Most kangaroos are left-handed: study

Kangaroos tend to be lefties, according to a study Thursday that sheds new light on the capacity for mammals, particularly those that walk upright, to prefer one paw over the other.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Lead researcher Yegor Malashichev of Saint Petersburg State University in Russia studied kangaroos for the first time, after previously focusing on handedness in jumping frogs, walking frogs and gray short-tailed opossums.

Wild kangaroos in Australia and Tasmania showed "a natural preference for their left hands when performing particular actions -- grooming the nose, picking a leaf, or bending a tree branch, for example," said the study.

"Left-handedness was particularly apparent in eastern grey and red kangaroos."

When it came to red-necked wallabies, they appeared to favor their left hand for some tasks -- like those involving fine motor skills -- and their right for others that used more physical strength. (ika)

5 tips for budding female entrepreneurs online

5 tips for budding female entrepreneurs online

Women in Indonesia are capitalizing on social media outlets, online forums, chat apps and sales and marketing channels for their small businesses, be it selling homemade cookies or vintage, branded bags.

“Conditions in Indonesia are really supportive of entrepreneurs because they don’t have to obtain many permits,” said Female Daily Network co-founder and CEO Hanifa Ambadar.

The Female Daily Network runs a group of female-oriented websites, such as femaledaily.com, in which women can share information through various forums. Femaledaily.com also offers online shopping.

However, the ease of setting up an online business means that many women take the plunge without having a good grasp of business basics.

Therefore, the Female Daily Network, in collaboration with life insurer Finansial Wiramitra Danadyaksa (FWD), recently gathered online female entrepreneurs together to share basic know-how in running their businesses, including those online.

The danger of absent targets

Hanifa pointed out that many women who started online businesses did so on a whim. As a result, many of them do not have business targets.

“Entrepreneurs must at least have a sales target for the next month and likewise set a revenue stream goal,” she said.

FWD chief marketing officer Benjamin Handradjasa added that targets helped gauge whether businesses were in good health.

“Profit and loss can only be calculated if there are sales targets to compare actual sales with,” he said.

“People view accounting as mundane and complicated because it involves calculating profit and loss, when in fact cash flow is essential to doing business,” he said.

Getting business basics right

The Internet should not only be used as a sales and marketing channel, but also as a tool to sharpen business skills.

Hanifa said female entrepreneurs should look for articles on business know-how. Entrepreneurs could also join online communities that swapped information on business skills.

“Entrepreneurs can post questions that will help them learn about profit and loss,” she said

FWD’s Benjamin suggested that entrepreneurs research business management tools.

“The market is the customer that the product is targeted at. Meanwhile, value propositions are elements such as customer relationships that will drive repeat purchases,” he said.

He added that on the internal operations side, entrepreneurs needed to figure out the sources of their raw materials and marketing budgets.

Separate the accounts

Hanifa also mentioned the importance of keeping separate accounts. Since many online businesses were impromptu, starting capital came from entrepreneurs’ own pockets and as their businesses developed, entrepreneurs would often pump in more money from personal or families’ savings.

“However, it’s best that entrepreneurs keep business and personal accounts separated,” she said.

Keeping them separated mitigated the risk of draining personal bank accounts if the venture failed. Separate bank accounts also eased the splitting of profits between partners.

“We know that capital is raised through various means, sometimes by having a friend inject capital as an active or silent partner,” she said.

Respect yourself, pay yourself

Online entrepreneurs commonly find themselves taking on a wide range of roles, from sales to customer service, and many forget to pay themselves a salary.

“An entrepreneur must reward her own efforts,” Hanifa said.

She added that receiving a salary would say to the entrepreneur that she was running her business professionally.

“Setting aside a salary will also help prevent an entrepreneur from feeling tired, or from feeling that she has been working hard for the past six months for nothing,” she added.

Reach out to local residents

Female entrepreneurs with children have the additional challenge of keeping an eye on child care and the development of their businesses. Female entrepreneurs in Indonesia have an edge in juggling both responsibilities.

Hanifa added that Indonesian women were in luck as they had help in managing the household.

“The social support system for mothers is highly supportive for those wanting to do business,” she pointed out.

Besides having babysitters and house assistants to help keep an eye on the children, women also have extended family members to call upon.

“A good number of women live close to their in-laws, with whom they can leave their children when necessary,” she said.

Google joins effort to boost genomics research

Google announced Wednesday it was teaming up with university scientists to use its computing platform to accelerate efforts in genomics research.

The US tech giant said it was joining with the Broad Institute of biomedical and genomic research, a project of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Large-scale genomic information is accelerating scientific progress in cancer, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, and many other diseases," said Eric Lander, director of Broad Institute.

"Storing, analyzing, and managing these data is becoming a critical challenge for biomedical researchers. We are excited to work with Google's talented and experienced engineers to develop ways to empower researchers around the world by making it easier to access and use genomic information."

In the first step, the research center's Genome Analysis Toolkit will be made available on Google's cloud platform "to enable any genomic researcher to upload, store, and analyze data," according to a joint statement.

Google created its own genomics database two years ago to help the scientific community access it.

The new collaboration "will work together to explore how to build new tools and find new insights to propel biomedical research, using deep bioinformatics expertise, powerful analytics, and massive computing infrastructure," Google said in a blog post. (iik)(++++)

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Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum Celebrating the biodiversity

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum Celebrating the biodiversity 

A new museum just opened in Singapore — unique among its kind and the biggest in the region.

The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM) is a permanent exhibition and an important educational institution that houses the world’s largest collection of specimens from Southeast Asia as well as significant fossils that illustrate the evolution of life on Earth such as three 150-million-year-old dinosaurs.

With over 500,000 catalogued and stored specimens, a minimalist design and an innovative use of light and sound, this permanent exhibition takes visitors through the history of biodiversity and of scientific research in Southeast Asia.

This valuable depositary of the region’s natural heritage consolidates Southeast Asia’s position in scientific research and offers opportunities to scientists and students worldwide.

Located within the campus of the National University of Singapore (NUS), the gallery covers an area of 2,500 square meters and completes the cultural hub of Alice Lee Plaza, which connects art, science and music in the same area of the university.

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, a writer and curator who worked on the museum’s Heritage Gallery, explained that Singapore has long been a center for study of the natural world in Southeast Asia.

In fact, she said, the systematic study of the biodiversity of Southeast Asia began in the mid-19th century with European naturalists such as Alfred Russel Wallace, who classified specimens collected in the region according to Linnaean taxonomy.

“Singapore was the transit point to less accessible places such as the dense rain forests of Borneo and what were known as the Spice Islands [now the Maluku Islands]. Many naturalists and explorers traveled through Singapore and shipped their specimens from Singapore to European museum and private collections.” she said.

The museum’s natural history collection began in that period as part of the Raffles Museum; it later moved to NUS and became the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), which gradually gained international recognition as one of the world’s most advanced marine research centers. 

Over the years, scientists’ intense fieldwork and generous donations have contributed to increase the collection exponentially and, as officially stated by the museum’s website and by NUS publications, the new LCKNHM was named after the founder of the Lee Foundation, the support of which has helped to implement this project, which cost around US$46 million.

“The current museum houses the largest collection of Southeast Asian specimens in the world and the oldest in Southeast Asia and represents Southeast Asia’s growth in terms of cultural appropriation of contents and means.” Laura Miotto, design director of gsmprjct, said. 

“Unlike traditional natural history museums, the LKCNHM does not bring visitors to exotic lands, but it offers a comprehensive look over the region’s natural wonders. In fact, it is very site-specific.”

The gsmprjct team worked in close collaboration with the museum’s curators and conservators, whose magic hands have revitalized and brought to visitors’ appreciation over 2,000 specimens; rock fossils, microscopic organisms, plants, fungi, mollusks, arthropods, cnidarian and echinoderms, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

“The collection is displayed combining a modern scientific approach to the study of biodiversity with a fresh look over interactions among living organisms and environmental issues faced by the region. Through this approach, Singapore establishes itself as the guardian of Southeast Asian natural heritage and as a well of resources for the advancement of scientific research.” explained Maude Desjardins, a museologist who developed the contents of the gallery.

Gsmprjct, the same firm that completed the galleries of the National Museum of Singapore in 2006, conceived the narrative and developed the exhibition design of the galleries at LKCNHM. 

For this project, the team opted to arrange the rich collection following a stylish and user-friendly approach. 

“The overall concept reflects the idea that Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hot spot and that Singapore provides the ideal position to observe and research it.” Laura Miotto pointed out. 

“The story of the biodiversity gallery focuses on the importance of contemporary knowledge and offers insights on the Tree of Life, with the aim to develop appreciation and respect towards our living environment.” 

Miotto gave a tour around the exhibition, where the space suggests an interpretative but open itinerary that allows visitors to explore the museum in different ways. 

At the Biodiversity Gallery, visitors immediately embark on a kaleidoscopic adventure into the diversity of living forms.

The collection showcased in the Biodiversity Gallery on the ground floor is the entry point to the realm of living things; the minimalist design facilitates the introduction to taxonomy, the scientific classification of life and to amazing living strategies and cultural beliefs related to living things.

From birds’ courtship behavior to regional recipes featuring insects, visitors can contemplate the intricacy of living forms while learning about the surrounding environment and listening to the pulsing sounds of nature.

In this open space, four thematic zones highlight fundamental landmarks in the evolution of life on Earth and important natural cycles in rain forests and coral reefs.

Volcanic ash, sarong patterns inspire award-winning inventions 

They are bright high school students with ideas about solving problems in their communities. Little did they know that their local-based innovations would take them to a global science fair.

Three teams of Indonesian high school students won awards and recognition at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US early May, which was participated in by 1,700 young scientists from 75 countries.

One of the team was Luca Cada Lora and Galih Ramadhan from SMA 1 high school in Surakarta, Central Java. They won fourth place for their research on a volcanic ash-based heavy metal absorbent called packed VolcASH.

Their inspiration came from the ash plumes ejected by Mount Kelud in East Java, which drifted more than 100 kilometers to their neighborhood area.

“At first, we noticed that the wastewater in the ditch looked clearer than before. It turns out that there was a sediment of volcanic ash in the ditch. From that, we had the hypothesis that volcanic ash could be used as water purifying material,” Galih said.

The pair started research in their humble school laboratory with a Rp 2 million (US$151.51) grant from the school.

“Before we were able to complete it, the grant ran out. Thankfully, seven donors were willing to back the research, which in total cost Rp 5.7 million,” said Luca, whose father works in a factory in Cikarang, West Java.

The specially designed canister of volcanic ash they developed was able to absorb heavy metals from the synthetic dyes used by many batik-makers in Laweyan. According to Luca, many batik-makers have stopped using natural dyes.

“The city has an integrated water treatment facility. Each batik firm must pay a monthly fee for it. But unfortunately, some irresponsible batik-makers chose to dispose of the wastewater in the nearby river,” Galih said.

Luca hoped that their innovation would help reduce pollution in the river and become a low-cost alternative for batik firms to treat their waste. Moreover, VolcASH’s main material, volcanic ash, can be easily found in Indonesia, home to 130 active volcanoes.

Initially, Luca and Galih submitted their research to the 2014 Youth Science Competition held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and won gold medals in the natural science category. Later, Intel Indonesia chose them to represent Indonesia, along with five other teams, at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair from May 10 to 15 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ofsted purges 1,200 'not good enough' inspectors

The move by England's education inspectorate is part of its plan to improve quality and consistency, and bring inspections in-house.

Ofsted had been using about 3,000 additional inspectors, contracted through inspection service providers.

Teachers have long complained about inspection quality, but Ofsted insists it does not mean it is substandard.

Speaking to the Times Educational Supplement, Sir Robin Bosher, Ofsted's head of quality and training, said the organisation wanted to have high quality inspectors.

'Not up to the job'

He said: "I am committed to making sure that my colleagues in headship can be assured they have a good inspector walking up the path. I'm determined that will happen."

But National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Russell Hobby said: "You look back and say, for the last few years we've been inspected by a group where 40% weren't up to the job.

"If Sir Michael Wilshaw had done this from the start, we would have avoided everything that has followed.

"If people could say, 'It's tough but fair,' then fine, but it was tough and unfair and tackling that should have been a priority."

Sir Michael announced last year that Ofsted would no longer use such "additional inspectors". These are inspectors employed by one of three private firms which are contracted to supply inspection services to Ofsted.

There have been numerous complaints that many of these inspectors did not have the relevant teaching or leadership experience.

Ofsted said of the 3,000 additional inspectors it was using, 2,800 had expressed an interest in becoming in-house Ofsted inspectors.

'Behind the curve'

This number was then whittled down to 1,600 through a "robust assessment" process.

Sir Robin, who has overseen the process, said one of the key reasons for rejecting so many inspectors was that they lacked skill in writing reports.

An Ofsted spokesman said the inspectorate was taking the opportunity of making improvements to its workforce because contracts with its services providers were coming to an end. The new directly employed inspectors would be in post by September 2015.

He added: "We stand by the inspections that we have done in the last few years.

"The teaching profession is always being asked to improve and reform, and Ofsted is no different.

"We see an opportunity to improve our services and we are going to take it."

He added that this move should not be seen as an admission that its inspections were substandard.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: "It is unacceptable that these inspectors have been judging school quality - and coming to conclusions which, too often, lack validity or reliability.

"Ofsted is consistently behind the curve - tinkering with an inspection system which is no longer fit for purpose. As the CBI today argues, we need radical reform of inspection to enable the development of innovation and creativity in our schools."

Progress for Chinese Universities in QS University Rankings: Asia 2015

Progress for Chinese Universities in QS University Rankings: Asia 2015

The QS University Rankings: Asia 2015, released today, reveals strong progress for leadinguniversities in China. The nation accounts for a quarter of Asia’s top 100 universities, and of these 25 leading Chinese universities, 16 have this year improved their positions in the ranking.

These gains have largely been driven by improvements in research productivity, reflecting sustained high levels of public and private investment, though this has yet to fully translate into comparably high levels of research impact, assessed by calculating citations per paper.

China’s highest-ranked institution, Peking University, climbs one place this year to reach 7th place. It’s closely followed by Tsinghua University, which has gained three positions to rank 11th.

Meanwhile the National University of Singapore (NUS) retains the overall top spot in the ranking, with fellow Singapore institution Nanyang Technological University (NTU) climbing from 7th to 4th. Hong Kong and South Korea also retain a strong presence among Asia’s higher education elite, claiming the remaining top-10 positions.

Published annually since 2009, the QS University Rankings: Asia highlights the top 300 universities in Asia, based on a methodology designed to reflect regional challenges and priorities. After China, which has 74 entries overall, Japan remains the most-represented country in the ranking, with 68 Japanese institutions featured. Next is South Korea, taking 45 places, followed by Taiwan (28), Malaysia (21) and India (17). 

The other Asian countries featured in the top 300 are: Thailand (11 universities), Pakistan (10), Hong Kong (7), Indonesia (7), Philippines (4), Singapore, Vietnam and Bangladesh (2), Sri Lanka, Brunei and Macau (1).

For expert commentary on the QS University Rankings: Asia 2015, the supplementary report is available to read online. Join the conversation on Twitter with #QSWUR.