THE HIMALAYAN UNIVERSE

Mixing music with Mars - Nepal-born student who spotted ‘water’ also plays guitar G.S. MUDUR Lujendra Ojha, the lead guitarist in a heavy metal band named Gorkha New Delhi, Aug. 6:  Eight years ago, Lujendra Ojha was a schoolboy in his native Nepal trying to sharpen his skills on the guitar, but also dreaming about pursuing research on parallel universes, designing time machines and exploring space. Drawing inspiration from comic books, science fiction films, and Stephen Hawking’s  A Brief History of Time , which he recalls reading while he was in the 9th grade at Kathmandu’s Galaxy Public School, Ojha wanted to do “something fascinating” in science. If he couldn’t travel around the world as a star guitar player, that is. Ojha is now an undergraduate geophysics student at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where he moved with his parents in 2005 when he was 15. And he is lead guitarist of a student band named Gorkha that specialises in heavy metal. But this week, ...

Scientists Find Signs Water Is Flowing on Mars By  KENNETH CHANG Published: August 4, 2011 Enlarge This Image Shifting dark streaks on the surface of  Mars  are signs that water is flowing there today, scientists said Thursday. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona An image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows flows of what scientists believe to be water that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside the Newton crater on Mars. Related Video: Running Water on Mars? For NASA, Return Trip to Jupiter in Search of Clues to Solar System’s Origins  (August 5, 2011) The possible presence of liquid water is certain to revive speculation that Mars is teeming with microbial organisms. The recipe for life, at least as we know it, calls for liquid water, carbon-based molecules and a source for energy. There is plenty of ice on Mars, but the chemical reactions for life come to a halt when water freezes.  High-resolution photographs taken by  NASA’s Mars...