The 3rd IBCEx (International Biotechnology Competition and Exhibition) was successfully conducted on 15th April 2017.
Congratulations BIOSS for organizing such a successful event and see you again next year!
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 12, 2017 is Everglades National Park.
Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades. It is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and is the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone. The park was established in 1934 when canal-building projects in South Florida were threatening the quickly vanishing Everglades, a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing out of Lake Okeechobee into Florida Bay. It was the first national park created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. It is home to 36 threatened or protected species including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, and supports 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. Most of South Florida’s fresh water comes from the Biscayne Aquifer, which is replenished by the Everglades.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 11, 2017 is Margaret Lea Houston.
Margaret Lea Houston (April 11, 1819 – December 3, 1867) was First Lady of the Republic of Texas, First Lady of the state of Texas, and a founding member of Concord Baptist Church in Grand Cane, Texas. She was a poet and an accomplished musician. Her influence on husband Sam Houston persuaded him to give up alcohol and profane language. Margaret gave birth inside the governor’s mansion to the youngest of their eight children, as angry mobs gathered outside in response to her husband’s opposition to Texas signing the Ordinance of Secession of the Civil War. He was removed from office for refusing to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. Their eldest son joined the Confederate army and was left for dead on the battlefield at Shiloh, saved by a Union Army clergyman who found a Bible from Margaret in his pocket. Sam Houston died of illness before the end of the war, as Margaret sat by his bed reading to him from the 23rd Psalm. She became the keeper of his legacy and opened his records to a trusted biographer. When she died of yellow fever, Margaret could not be buried with her husband in a public cemetery for fear of contamination, and was instead interred on private family property.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 10, 2017 is Noel Park.
Noel Park in north London is a planned community designed by Rowland Plumbe in the late 19th century, consisting of 2,200 model dwellings. It was developed in open countryside to the north of London between the historic villages of Highgate and Tottenham by the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company. One of the earliest garden suburbs in the world, it provided affordable housing for working-class families wishing to leave the inner city. Every property had a front and rear garden, and it was close enough to the rail network to allow its residents to commute to work. In line with the principles of the company’s founder, William Austin, it had no pubs, and there are still none today. As a result of London’s rapid expansion during the early 20th century, and particularly after the London Underground was extended to the area in 1932, Noel Park was surrounded by later developments. In 1965, it was incorporated into the newly created London Borough of Haringey. Despite damage during World War II and demolition work during the construction of Wood Green Shopping City in the 1970s, it remains largely architecturally intact.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 9, 2017 is Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France is dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members and other Canadians killed during the First World War. Designed by Walter Seymour Allward, the monument is the centrepiece of a 100-hectare (250-acre) battlefield park, overlapping the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge offensive (9 April 1917) that began the Battle of Arras. In that offensive, all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated as a cohesive battle formation for the first time, and it became a Canadian national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. France ceded the land to Canada for its memorial. Wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds, which are largely closed off for public safety. Preserved trench lines and several other memorials and cemeteries are contained within the park. King Edward VIII unveiled it in July 1936, and Queen Elizabeth II re-dedicated the restored monument on the 90th anniversary of the offensive. The site, one of only two National Historic Sites of Canada outside the country, is maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 6, 2017 is 7th Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
The 7th Army was a Royal Yugoslav Army formation, raised three days before the German-led invasion of Yugoslavia of 6 April 1941, during World War II. On the first day of the invasion, the army’s commander Dušan Trifunović was alarmed when the 4th Army, on the right flank of the 7th, was undercut by fifth column activities by Croats within its major units and higher headquarters. The Germans captured Maribor two days later and expanded their bridgeheads, supported by the Luftwaffe. On 10 April, the German 14th Panzer Division captured Zagreb. Italian offensive operations began the following day, with thrusts towards Ljubljana and down the Adriatic coast, capturing more than 30,000 Yugoslav troops near Delnice. When fifth column supporters of the Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement arrested the headquarters staff of the 7th Army later that day, the formation effectively ceased to exist. On 12 April, the Germans linked up with the Italians near the Adriatic coast, encircling the remnants of the 7th Army, which offered no further resistance. Ceasefires were implemented on 15 April, and the Yugoslav Supreme Command surrendered unconditionally.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 5, 2017 is Shackleton–Rowett Expedition.
The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition (1921–22) was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, with vaguely defined geographic and scientific objectives, was financed by John Quiller Rowett, and is otherwise known as the Quest Expedition after its ship Quest, a converted Norwegian sealer. Shackleton had originally intended to go to the Arctic and explore the Beaufort Sea, but abandoned this plan when the Canadian government withheld financial support. Shortly after Quest’s arrival at South Georgia, Shackleton died of a heart attack, aged 47. The expedition continued under the leadership of Frank Wild, with a three-month cruise to the eastern Antarctic, but the shortcomings of Quest as a polar vessel kept it from proceeding further than longitude 20°E, or from penetrating southward through the pack ice. After returning to South Georgia, Wild hoped for a second, more productive season in the ice, and took the ship to Cape Town for a refit, where he found a message from Rowett ordering them home. The expedition ended quietly, with limited achievements.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 4, 2017 is The Heart of a Woman.
The Heart of a Woman (1981) is the fourth of seven autobiographies by American writer Maya Angelou (pictured). She recounts events in her life between 1957 and 1962, as she travels to California, New York, Cairo and Ghana, and raises her teenage son. She becomes a published author active in the US civil rights movement, and is romantically involved with a South African freedom fighter. The book explores Angelou’s theme of motherhood, and ends as she looks forward to newfound independence and freedom when her son leaves for college. Although most critics consider Angelou’s first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings more favorably, The Heart of a Woman has received positive reviews and was chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 1997. The title is taken from a poem by Harlem Renaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. “Faithful to the ongoing themes of survival, sense of self, and continuing education,” according to critic Lyman B. Hagen, “The Heart of a Woman moves its central figures to a point of full personhood”.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 3, 2017 is Camas pocket gopher.
The camas pocket gopher (Thomomys bulbivorus) is a rodent native to the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon in the United States. The herbivorous mammal collects its food in large, fur-lined, external cheek pouches, then hoards any surplus in underground tunnels. The coat, dull brown to lead gray, changes color and texture over the year. The gophers’ large, protuberant incisors are well adapted for use in tunnel construction, particularly in the hard clay soils of the Willamette Valley. They make chattering sounds with their teeth; males and females make purring (or crooning) sounds when they are together, and the young make twittering sounds. Born toothless, blind and hairless, the young grow rapidly before being weaned at about six weeks of age. The species is prey for raptors and carnivorous mammals, and host to several parasitic arthropods and worms. While population trends are generally stable, threats to the species’ survival include urbanization, habitat conversion for agricultural use and active attempts at eradication with trapping and poisons. Fiercely defensive when cornered, the gopher may become tame in captivity.
The Wikipedia article of the day for April 2, 2017 is Courtney Love.
Courtney Love (born 1964) is an American singer and actress. Combining uninhibited live performances with confrontational lyrics, she was prolific in the punk and grunge scenes of the 1990s as the frontwoman of the alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989. She was married to Kurt Cobain, frontman for Nirvana, until his suicide in 1994. Hole’s second release, Live Through This (1994), achieved critical accolades and multi-platinum sales. In 1995, Love returned to acting, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Hole’s third album, Celebrity Skin (1998), was nominated for multiple Grammy Awards. After roles in the big-budget pictures Man on the Moon (1999) and Trapped (2002), she released her first solo album, America’s Sweetheart (2004). She was sentenced to a rehabilitation facility in 2005 on drug charges. She returned to the music industry with Nobody’s Daughter (2010), a Hole album, but without any members of the original lineup. In 2014 and 2015, she released two solo singles and returned to acting in the network series Empire and Sons of Anarchy.
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