed immediate emergency membership suspensions of both the involved hunter and his guide/professional hunter, and they will remain in place pending the outcome of an investigation,” the group said in a statement. Cecil was a popular attraction among many international visitors to the Hwange National Park and was part of a University of Oxford research project. The beloved lion was apparently enticed to leave the park’s boundaries by bait and initially shot with a bow and arrow before Palmer and his guide tracked Cecil down and shot him dead with a gun some 40 hours later. On Tuesday, Palmer issued a statement expressing regret at killing Cecil but said he had no idea the lion was protected and part of a study and that he thought the hunt was legal. Twitter was aflutter with insults aimed at the wealthy dentist, and the hashtag #WalterPalmer was trending. Rocker Ozzy Osborne’s wife, Sharon, joined the online attack. “#WalterPalmer is Satan. I don’t know how anyone could go to this man for dental services after this. He is a killer. Beware!,” she wrote. Amid the global anger over the lion’s killing, appeals for donations to protect endangered felines are being answered enthusiastically. After an appeal by Jimmy Kimmel, a popular late night talk show host on ABC, tens of thousands of dollars were promised in a matter of hours for an Oxford University research and preservation project that Cecil had been a part of. Kimmel called Palmer “the most hated man in America.” In asking for money, he said he wanted some good to come out of the tragedy. “At the very least maybe we can show the world that not all Americans are like this jackhole here,” he said, as a photo of a smiling Palmer advertising his dental practice filled the screen. comet carrying Europe’s robot probe Philae through outer space: alien microscopic life. Many of the frozen dust ball’s features, which include a black crust over lakes of ice, flat-bottomed craters and mega-boulders scattered on the surface, were ‘consistent’ with the presence of microbes, they said. (AFP) Japan’s medical machine venture Riverfield engineer demonstrates the world’s first pneumatically controlled endoscope robot ‘Emaro’ to assist low invasive surgery in Tokyo on July 31. Japan’s Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Riverfield developed the surgical assist robot which can be controlled by a gyro-sensor equipped with surgeon’s cap. The Emaro will go on sale from next month with a price of $125,000. (AFP) Discovery ‘Magnetic field much older: Earth’s magnetic field has been a life preserver, protecting against relentless solar winds, streams of charged particles rushing from the Sun, that otherwise could strip away the planet’s atmosphere and water. “It would be a pretty barren planet without it,” said University of Rochester geophysicist John Tarduno. But there has been debate among scientists about when this vital shield generated by Earth’s liquid iron core formed. Researchers on Thursday said evidence entombed in tiny crystals retrieved from the outback of western Australia indicates the magnetic field arose at least 4.2 billion years ago, much earlier than previously believed. Previous research had estimated the field originated about 3.5 billion years ago, roughly a billion years after Earth’s formation. The new study shows Earth was protected by its magnetic field beginning very early in its history. “The solar wind would have been much more intense 4 billion years ago,” said Tarduno, who led the study published in the journal Science. “Its erosional capability was perhaps 10 times greater than it is today. Without a magnetic shield, you would have this tremendous possibility of eroding the atmosphere and removing water from the planet.” (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ WASHINGTON, July 31, (Agencies): It really is the little lander that could. The European Space Agency’s probe Philae may be struggling to stay in touch, but its first finds on its new home are pretty special. Transmitting from a shadowy corner of Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko nicknamed “Chury,” Philae found several organic molecules — including four never detected before on a comet, which are important building blocks of life. The pictures and measurements it took after it touched down on a comet in November have shown scientists that the comet is covered with coarse material, rather than dust, and is harder than expected. Data analyzed in seven studies published Thursday in the American journal Science were gathered with 10 instruments on board Philae during the first 60 hours after its arrival on Chury, between November 12-14 of last year. “None of this was known before,” said Professor Jean-Pierre Bibring, head of science for the Philae mission, telling AFP that “the physical properties and composition of a comet are nothing like we imagined.” Philae found the 4.6-billion-yearold body around 75 to 85 percent porous, with a granular surface in places and a rigid crust elsewhere. Bibring said scientists had expected to find an object held together by ice, but instead found complex organic molecules formed at the birth of the solar system. Those molecules may have been the seeds of life in Earth’s oceans when they fell on our planet. “We have already found fascinating molecules that we’ve never seen on a comet before,” he told AFP. In total, 16 compounds have been identified from six classes of organic molecules, including alcohols and amino acids. According to Bibring, some of these chemicals form the “start of an evolutionary chain that could lead them to form complex organic components.” The comet has remained in a fairly stable condition since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago — a time capsule in space. “I’m convinced that Philae will help us progress considerably in our understanding of the origin of life,” Bibring Vatican sceptical about close encounter of the third kind Astronomers find star with 3 super-Earths PARIS, July 31, (AFP): Astronomers said Thursday they had found a planetary system with three super-Earths orbiting a bright, dwarf star — one of them likely a volcanic world of molten rock. The four-planet system had been hiding out in the M-shaped, northern hemisphere constellation Cassiopeia, “just” 21 light years from Earth, a team reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. It comprises four planets — one giant and three super-Earths orbiting a star dubbed HD219134. Super-Earths have a mass higher than Earth’s but are lighter than gas giants like Neptune, Saturn or Jupiter. They can be made of gas, rock, or both. The planet with the shortest orbit, HD219134b, zips around every three days, and has now been observed transiting across the face of its star as seen from the vantage point of Earth. Measurements from the ground and with NASA’s Spitzer space telescope showed its mass was 4.5 times higher than Earth’s, and that it was 1.6 times larger. “Its mean density is close to the density of Earth, suggesting a possibly similar composition as well,” said a press statement from the University of Geneva, whose astronomers took part in the research. “It’s very close to the star. The temperature is about 700 degrees” Kelvin (427 Celsius, 800 Fahrenheit), study co-author Stephane Udry told AFP. “Probably the surface is melting... kind of a melted lava world with volcanoes... not good for life.” It was not in the so-called “habit- able zone” of its star, and would not have liquid water necessary for life. But HD219134b is exciting for another reason: it is the closest transiting planet known to scientists, and thus offers a rare opportunity for further study of its composition and atmosphere against the backdrop of its star. “These transiting systems are especially interesting in that they allow characterisation of the atmosphere of the planet (by studying) the light of the star going through the atmosphere,” Udry said. And the system is relatively near at a distance of 21 light years from Earth. By comparison, the closest star to our Sun is three light years away, and the second six light years. Among HD219134b’s fellow planets, the second furthest from the star weighs 2.7 times as much as Earth and orbits in 6.8 days, the next is 8.7 times more massive than Earth with a 47-day orbit. A giant planet further out orbits once every three years, the team said. ❑ ❑ ❑ The recent discovery of an Earth twin has boosted chances there is intelligent life on other planets. But while Pope Francis’s telescope scans the starlit skies, the Vatican is sceptical of ever meeting Mr. Spock. On a leafy hilltop near the papal summer home of Castel Gandolfo sits the Vatican’s Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world, where planetary scientists mix the study of meteorites and the Big Bang theory with theology. Boasting a prestigious research centre at the University of Arizona in the United States, the institute has never shied away from asking whether there could be life on other planets and is thrilled with the discovery of an “Earth 2.0”. Astronomers hunting for a planet like ours announced to huge excitement last week that they have found the closest match yet, Kepler 452b, which is circling its star at the same distance as our home orbits the Sun. Around 60 percent larger than Earth, it sits squarely in the Goldilocks zone of its star, where life could exist because it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water, according to the US space agency NASA. The discovery “is great news”, the Observatory’s Argentine director Jose Funes told AFP, despite the fact that scientists suspect increasing energy from the planet’s ageing sun might now be heating the surface and evaporating any oceans, making life difficult. However, while “it is probable there was life and perhaps a form of intelligent life... I don’t think we’ll ever meet a Mr. Spock”, he said. The problem is that Kepler 452b is 1,400 light-years away — an impossible distance to cover using mankind’s current technology. NASA may have made history this year with a Pluto fly-by, but it took nine years for its probe to get there despite the planet being under six light hours away. The fastest spaceship in the Solar System, it would take some 11 million years to reach the Earth’s cousin. said. The little lander separated from the Rosetta probe on November 12 last year and made a dramatic interception of the comet Chury. Hitting the comet at all was an achievement, but disaster almost struck when landing harpoons failed to fire. Philae bounced before falling into a shadier nook than planned, under cliffs, where the sun could not reach its solar panels. The lander was able to work for only 60 hours before going to sleep, but seven months later, as Chury neared the sun, it awoke. Since June, it has been able to communicate with its mothership Rosetta, holding 200 kilometers away to avoid the comet’s dust and gas plumes. On it eighth and so far last transmis- sion on July 9, Philae sent a long burst of data. So far, unfortunately, Earth-bound scientists have not been able to send back fresh instructions to their brave explorer. But in the meantime, Philae is making the most of its mission. “Philae is not dead,” Bibring insisted. “It’s making efficient use of its survival mode.” Snails prove a slippery foe: Florida plant detectives are on the trail of a slippery foe, an invasive African land snail that is wily, potentially infectious, and can grow as big as a tennis shoe. In the four years since Giant African Snails were discovered in Miami, they have slowly but surely spread to new territory, alarming residents in the southern suburbs and the neighboring county of Broward. Their slimy tracks have led agricultural experts on an odyssey of discovery about animal behavior, folk religion and the precise amount of chemicals and cash it takes to kill the world’s biggest gastropods. Since 2011, Florida has spent $10.8 million on the Giant African Snail eradication program, according to state agriculture department spokesman Mark Fagan. That is 10 times more than officials spent to wipe out the snails’ last invasion Tarduno Fagan of Florida in the 1960s, an effort that lasted an entire decade. And there is still no end in sight. “The fact is they’re a human and animal health threat and they’re a threat to Florida’s agriculture,” said Fagan. “We can’t let the population continue.” The snails are voracious consumers of as many as 500 different plants, and are also known to eat the stucco off houses. If they consume infected rat feces, the snails can carry a parasitic worm that is dangerous to humans and can cause a rare form of meningitis. They are also huge. The biggest one found in Florida was nearly seven inches (18 centimeters) long. At first, officials tried to kill the giant snails with organic pesticides, to no avail. Then they switched to a molluscicide containing metaldehyde, which kills them 95 to 100 percent of the time. (AFP)