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Serious business

Playfulness is quite a rare trait. It is common only among the mammals, although a few of the larger-brained birds such as magpies and crows also indulge in it. But playing,it seems,is also serious business. There have been a few theories to explain playing among young mammals. One of them is that playing enhances physical coordination.

Young animals are also supposed to acquire skills essential for survival through game-playing. These theories have not been substantiated through observation and data. Meanwhile, there is a new theory it suggests that play has evolved to build big brains. In other words, playing makes you intelligent.

Mapping the universe

Life has become a little tougher for those of you who hate geography and drawing maps. Geography just went intergalactic. The initial results of an international project, called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, were released recently at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The five-year survey is operated by several American universities and institutions in Germany and Japan, with observations conducted at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.

The survey uses a telescope specially built for observations of light from objects in the sky that are more detailed and more distant than before, and the telescope is used exclusively for this project.

One of the project's primary objectives is to produce a three- dimensional map of the universe embracing more than 200 million objects and showing in greater detail and depth than ever the structure of galaxies and spreading clusters of galaxies.

Grading the environment

One of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken to assess global environmental damage from the rapid consumption of natural resources was announced recently. The president of the United Nations Foundation, a sponsor of the project, called it "the first global report card on our environment."

Up to 1,500 scientists are being asked to volunteer their expertise to what is being called the "millennium eco-system assessment". Secretary-General Kofi Annan, formally introducing the programme said that it was "designed to bring the world's best science to bear on the present choices we face in managing the global environment."

Compiled by

SUBASH N. JEYAN

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Section  : Features
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