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The day has finally come when one can see bright meteors at an unprecedent speed.

Leonids will be seen on Monday, better known as earth gazers, at their peak, Space Director C B Devgun told a news agency on Sunday.

Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle.

The meteor shower is visible every year around November 17 when the Earth moves through the Leonid meteor stream, he said, adding that the stream comprises solid particles, known as meteoroids, ejected by the comet as it passes by the Sun.

Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo.

The Leonids are famous because their meteor showers or storms can be among the most spectacular. During a strong storm in dark viewing conditions the sky can appear to be “raining stars”, Devgun said, adding that this year Leonids will be seen in its peak on Monday night.

Meteors are also called as “shooting stars”, startling streaks of light that suddenly appear in the sky when a dust particle from outer space evaporates high in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Most visible Leonids are between 1 mm and 1 cm in diameter, Devgun said. For example, a Leonid meteor barely visible with the naked eye in a dark sky is caused by a meteoroid of 0.5 mm in diameter and weights only 0.00006 gram.

Just before they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, Leonid meteoroids travel at 71 kilometers per second, or 213 times as fast as speed of sound, Devgun added.

Scientists have determined that to understand how life began on Earth, it is important to study the chemistry that preceded early life, as well as studying Mars.

These two new approaches for understanding how life started on our planet were discussed at a European Science Foundation (ESF) and COST ‘Frontiers of Science’ conference in Sicily, which was held recently.

The first applies complex systems theory to the chemistry that preceded early life. The second involves studying Mars, which may yield ample evidence about what Earth was like when life evolved.

Complex systems chemistry uses computer models to simulate combinations of reactions, involving membrane-forming reactions, self-replicating nucleic acids and metabolic energy-producing reactions.

Then it examines how these systems develop in time and space.

One promising area is the discovery of reaction systems that lead to the spontaneues generation of chiral asymmetry.

It is a universal property of life that compounds such as amino acids and sugars exist exclusively in a one-handed form although both forms are equally likely from an energetic point of view.

It is quite difficult to achieve this asymmetry in non-living chemical reactions. Chemistry tends to create equal proportions of the different forms, which behave like objects and their mirror images.

“The recipe for asymmetry is the co-occurrence of positive and negative feedback loops within such systems,” said Gunter Von Kiedrowski, of Ruhr Universitat Bochum in Germany.

Complex systems chemistry cannot tell the story of life entirely.

“We are in the same position as the physicists trying to understand the origin of the universe,” said Kiedrowski.

“We will not know exactly how life began, because we do not know the precise conditions at the time, but we can get a good model of how it could have happened with this approach,” he added.

Understanding the context of early life from the evidence on Earth is difficult. Because the Earth’s crust is so active, there is very little surface rock remaining from the time when life originated, before 3.5 billion years ago.

On Mars, by contrast, about 50 percent of the surface is from before 3.7 billion years ago, so there is a lot more to work with.

“Mars may be our best bet to find out about life’s origins on Earth,” said Tanja Zegers, a geoscientist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday said India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-II, will be launched by 2012.

“Chandrayaan-II will be launched by 2012. We will have a lander that will drop a small robot on the moon, which will pick samples, analyse data and send the data back. Already the project has been formulated for Chandrayaan-II,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.

He dismissed as speculation reports that the government had not sanctioned ISRO’s proposal for a manned mission.

Justifying the relevance of manned moon mission, Nair said, “We cannot be lagging behind in terms of our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space.”

Talking about Chandrayaan-I, the country’s first unmanned moon mission, he said the Moon Impact Probe would land on the lunar surface tomorrow evening. However, “we cannot specify the time as of now,” he said.

On the success of the moon mission, Nair said already 95 per cent of the mission had been completed and just five per cent of the work had to be over. The total success of the mission would be known only after the remaining work was completed, he said.

He said Chandrayaan-I would get extensive study map of the moon by which an idea of the minerals of the moon would be available. Mineral mapping and surface feature mapping would be of prime importance, he said.

He also said the ISRO was going ahead with the study of sending a spacecraft to Mars.

On the ‘Solar mission’ Aditya, he said a satellite was intended to study solar emissions. The design work had been completed and it would be launched within two years, he said.

More stormy weather was forecast Wednesday for the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies, while rain and possible thunderstorms were expected from the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi Valley and into the Great Lakes region.

Strong winds, hail, flooding and even tornadoes were possible as a low-pressure system and cold front in the Plains push into the Mississippi Valley and continue northeastward. The Southeast was at greatest risk for severe weather.

Rain was forecast for the Northeast, where mild weather was predicted to end. Highs in the mid-40s were expected across New England.

More than 2 inches of rain was forecast for Oregon and Washington. Snow was expected at high elevations in the Rockies, with possible total accumulations ranging from 6 to 14 inches. Winds gusting up to 60 mph were likely in the northern Rockies.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Tuesday ranged from a low of 5 degrees at Watersmeet, Wis., to a high of 90 degrees at Alice, Texas.

The zoo animals of “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” ruled the roost at the weekend box office in North America, while James Bond was the big shot across the rest of the world.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, DreamWorks Animation’s “Madagascar” sequel sold $63.5 million worth of tickets in U.S. and Canadian theaters.

The three-day sum blew past forecasts of an opening in the $50 million range, as young children dragged their parents to see the latest exploits of Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and their pals.

Its 2005 predecessor, “Madagascar,” opened to $47.2 million during its first three days, and finished with $193.6 million domestically.

Both films were distributed by Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures on behalf of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. The sequel cost $150 million to make and an additional $175 million to market worldwide, DreamWorks Animation said.

A DreamWorks official said it was too early to tell if there would be a third feature, but the studio was “definitely encouraged” by the start for the new film.

James Bond was the man of the moment everywhere else as “Quantum of Solace” claimed the top spot in all 60 of its foreign markets with a weekend haul of $106.5 million, distributor Columbia Pictures said.

It ranks as the second-biggest international weekend of 2008, behind the $146 million bow of the fourth “Indiana Jones” film, the studio said.

Daniel Craig’s second outing as the super sleuth beat the opening for his 2006 debut “Casino Royale” in every market, in some cases with double the numbers.

‘ROLE MODELS‘ SURPRISES

Having got a head start last weekend in Britain, France and Sweden, the film’s 10-day total now stands at $160.3 million. Top markets included Britain with $15.1 million (10-day total, $50 million), Germany with $15.0 million, Russia and China with $9.1 million each, and South Korea with $4.5 million.

The $200 million film opens on North America on Friday. Columbia, a unit of Sony Corp, oversaw production, marketing and distribution of the film, which is billed as a joint release with closely held Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

Elsewhere in North America, the raunchy comedy “Role Models” opened at No. 2 with a better-than-expected haul of $19.3 million. Pre-release forecasts had the film opening in the $11 million range. Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd play two guys who are sentenced to act as big brothers for a pair of troubled youngsters. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co Inc’s NBC Universal.

After two weeks at No. 1, Walt Disney Co’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” slipped to No. 3 with $9.3 million. Its total now stands at $75.7 million.

Not all was splendid at the box office. “Soul Men,” an urban-skewing comedy starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac, opened at No. 6 with just $5.6 million. “Soul Men” also features soul icon Isaac Hayes, who died the day after Mac in August. The film was distributed by MGM.

The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business after a month of problems, but preparing spare equipment to keep the orbital observatory running will force NASA to delay its final servicing mission beyond February, officials said on Thursday.

The agency released an image taken by the telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera showing a pair of gravitationally locked galaxies, located more than 400 million light years away in the constellation Cetus.

The picture was the first taken by Hubble since a computer problem shut down science operations in September.

During the attempt to switch over to a backup system earlier this month, a problem with another computer again shut down the observatory.

But engineers were finally able to sort out the glitches this week, allowing astronomers to train Hubble’s eye on the pair of galaxies known as Arp 147, which remain gravitationally interacting long after a suspected collision between the two.

Hubble’s problems prompted NASA to delay the October launch of space shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts on a final house call to upgrade Hubble.

The mission had been rescheduled for February, but NASA said on Thursday replacement equipment won’t be ready in time to make that date.

Because it orbits outside the Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble’s cameras can take extremely sharp images.

NASA at one point was planning to abandon the telescope, which is hugely popular among astronomers. But the U.S. space agency relented after a public outcry.

In 2013, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to replace Hubble.

Six farm employees were charged with animal abuse and neglect Wednesday in connection with a video obtained by an animal-rights group that showed workers abusing pigs.

Authorities in rural Greene County northwest of Des Moines began investigating about a month ago after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video of workers at a farm in Bayard hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into the anuses of sows. The farm is owned by MowMar Farms LLP of Fairmont, Minn., and supplies Hormel Foods Corp. of Austin, Minn.

Sheriff Tom Heater said warrants have been issued for the workers, who are facing misdemeanor charges that include livestock abuse, aiding and abetting livestock abuse and livestock neglect. The most serious counts carry a maximum two-year sentence.

According to a news release from Heater’s office, four of the workers no longer work at the plant, while two others are still employed there. Once they are arrested, they will have hearings before a Greene County magistrate.

PETA had sought the prosecution of 18 people on animal cruelty violations.

Heater said some workers shown in the video using electric prods won’t be charged because there is debate on whether the devices are reasonable for use in livestock farming.

Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of PETA’s Cruelty Investigations Department, said the group respects the sheriff’s judgment and trusts that a solid case has been built based on its undercover video.

“Charges against any number of pig factory farmers in the nation’s top pork producing state should deter the industry’s workers from continuing to abuse and neglect these intelligent, playful and sensitive animals,” she said in a statement.

The sheriff said MowMar Farms has been cooperative in the investigation. The company has said it had owned the farm for less than a month before the video came out.

“I think once the charges are out they will proceed with anything they need to do — firings, restructuring, training,” Heater said.

Earlier this week, PETA released additional video allegedly showing the manager of the farm kicking and shocking an injured sow. PETA said it confirmed that the manager still works at the farm through a telephone call to the facility.

MowMar didn’t indicate what might happen to the manager, but has said it has fired other workers that have been documented abusing pigs. It said its investigation is continuing.

“It is important that the investigation is allowed to complete its work to ensure that any termination and/or discipline is justified and the rights of employees are respected,” the company said in a statement this week.

Heater said his department knew nothing about the abuse at the farm until the PETA footage was released last month. Asked what he thought of the video images, Heater said some of the workers’ actions were “uncalled for.”

“I was a farm boy. The deputy investigating is a farm boy. You don’t have to beat animals … you just have to deal with them and wait,” he said.

Archaeologists in China have discovered fossils of a pigeon-sized feathered dinosaur which they believe to be an ancestor of birds.

Its remains were found 90 percent complete, preserved in a slab of rock in Inner Mongolia’s Ningcheng county in northern China, the researchers wrote in an article in Nature.

Its four limbs lacked contour feathers for flight and it probably lived from the Middle to Late Jurassic periods, or 176 to 146 million years ago.

This means it is older than the Archaeopteryx, which lived around 155 to 150 million years ago.

Feathered but flightless, the small creature weighed just 164 grams and had buck teeth resembling that of carnivores.

But scientists have no clue what it ate.

“Insects? Other reptiles or amphibians? Or plants?” Professor Fucheng Zhang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences wrote in reply to a question from Reuters regarding its diet.

Named the Epidexipteryx, it had four long and thin tail feathers and a short tail.

The scientists said it belonged to a different group from the Microraptor, which had flight feathers and which some scientists believe flew sometimes in addition to gliding.

But like the Microraptor — which lived in a later period 130 to 125 million years ago — it gave important evidence about the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs.

“You could say it was a link between dinosaur and birds. It was very close to the ancestor of birds,” Zhang wrote.

“This new fossil adds yet more complexity to the early history of evolution from dinosaurs to birds.”

Astronomers can soon have a much clearer picture of distant galaxies, thanks to a cutting edge technology developed by scientists in Australia.

A team at University of Sydney, led by Brendon Brewer, has developed a computer programme to solve the gravitational lensing or “natural telescope” — one of the major problems of modern astronomy.

“Now, I’ve developed a ‘de-lensing’ programme that still allows the gravitational lens to be used as a natural telescope but without the distortion,” Brewer said.

And, so far the programme has enabled astronomers to sharply focus on the most distant galaxies.

“We’ve recently used the technique to map star-forming regions in an early universe galaxy which also shows clouds of carbon monoxide gas. We’ve also produced some of the sharpest images ever of a lensed galaxy — something that’s a first,” he said.

Astronomers know that for star formation molecular hydrogen is needed, but it is very difficult to see.

First observed by radio telescopes carbon monoxide gas exists under the same conditions as molecular hydrogen and, as it’s easier to detect, can be used as a tracer or proxy to determine the star formation regions.

Using Brewer’s programme, astronomers claim to have located where the molecular hydrogen is and how the different parts are moving in a distant galaxy that also hosts a quasar in its core.

“What Brendon has achieved is significant. This is quite an advance on what is already out there. We were very conscious of designing this programme in the best possible way so as to extract as much information about distant, early universe galaxies as possible,” said co-researcher Geraint Lewis.

Nearly a fourth of widely used new-generation biological drugs for several common diseases produce serious side effects that lead to safety warnings soon after they go on the market, the first major study of its kind found.

Included in the report released Tuesday were the arthritis drugs Humira and Remicade, cancer drugs Rituxan and Erbitux, and the heart failure drug Natrecor. All wound up being flagged for safety.

That might surprise some doctors who may have thought that these new treatments might be safer than traditional chemical-based medicines.

Researchers found that most of the warnings came within five years after these biologicals won government approval in the United States and Europe between 1995 and 2007.

Many traditional medicines wind up with safety warnings too after they go on the market. But experts said there were no similar studies of older medicines that made it possible to compare safety issues between the two groups of drugs.

The new study, by Dutch researchers, is the first comprehensive examination of these newer medicines, a driving part of the biotech revolution.

The drugs are known as biologicals because they’re made from living material and they typically affect the body’s disease-fighting immune system. Many relieve severe symptoms by suppressing that system.

It’s that same mechanism that can result in side effects often not seen with traditional chemical-based medicines, said Dr. Charles Bennett, a Northwestern University drug safety expert. These can include brain and fungal infections and cancer.

Many are genetically engineered and Bennett said that because they typically resemble naturally occurring proteins, many doctors have assumed they were safer than traditional chemical-based medicines. But he said the study shows that’s not necessarily true.

“They have an important role,” Bennett said. “They’re really the next generation of pharmaceuticals.”

He said the results simply show that doctors and patients should be aware that the drugs have many potential side effects that may not be listed on the label.

Among the drugs under examination are Genentech Inc.’s psoriasis drug Raptiva, which just last week the Food and Drug Administration warned may contribute to a life-threatening brain illness and infections; and Exubera, an inhaled insulin product, linked with lung cancer risks. Exubera was approved by the FDA in 2006 but Pfizer Inc. stopped selling it last year.

The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

It involved 136 biologics approved in the United States and 105 in the European Union between January 1995 and June 2007. A total of 41, or nearly 24 percent, got safety warnings issued through June 2008.

The results are a concern, and they underscore the need for closer scrutiny of drugs after their approval, said lead author Thijs Giezen of the University of Utrecht.

But he said the study also is reassuring because most problems showed up relatively soon after the drugs became available, which minimized the potential for widespread harm.

“If most issues are discovered within the first few years, then the system is working,” Giezen said.

Bennett says it’s unreasonable to think that the studied drugs’ safety issues should have been discovered before they were marketed. That’s because drug approval is based on relatively small studies with patients who generally are healthier than those in the general population. It often takes real-world experience for side effects to appear, he said.

Many biological drugs have advantages over conventional medicine, but the study shows their risks need to also be considered, said Thomas Moore of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

For example, non-steroid arthritis medicines including ibuprofen can reduce pain by decreasing inflammation, but they can cause stomach bleeding.

Biologic rheumatoid arthritis medicines Remicade, Enbrel and Humira are designed to ease painful joints by keeping the body’s immune system from attacking itself, the underlying problem in the disease. But they are much more expensive and have been linked with higher risks for potentially fatal infections. Also, the FDA is investigating possible cancer risks.

“My message to patients is that these biological products often can treat very difficult to treat diseases but may have very substantial risks and that you need to take extra care to educate yourself as to what those risks might be,” Moore said.