Lake Bogoria

Lake Bogoria in Kenya are hostile to most forms of life, with surface temperatures soaring up to 40 degrees Celsius in recent times.

• Lake Bogoria is an alkaline soda lake in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, Kenya.
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA).
• Its rich biodiversity supports more than 300 waterbird species; and an important stopover site for a population of up to 1.5 million migratory birds, such as the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor).
• The lake’s stable water level makes it doubly important during periods of drought, when water levels in other East African lakes drop.
• The area is inhabited by Tugen and Jemps pastoralists and livestock grazing is the main land use in the area.
• In addition, the geysers are believed by some to have medicinal value.

Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS)

Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has Hosted National Consultative Meet on Traditional Medicine recently.

• The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) is an autonomous body of the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy).
• It is an apex body for the formulation, coordination, development and promotion of research on scientific lines in Ayurveda and Sowa-Rigpa system of medicine.
• The activities are carried out through its 30 Institutes located all over India and also through collaborative studies with various Universities, Hospitals and Institutes.
• The research activities of the Council include:
  • Medicinal Plant Research (Medico-Ethno Botanical Survey, Pharmacognosy and Tissue Culture)
  • Drug Standardization and Pharmacological Research,
  • Clinical Research, Literary Research & Documentation and
  • Tribal Health Care Research Programme.
• The initiatives of CCRAS are:
  • AYUSH-64 and 'SMART 2.0'
  • Studentship Program For Ayurveda Research Ken (SPARK)
• The National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH) operates under CCRAS.

Honey bees, hornets & Wasps

• Honeybees (Apis mellifera) – They live in colonies with one queen running the whole hive.
• Worker honeybees are all females and are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside of the hive.
• They forage for food, build the honeycombs, and protect the hive.
• Honeybees are important pollinators for flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
• Globally, there are 10 to 15 honeybee species, with four prominent major types in which three are native to India, while the fourth is European.
• Bees were not native to America or Australia, as they were introduced by European settlers.
• Honey was the primary sweetener before sugar extraction from cane or beetroot.
• The Colony structure of it houses 10,000 to 60,000 bees with clear division of labour.
• The Roles Queen bee is egg-layer, drones is mating and worker bees has various tasks.
• Hornets (Vespa) – They are wasps of the genus Vespa, closely related to (and resembling) yellow-jackets.
• Hornets is a type of social wasp that can construct large, enclosed nests and are known for their aggressive defence tactics.
• These social insects construct hives by chewing wood into a papery construction pulp.
• They mature from egg to adult inside the community hive.
• Queens dominate hornet hives and are the only females to reproduce.
• They mostly live in tropical Asia, but the insects are also found in Europe, Africa, and North America, where the European hornet was introduced by humans.
• Wasps (Hymenoptera) – They make up an enormously diverse array of insects, with some 30,000 identified species.
• Wasps are distinguishable from bees by their pointed lower abdomens and the narrow "waist," called a petiole that separates the abdomen from the thorax.
• All wasps build nests.
• Paper wasps builds intricate nests from chewed plant fibres mixed with saliva.
• While bees secrete a waxy substance to construct their nests, wasps create their familiar papery abodes from wood fibres scraped with their hard mandibles and chewed into a pulp.
• Wasps are divided into two primary subgroups:
  1. Social
  2. Solitary
• Social wasps account for only about a thousand species and include formidable colony-builders, like yellow jackets and hornets.
• Solitary wasps, by far the largest subgroup, do not form colonies.

Gigantic Jets

Recently NASA shared a rare lightning event that showed gigantic jets shooting up from a thunderstorm towards the Himalayas in China Bhutan.

• Gigantic jets are a type of transient luminous event (TLE) that occur during thunderstorms between thunderstorms and the ionosphere.
• Unlike typical lightning that travels from cloud to cloud or cloud to ground, gigantic jets extend upward, connecting the top of thunderstorms to the ionosphere.
• Gigantic jets are incredibly powerful, carrying up to 100 times the electrical charge of a typical lightning bolt.
• The Oklahoma gigantic jet, one of the most studied examples, moved an estimated 300 coulombs of electrical charge into the ionosphere.
• This discharge includes cooler plasma streamers (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit) and extremely hot structures called leaders, which can reach temperatures over 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• They have potential implications for space technology and communication systems.
• Their powerful discharges could affect satellites in low-Earth orbit, potentially causing signal degradation and performance issues.
• A rare gigantic jets was recently witnessed over Himalayas and it is not confined to oceans.

UN Global Principles for Information Integrity

The United Nations Secretary recently unveiled the Global Principles for Information Integrity to address the escalating threats posed by misinformation, disinformation and hate speech in the digital realm.

• The Global Principles for Information Integrity is a comprehensive framework aimed at addressing the escalating threats posed by misinformation, disinformation and hate speech in the digital realm.
• The 5 Global Principles for Information Integrity by UN are:
  1. Societal trust and resilience
  2. Healthy incentives
  3. Public empowerment
  4. Independent, free and pluralistic media
  5. Transparency and research
• The principles were developed through extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including Member States, the private sector, youth leaders, media, academia, and civil society.
• Key recommendations include:
  • Combating Disinformation and Hate Speech
  • Promoting Media Freedom
  • Enhancing Tech Company Responsibilities
  • Ethical AI Development
  • Reforming Business Models
  • Transparency in Advertising
  • Data Transparency and Accountability
  • Protecting Children
• The seeds for the Global Principles for Information Integrity were planted in the 2021 UN report "Our Common Agenda”.
• The launch of it represents a critical step towards addressing the complex challenges posed by the digital information landscape.