All but a very few of the emails you send in hopes of scheduling an appointment are a waste of your time. An email is a poor medium for a conversation in which you share the value proposition that might command a meeting. Email is ideal for nurturing (with no ask) and for following up phone calls where you make an ask.The time you spend with prospects that are unqualified or only buy the lowest price is time better spent nurturing your dream clients. No matter how much time you spend with someone who can’t or won’t buy what you sell, it is time wasted. The time you spend with prospects who only perceive value as the lowest price deprives you of the time you need to win prospects that value what you do.The time you spend researching clients between phone calls slows your efforts and causes you to produce poor results, results that would have been better if you’d gotten into the groove. Research isn’t prospecting. It’s something you do enough to be able to make a call, and it is something you shouldn’t do every day. When you make calls, make calls.The wasted time trying to recover lost deals is time that is better invested in following your sales process and gaining the commitments you need in the early stages of a deal. Once the body is dead, there is no bringing it back. The best thing you can do is understand the cause of death, so you don’t keep killing your deals.The time you spend responding to RFP where you don’t know the stakeholders, where you haven’t nurtured relationships, and where you haven’t created any value is time spent doing almost anything else. If you wanted to compete for this companies business and they are a good target for you, you should have spent the time necessary to position yourself to win long before the RFP was let.Some of the things that you do feel like work and provide you the false sense that you are pursuing deals. If you want better results, stop wasting time.
With the day and night time temperatures across Maharashtra continuing to remain volatile, the number of swine flu deaths in Pune has reached an alarming high of 33. Meanwhile, the condition of 18 more patients is said to be critical.While the death toll across the State has crossed 100, around 190 cases have tested positive for the lethal virus, said health authorities. Fourfold increaseThis marks a fourfold increase in H1N1 deaths as compared to the same period [January-April] last year, when health authorities recorded a little over 80 cases and 25 deaths.The latest victim was a two-and-a-half-year old girl child from Ahmednagar district, who died in a private hospital in Pune on Tuesday. Doctors said she was suffering from influenza-like symptoms, including fever, cold and cough, since last month after which she was admitted to the KEM hospital in Pune, where she succumbed to cardiopulmonary arrest following swine flu-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).Temperature variationsReports in the Vidarbha region were just as troubling after hospitals across Nagpur reported six swine flu deaths on a single day on Wednesday, taking the death toll this month to 12. Nashik in North Maharashtra has reported 20 deaths, with the district recording an all-time high summer temperature of 40.7 degrees Celsius. “The day temperatures are unseasonably hot, hovering around the 40 degree Celsius mark, while the minimum temperatures touch 20 degrees. This extreme and continuing variance in temperatures in creating a favourable environment for the swine flu virus to thrive,” said Dr. Kanchan Jagtap, Joint Director, State Health Department. Authorities pointed out that a significant number of the casualties in Pune district, including the township of Pimpri-Chinchwad, were those who came from adjoining districts in western Maharashtra to undergo treatment in the city’s hospitals. The health department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has analysed data of nearly 170 swine flu cases in the city between January and April this year.
| Photo Credit: Abhishek Saha People wade through waterlogged streets in Agartala. | Photo Credit: Abhishek Saha In places, the water levels were dangerously high Officials said the flood situation remains grim owing to torrential rains in the hills in north Tripura, the source of all major rivers of the State.Low-lying areas are the worst affected, requiring evacuation of people.A portion of the Assam-Agartala National Highway has also flooded, disrupting normal traffic. Schools have been declared closed in several places. Flash floods marooned at least 3,000 families in Tripura, where incessant rain triggered mudslides that have killed six people, including three of a family, in the past four days. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb declared financial assistance for the victims’ families. Shelter has been provided in 36 makeshift camps. Tripura Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath inspected some flood-affected areas. “Due to a sudden downpour in the hilly areas, the Balda Khal, Chandrapur and adjoining areas are flooded as the water level in rivers have increased, due to which, the water is unable to pass to Bangladesh,” he told reporters.“I have instructed the authorities to provide all support to people marooned in flood water,” he said.District officials on Monday said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire services, defence personnel and volunteers are jointly working to help affected people.The regional office of the Meteorological Department has issued a warning with the prediction of more rainfall in the next 24 hours.(With inputs from Agencies) | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Above danger levelSeveral localities in Agartala are submerged, while water was flowing above the danger level in three rivers.The District Magistrate of West Tripura district, Sandip Mahate, said, “Due to incessant rains last night in Sadar and Jirania sub-division and in several wards of Agartala Municipal Corporation, the water of Haora River is flowing at 10.3 m which is .3 m above the danger level.”“The affected people along the river banks have been shifted to flood relief camps…The administration has arranged for ample food supply and drinking water,” he added. Rescue boats had to be used to ferry people
Photos of destroyed currency notes of denomination ₹2,000 and ₹500 found inside an ATM in Assam’s Tinsukia district have gone viral in social media. When the ATM belonging to the State Bank of India, which was reported out of order since May 20, was opened for maintenance on June 11, staff found bank notes amounting to ₹12.38 lakh completely destroyed. Officials suspect mice would have destroyed the notes since some dead rodents were found inside the ATM.FIS Global Business Solutions, a private security firm, had deposited ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes amounting ₹29.48 lakh on May 19 in the ATM located at Laipuli area. The machine is said to have been out of service from the next day.The SBI has lodged compliant at Hijuguri police station. Tinsukia district Superintendent of Police, Mugdhajyoti Mahanta, though a formal case is yet to be registered, an entry (number 246 dated June 14) was made in the Station Diary. Mr. Mahanta said the ATM was not functioning since May 20 and the maintanance company had called up its engineer from Kolkata to repair it. “When the engineer and other officials opened the ATM on June 11, they found destroyed notes and also found a dead mouse inside the ATM,” Mr. Mahanta said. Officials could recover currency notes amounting to ₹17.10 lakh without any damage.
The Gujarat police on Saturday booked legislators Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani and Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel on a complaint filed by a woman, whose house the trio had raided to recover liquor pouches as part of their anti-liquor drive in Gandhinagar. The woman also accused them of planting liquor pouches to claim that she was a bootlegger.Mr. Thakor, a Congress MLA, along with Independent legislator Mevani and Patel, on Thursday “raided” the house of a woman, identified Kanchanben Makwana, with over a dozen supporters claiming they wanted to expose the alleged “liquor den” operating in the State capital. The house is located near the office of Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police. Ms. Makwana filed a complaint at the Gandhinagar Sector 21 police station.The complainant said the trio and their supporters entered her house illegally when no male member was present in the house. She also accused them of planting liquor pouches to prove that she was selling liquor as bootlegger. After the complaint, the trio reached the Gandhinagar SP office to surrender, asking police to arrest them. “The state government has completely failed to enforced prohibition in the state. There is remnant liquor bootlegging thanks to nexus between police, bootleggers and politicians,” Mr Thakor said. “Instead of booking bootleggers and those engaged in illegally selling liquor, the state police is booking for exposing liquor dens,” Mr Patel said.According to Gandhinagar Police, an FIR was lodged against Thakor, Mevani and Patel besides over a dozen others under various section of the Indian Penal Code. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Patel alleged that the “liquor mafia” can do anything in Gandhi’s Gujarat, with the police and the ruling BJP giving them support.The three leaders “raided” Makwana’s house at Adivada village after meeting four people who were hospitalised after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in Ahmedabad.Thakor, who has led anti-liquor agitations in the past, said the aim of the “raid” was to expose the police and the government’s “inaction” to curb alcohol menace in the state.
A youth was arrested on Monday for posing as a State Minister and making threatening calls to a police officer in Kandhamal district of Odisha. According to police sources, Rajesh Kumar Das of Jagannathpur had been threatening Chandamani Singh, inspector in-charge of Sarangada police station, for over a month. The accused, who drives vehicles for a construction firm, had also sent threatening video messages.He was posing as State Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh during the calls, said the sources. Mr. Singh lodged a complaint at Phulbani police station. The police managed to identify the culprit by tracking down his mobile number. He was nabbed from Phulbani on Monday. Investigation is still on to ascertain the motive behind the calls, the sources added.
Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar on Tuesday welcomed Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s announcement on fines for drinking and littering in public and further urged tourists to refrain from misbehaving with women under the influence of alcohol.On Monday, Mr. Parrikar had announced that from August 15 those who drink alcohol in public would be fined ₹2,500. People found littering would also face steep fines. A notification in this regard would be issued shortly, he said.Mr. Ajgaonkar ruled out the possibility that the fine might deter tourists from visiting. Instead, at a public function here on Tuesday, he said that a ₹2,500 fine was inadequate and should be hiked. “They [offenders] should be fined as much as possible. We want good tourists,” he added. “Our Goa is famous all over the country and all over the world. People come here to see our culture and our natural beauty. Goa’s discipline, culture and Goenkarponn (Goanness) should be preserved. There will be no compromises for anyone who is drunk and misbehaves,” Mr. Ajgaonkar said.
Former Odisha Minister and Biju Janata Dal legislator from Paradip Damodar Rout was expelled from the party on Wednesday. “Mr. Rout has been expelled from the party as per the orders of BJD president Naveen Patnaik,” stated a brief statement issued late on Wednesday evening by a party functionary. Mr. Rout had been making serious allegations of irregularities in various State government departments and schemes thereby evoking strong criticism from party workers against him. Mr. Patnaik had on Tuesday assured BJD workers and leaders from Mr. Rout’s home district Jagatsinghpur that he would look into their petitions alleging that the former Minister was indulging in anti-party activities and take appropriate action. BJD’s Jagatsinghpur district president Bishnu Charan Das and legislator from Balikuda-Erasama segment Prashant Muduli had also accompanied the party workers to the house of Mr. Patnaik on Tuesday morning. Earlier, Mr. Das and Mr. Muduli had met Mr. Patnaik on Monday and submitted separate written complaints alleging that Mr. Rout was working in a pre-planned manner to weaken the BJD in their area and that he should be expelled from the party. Mr. Rout had been critical of the State government since Mr. Naveen Patnaik sacked him from his Ministry in December last year in the wake of his derogatory remarks against the Brahmin community. The senior leader had also started speaking out against the BJD government suspecting that he may not be given the party ticket for the Assembly elections next year. It is being rumoured that Mr. Rout may float a political outfit.
The Speaker, P.K. Amat, adjourned the Odisha Assembly till Tuesday as the Opposition — Congress and BJP — members rushed to the Well of the House on Monday and raised slogans against fuel price hike and alleged cooperative bank scam.As soon as the House assembled for the day, the Opposition Congress members, led by party’s chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati, rushed to the Well and raised slogans against fuel price hike. They demanded adjournment of the House in support of the Bharat Bandh. Mr. Bahinipati also attempted to climb atop the Speaker’s podium while his colleagues shouted anti-Centre slogans. The BJP members also staged a similar protest and raised the alleged Omfed and Cooperative Bank scams in the State.Question HourMr. Amat adjourned the House for the day till 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday. The House was adjourned when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was about to reply during the Question Hour. BJD spokesperson and MLA Samir Dash termed the disruption of the proceedings “unfortunate”. The Opposition parties should not disrupt the proceeding and the question hour, he said.‘BJD supporting bandh’ BJP law maker Pradip Purohit alleged that the Speaker adjourned the House as the ruling BJD was indirectly supporting the Bharat Bandh of the Congress. Earlier, hundreds of Congress activists, led by OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, staged a dharna in front of the Assembly. They urged the members and officers not to participate in the Assembly proceedings till 3 p.m. in support of the Bandh. While Mr. Patnaik and other Congress leaders sat on a dharna in front of the Assembly gate, party’s women activists made a human chain.
Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by one Brajesh Thakur, the chief of a state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by TISS to the state’s social welfare department.An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe was later taken over by the CBI.The incidents of alleged rape and sexual assault of the women inmates had come to light after a social audit was conducted by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).In all, the sexual abuse of 34 of the 42 inmates was confirmed in their medical examination.The TISS audit report had said that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints.The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the police in connection with the case. Muzaffarpur case: Terrified neighbours ignored screams, says CBI report The Supreme Court on Thursday said there cannot be a blanket ban on media reporting in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case where several women were allegedly raped and sexually abused over time.A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta vacated the August 23 order of the Patna High Court which had imposed a ban on media reporting about the investigations in the case.The apex court however asked both the print and electronic media not to sensationalise incidents of sexual abuse and violence.When the apex court on September 18 was hearing the matter, it had made reference of the recent Rewari gang rape case and asked as to why no action has been taken against media houses for flouting the law as “everything has been said” about the 19-year-old victim.The top court had also stayed a Patna High Court order to set up a fresh CBI team to probe the case, saying that such a move would not only be detrimental to the ongoing investigation but also to the victims.Also Read CBI arrests four in Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case The Patna High Court, which has been monitoring the probe, had on August 23 expressed displeasure over the leak of details of the investigation and asked the media to refrain from publishing it as it could be detrimental to the probe.A plea was filed against this on September 5 in the apex court seeking a stay on the high court order restraining the media from reporting the investigation.In the plea filed before the apex court, the petitioner, a journalist, has claimed that there was no material before the high court to come to a conclusion that media reporting may hamper the ongoing investigation in the case.The apex court, while staying the high court’s order directing the CBI’s special director to put in place a fresh team to probe the case, had said that there was no reason now to change the existing investigating team which was set up the CBI Director.The high court had on August 29 ordered that a fresh team of investigators be constituted by the CBI’s special director in the case in which incidents of alleged rape and sexual assault of women inmates over a period of time had come to light in an NGO-run shelter home at Muzaffarpur in Bihar.Also Read
Linen and other items worth ₹2.5 crore were stolen allegedly by passengers in trains run by the Western Railway in the last fiscal, an official said on Thursday. The revelation comes after a passenger was nabbed for allegedly stealing blankets and bedsheets in an air-conditioned coach of a train on Monday. Shabbir Rotiwala was arrested at the Ratlam railway station in Madhya Pradesh on Monday after three blankets, as many pillows and six bedsheets of the railways were recovered from his bag when he alighted from the Bandra-Amritsar Paschim Express, according to a railway police official. During 2017-18, around 1.95 lakh towels, 81,736 bedsheets, 55,573 pillow covers, 5,038 pillows and 7,043 blankets were stolen by passengers from trains, as per figures provided by the Western Railway (WR).“In terms of money, the WR has lost linen and fittings worth Rs Rs 2.5 crore in the last fiscal. This is besides properties damaged by passengers and sometimes by protesters,” a WR official said.Apart from linen, bath fittings were also stolen from toilets in trains, the official said, adding that the Indian Railways incurred a loss of around ₹4,000 crore over the last three fiscals due to such acts of passengers.“The Tejas Express train, which runs between Mumbai and Goa, had branded fittings in toilets but many of them were stolen and had to be replaced with cheaper ones,” he said. Sometimes coach attendants have to pay from their own salaries for the stolen linen as it is their responsibility to ensure every item is returned by passengers, he pointed out. The Central Railway (CR) also said that passengers were stealing linen in its trains. Between April and September this year, 79,350 hand towels, 27,545 bedsheets, 21,050 pillow covers, 2,150 pillows and 2,065 blankets worth about Rs 62 lakh were stolen by passengers from trains run by the Central Railway, according to figures provided by a senior CR official. Expressing concern over such incidents, WR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar said, “We want to provide world-class and comfortable service to passengers, but such acts are posing a challenge for us.”
The Congress won the Assembly elections in three States of the Hindi heartland – Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – where it was in a direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party. As the results began pouring in on Tuesday, it became apparent that the Congress had built a 10 percentage point lead over the BJP in Chhattisgarh and had done enough to form the government in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had won 62 of the 65 Lok Sabha seats in the three States. The picture shows Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot waving to Congress workers while going to attend the Congress Legislature Party meeting at the party headquarters in Jaipur after the declaration of the results. The party anointed him Deputy Chief Minister in the State. Fireworks go off at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Bhavan after the party’s victory in the Assembly election in Hyderabad.
The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority has carried out an experiment of sending mass disaster alert SMSes to mobile users as part of its project of Early Warning Dissemination System.Leading telecom service providers, including BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, were roped in for sending the messages.A Common Alert Protocol solution has been developed by the Department of Telecommunication and Centre for Development of Telematics through which disaster management messages can be disseminated to the public by sending mass SMSes to all mobile subscribers in a selected geographical area and those on roaming. Pilot testing of CAP had previously been done in different States. According to OSDMA, the EWDS is being implemented in 6 districts.
The Kashmir Valley went into deep-freeze mode on Thursday as the minimum temperature touched minus 7° Celsius in Srinagar for the first time in 28 years.
Five alleged poachers were arrested on Sunday for killing an adult male rhino in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park on Saturday and sawing off its horn.Four of them were arrested by the police and Forest Department officials in Biswanath district while the fifth was caught by the police in Golaghat district.Kaziranga guards had early on Saturday morning found the carcass of the rhino near Sukani anti-poaching camp in the park’s Agratoli Range. Officials said it was the first case of rhino poaching this year.Poachers had in 2018 killed six rhinos in Kaziranga, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and also a Tiger Reserve. The trend has been declining since 2016 when 14 rhinos were killed in the park by poachers.This period was marked by a spike in the number of arrest of poachers – 95 in 2016, 117 in 2017 and 104 last year. The rhino census carried out in the 430 sq km Kaziranga in March 2018 had estimated the one-horned animal’s population at 2,413, marginally up from 2,401 during the previous census in 2015.
Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, on the recommendation of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday, issued an order designating Ministers Vijai Sardesai and Manohar Ajgaonkar as Deputy Chief Ministers.The order comes in the wake of Wednesday’s developments in which two MGP MLAs, namely, Mr. Ajgaonkar and Mr. Deepak Pauskar split from Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), an alliance partner of BJP-led coalition, and merged their group into BJP.Following this development, Chief Minister had sacked Mr. Sudin Dhavlikar of MGP as Deputy Chief Minister from his Cabinet and replaced him with Mr. Ajgaonkar, who was earlier Minister of Tourism. The other Dy. Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai belongs to Goa Forward Party, another ally of the BJP.
The Odisha government on Saturday announced an agriculture package for farmers who sustained crop loss of 33% or more due to Cyclone Fani in the State.“Agriculture input subsidy will be provided to the small and marginal farmers who have sustained crop loss of 33% and above at the rate of ₹6,800 per hectare of land in rain-fed and ₹13,500 per hectare of land in areas under assured irrigation, and ₹18,000 per hectare for all types of perennial crops including mango, cashew and coconut,” Mr. Patnaik said.
Farmers in Punjab, the key grain producing State, seem to have exercised restraint in burning the wheat crop residue during the ongoing harvesting season. The incidents of burning dipped compared to last year, officials told The Hindu. Agriculture experts and officials believe that awareness of the ill-effects is one key reason for it.The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) data shows that the State had from April 15 to May 16 witnessed 5,981 incidents of stubble burning as against 9,900 cases reported during the corresponding period in 2018. Sangrur district topped the list with 553 incidents followed by Bathinda district (548) and Amritsar district (536). Rupnagar district recorded the lowest number 31 this season. “It’s an indication that farmers are relatively more aware of the ill-effects on health and environment,” said PPCB’s Chief Environmental Engineer Krunesh Garg. “Also we are imposing penalties on farmers as there’s a ban on burning the residue. All the incidents are not deliberate as there are several cases of accidental fire too,” he said.Wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, is sown from late October to December while the harvesting usually starts from mid-April onwards.P.S. Rangi, an agriculture expert and former State Farmers Commission adviser, said it was an encouraging sign. “But we will have to wait till the paddy harvesting season in October-November which the burning is associated with.” Paddy residueHe said farmers use wheat residue as fodder for cattle and it’s only the stalk that is set on fire. The paddy residue is not used as fodder as it’s unfit and hence farmers burn both the paddy stalk and straw close to autumn every year which is a key contributing factor of pollution causing breathing problems in the northern region.
How are monkeys moving virtual arms with their minds? How does early trauma haunt elephants for life? And why do newborns shut off their immune systems?Science’s Online News Editor David Grimm chats about these stories and more with Science’s Sarah Crespi.Listen to the full Science podcast.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)Read the transcript.Hear more podcasts.
A nice neighborhood doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your house is livable. Likewise, even if a planet orbits within the so-called Goldilocks zone surrounding its parent star where conditions are neither too hot nor too cold, its atmosphere may be hostile to life, a new study suggests. Even “super-Earths,” orbs with masses that fall between one and 10 times that of our planet (depicted at right in the artist’s concept above) and therefore offer some semblance of similarity to Earth, might be uninhabitable. Using computer simulations, researchers modeled the growth and evolution of a variety of planets as they and their sunlike parent star coalesced from a cloud of whirling gas and dust. In most scenarios, planets that started with a rocky core between one-tenth and one times the mass of Earth lost their hydrogen-rich protoatmospheres 100 million years or less after the dust and gas surrounding the nascent star had dissipated, researchers report online this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. That forfeiture, driven by the intense ultraviolet radiation streaming from the young parent star, offered those planets the chance to develop a more hospitable atmosphere later in their lives (either from gases later emitted from the planet itself or gained via the impacts of comets and asteroids), the researchers note. But in many instances, the simulations show, even planets starting with rocky cores as little as 1.5 Earth’s mass may trap and hold atmospheres containing between 100 and 1000 times the amount of hydrogen found in the water in Earth’s oceans—thick, dense envelopes exerting pressures so hellish that life on the planets’ surfaces might be almost impossible.See more ScienceShots.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)