Bhupathi All The Way

Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza’s triumph at the Australian Open is reason for celebration. Bhupathi and Sania’s win was the first Grand Slam title for an Indian mixed doubles pair. There was another cause to celebrate for India at the year’s first Grand Slam - an Indian boy, Yuki Bhambri, won the junior boys’ title. In a country where sport is often conflated with cricket, that’s a pretty good going. Bhupathi, in particular, deserves all the plaudits he’s getting. His legendary partnership with Leander Paes may have ended in tears, but Bhupathi has kept the Indian flag flying high by teaming up successfully with other players.

Great doubles players aren’t necessarily equipped to succeed spectacularly in the more selfish version of the game. The two forms of the game require different skills, and it is pointless to compare the two. A grand slam is, after all, a grand slam. The level of competition in the doubles circuit is no less than that on the more glamorous singles tour. And Bhupathi has proven that he is one of the best doubles players in the world. So rather than questioning his abilities, we should be appreciative of the fact that such a player had managed to come out of India, where institutional support is lacking.

England Beat Windies

James Anderson took nine wickets in a Test for only the second time in his career as England crushed the West Indies by an innings and 83 runs to win the second Test at the Riverside. Victory, in their last Test before the start Ashes campaign, meant England took the two-match series 2-0 after a thumping 10-wicket win at Lord’s and saw them regain the Wisden Trophy they’d lost in the Caribbean this year.

West Indies, following on, were bowled out for 176 in their second innings, having made 310 first time around after England had piled up 569 for six declared in a match where the whole of second day was washed out.

Love Skews Women’s Sense Of Smell

When you’re in love, even your sense of smell is affected, says a new study. Women who are deeply in love struggle to recognize the body odor of male friends, but their ability to distinguish their partner’s smell is unaffected. But how does falling in love affect our perception and processing of these smells? To find out, a group of scientists collected a group of young men and women.

Meanwhile, the women’s partners and male and female friends slept for a seven nights in a cotton T-shirt with pads sewn into the underarms to soak up their sweat. In a series of trials, each woman was asked to pick out their lover’s or a friend’s T-shirt from three garments, two of which had been worn by strangers. But those who were more deeply in love were less good at distinguishing a male friend’s odor from those of strangers. This backs a theory of romantic attraction known as “deflection”, which argues that being in love with someone entails a reduction in the amount of attention we give to other potential suitors.

Genes Give Africans Best Sense Of Taste

A team of American scientists suggests that genes give Africans a better sense of taste than Europeans and Asians. The researchers say that Africans are better than Europeans and Asians at sensing bitter tastes, and surveys conducted in Kenya and Cameroon suggest that this may be due to a striking amount of diversity in a gene. They revealed that Europeans and Asians typically have only one of two forms of a gene, which detects a bitter-tasting compound called PTC and similar chemicals in vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

In an experiment, Sarah and her colleague Michael Campbell offered a wide range of dilutions of PTC to different populations of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers in Kenya and Cameroon. This was revealed after testing a slew of Asians, Africans and Europeans. They keep tasting it until they make a yucky face and spit it out. The experts observed that both Kenyan and Cameroonian populations could sense subtler gradients in the concentration than Europeans.

Pietersen And Flintoff - Now In IPL!

The roadblock to the participation of Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and team-mates in the second edition of Indian Premier League seems to have been removed after England and Wales Cricket Board and Professional Cricketers' Association agreed on a 15-day window for the players. The duration agreed by the ECB and the PCA means players will be able to play in the first few rounds of the IPL, starting in April, before returning for the first Test against the West Indies starting at Lord's.

The final details involving compensation package remain to be sorted out as counties demand reimbursement for losing their players’ service during the 15-day window. However, there was optimism that the deal could be worked out before England leave for the West Indies. If it does go through then Pietersen and Flintoff could earn up to £300,000 for little more than a fortnight's work when the IPL auction is held on February. Though Pietersen is eyed by both Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Royal Challengers, the latter seems to be pretty unshakable in getting this smashing cricketer.

Ignition Lock To Keep Drunk Drivers Off The Road

Motorists convicted of driving drunk will have to install breathalyzer-type gadgets in their cars under new laws taking effect in six American states this week. The ignition interlocks prevent engines from starting until drivers blow into the alcohol detectors to prove they’re sober. Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington State began January 1 requiring the devices on all motorists convicted of first-time drunken-driving.

The organization has been conducting a nationwide campaign to mandate ignition locks for anyone convicted of drunken driving, claiming doing so would save thousands of lives. But critics say interlocks could lead to measures that restrict alcohol policies too much. Users must pay for the fist-sized devices, which in Illinois cost around $80 to install on dashboards and $80 a month to rent; there’s also a $30 monthly state fee.

They also require periodic retesting while the car is running. Malham, who supports the technology, said in the future even more advanced technology will enable cars to effectively sniff car cabins, scan faces and eyes of drivers or even test sweat on steering wheels to assess sobriety before engines start.

Material That Can Take On Any Color Developed

British and Canadian chemists have developed a chameleon-like “opal” that can rapidly take any color. The new material can rapidly shrink or swell to change the color of light that it scatters. For creating it, the researchers first stacked up silica marbles on a flat electrode, each 270nm across. They then added a polymer on top to encase the sphere and hold them in place, and then dissolve the spheres with acid to leave behind a regular pattern of air pockets inside the polymer.

Finally, the team fills these pockets with a liquid electrolyte, and seals the structure. The researchers say have revealed that the polymer and electrolyte have different refractive indexes, and their repeating pattern scatters only blue photons to make the material an iridescent blue. However, when a voltage is applied, the material becomes red, flitting across every other color in the visible spectrum along the way. The polymer is crucial to the whole thing. It contains iron atoms which can exist in two oxidative states.

A Male Rhino Seeks Mate To Save Species

A male rhinoceros recently rescued on the edge of Borneo’s rain forest is expected to become the first participant of a Malaysian breeding program for his critically endangered ilk, a wildlife expert said. The roughly 20-year-old Borneo Sumatran rhino, nicknamed Tam, was found wandering in an oil palm plantation with an infected leg likely caused by a poacher trap.

Tam has been resettled in a wildlife reserve in Malaysia’s Sabah state, the last preserve of the Borneo Sumatran rhino. Authorities hope to bring at least five male and female rhinos into the reserve over the next few years so that they can mate and produce offspring. Considering the fact that the above said species is slowly going in to the light of extinct species, the authorities have taken this decision. Though they are trying to bring a number of rhinos, it seems to be an unlikely process. Experts cannot confirm how many Borneo Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, but estimates range from 10 to 30 individuals.