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WASHINGTON — A new federal study of the potential dangers of cellphone radiation, conducted in rats, found a slight increase in brain tumours in males and raised long-dormant concerns about the safety of spending so much time with cellphones glued to our ears.

But the study had enough strange findings that it has caused other federal scientists to highlight flaws in the research, and experts said these findings and those from other studies continue to suggest the potential risk from cellphone radiation is very small.

The National Institutes of Health study bombarded rats with cellphone radiation from the womb through the first two years of life for nine hours a day. It found tumours in 2 to 3 per cent of male rats, which the study’s authors called low. But females weren’t affected at all and, strangely, the rats not exposed to the cellphone radiation died much faster — at double the rate — of those that were.

The results were preliminary, and only part of what will ultimately be released. They were made public before they were officially published — and despite strong criticism from other NIH scientists — because the results were similar to other studies that hint at a potential problem, said study author John Bucher.

The study is part of a seven-year, $25 million effort conducted by the National Toxicology Programme at the request of the Food and Drug Administration. It looked at the specific type of radiation that cellphones transmit, called non-ionising radiofrequency.

“This is the first study to actually show that non-ionising radiation [causes] cancer,” said Dr Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer. The cancer society in a statement praised the study for “evidence that cellphone signals could potentially impact human health” but notes that it doesn’t quite address real risk to people.

“If cellphones cause cancer, they don’t cause a lot of cancer,” he said in an interview. “It’s not as carcinogenic as beef.”

He said people should be far more concerned about “distraction caused by cellphone’,” which he said causes more deaths.

Both Brawley and Bucher said this would not change how they use their own personal cellphones.

While the study found what Bucher called a likely cause of cancer in rats, he cautioned that how that applies to humans “is not currently completely worked out. This may have relevance. It may have no relevance”, he said.

Since about 1986, US brain cancer deaths have not increased or decreased, Brawley said. That suggests that whatever effect cellphones may have it is so small as to be undetectable amid regular cases of brain cancer.

Also, Brawley and others point out that cellphone technology has improved so much in recent years to emit less radiation than medical studies simulate. Bucher said the levels the rats were subjected to would be considered “heavy”.

The study also found a slight increase in a very rare type of heart tumours in the male rats exposed to cellphone radiation. The same NIH scientists looked at mice, but those results won’t be ready until next year.

Some of the study’s own reviewers had trouble accepting the results because of the odd factors, such as rats in the group that wasn’t exposed didn’t contract what would be the normal number of brain tumours for that population.

“I am unable to accept the authors’ conclusions,” wrote outside reviewer Dr Michael Lauer, the deputy director of NIH’s office of extramural research. “I suspect that this experiment is substantially underpowered and that the few positive results found reflect false positive findings.”

The fact that the rats exposed to radiation survived longer than those that weren’t “leaves me even more sceptical of the authors’ claims,” Lauer wrote. Four other study reviewers — three from NIH — also raised questions about the way the study was conducted and its conclusions.

Bucher said he couldn’t explain that strange factor, nor could he explain why females were not affected. Brawley said it could be the female hormone oestrogen is offering some cancer protection as has been seen in some other cancers.

George Gray, a risk and environmental health expert at the George Washington University School of Public Health, said one key part of the study is not the data itself, but how it is being interpreted. And he said the study seems to focus on the small increase in tumours in males, not the absence of them in females “and does not reveal the level of scientific uncertainty in applying these data to people using their phones”.

If people are truly worried, they should use Bluetooth or headsets, Brawley said.

In 2011, a working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer said cellphones are possibly carcinogenic. But numerous studies over the years, before and after that listing, have found little evidence of a problem. Among the largest, a survey of 13,000 people in 13 countries found little or no risk of brain tumours, with a possible link in the heaviest users that the study’s authors found inconclusive. And a large Danish study that linked phone bills to a cancer registry found no risk even in long-time users.

Gray said a study like this needs to stand up to challenge and fit in with other research.

“This is a high profile topic that hits close to home for most of us,” Gray said in an e-mail. “It is really important to realise that a single study like this does not provide ‘the answer’.”

Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence
Mohammed Bamyeh
Beirut: The Arab Council for the Social Sciences, 2015
Pp. 142

Social sciences, whether history, economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, psychology or other branches, are pivotal to understanding and furthering the development of society. Yet, all too often—with the exception of economics, they are accorded less importance than the “hard” sciences and technology-related fields. This report, the first by the Arab Social Science Monitor, aims to assess the status and trajectory of the social sciences in the Arab world, in hopes of inspiring some rethinking that will expand their contribution to society. 

The Arab Social Science Monitor is a project undertaken by the Beirut-based Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). As Seteney Shami, ACSS director, writes in the preface, “The waves of unrest, conflict and war that characterise the region in the present moment makes this rethinking of trends, needs and priorities more, rather than less, important.” (p. 3)

The result of an extensive survey, the report documents the presence of the social sciences in universities, research centres, professional societies, civil society and the media, including scholarly and cultural periodicals, newspapers, television and popular magazines. It also attempts to gage the extent to which scientific thought is present in public life overall. While concluding that there has been quantitative and qualitative development in recent years, the report notes “a significant untapped potential for the social sciences in the Arab world… due to institutional fragmentation, lack of encouragement for research activities, political restrictions on them, the weakness of the Arab academic intellectual community, the bureaucratic inflexibility of Arab universities, and other factors”. (p. 15)

What makes the report especially interesting and potentially impactful is its interdisciplinary approach and the fact that it breaks out of academia to assess the social sciences’ links to the public sphere. It considers interdisciplinary fields such as gender, urban and cultural studies, as well as the usual branches of social sciences. 

Universities are critiqued on both these criteria. Rather than viewing social sciences only as a teaching subject, universities need to invigorate their research component and civic role. Also addressed is the predominance of the modernity discourse in academic social sciences, for this ignores historical memory and social traditions, causing a disconnect with society and leaving those fields to less qualified players. 

Research centres, on the other hand, more often adopt an interdisciplinary approach and address topics that have current relevance for society. “As such, these research centres pave the way for the social sciences to focus on research activities oriented towards different groups, ranging from decision makers, to civil society, to the learned communities, and to partisan and political structures, or other segments that have participatory interests.” (p. 41)

The Monitor’s survey of five influential civil society organisations in different Arab countries reveals that “all civil society organisations not only employ, but actually produce social sciences in one way or another, albeit in various forms calibrated to their objectives”. (p. 81)

Forging organic links between the social sciences and civil society would help embed scientific thinking in public debates. This, in turn, would foster democracy, help solve political, social and economic problems that resist simple solutions, and meet the “increasing momentum of demands for participation, which have recently taken the form of revolution and all-out uprisings”. (p. 78)

Mohammed Bamyeh, who undertook to write up the Monitor’s findings in this report, is rigorous in presenting the methodology and conclusions of the survey. Excellent, lucid tables and graphs reinforce the text. To a great extent, the report avoids making sweeping generalisations, instead comparing and contrasting how social sciences are present from one Arab country to the next, one university to another, one research centre to another, one publication to another and so on. 

This report should be of great interest to social scientists across the Arab world, as well as to civil society organisations, social activists and committed intellectuals who believe that scientific thinking is a prerequisite for human development and social change. 

Although this review is based on the English edition of the report, there is also an Arabic edition. Further information can be found on the website: www.theacss.org.

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft really, REALLY wants you to upgrade to Windows 10.

Since last summer, the tech giant has pushed and prodded PC owners to upgrade their machines to its latest Windows version. While the upgrade is currently free for most consumers with Windows PCs, critics say the company’s heavy-handed nudging amounts to an “offer you can’t refuse”.

Microsoft initially offered Windows 10 as an optional upgrade — that is, one that users had to choose themselves. Then, earlier this year, the company reclassified it as a “recommended” update. Some Windows 10 holdouts cried foul, since many PCs are set up to automatically install recommended updates, which are usually important security fixes. Suddenly those machines would automatically install Windows 10 as well.

At one point, some PC owners complained, Microsoft began sending on-screen messages prompting them to download and install Windows 10. The catch: Where most such pop-up windows have buttons marked “OK” and “Cancel”, this message displayed two buttons that both led to an upgrade (“Upgrade Now” and “Upgrade Tonight”). To avoid the upgrade, diehard resisters had to click a red “X’’ in the upper-right corner that closed the window.

Microsoft then revised the notifications, citing customer feedback. A new version tells PC owners they are scheduled for a “recommended” upgrade to Windows 10 at a specific time in the near future, and bears a prominent “OK” button. To reject or reschedule the change, users have to find and click a less conspicuous link in small type. But clicking the “X’’ no longer blocks the upgrade.

Some PC users reacted as though Microsoft had left a horse’s head in their bed.

“Deceptive” and “a nasty trick” is how Brad Chacos, an editor at PCWorld, put it in a column after his wife unwittingly clicked the “X’’ and later found her machine was no longer running Windows 7, which she had wanted to keep.

“Deploying these dirty tricks only frustrates long-time Windows users who have very valid reasons to stick with operating systems they already know and love,” wrote Chacos, who added that he uses and likes Windows 10 personally. His wife, though, is now shopping for a Mac.

Microsoft says it isn’t trying to be sneaky. In blog posts and official statements, the company says it shows users at least two notifications before it activates Windows 10. It also allows any PC owner to reverse the installation and go back to their old software if they do so within 31 days.

“We understand you care deeply about what happens with your device. This is why — regardless of your upgrade path — you can choose to upgrade or decline the offer,” Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson wrote in a blog post .

Even so, Microsoft clearly wants to get as many PCs and other devices running Windows 10 as it possibly can. The company says it wants users to have the latest security features and other improvements. Microsoft also makes more money from Windows 10 features that increase usage of Bing, the company’s ad-supported search engine. And it wants to convince programmers there’s a big audience for software apps that are compatible with Windows 10 on PCs, tablets, smartphones and other gadgets.

Microsoft announced earlier this month that 300 million devices are running Windows 10 — a faster adoption rate than either of the two previous Windows versions.

Most buyers of new PCs will find Windows 10 already installed. But Microsoft says its offer of a free upgrade for old machines is ending July 29 — and that means more notices and prompts are likely.

By examining swirling patterns left in ice topping the Red Planet’s north pole, scientists using radar data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have put together an unprecedented look into our rusty neighbour’s most recent ice age.

The findings, published in the journal Science, offer fresh insight into the dynamics of the Martian climate — and might even prove useful in understanding climate change on the Earth.

Mars, like Earth, experiences ice ages, but the mechanics are quite different. On the Earth, ice gathers at the poles as the temperature drops, spreading to other high latitudes. But Mars has a tilt with a pretty extreme wobble: It’s currently tilted about 25 degrees but can lean all the way over to about 60 degrees, compared with Earth’s, which stays between a narrow range of about 22 to 25 degrees.

These tilt cycles take eons to complete, but when that tilt is at its most extreme, Mars looks like it’s nearly lying on its side — which means its poles become very warm, and all that water ice turns into vapour in the atmosphere and recollects around the planet’s mid-latitudes.

So on Mars, an ice age actually means less ice at the poles, and more near the middle. If we were to see it then, we might not recognise it.

“Right now Mars is… the closest [to Earth] it’s been in 13 years, and it’s just this bright red jewel in the sky,” said lead author Isaac Smith, a planetary scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. “But if you were to live half-a-million years ago or half-a-million years in the future, it would look kind of a pinkish color instead of red.”

Smith was studying great spiraling patterns carved into the ice by the winds around the northern pole, which can reach lengths of about 500 miles and depths of half a mile. But he noticed on the uneven terrain there appeared to be layers that had been deposited uniformly across the ice cap — a sudden change that signalled a shift from erosion to deposition. At some point in time, the polar cap, instead of being carved in bits and pieces, suddenly (on a geological scale, anyway) received a whole lot of water ice.

“It was kind of a lucky find, actually, that we noticed that these layers were changing all at the same time,” said Smith, who did the work while at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The researchers used the orbiter’s Shallow Subsurface Radar, or SHARAD for short, to reconstruct and examine the various layers beneath the surface. They found that about 87,000 cubic kilometres of ice have accumulated at the poles since the last ice age ended around 370,000 years ago. That volume of ice would be enough to cover the entire planet in a frozen layer 2 feet deep.

Their findings also match well with models previously published by other groups, Smith added.

He said he hoped to continue looking at even deeper layers of polar ice, because there might be further ancient climate signals trapped in the ice. And researchers also hope to better examine the cap at the south pole, whose ice is largely obscured by dust.

The research could ultimately help scientists better understand climate change on the Earth, Smith added.

“Mars, without oceans and without biology, is a more simple laboratory in a sense to understand the physics of climate,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Earth’s heat is stuck on high.

Thanks to a combination of global warming and an El Nino, the planet shattered monthly heat records for an unprecedented 12th straight month, as April smashed the old record by half a degree, according to federal scientists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NQAA) monthly climate calculation said Earth’s average temperature in April was 14.8oC. That’s 1.1oC warmer than the 20th century average and well past the old record set in 2010. The Southern Hemisphere led the way, with Africa, South America and Asia all having their warmest Aprils on record, NOAA climate scientist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo said. NASA was among other organisations that said April was the hottest on record.

The last month that wasn’t record hot was April 2015. The last month the Earth wasn’t hotter than the 20th century average was December 1984, and the last time Earth set a monthly cold record was almost a hundred years ago, in December 1916, according to NOAA records.

“These kinds of records may not be that interesting, but so many in a row that break the previous records by so much indicates that we’re entering uncharted climatic territory [for modern human society],” Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler said in an e-mail.

At the NOAA’s climate monitoring headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina, “we are feeling like broken records stating the same thing” each month, Sanchez-Lugo said.

And more heat meant record low snow for the Northern Hemisphere in April, according to the NOAA and the Rutgers Global Snow Lab. Snow coverage in April was 2,305,089 square kilometres below the 30-year average.

Sanchez-Lugo and other scientists say ever-increasing man-made global warming is pushing temperatures higher, and the weather oscillation El Nino — a warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide — makes it even hotter.

The current El Nino, which is fading, is one of the strongest on records and is about as strong as the 1997-1998 El Nino. But 2016 so far is 0.45oC warmer than 1998 so “you can definitely see that climate change has an impact,” Sanchez-Lugo said.

Given that each month this year has been record hot, it is not surprising that the average of the first four months of 2016 were 1.14oC higher than the 20th century average and beat last year’s record by 0.3oC.

Last year was the hottest year by far, beating out 2014, which also was a record. But 2016’s start “is unprecedented basically” and in general half a degree warmer than 2015, Sanchez-Lugo said.

Even though El Nino is fading and its cooler flip side La Nina is forecast to take hold later this year, Sanchez-Lugo predicted that 2016 will end up the hottest year on record for the third straight year. That’s because there’s a lag time for those changes to show up in global temperatures and because 2016 has started off so much hotter than 2015, she said.

Do not own a smartwatch a Gear Circle or a Fitbit yet? You may be out.

With the current trend called “wearable” there is little doubt that digital technology is closer than ever to get permanently under our skin — literally.

It moved out of labs to get into offices in the 1960s and 1970s. It then evolved from personal in the 1980s to become portable and then mobile over the last few years. Now it’s getting wearable. The curve was predictable. It was easy to extrapolate and to see where it was all going.

Smartphones are amazing and definitely indispensable, but their relatively large size and the fact that you have to carry them somehow, in your pocket, handbag or in a pouch of some kind, is a limitation. This makes them less practical to use, more exposed to be lost, forgotten or stolen.

Wearing the device around your wrist, therefore pushing out your traditional wristwatch out of the way and taking its place, is the concept that manufacturers are betting on to change our habits a little more beyond mobility. Seiko, Samsung and a few others have been making smartwatches for a few years now, but it is actually only since 2014 that fully functional models that can be considered as true digital wearable computers have been on the market

Samsung’s S9110 Watch Phone, for example was introduced as early as in 2009, and Sony’s LiveView joined the set in 2010. Now the leaders are Apple, Pebble and Samsung.

Whereas a smartwatch nicely and easily replaces your wristwatch as a timepiece, it is its Bluetooth connection with your smartphone that matter most. Checking incoming calls, answering, reading reminders, etc., without having to access the phone, brings unprecedented convenience.

Fitbit, on the other hand, and although it looks like a typical smartwatch, is more oriented towards fitness and health. It analyses your sleep, counts the steps you walk or run, the stairs you climb, the calories you burn, the time you’ve been working out and of course it graciously handles your reminders; the least it can do for you. Reports can be sent — wirelessly, it’s understood — to your smartphone for more comfortable viewing on the large screen. Like virtually all wrist-wearable digital devices, it also looks gorgeous, especially Alta, the company’s newest model.

The wearable notion is not limited to your wrist. Samsung for instance has a model of Bluetooth stereo earphones that you wear like a collar around your neck. It is smartly designed and very convenient, with its two ends locking automatically thanks to the built-in magnet. Separate the two ends and you answer the incoming call, snap them again together, instantly with the magnet and you hang up the phone. Those looking at you from a certain distance may think that you are a physician and that what you are wearing around your neck actually is a stethoscope. Others may wonder what kind of collar you are wearing! Just don’t be offended if you are a macho male and people think it’s a necklace that you have there.

Battery is an element to take into consideration, but here it seems that most wearable devices withstand this test a little better than the main smartphone. Indeed, a fully charged battery will keep your Samsung Gear S2, Fitbit Alta, Apple Watch or Gear Circle running for at least two days, and up to five in some cases; this varying with actual usage of course.

As always price also is an element to consider. These wearable elegant gadgets are not cheap. Although you can find unbranded, inexpensive models between JD30 and JD100, prices range by reputable, known manufacturers remain between JD100 and JD400, typically.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — As US start-ups compete to make everything from diapers to dog food available at the tap of a finger, a group of entrepreneurs from the developing world is using those on-demand business models to make life easier for consumers in their home countries.

A growing number of people in Africa, India and Latin America are online and using smartphones, and investors say there’s a huge potential market for apps that offer ride-booking, instant delivery and online marketplaces.

Some of the start-ups tackling these areas are funded by US investors such as Mountain View-based accelerator Y Combinator, which showcased companies including India’s Uber for trucking, called GoLorry, and Rappi, Latin America’s combination Instacart and Postmates, during its most recent Demo Day.

“We’re seeing a huge increase of people in the developing world and in other regions with access to smartphones and access to mobile, and that is really fuelling the growth of these companies there,” said Kat Manalac, a partner at Y Combinator.

Aditya Agarwalla, who with his father founded Kisan Network, an online marketplace for Indian farmers, says mobile Internet usage in India is exploding. It jumped from 30 million people connected in 2014 to nearly 60 million last year, and this year it is expected to hit 110 million, he said. The founders peg the population of their target market — rural India — at 900 million.

“Kisan Network wouldn’t have been possible four years ago,” Agarwalla said.

Also in India, GoLorry uses a smartphone app to connect factories and truckers, allowing businesses to ship their goods more efficiently and for a lower cost, said co-founder and CEO Sanjay Mandava. The disruptive business model also allows truckers to eliminate the middleman — such transactions usually are arranged by a broker who keeps a cut of the proceeds.

“Uber provides a good example for a lot of people on how to do ride-sharing around the world,” Mandava said.

Rappi, another Y Combinator-backed app, uses couriers on bicycles and motorised scooters to deliver everything from groceries to prepared meals to cosmetics in Bogota and Barranquilla, Colombia, and Mexico City.

While some on-demand start-ups in Silicon Valley are struggling with the high cost of instant delivery, Simon Borrero says the business model is ideal for dense Latin American cities. Wages are so low where he operates — he says about a third of residents make less than $1 an hour — that Borrero racks up minimal costs. His couriers make the equivalent of about $2.50 an hour, a far cry from California’s coming $15 minimum wage.

“Maybe that doesn’t sound like much here,” Borrero said of his couriers’ wages, “but for those guys, it makes a huge difference in their lives.”

Borrero, who is from Colombia and temporarily relocated to Silicon Valley for the Y Combinator programme, is capitalising on his local knowledge. He calls his couriers Tenderos, after the shopkeepers who traditionally tend mom-and-pop stores in Latin America, and fosters the local connection locals appreciate by dispatching the same Tenderos to the same homes day after day. And Borrero made one more big tweak to the Instacart business model: His couriers accept cash. Only 18 per cent of people in Latin America have credit cards, he said.

“But now everyone, everyone has a smartphone,” Borrero said. “That has become a status icon. Maybe you don’t have enough money to pay the rent, but you would have a new smartphone.”

Andrew Chung, who invests in companies that bring US and European technology to the developing world, said those local changes can give a company an edge.

“Having cultural language sensitivity, having an understanding of the local market, having the access to local distribution channels in an unfair way — all these things are typically easier if you’re someone who’s from there,” he said.

Chung, a former Khosla Ventures partner, launched 1955 Capital earlier this year with the goal of tackling social problems overseas. He warned bringing a business idea across international borders can be risky, as founders are forced to navigate foreign laws and regulations.

Perry Ogwuche, the co-founder and CEO of Shypmate, knows that all too well. To fend off the anticipated questions, he made an unusual pitch during his Y Combinator demo day presentation. “This is legal,” he assured the audience.

Shypmate transports retail items from US stores to customers in Nigeria and Ghana, using extra room in the luggage of travellers. For $4 per pound plus 13 per cent of the item’s price, customers can get their hands on trendy US merchandise from stores that don’t ship to Africa. The traveller gets to keep 70 per cent of the money.

Ogwuche said the company mostly gets orders for clothing, but he’s seen a few unusual items, such as toilet deodorising spray Poo-Pourri. Travellers have to declare these items at customs, and when asked by airport personnel, explain they are carrying an item for someone else, but they packed their bags themselves, said Ogwuche, who is from Nigeria.

“It’s not illegal to carry stuff for other people,” he said. “I think a lot of people just don’t understand that.”

WAGENINGEN, Netherlands — Establishing a human colony on the Moon and travelling to Mars has been the stuff of dreams since the dawn of the space age.

But these visions face many hurdles. How can humans survive for months or years in the ultra-hostile environment of space? What, for instance, will they eat?

Agricultural researchers at a Dutch university say they are taking the first steps towards providing an answer.

They are growing vegetables in soils similar to those found on the Moon and Mars, looking for ways of helping space pioneers grow their own crops.

“When people go to the Moon and Mars they also have to eat, and it’s easiest for them to grow their own food,” said Wieger Wamelink, surrounded by several dozen plants in a special greenhouse at Wageningen, an agricultural university in central Netherlands.

“We wanted to use real Martian and lunar soil,” to see if plants would actually grow in it, Wamelink told AFP.

Of course, getting real lunar and Martian potting soil is an impossible ask. But an Internet search revealed an unlikely supplier: NASA.

The US space agency makes ground similar to that on the Moon from sand found in an Arizona desert, while Mars’ crimson “soil” is scooped from a volcano in Hawaii, Wamelink told AFP.

The first experiments started in 2013 after Wageningen received an order of 100 kilogrammes of NASA’s imitation “space soil” — at a hefty price of 2,000 euros ($2,285).

Wamelink stuck tomatoes, peas, cress and other plants in pots containing the simulated soil... and crossed his fingers.

To work in this soil “was very special. Nobody, not even NASA, could tell us what would happen,” even just by simply adding water, he said.

The imitation ground at first was a little “reluctant” to absorb water, but soon turned out to be good potting soil.

Like the actor Matt Damon in the science fiction movie “The Martian”, Wamelink watched with amazement as his “space veggies” grew bigger day-by-day.

“Especially in the Martian soil, plants were growing very fast and very good. They even started to flower, something that we never anticipated,” Wamelink said. The 50-day experiment was written up in the science journal PLOS One in August 2014.

Safe for humans?

An essential question, however, remains whether these unusual vegetables are safe to eat.

Martian and lunar soil, including NASA’s own imitation, may contain heavy metals that are harmless to plants but could prove deadly to humans.

Wamelink has come up with a possible solution. 

If analyses show that the vegetables contain arsenic, mercury or iron making them unfit for human consumption, the soil can be purified by growing other plant species such as violets which absorb the poisons.

Wamelink concedes that the experiment has a drawback — it is being conducted in non-sterile conditions on the Earth where only the nutrient quality of the soil is being assessed.

“There’s much more to test,” Wamelink admitted. 

Extremely cold temperatures — dropping to minus 62oC on Mars — as well as a lack of oxygen means that lunar or Martian vegetables and fruit could only be grown in a closed and controlled environment.

The facility would have to be pressurised to normal atmospheric conditions on Earth, heated and lit, and protected from cosmic radiation, which damages plant DNA.

That points to a “space greenhouse” — a type of container, buried underground and kitted out with solar panels and LED lighting. Water should be no problem as it is found as ice on both the Moon and Mars, said Wamelink.

Other questions that need answers include the presence of friendly bacteria to help plant growth and what happens to plants that grow in low gravity.

‘Long way to go’

NASA plans a human trip to Mars within the next 10 to 15 years or so but similar plans are also being pursued by billionaire Elon Musk and the Dutch company Mars One, tentatively aiming to set up human colonies on the Red Planet.

Technology and the know-how to keep astronauts alive on Mars still has a long way to go said Christophe Lasseur, a European Space Agency  “Life Support” expert, who deals with metabolic aspects of space travel.

Lasseur believed Wamelink’s research of growing plants in space soils “is not a priority”.

He said other requirements for space survival like the proper infrastructure to grow similar vegetables in laboratories was far more essential to provide “maximum reliability” for future teams.

“We must regard a plant as a piece of technology and understand exactly what happens to it first. All chemical, microbiological and physiological aspects [of plants in extraterrestrial conditions] needs to be understood and mapped... We cannot take risks.”

My schoolteachers were simple people who, along with other things, taught us to be honest, truthful, kind, generous, hardworking and enthusiastically participate in all the group activities. They particularly stressed upon the last part, because teamwork was supposed to be beneficial for our comprehensive in-depth growth and development. 

But when it came to giving us essay-writing assignments, they contradicted their own philosophy. Here, all of them urged us to contemplate independently, jot down our notes separately and come up with an original piece that mirrored our distinct individuality. This was an unexpected challenge for our young minds that needed to do some vigorous thinking.

The funny thing was that ironically, all our teachers, more often than not, gave us the same theme to elaborate upon. So, roughly from Grade III, right till Grade X, I was repeatedly asked to write an essay on either “Boating on a moonlight night”, or “The Cow”, for either our monthly semester papers, mid-term tests or the annual, end of the year examinations. The languages varied from English, Hindi, Sanskrit to French, Spanish or German but the topic remained the same. Believe me, it’s true. 

I must have definitely fumbled the first few times, but somewhere along the way I became an absolute expert in these two fields of essay writing. The joke in my family was that even if I were in deep sleep and someone handed me a writing paper and pencil, I would immediately start scribbling on the pleasures of going boating on a moonlit night. Equally emphatically, without any ado, I could ramble innumerable lines in praise of a cow, within a moment’s notice. 

Why were these two subjects so favoured by my teachers? What stopped them from asking us to write about boating on a sunny morning, or a rainy afternoon or even a cool evening? Also, more absurd was the choice of animal that they consistently picked, which was a cow. Why not a tiger, elephant, camel or even a goat? I wish I could tell you, but I don’t have a clue. 

What I can confess, however, is that I toiled very hard to make my essays different from the rest. In primary school I would write the usual memorised bits along the lines of — a cow has four legs, one tail and gives us milk — but in higher classes I started adding interesting shades to my cow musings. One that I clearly remember was called “The Holy Cow” where I crafted an unusual ditty to emphasise a point. 

Unfortunately there was very little poetic licence one could take with a bovine cow. The solemn faced nun, instead of encouraging my creativity by marking my work with a high grade, crossed out the entire page of my answer-sheet because according to her, I had not understood the question. When I burst into tears, she felt sorry for me and asked me to come up with a new composition on “going sailing on a moonlight night”.

Recently I started learning Portuguese. The oral language was easy to grasp and soon I prepared for my written test. The examiner explained that I had to write an essay on the given topic and I must not be nervous. 

“Vaca,” I read out loudly. 

“It’s an animal,” my tutor whispered. 

“Goat?” I tried to guess. 

“It gives milk,” he gave me a hint. 

“Aha cow!” I exclaimed. 

“Boa? Good?” he asked apprehensively. 

“Excelente,” I assured him in fluent Portuguese.

LOS ANGELES — “The Angry Birds Movie” has flown to victory at the US box office with a $38.2 million opening weekend at 3,932 locations, handily topping “Captain America: Civil War” and “Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising”, according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The launch for Sony’s animated avian tale performed in line with forecasts as did the third weekend of Disney-Marvel’s “Captain America” with $32.9 million at 4,266 sites for a 55 per cent decline. Universal’s “Neighbours 2” finished in third with a solid $21.8 million at 3,384 screens — although the sequel was off 55 per cent from the 2014 launch of the original “Neighbours”.

Warner Bros.’ opening of action-comedy “The Nice Guys” reeled in a moderate $11.2 million at 2,865 screens, or about half the “Neighbours 2” number as both battled for the attention of comedy fans.

“Angry Birds”, based on Rovio’s popular video game app, generated an A+ CinemaScore among the core under 25 audience. Josh Greenstein, the president of worldwide marketing and distribution of Sony, pointed to a strong international performance with a $94 million weekend worldwide with 47 first-place finishes.

“Rovio and Sony Imageworks were able to translate video game characters into a globally branded film, which was a major challenge,” he added.

The massive marketing campaign featured tie-ins with more than 100 partners. Greenstein noted that “Angry Birds” should be able to hold well in coming weeks, with no other major competition in the family market until Disney opens “Finding Dory” on June 17.

The film, directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis, is set on an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds — except for Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), speedy Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride). Its worldwide total has hit $150 million with a launch last weekend in most foreign markets.

“Captain America” held impressively from its second weekend, which saw the eighth-highest of all time at $72.6 million. Should the $33.1 million estimate hold, “Captain America” will wind up tied with 2012’s “The Hunger Games” as the 17th highest grosser in its third weekend.

“Captain America” crossed the $1 billion mark on Friday to become the 25th film to hit the milestone. It’s finishing the weekend with $1.05 billion and now stands in 19th place; its domestic total has reached $347.4 million in 17 days, good enough for 35th on the all-time list.

“Neighbours 2”, which saw Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron return, wound up with a B Cinemascore and played well to younger audiences with 61 per cent of attendees under 25 and 51 per cent female. Domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou said the new storyline — centering on a renegade sorority led by Chloe Moretz’ party-obsessed character — resonated among attendees.

“Seth and Zac are big draws and the movie is very funny so we’ll do well in the coming weeks,” he added.

“The Nice Guys,” starring Ryan Gosling as a bumbling detective and Russell Crowe as an enforcer in 1977 Los Angeles, generated a B- Cinemascore with its strongest traction among those under 18 and over 35 as the $11.2 million launch matched muted expectations. On the positive side, the film has strong critical support with a 90 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating and Warner Bros.’ exposure is limited since it acquired the film as a pick-up for domestic distribution.

Disney’s seventh weekend of its surprise blockbuster “The Jungle Book” finished a close fifth with $10.9 million at 3,460 sites, down only 36 per cent, for a US total of $327.5 million. It should top “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” at $328.4 million this week as the 44th highest domestic grosser of all time.

So far this year, five films have topped $300 million, led by Fox’s “Deadpool” at $362 million, followed by “Captain America” at $347 million, Disney’s “Zootopia” at $334 million, “Batman v Superman” and “The Jungle Book”. As a result, the total box office is up 5.8 per cent compared to the same point last year — even though the current weekend was down 25 per cent from the year-ago frame, when “Pitch Perfect 2” opened with $69 million and “Mad Max: Fury Road”grossed $45 million.

Year-to-date is $4.24 billion, including the current overall weekend of $136.5 million. Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst with ComScore, said next weekend will be strong.