Scientists have discovered the most ancient spiral galaxy in the universe that existed almost 11 billion years ago. The spiral galaxy could provide insights into the early cosmos, believe scientists. The galaxy, known as A1689B11, existed just 2.6 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only one-fifth of its present age. Researchers used a powerful technique that combines gravitational lensing with the Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) on the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to verify the vintage and spiral nature of the galaxy. Gravitational lenses are nature's largest telescopes, created by massive clusters composed of thousands of galaxies and dark matter. The cluster bends and magnifies the light of galaxies behind it in a manner similar to an ordinary lens, but on a much larger scale. Spiral Galaxy: Know More Spiral galaxies are exceptionally rare in the early universe, and this discovery opens the door to investigating how galaxies transition from highly chaotic, turbulent discs to tranquil, thin discs like those of our own Milky Way galaxy. This galaxy is forming stars 20 times faster than galaxies today ? as fast as other young galaxies of similar masses in the early universe. However, unlike other galaxies of the same epoch, A1689B11 has a very cool and thin disc, rotating calmly with surprisingly little turbulence. This type of spiral galaxy has never been seen before at this early epoch of the universe.

China has launched the first of its most powerful generation of navigational satellites as part of efforts to expand the global reach of its rival to GPS and to cut reliance on overseas systems. The launch of the two Beidou-3 satellites in Sichuan on 5th Nov 2017 after months of delays represents the start of a major upgrade to China's home-grown navigational strength. The satellites are among more than 30 China plans to send up over the next three years to create a network that will be able to support military operations around the world without relying on competitors such as the US-developed GPS or Russia's GLONASS. There are already more than 20 earlier Beidou versions in orbit but their coverage is limited to China and the region. China to launch new GPS rival satellites 'accurate to within millimetres', website says. The expanded system will also have a wide range of civilian applications, from smartphones to self-driving cars. Scientists involved in the project also said the new system would give civilian users an accuracy of 2.5 metres to five metres, putting it on a par with existing GPS technology. The Chinese military and some government users would be able to use encrypted signals for millimetre precision, the scientists said. China has built more than 1,500 Beidou ground stations across the country to improve the system's accuracy. It also plans to set up similar bases in dozens of countries including Pakistan and Thailand to extend the high-precision service to military and government users overseas.

MIT Media Lab have conjured 'Shelley', a deep-learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot who writes her own horror stories. Named after Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, the AI bot uses information and spooks from 1,40,000 pieces of horror fiction from Reddit's r/nosleep subreddit. Every hour, her Twitter handle tweets one line beginning a story. Akin to the round robin writing technique, people add to the story with their tweets ending with #yourturn. Shelley adds her own lines occasionally, and this goes on till the tale is complete, when somebody ends a line with #theend. Of course, Shelley is the final arbiter of this all. The final product of this human-AI collaboration is often some genuinely frightening material, collated on stories.shelley.ai. According to the website, Shelley is created to learn from human beings' 'nightmarish ideas', and to tell the best collaborative tales. Shelley's creative mind has no boundaries according to researchers at MIT.

Scientists have found a previously undiscovered hidden chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, the first such discovery in the structure since the 19th century. In a report published in the journal Nature on November 2, an international team says the 30-metre void deep within the pyramid is situated above the Grand Gallery, and has a similar cross-section. The pyramid is also known as Khufu’s Pyramid for its builder, a 4th dynasty pharaoh who reigned from 2509 to 2483 B.C. The scientists made the discovery using cosmic-ray imaging, recording the behaviour of subatomic particles called muons that penetrate the rock similar to X-rays, only much deeper. Scientists involved in the scanning called the find a “breakthrough” that highlighted the usefulness of modern particle physics in archeology. The Giza pyramids, the last surviving wonder of the ancient world, have captivated visitors since they were built as royal burial chambers some 4500 years ago. Experts are still divided over how they were constructed, so even relatively minor discoveries generate great interest. Late last year, for example, thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the Great Pyramid - three adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than others, stoking imaginations worldwide. Speculation that King Tutankhamen’s tomb contains additional antechambers stoked interest in recent years, before scans by ground-penetrating radar and other tools came up empty, raising doubts about the claim. The muon scan is accomplished by planting special plates inside and around the pyramid to collect data on the particles, which rain down from the earth’s atmosphere. They pass through empty spaces but can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces, allowing scientists to study their trajectories and discern what is stone and what is not. Several plates were used to triangulate the void discovered in the Great Pyramid.

Carnivorous plants have been known to employ a variety of techniques like nectar, smell, colour and ultraviolet florescence to lure and capture prey. But now, scientists at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Gardens and Research Institute here have come up with evidence that some carnivorous plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) to attract insects and ants to their prey traps. A study conducted by the division of Phytochemistry and Pharmacology at the institute has found that the Indian pitcher plant (Nepenthes khasiana) uses the gas, both to attract prey and to aid the digestive process. The research team demonstrated that the unopened pitchers of the plant are carbon dioxide-enriched, with a gas concentration of 2,500 to 5,000 ppm (parts per million), approximately 10 times that in the earth’s atmosphere. The open Nepenthes pitchers were found to emit CO2 constantly to attract insects. The study also detected high levels of CO2 dissolved in acidic pitcher fluids, ensuring optimum activities of the digestive enzymes. Carnivorous plants of the genus Nepenthes supplement their nutrient deficiency by capturing insects through their leaf-evolved pitchers which act as biological traps. CO2 is a sensory cue and most insects have well-developed receptors which help them respond to subtle variations of CO2 in the form of plumes arising from point sources. The study found that the high CO2 inside the pitchers was produced by the respiration of tissues within the cavity. The sequential events of lid opening, CO2 release, and prey capture were found to trigger the release of antifungal compounds into the pitcher fluid, preventing infections from incoming prey and act as a tranquilliser. Nepenthes pitchers have the potential to be used as natural models mimicking an anticipated elevated CO2 scenario on earth.