Curiosity February 2023

Curiosity February E40

Latin term februum, which means “purification” held on Feb full moon | 5 Snow Moon.

The Science month in India | 28th Feb National Science Day.

Nonleap year; Next leap year is in 2024

1550 square km giant tabular iceberg “Chasm-1" carved out of Brunt Ice Shelf at just 20 km from Haley Station of Britain in Antarctica. Photo: Copernicus/Sentinel 2 via BBC

This month’s Discoveries

1. Working fewer hours is associated with higher life satisfaction, according to new research. “When you have a life, life is better, When your life is work, life is bitter”
2. Adults who stay well-hydrated appear to be healthier, develop fewer chronic conditions, such as heart and lung disease, and live longer than those who may not get sufficient fluids. | Fluid out is body’s major way to get rid of unwanted stuff. Plus you get lower kidney stones.
3. Abortion associated with lower psychological distress compared to both adoption and unwanted birth, study finds
4. Workers are less likely to go on strike in recent decades because they are more likely to be in debt and fear losing their jobs. Study examined cases in Japan, Korea, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom over the period 1970–2018.
5. 63% of severe alcoholics exhibit significant cognitive improvements within 18 days of abstinence
6. People living in rural areas were even less likely to get enough exercise: Only 16% of people outside cities met benchmarks for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities, compared with 28% in large metropolitan cities areas.
7. Lab-grown retinal eye cells make successful connections, open door for clinical trials to treat blindness
8. New study finds that circumcision is not associated with a reduced prevalence of HIV in African males | 6th FebInternational Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation
9. People who found themselves good-looking showed less willingness to continue wearing face masks
10. Coffee/tea with milk may ease inflammation.| Polyphenols in coffee/tea with aminoacids in milk.
11. A new study casts doubt on oxytocin’s role as a ‘love hormone’
12. Recent research suggests rats may not have played the critical role in keeping plague going in Europe. | The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions. Plague outbreaks in Europe then continued until the 19th century.
13. New Zealand’s southern waters experiencing marine heat waves with 4 degrees C above normal.
14. Large study finds that peer-reviewers award higher marks when a paper’s author is famous. Just 10% of reviewers of a test paper recommended acceptance when the sole listed author was obscure, but 59% endorsed the same manuscript when it carried the name of a Nobel laureate.
15. Viagra lowers the risk of heart disease in men by up to 39 percent. And men who take the drug also appear less likely to suffer an early death from any cause. Research looked at 70,000 adult men with an average age of 52, all of whom had an erectile dysfunction diagnosis at some point in their life.
16. Belief in paranormal and metaphysical concepts like the soul living on after death, ghosts, demons, communication with the dead, near-death experiences as evidence of an afterlife, and aliens having visited earth, is associated with poorer sleep quality. N=8853
17. About 73% of drugs advertised on TV are of ‘low therapeutic value’ — direct-to-consumer advertising is driving demand for expensive treatments, despite the clinical effectiveness of less costly alternatives
18. You can reduce your risk of an early death by nearly 20%, just by eating more foods from your choice of four healthy eating patterns, research shows.The eating patterns focus on consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes | Legumes: Peanuts, Chickpeas, Kidney Beans, Green Peas, Cow Peas, Black Beans, Soy Beans, Lentils, Black Eyed Peas. Hispanic | 10th Feb World Pulses Day
19. US college attendance appears to politicize students, per analysis of surveys since 1974, with female students in particular becoming more liberal through attending college | 11th FebInternational Day of Women and Girls in Science
20. Humans still have the genes for a full coat of body hair | genes present in the genome but are “muted”

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Observances

• Feb. 1–5: Return of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). You might be able to see Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the beginning of February. It will be near Polaris, the North Star, on Jan. 30 and move to within 1.5 degrees of the star Capella on Feb. 5.
• 2 Feb World Wetlands Day
• 13 World Radio Day
• 22 Moon-Venus Conjunction
• 23 Moon-Mars Conjunction
• 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 6th Launch with 4 astronauts aboard Crew Dragon
• 28 Moon-Mars Conjunction, National Science Day

Opportunities

• IGNITE ACORN-AMR FAST GRANTS 2023 by Ignite Life Science Foundation, Feb 15
• DST India-EU Joint Call, 29th March
• Australia-India Strategic Research Fund: collaborative research projects Round 15 15th March
• Call for Proposals under CURIE Programme to support Women’s PG Colleges 28th Feb
• Call for Project Proposal under Strengthening, Upscaling & Nurturing Innovations for Livelihood (SUNIL) programme 6th Feb
• Czech and Israel Govt Scholarship calls

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