Are you always worried about your skin? Do you always try and figure out ways to protect it from sun burn? Ever wondered why our skin gets tanned? It is because human skin can “see” ultraviolet rays. “As soon as you step out into the sun, your skin knows that it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation,” said senior researcher Elena Oancea, an assistant professor of biology at Brown University. Tanning, or the darkening of skin when exposed to sun, is a protective response. And exactly how does our skin ‘see’? Using a light-sensing pigment which is also found in the eyes, scientists say.

Here is some pure scientific gyaan for you. A protein which kickstarts the response to low levels of oxygen has been identified by scientists. And why is that important? Because this finding may pave the way for research into potentially fatal disorders like cancer, heart attack and stroke. A team at Gladstone Institutes has, in fact, mapped out the chain of events that take place during hypoxia — a condition that can occur in people with maladies such as heart disease and stroke. It deprives tissues and organs of adequate oxygen supply.

A new study has found out that your sedentary lifestyle could raise your risk of developing cancer. So no more lazying in front of the TV or slogging the entire day in office. According to the report published in Daily Mail, researchers have found a strong connection between inactivity and unregulated cell growth. These developments could finally raise a person’s risk of developing breast and colon cancer. According to researchers, 92,000 cases of breast and colon cancer in a year, globally, can be attributed to lack of exercise. People need to get fit and intersperse every hour of sitting with one to two minutes of activity. An assessment of postmenopausal women confirmed that taking brisk daily walks helps to reduce several key biological indicators of cancer risk, including sex hormone levels, insulin resistance, inflammation and body fatness. “The bottom line: For many of the most common cancers, it seems like something as simple as a brisk walk for 30 mins a day can help reduce cancer risk,” lead researcher, Christine Friedenreich of Alberta Health Services Cancer Care in Canada said.

A Japanese supercomputer has broken its own record as the world’s fastest machine by performing 10 quadrillion calculations per second, its developers announced. The “K Computer”, which has more than 88,000 central processing units — the computer’s “brain” — compared with fewer than four in the average desktop, smashed its own record of just over 8 quadrillion calculations during an experiment recently.

A quadrillion, by the way, is a thousand trillion.

What exactly are supercomputers?

• They are 10,000 times faster than ordinary personal computers.
• They are being used by scientists investigating the effects of seismic waves and tsunamis to predict what effect they may have on buildings.