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Tulsi(Basil Leaves) is considered as a Holy herb in India. It is worshipped as a “Goddess Tulsi” and it is planted in most of the Indian homes. It is kept in every pooja(worship) and for every shubh karya(happy and good occasion)

Basil is a popular herb in Italian cooking, particularly in pesto. This fragrant and flavorful herb, a relative of peppermint, is an excellent, nutritious addition to your pasta sauce, soup, or salad.

An array of flavonoids exist in basil, which help to protect cells and chromosomes from damage. Studies have shown that two of these flavonoids in particular, orientin and vicenin, are useful in protecting cell structures and chromosomes from damage by radiation and oxygen.

Essential oil of basil has been shown to inhibit the growth of several types of bacteria, many of which have become resistant to antibiotics.

Basil is also a good source of vitamin A, which helps to prevent damage to the cells by free radicals. Vitamin A also prevents free radicals from oxidizing cholesterol in the blood stream, preventing the cholesterol from building up in the blood vessels.

Magnesium is also present in basil. This essential mineral helps the heart and blood vessels to relax, improving blood flow. Other nutrients found in basil include iron, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C.

Healing Power: Eugenol, which is found in essential oil of basil, provides an anti-inflammatory effect, by blocking an enzyme called cyclooxygenase. Aspirin and Ibuprofen work by blocking this same enzyme. So, basil can have healing benefits, and provide relief from the symptoms of inflammatory problems, like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel conditions.

Fever & Common Cold: The leaves of basil are specific for many fevers. The juice of tulsi leaves can be used to bring down fever. Extract of tulsi leaves in fresh water should be given every 2 to 3 hours. In between one can keep giving sips of cold water. In children, it is every effective in bringing down the temperature.

Coughs: Tulsi is an important constituent of many Ayurvedic cough syrups and expectorants. It helps to mobilize mucus in bronchitis and asthma. Chewing tulsi leaves relieves cold and flu.

Sore Throat: Water boiled with basil leaves can be taken as drink in case of sore throat. This water can also be used as a gargle.

Respiratory Disorder: The herb is useful in the treatment of respiratory system disorder. A decoction of the leaves, with honey and ginger is an effective remedy for bronchitis, asthma, influenza, cough and cold. A decoction of the leaves, cloves and common salt also gives immediate relief in case of influenza. They should be boiled in half a liter of water till only half the water is left and then taken.

Kidney Stone: Basil has strengthening effect on the kidney. In case of renal stone the juice of basil leaves and honey, if taken regularly for 6 months it will expel them via the urinary tract.

Heart Disorder: Basil has a beneficial effect in cardiac disease and the weakness resulting from them. It reduces the level of blood cholesterol.

Stress: Basil leaves are regarded as an ‘adaptogen’ or anti-stress agent. Recent studies have shown that the leaves afford significant protection against stress. Even healthy persons can chew 12 leaves of basil, twice a day, to prevent stress. It purifies blood and helps prevent several common elements.

Mouth Infections: The leaves are quit effective for the ulcer and infections in the mouth. A few leaves chewed will cure these conditions.

Teeth Disorder: The herb is useful in teeth disorders. Its leaves, dried in the sun and powdered, can be used for brushing teeth. It can also be mixed with mustered oil to make a paste and used as toothpaste. This is very good for maintaining dental health, counteracting bad breath and for massaging the gums. It is also useful in pyorrhea and other teeth disorders.

Stomachache: Basil leaves cure the stomachache. Consuming one spoon each of basil and ginger juice cures cramps and stomachache.

Stomach Worms: Heat the basil and ginger juice and take one spoon for two days at an interval of three hours to cure stomach worms, they are evacuated with stools.

The Aurora Borealis is featured in this photograph taken by an Expedition 13 crew member on the International Space Station on August 19th 2006. The moon is visible at upper right

The Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis from space

While docked and onboard the International Space Station on March 21st 2008, an STS-123 Endeavour crewmember, looking northward across the Gulf of Alaska, captured the glowing green beauty of the Aurora Borealis over the Earth

Shooting stars: Perseids and Leonid meteor showers in pictures

Taken during the early hours of the peak of the 2009 Perseids meteor shower, in Sussex

Apollo 11 Moon landing: violent storm nearly got in the way

When the Apollo 11 space crew reached the moon on July 20 1969, six hundred million viewers tuned in to watch television images beamed from a giant telescope in the middle of rural Australia. But a violent storm nearly brought a broadcast to a halt.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin erecting the US flag at Tranquility Base during the First Lunar walk Photo: NASA

The observatory in Parkes, New South Wales, was asked by Nasa to receive signals from the first men on the moon and beam them to mission control in Houston.

The Parkes satellite dish was the largest in the southern hemisphere at 210ft wide and, in theory, was situated in a sheltered spot.

As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped off the Eagle lunar module and onto the surface of the Moon, the images transmitted from Parkes were clearer than any others, prompting Nasa to ditch the pictures from other satellites.

But the exclusive broadcast from the New South Wales observatory was almost cut off in midstream when a violent storm blew up around the building, threatening to bring the satellite dish crashing to the ground.

“This great storm came through and caught us unawares,” Neil Mason, who operated the telescope during the moon landing, told The Independent.

“It was pretty hair-raising. All the alarms were ringing and the control tower was shuddering and swaying… You just hoped the whole thing wasn’t going to come crashing down on top of you.”

The wind was way above safety limits, but Mr Mason chose to remain at the controls of the 1,000-tonne dish which was tipped to the ground in its most vulnerable position.

Eventually the storm passed and, amazingly, the broadcast was uninterrupted.

David Cooke, the senior receiving engineer on the day of the Moon landing, told The Independent how he went outside and looked up when the broadcast was over.

“The Moon was still in the sky and I thought, gosh, there are people up there and we’ve helped to do that,” he said

Russian spacecraft landed on moon hours before Americans

A previously unheard recording of a Russian spacecraft attempting to beat NASA’s Apollo 11 in 1969′s race to the moon has been released.

The recordings from Jodrell’s Lovell radio telescope, which were hidden in archives until researchers found them, show the Russian craft orbited the Moon and crash-landed onto its surface at 15:50 on July 21 – just a few hours before the Americans lifted Photo: AP

In July 1969, the telescopes at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, in Cheshire, were tracking the Americans’ Eagle Lander carrying astronauts towards the moon’s surface.

Sir Bernard Lovell, the astronomer, was among the team listening to transmissions coming from the area of space and began tracking the unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 15, which was trying to collect samples of lunar soil and rock and then return to Earth before the US mission.

The recordings from Jodrell’s Lovell radio telescope, which were hidden in archives until researchers found them, show the Russian craft orbited the Moon and crash-landed onto its surface at 15:50 on July 21 – just a few hours before the Americans lifted off.

In the newly released recordings, which were made over three days, Sir Bernard, the founder of Jodrell Bank, can be heard narrating events with conversation from the Apollo 11 astronauts in the background.

Sir Bernard notes a change in the orbit of Luna 15 to take it closer to the US landing site and later reports a rumour from a “well-informed source in Moscow” that the craft is about to land.

People in Jodrell’s control room can then be heard shouting “it’s landing” and “it’s going down much too fast” as they track Luna 15′s final moments before it crashes.

A voice is later heard saying: “I say, this has really been drama of the highest order.”

The recordings have been released by The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed two of the most massive stars in our galaxy as never before. Located 7,500 light years away from Earth in the Carina Nebula, these stars are rare ultra-hot, super-bright stars that emit primarily ultraviolet radiation, that gives them a blue hue.

WR25, the brightest of the stars near the center of the image, is actually a large star 50 times the size of our sun with another star half that size orbiting around it. To the upper left of WR25, the third brightest star in this image is really a triple star cluster. Two are so close together that telescopes with less resolution can’t resolve them. The third star may take hundreds of thousands of years to orbit around them.

The second brightest star, to the left in the image, is actually a less massive star that appears bright because it is much closer to earth than the others.

Astronomers, led by Jesus Maiz Apellaniz at the Instituto de Astrofisico De Andalucia in Spain, believe radiation from the two star clusters may be causing a giant gas globule (shown in the image below) in the Carina Nebula to evaporate, inducing new stars to form and giving the globule its strange shape.

Hubble got back up and running in late October with its on-board back-up system after its primary camera malfunctioned. NASA is working to fix a spare system on the ground that could be delivered to the telescope by the space shuttle. A repair mission originally scheduled for October 14, before the breakdown, has been pushed back.