Scientists create new type of ice
Berlin: Scientists have for the first time created a new super-low density form of ice. The advance will help remove pipe-blocking clathrates from natural gas and thereby improve the energy efficiency of extraction, researchers said. Water molecules can sometimes form crystal structures called a clathrate hydrate by surrounding impurities, such as methane or carbon dioxide, with frozen ‘cages’. Scientists realised that if they could extract these molecules they could create a new type of ice.
This was, however, difficult to achieve because the ice structure is fragile without these extra molecules. Researchers at the University of Gottingen in Germany have now done just this by using a vacuum pump at low temperatures, sciencealert.com reported. The trick was to mix in neon atoms, which are relatively small and easily coaxed out of the solid ice.
Researchers said that if they can figure out how to replace energy-rich methane trapped in the huge amounts of clathrates on the ocean floor with carbon dioxide, then they could harvest energy from the ocean. “It is important to note that clathrates could also be formed with carbon dioxide gas which would create stable compounds on the ocean floor. This means there is a possibility we could extract methane and convert it to useful energy, and replace it with the CO2,” researchers said. (PTI)
Prince George captured in three new official Christmas photos
London: Three charming official Christmas photographs of 17-month-old Prince George, sporting a quizzical look and a cheeky grin, have been released, in part to thank the media for allowing the future king to grow up without intrusion.
The pictures were taken in late November and show the prince, the third-in-line to the British throne, in a courtyard at Kensington Palace where his parents, Prince William and Kate, have an apartment. The toddler is pictured wearing a blue sleeveless jumper decorated with marching guardsmen complete with bearskins and red tunics over a white top, dark shorts and matching socks and shoes. The last official photographs of him were published to mark his first birthday on July 22.
The latest pictures of the prince were taken by Prince Harry’s private secretary Ed Lane Fox, who has also worked as a freelance photographer. Prince William and his wife Catherine are releasing the images, in part, as a thank you to the media, who have not published any of the paparrazi pictures that have been taken of the prince, the BBC reported. The couple are said to be grateful that their request for their son to grow up without intrusion continues to be honoured. (PTI)
Russia detains Frenchman for defrauding would-be brides
Moscow: A French national has been arrested under an Interpol warrant in Russia’s Veliki Novgorod city for committing a variety of offences, including dishonestly posing as a suitor. According to a police officer, a court is slated to rule whether the man, 49, should be remanded in custody. Eventually the detainee is to be extradited to France, because he is on Interpol’s wanted list, the official said. The man is wanted for gang fraud and other crimes.
He is known to have been travelling about Russia to romance several women to persuade them to take bank loans for him or give him expensive gifts only to unexpectedly vanish without a trace.
He also stole expensive household appliances and other valuables. The man is suspected of defrauding his would-be brides in Moscow and Kazan and also in the Vologda and Tver regions. (IANS)
1st images of historic San Francisco shipwreck released
Los Angeles: The first three-dimensional sonar maps and images of an immigrant steamship that capsized over 100 years ago in San Francisco, killing 128 people, mostly immigrants from China and Japan, have been released.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partners released sonar maps and images of the SS City of Rio de Janeiro that struck jagged rocks near the present site of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and sank almost immediately on February 22, 1901. Fishermen in the area, hearing the ship’s distress calls, had rescued 82 survivors, many plucked from makeshift rafts and floating wreckage.
The dead included Chinese and Japanese immigrants as well as the US Consul General in Hong Kong, who was returning to America with his wife and two children. The entire family died in the tragedy. NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Programme is engaged in a two-year study to discover and document shipwrecks in Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and nearby Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In November, Hibbard Inshore and Bay Marine Services donated a research vessel and crew, along with a high-powered remotely operated vehicle, to help NOAA find the City of Rio de Janeiro wreck site using three-dimensional sonar. “This exploration of the San Francisco Bay is about our overall efforts to learn about the area’s important marine heritage..,” said James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. NOAA has so far plotted nine of nearly 200 ships including four never before found vessels. (PTI)