Year: 2014

Electric Eel can remotely Control its Prey: Hijacking Neural Pathways

Pooja Kashyap

Recent research has surfaced eels’ ability of using shock waves to incapacitate as well as manipulate prey. The predators either discharge a single zap or produce high torrents of voltage causing fish to experience massive involuntary muscle spasms. In some cases, the shocking tactics is used by the eels to generate minor muscle twitches in prey only to get acquaint with their location, the working is similar to that of a sonar. Muscle powered biological batteries is what keeps these eels an edge of discharging nearly 600 volts. This is…

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10 Images Captured by Orion: A View from Space at 32,000 kmph and 4,000°F

Pooja Kashyap

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) finally made its successful re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere after a dramatic test flight that hovered around the Earth twice in nearly 4.5 hours. The spacecraft made a fiery re-entry with 32,000 km/h enduring temperature of 4,000°F. This happens to be one of the fastest NASA capsule missions after the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.

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Impression of Human Brain discovered on Mars: Athabasca Region of the Red Planet

Pooja Kashyap

Recent image received by NASA clarifies the fact that once the Martian surface was saturated by volcanoes. The image has a semblance of a human brain (pictured above) and it stretches over a distance of approximately 1.2 miles. The agency has called it the ‘circular island’ since it appears to be an island encircled by smoothly flowing magma.

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Affordable Artificial Leaf to produce Clean Hydrogen Fuel: Nanowire Mesh for Direct Solar Water Splitting

Neha Shukla

Today nations across the world are trying to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative energy sources are being tried and tested to replace non-renewable fuel sources and in this race, hydrogen fuel also known as zero emission fuel, definitely seems to have a promising future. Many automobile companies are doing R & D to come up with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the auto market. Unfortunately, availability of naturally occurring pure hydrogen on Earth is very limited and therefore, production of hydrogen gas requires tremendous energy. To overcome this…

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Aircraft with Panoramic Pods: Passengers to share Pilot’s Eye View

Pooja Kashyap

Ever wondered how it would feel to sit in a cockpit while the plane is gliding through the clouds high above. Especially, imagining a view that only pilot’s are privileged to see is one of my most cherished dreams. I have always given a thought over it even when am not within a plane. Watching a plane from below have always struck me with the idea as of how would it feel for the person(s) who are steering the huge machine above.

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World’s First Rope-Free Maglev Elevator System: The Z-Axis Travel

Pooja Kashyap

In an effort to reduce or make walking time obsolete, elevators are going to have an overall overhauling. Based on the technology of magnetic levitation, the revamped elevators would then be able to go sideways as well. By 2016, ThyssenKrupp AG, a German multinational conglomerate corporation is coming up with the two-axis travel that will usher the era of Maglev elevators within an intra-building infrastructure.

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Electricity producing Trees: Plastic Leaves to Create Power

Neha Shukla

Very soon, we might witness our streets and garden lined up with electricity producing trees. Unbelievable but true. Couple of French engineers have designed an artificial tree that uses wind energy to produce electricity. The electricity producing, Wind Tree will be available in the market by 2015. Founder of start-up Parisian, Jerome Michaud-Lariviere says that he came up with the idea of wind tree when he saw leaves quivering in the absence of air currents, which means energy is coming from somewhere and it possible can be morphed into watts. 

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Pepper selling Espresso Machines in Japan: Humanoid to collect Customers’ Opinions

Pooja Kashyap

George Clooney, the brand ambassador of Nespresso has a stiff competition now, I say stiff because the new face is cute, chatty & cuddly and it happens to be an android. Pepper is the name of the droid that Nestle has lately launched. It’s not just a single robot but a fleet to bots taking the Japanese stores. The four feet tall bot has a cute human like face mounted on top of a plastic body. The interface in tablet form is located at the chest of the machine while…

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Deception Point by Dan Brown and Narration by Richard Poe

Pooja Kashyap

Dan Brown knows how to glue readers to his book. His every book is full of surprises with unexpected outcomes and Deception Point is no exception. His description is often marked with vividness, which makes the readers see events than read things. And if the book happens to be an audio version well, then it’s a super awesome combination. Thanks to reado.com for giving me an opportunity to hear a book from one of my favorite authors across the genre of science fiction.

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Human Waste to morph into Rocket Fuel: Methane powered Spacecrafts

Neha Shukla

A research team from the University of Florida has found a way to transform human waste into something as useful as a rocket fuel. Until now the waste produced during space missions were stored which was later burnt while entering Earth’s atmosphere, when the space cargo vehicle loaded with waste returns. However, between 2019 and 2024, NASA plans to build an operating base on moon for initiating future long-term space missions that would require a way to cut down the weight of spacecraft leaving Earth. Clearly, neither dumping waste on…

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Toxin Genes jumped from Bacteria into Animals: Defense Mechanism via Gene Transfer

Neha Shukla

Bacteria are the first organisms known to exist in the history of life on the planet Earth. Taken the time period into consideration, these micro-organisms have had surplus at their disposal hence, we can say that they have the ‘edge’ of thriving even on the bare minimum life supporting elements. This unique ability of bacteria has made one of the major reasons for researchers to study more about them. Harsh environment signifies very less or no availability of nutrients, consequent upon which the microorganisms require fighting for their survival. So what…

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Suneris VetiGel: Superfast Bioresorbable Clotting Agent

Neha Shukla

The first and the foremost step in treating any kind of injury is to cease blood loss. Though our body has its own mechanism to stop blood loss through formation of blood clots. But during severe injuries, our body struggle to stop blood loss and excessive blood loss is life threatening. Therefore, scientists are researching to find new ways to minimize blood loss during injuries. 

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