Deyata Kirula in Anuradhapura

The mega exhibition Deyata Kirula which is scheduled to be held in Oyamaduwa next year to coincide with Independence Day will give a facelift to many remote areas in the ancient city of Anuradhaphura. A number of programmes will be implemented in the Anuradhapura District to develop infrastructure and human resources prior to the exhibition.One of the key areas that would come into focus is the provision of facilities to school libraries in every Divisional Secretariat in the Anuradhapura District .

According to the Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga schools where libraries need to be developed will be selected by the organising committee in due course.

The decision to hold the Deyata Kirula exhibition in Oyamaduwa, in the Anuradhapura District has been taken with the objective of bringing dividends of development to the remote areas of the country which have seen no such development for decades. This was disclosed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a special meeting held at the Temple Trees recently with political leaders of the North Central Province and Secretaries of Ministries. While discussing the numerous programmes that need to be implemented parallel to the mega exhibition, the President instructed those present to ensure that they be carried out in a manner that would benifit all Divisional Secretariats in the area.

The Deyata Kirula exhibition which showcases the produce and services from over 1,200 government, private and international organisations, and also displays past, ongoing and proposed development activities in the country, is very popular among the people and attracts large crowds.It is scheduled to be held from February 4 to February 10, next year.

Humans may have 'magnetic' sixth sense

Humans may have a sixth sense after all, suggests a new study finding that a protein in the human retina, when placed into fruit flies, has the ability to detect magnetic fields.

The researchers caution that the results suggest this human protein has the capability to work as a magnetosensor; however, whether or not humans use it in that way is not known.

"It poses the question, 'maybe we should rethink about this sixth sense,'" Steven Reppert, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, told LiveScience.

"It is thought to be very important for how animals migrate. Perhaps this protein is also fulfilling an important function for sensing magnetic fields in humans."Past research has suggested that in addition to helping animals such as sea turtles and migratory birds navigate, the ability to detect magnetic fields could help with visual spatial perception. Reppert said to picture a magnetic-field coordinate system overlaid on objects we view.

"It may aid how animals perceive how objects are in time and space in a way we haven't thought about before," said Reppert, who is a neurobiologist.

Animals' magnetic sense is thought to rely on special proteins called cryptochromes, which are also found in the human retina.

While past behavioural research has suggested humans can't sense magnetic fields, with studies showing such a capability remaining controversial, there is evidence that geomagnetism affects the light system in our eyes.

To see if humans perhaps possessed this other sense, Reppert and his colleagues tested wild fruit flies, with their cryptochromes intact, and those that had their own cryptochromes replaced with the human version of the protein.

They placed the fruit flies into a T-shaped maze, with each arm equipped with a coil wrapped in such a way that when a current was sent through it, the coil became magnetized.

The team varied which side was magnetized and its strength, which went up to eight times that of Earth's magnetic field.

The flies with the human cryptochromes showed sensitivity to the magnetic fields" either avoiding them as they might naturally do if not acclimated to the magnetism, or showing a preference for the magnetized arm of the maze when trained with sugar rewards to go toward the magnetic field.

The human protein only worked in the blue range of light, the researchers found.The research is detailed in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature Communications

- Courtesy: Live Science

Slovenian family adopts a bear cub

Aren't they cute? Even though we may not see bears and dogs playing together except in movies these two strange friends are having great fun. A Slovenian family adopted this three-and-half-month-old bear cub that strolled into their yard about a month ago. Although the Logar family would like to put the cub in a fenced enclosure, veterinary authorities would prefer to move it into a shelter for wild animals.The Brown bear (Ursus arctos) cub Medo enjoys playing with the family dog.