Category: Life & Style

Singapore has become the newest and sixth member of the Blue Zone – an elite club of regions in the world where people live healthier and longer lives – according to Dan Buettner, a journalist and researcher who popularised the use of the term.

Regions in the Blue Zone have several traits in common that let them achieve longevity. The traits include moving regularly, depending on a plant-based diet, and living with purpose.

The original five Blue Zone regions are Okinawa in Japan, Sardina in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica, and Loma Linda in California.

Unlike the original five regions, which developed organically through practices and traditions, and managed to flourish over the years, Singapore is a ‘manufactured city,’ described Buettner in the Netflix documentary, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.

According to the latest government data for 2022, life expectancy in Singapore stands at 80.7 years for men and 85.2 years for women. The researcher underlined government policies, such as transportation, housing, and hawker centres, to have come together to create a ‘Blue Zone 2.0’ in the Southeast Asian city-state.

More than 80% of Singapore’s population lives in high-rise public housing apartment blocks. These estates have been intentionally designed to encourage social interaction among residents. The Singapore Government also has in place a housing grant, which encourages couples buying resale apartments on the open market to allow them to live with or near their parents or children.

Indians are in a race to buy luxury homes at 10 times the price under a revived project on Dubai’s Palm Islands, says a Bloomberg report.

In September, investors and brokers were spotted outside the sales centre of Nakheel PJSC where five-to-seven bedroom villas are being sold on the yet-undeveloped Palm Jebel Ali. Luxury homes here start at 18.7 million dirhams ($5.1 million), which is an estimated Rs 42.21 crore. The cheapest plots of land are available at about 40 million dirhams (Rs 90.30 crore approx).

The media report said that luxury real estate has revived tremendously even as Dubai became the number 1 in global rankings in the second quarter for transactions of homes valued at $10 million or above, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

The report added that buyers will have to pay 20% of the villa’s value upfront and another 40% during construction. The remaining amount is to be paid when the properties are complete in 2027.

In 2003, Nakheel began selling residential properties on the Palm Jebel Ali for between 1.8 million dirhams (Rs 4.06 crore approx) and 5.6 million dirhams (Rs 12.64 crore approx). While these properties were resold many times later, not a single house was constructed.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has announced the funding and building of one of the largest computing systems dedicated to nonprofit life science research in the world. The effort will provide the scientific community with access to predictive models of healthy and diseased cells, leading to groundbreaking new discoveries that could help cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century.

The high-performance computing cluster, which is planned to comprise more than 1,000 GPUs, will enable artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models for biomedicine at scale. AI models could predict how an immune cell responds to an infection, like what happens at the cellular level when a child is born with a rare disease, or how a patient’s body will respond to a new medication.

In a statement, CZI Co-founder and Co-CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that AI is creating new opportunities in biomedicine, and building a high-performance computing cluster dedicated to life science research will accelerate progress on important scientific questions about how our cells work. “Developing digital models capable of predicting all cell types and cell states from the genome will help researchers better understand our cells and how they behave in health and disease,” he added.

The oldest-known aquarium fish tanked at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco Bay Area for the past 85 years is 92 years, announced the California Academy of Sciences in September. A cutting-edge DNA analysis found the age of the female Australian lungfish, Methuselah.

The analysis was led by researchers of two Australia-based government agencies.

The 4-foot long, 40-pound Methuselah, named after the oldest person mentioned in the Bible, came at the aquarium via a Matson Navigation Company shipping liner in 1938. The fish earned its name ‘lungfish,’ as it distinguishes itself from most fish by its ability to respire air without relying on gills – an adaptation that shows its resilience and evolutionary significance.

The Australian lungfish is designated as a vulnerable species in its native habitat. The Government of Australia underlies its importance as the last surviving member of a fish family that has endured since the era of dinosaurs, with fossil records tracing its existence back 100 million years. This unique fish species also boasts substantial size, typically weighing around 88 pounds.

Geoscientists have discovered the eighth continent on planet Earth. After almost 375 years, a team of geologists and seismologists has created a newly refined map of Zealandia or Te Riu-a-Maui. The researchers found it by using the data obtained from dredged rock samples recovered from the ocean floor. The details of the research have been published in the journal Tectonics.

Zealandia is a continent of 1.89 million sq miles (4.9 million sq km) – around six times the size of Madagascar. It is 94% underwater, with just a handful of islands, similar to New Zealand, says Andy Tulloch, a geologist at the New Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science, and a member of the team that discovered Zealandia.

Scientists are now studying collections of rocks and sediment samples brought up from the ocean bed, most of which came from drilling sites; others came from the shores of islands in the area.

The newly refined map shows not only the location of the magmatic arc axis of the Zealandia continent, but also other major geological features.

Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, which was formed about 550 million years ago and essentially lumped together all the land in the southern hemisphere.

African rhino populations are on a rise despite poaching and habitat loss, according to the new figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The new figures, released on September %%, highlight that protection and biological management initiatives across the continent have resulted in black rhino populations rising by 4.2% to a population of 6,487, and white rhino populations rising by 5.6% to a population of 16,803.

It is the first time since 2012 that there has been an increase in the white rhino population, the species classified as ‘near threatened’ on the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species.

There were 5,00,000 rhinos in Africa and Asia at the start of the 20th century, says the World Wildlife Fund. By the end of 2022, the African rhino population stood at just 23,290, according to IUCN’s latest figures.

The rebounding rhino populations are not just a win for rhinos, but for the many wildlife species that share their ecosystems and the people who steward these lands, said Nina Fascione, Executive Director at the International Rhino Foundation, in an interview.

Climate change also poses a growing risk to Africa’s rhino population, as its devastating impacts on human communities have a ripple effect on wildlife and increases the risk of human-wildlife conflict.

Starting in 2024, Singapore’s Changi Airport will introduce automated immigration clearance, which will allow passengers to depart the city-state without passports, using only biometric data, say officials.

Biometric technology, along with facial recognition software, is already in use to some extent at the famous airport’s automated lanes at immigration checkpoints. The upcoming changes will “reduce the need for passengers to repeatedly present their travel documents at touch points and allow for more seamless and convenient processing,” Communications Minister Josephine Teo said a parliament session on September 18, during which several changes to the country’s Immigration Act were passed.

Biometrics will be used to create a “single token of authentication” to be employed at many automated touch points, such as bag drops to immigration clearance and boarding. This will eliminate the need for physical travel documents, including boarding passes and passports. However, passports will still be required for many countries outside of Singapore that do not offer passport-free clearance, the minister stressed.

Changi Airport serves more than 100 airlines that fly to 400 cities in about 100 countries and territories globally. It handled 5.12 million passenger movements in June, surpassing the 5 million mark for the first time since January 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Haryana’s Sunil Kumar, a 32-year-old banker by profession, successfully scaled Mt Manaslu in Nepal on September 21, achieving the feat of being the first Indian climber to summit the world’s eighth highest mountain peak in this season.

Kumar reached the peak of Mt Manaslu, with the height of 8,163 metres above sea level, at 5.25 am local time.

He was accompanied by a Nepalese climber Sangita Kumari Rokaya and two mountain guides, Lakpa Gyaljen Sherpa and Chhangba Sherpa.

The team climbed the mountain situated on the northern side of central Nepal in Gorkha district.

Thailand’s Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, is setting his sights on Indian tourists to boost tourism in the country. He said that he would make a trip to India this year with plans to meet his counterpart Narendra Modi and discuss increasing flight frequency between the two countries, including more services by flag carrier Thai Airways International Pcl.

In a media interview on September 18, Srettha Thavisin pointed out that there are not that many incoming flights from India yet due to internal politics, and he hopes to visit India before the end of the year to negotiate on the issue.

Thailand may also mull other measures to boost Indian tourist arrivals, such as offering tax exemptions on jewellery imported for Indian weddings held in Thailand. As Indian tourists already can easily obtain Thai visas, a visa waiver may not be necessary, the Thai PM said.

The Thai cabinet had recently approved temporary visa exemptions for Chinese and Kazakh tourists ahead of the busy tourism season. Tourists from the two countries can enter Thailand without a visa between September 25 and February 29, and can stay for a maximum of 30 days at a time. The visa waiver program is expected to bring in 35 billion baht ($980 million) from Chinese tourists, Srettha said during the forum.

Norway Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide said that there is ingenuity which is being seen in Indian science, business and academics, which is really important for the country to partner with. The minister was speaking at the 3rd International Climate Summit 2023 organised on September 14 and 15, 2023 in New Delhi.

“There’s simply no way that we can solve the climate crisis…without a strong engagement from India,” he said, adding, “It is important for the rest of us because of India’s size and population.”

The 3rd International Climate Summit 2023 built on the momentum created by the 2023 G20 New Delhi Summit. The event organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) focused on India’s vision to become the third largest economy in the world while prioritising green hydrogen, biofuels, and renewables.

Former President of India Ram Nath Kovind was the chief guest of the two-day event. Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Jitender Singh, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, and ONGC Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar Singh were the other prominent guests attending the event.

The 3rd ICS summit also had delegates from across the globe, including academicians, researchers, and scholars, bureaucrats and government officials. Representatives of civil societies, diplomats, missions, and trade bodies will also participate in the two-day summit.