The Golden 80s

Fish resources in the mesopelagic zone are of great interest to scientists. The mesopelagic zone is the vertical layer of the ocean that extends down 200 metres to 1,000 metres. This zone is also called the Twilight zone as the reach of sunlight is less here, but just enough for photosynthesis. It was earlier estimated that with 1,000 million tonnes, the mesopelagic fish population constitutes the dominant fish biomass in the ocean.  Now, a study by Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) published in the Nature Communications  journal claims that the mesopelagic biomass may be 10 times more than expected. The new estimates are based on acoustic observations made by the Malaspina expedition. For the scientists, the mesopelagic zone is important as it is through this layer that carbon dioxide must pass to darker lower layers of the ocean. The exact mechanism of carbon flux and the interactions of living beings in this ocean layer are still unknown. For example, the orga...

1. Water molecules in Antarctic fish "dance a more ordered" dance due to the presence of anti-freeze proteins in their body, said a news report . The technique used to study this is called "terahertz spectroscopy". Spectroscopy is a method by which an object's properties are studied by the way it disperses light passed through it. This is just like passing sunlight through a prism. When light is passed through a prism, it breaks into its constituent colours. By studying the constituent colours, scientists can know more about an object's properties. Terahertz spectroscopy uses frequencies in the range of 0.3 THz to 10 THz. This frequency is invisible to the naked eye and can penetrate matter. In this study, Terahertz spectroscopy was used to study the interaction of water molecules with the anti-freeze proteins. 2. "...Universe was formed because of laws of physics and not divine intervention, " said acclaimed scientist, Stephen Hawking . He has add...