Latest news with #AnandVarma
National Geographic
18-07-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
Compelling photos reveal nature's beauty in astounding detail
From a hummingbird in flight to up-close encounters with parasites and their hosts, these images will spark the curiosity within. Scientists at the Altshuler Lab at the University of British Columbia use miniature fog machines to visualize the airflow around the wings of an Anna's hummingbird in flight. Photograph by Anand Varma An Anna's hummingbird feeding from a plastic syringe inside of an experimental chamber in the Lentink Lab at Stanford. This chamber is designed to detect the forces produced by a hummingbird in flight by carefully measuring the changing air pressure above and below the bird during each wingbeat. Photograph by Anand Varma Chris Clark weighs a male Cuban bee hummingbird in Bermejas, Cuba. Photograph by Anand Varma A re-creation of an experiment used to study how Anna's hummingbirds fly through narrow apertures. This study is aimed at understanding how hummingbirds fly through complex environments. Photograph by Anand Varma The parasitoid wasp, Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga, catches a spider, paralyzes it with its sting, then lays its egg on the spider's abdomen. This egg then hatches and the larval wasp feeds on the spider for a week. The night before it is ready to transform into a pupa, the larval wasp forces the spider to spin a special "cocoon web.' The wasp then kills the spider, consumes it and builds its cocoon suspended from the specialized web that was just built for it by the spider. Photograph by Anand Varma An ant infected with Ophiocordyceps fungus. The fungus forces the ant to climb off the forest floor and bite down on a leaf or branch. The fungus then kills the ant, grows out of its body, and releases spores that will infect more ants. The ant's position when it dies helps the fungus disperse its spores more effectively. Photograph by Anand Varma Bret Adee opens one of his 72,000 beehives. His company, Adee Honey Farms, is the largest commercial beekeeping operation in the world. Photograph by Anand Varma A queen honeybee surrounded by her attendant worker bees, also known as her court. This queen is part of a research program at the USDA that aims to breed bees that are more resilient to the stresses of commercial beekeeping in the United States. Photograph by Anand Varma Honeybees in an experiment designed to measure their memory. Each bee is given a burst of cinnamon-scented air and then offered a cotton-tipped applicator soaked in sugar solution. Cinnamon is used because it is a complex floral scent that is easy for the bees to remember but one they would not have encountered in the wild. By measuring how well the bees associate the cinnamon smell with the sugar reward, researchers in the Mullin Lab at Penn State University can quantify the bees' ability to learn. This research showed that agricultural spray additives which were thought to be harmless can actually affect the bees' learning and memory. Photograph by Anand Varma This photo is a re-creation of an experiment by Frank Rinkevich at Louisiana State University to test the effects of the pesticide phenothrin on honeybees. Phenothrin is used to control mosquitoes. The experiment was conducted by placing bees in paper cups and sedating them with carbon dioxide. A tiny droplet of pesticide was placed on each bee's body and the health of those bees was then monitored. Photograph by Anand Varma A queen honeybee being artificially inseminated by USDA technician Sharon Obrien. This queen is part of a breeding program that is aiming to raise bees that are resistant to a fungal pathogen called Nosema. Photograph by Anand Varma The larva of the parasitic flatworm, Ribeiroia ondatrae, gets into the tadpoles of frogs such as this American bullfrog. In the tadpoles, the worms migrate to the developing limb buds where they cause malformations of the limbs. The malformed frogs are then less able to escape from predators such as herons, which the trematode worm must get into in order to reproduce. Photograph by Anand Varma A species of thorny headed worm, which are also called Acanthocephalans, infects freshwater crustaceans called amphipods. The larva of the worm gets into the amphipod and starts absorbing the orange pigment of the surrounding tissue. It also causes the amphipod to seek out light when it is disturbed, which is the opposite of its natural behavior. This manipulation makes the amphipod more likely to be eaten by a duck, which the worm needs to get into in order to mature and reproduce. Photograph by Anand Varma Parasitic barnacle larvae just after they have been released by their host, a sheep crab. The barnacles infect the crab and if it is a male, it will turn it into a female (feminize it) so that the crab is better able to care for the offspring that the parasite produces. The crab continues to live out its life, but it is castrated and will never reproduce again. Photograph by Anand Varma Bat researcher Ivar Vleut releases a woolly false vampire bat after capturing it to collect data. Photograph by Anand Varma A woolly false vampire bat flying out of its roost inside a Mayan temple called Hormiguero in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Photograph by Anand Varma Researcher Rodrigo Medellin (left) holds a woolly false vampire bat while researcher Ivar Vleut (right) looks at its wings to collect physiology data. Photograph by Anand Varma A spectral bat hunts a lab mouse in a flight cage. Photograph by Anand Varma
The Hindu
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Hindu
Respond to petrol pump owners' plea: HC to CAQM
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi government and the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) to respond to a plea against orders prosecuting and penalising petrol pump owners for non-compliance with the 'no fuel to end-of-life vehicles'. The petition filed by the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association stated that the orders failed to appreciate that petrol pump owners were 'merely private entities operating pumps under licence agreements with respective oil marketing companies, without the power or authority to perform law enforcement duties, essentially directed by State entities'. Advocates Anand Varma, Adyasha Nanda and Apoorva Pandey, representing the Association, submitted that the dealers were not opposed to the implementation of CAQM's directions, which restrict fuel supply to ELVs. 'We are aggrieved by the application of Section 192 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to petrol pump owners,' the counsel said. The Section specifies penalties for driving or allowing the use of an unregistered vehicle. The plea alleged the arbitrariness in penalising petrol pump owners for sheer inadvertence and at times, for reasons beyond their control. A petrol pump faces an average footfall of about 3,000 vehicles in a day for purchasing fuel from multiple dispensing units simultaneously and the possibility of inadvertence due to such large volume cannot be ruled out, the plea added. 'However, such inadvertence or inability on their part to comply with the rule, even for reasons beyond their control is being met with a disproportionate and unreasonable penalty of prosecution under Section 192 of Motor,' the plea said.
Hans India
01-05-2025
- Hans India
CID arrests UP man in marketing fraud
Hyderabad: The Telangana Crime Investigation Department (CID) has arrested a man from Uttar Pradesh for his 'involvement' in online web multi-level marketing fraud. Anand Varma (49), general secretary, Maya Care Welfare Society, resident of Kanpur (UP), was taken into custody on April 24 and subsequently sent to judicial remand. According to CID, on the complaint of Kodela Bhadraiah of Bhupalpally that Lalith Mohan Varma, CMD of Maya Care Welfare Society, started online web multi-level marketing business in the name of society under binary system and induced around 400 innocent and unemployed youth and collected around Rs 5 crore promising high returns and cheated them. A case was registered U/s 420, IPC, Sec. 3 r/w 4 and 5 of Prized Chits and Money Circulations (Banning) Act, 1978 and investigation taken up. On instructions of Shikha Goel, DG-CID, the investigation officers proceeded to Kanpur and apprehended Varma and brought him to Warangal. Efforts are on to arrest the remaining accused.
