Pooja Kashyap | TechieTonics

Microfluidic Device for self-monitoring of Intraocular Pressure: New Eye Sensor

August 25, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

In order to measure the intraocular pressure, eye surgeons use puff test, however, the non-contact tonometer does not always give accurate results, and this has always remain a major huddle in solving the real problem. Now, the time is not far when the eye doctors would be able to gauge the problem in real time and giving effective treatment for blindness-causing glaucoma. Researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel and from Stanford University, US have developed an innovative lens- mounted microfluidic sensor.

10 Autotech Bane or Boon Innovations: Living Next to Supertech Cars

August 22, 2014August 29, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Owning and driving a super tech car is what all autotech aficionados aspire for. Keeping in mind the tremendous development in the automobile technology, the driving experience has transformed significantly. But the question is that whether this development is towards a betterment or is there something else hidden beneath the thrill. In an attempt to answer this, we have compiled a list of ten such tech developments that we need to think whether they are bane or boon, so here we go,

Surely you’re joking, Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman

August 17, 2014February 16, 2021 Pooja Kashyap

Ninety percent of the book talks about mathematics and physics but that is what Mr. Feynman, the top-notch scientist was famous for. The li’l tit-bits of his life are beautifully crafted along with his sense of humor. His love and attitude towards life was quite contagious especially to those who crossed the paths all through his life. The book will make anybody laugh and would have wished, like me, to meet such persona once a lifetime. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman acknowledges the fact that Richard Feynman was known to…

Book Review: Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr Brian Weiss

August 15, 2014October 15, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

The book is quite a fascinating read, it got me hooked from the beginning till the end. It talks about reincarnation, the theme was depicted in Cloud Atlas as well but the concept of ‘debt’ is quite an innovation. The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture is also known for the same concept. The book, Many Lives, Many Masters talks about 12 past lives of the 86 total lives. It is interesting to see how a skeptic research scholar is drawn towards spirituality and instead of focusing on giving more…

Exerting Control on Floating Object: Water Tractor Beam

August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

With the use of simple wave generators, experts at the Australian National University, Canberra have demonstrated the idea of manipulating floating object in water. The same approach has also helped them in moving the object against the course of the waves. In order to display the phenomenon, the team placed a ping-pong ball in a tank containing water. Then three-dimensional waves were produced which in turn created patterns on the water surface and consequently, the ball stayed in one position or move towards or receded away from the wave generator…

Efficient LCD Designs with Super-Fast Pixels: Sequential Display

August 11, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Generally, display is the only feature that eats up nearly 45 to 70 percent of the total energy in portable electronics. In order to combat this issue, Light Polymers, South San Francisco based startup have come up with a new type of liquid crystal display (LCD) called the sequential display, it has an ability to switch quickly relatively hence giving brighter screens to smartphones and lasting them longer on charge.

Book Review: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

August 9, 2014May 30, 2024 Pooja Kashyap

Selfish Gene is quite a fascinating book and I liked the way Richard Dawkins introduced the metaphors and analogies. Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and author. Most importantly he is a science educator. And one of the finest science writers so far. The book, Selfish Gene happens to be my first read from Dawkins works. In this he advocates gene as the principal unit of selection in evolution. Right from the starting, this book got me hooked. All his logics seem to fall at the right places. The…

Graphene Sheet morphs into Droplets: A Serendipitous Discovery

August 8, 2014August 8, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Graphene does not stop surprising researchers with its limitations when it comes to application in fields like electronics, energy storage and energy generation. The list does not end here, now the wonder material looks promising in domain of medical sciences as well. During routine tests, Monash University’s researchers discovered that sheets of graphene oxide morph into liquid crystal droplets on its own accord. With its new avatar, the graphene droplets have find a promising place in delivery of drugs and disease detection, claimed the researchers.

Reconstructing Audio from Infinitesimal Vibrations: Algorithm recovers Sounds from Objects

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

In an extraordinary way of recovering speech from vibrations of things like potted plant and potato chips bag, researchers at MIT, Microsoft and Adobe have created an algo that can decipher audio signal by analyzing the object’s infinitesimal vibrations. Upon performing experiment on detecting vibrations of a potato-chip bag, the researchers were able to reach a good precision with respect to speech. The bag was being photographed by a high quality camera with a distance of 15 feet installed in a soundproof glass-room.

Hellacious Lava Fountains on Jupiter’s Moon Io: Curtains of Fire

August 5, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Within a two-week period Io, Jupiter’s moon, experienced two massive outbursts in August 2013. Astronomers speculated that these volcanic eruptions could be regular phenomenon that can spew materials in huge quantities above the surface. If we talk about ratio, it could be somewhere from one huge outburst per one or two years but Io suggested more than this. Io is the innermost moon out of the planet’s four large Galilean moons. It is more than 3,600 km across. It is the only space body that is known so far, by…

Japan to create Space Force to Monitor Debris: The Fourth Battlefield

August 4, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Space debris are affecting our vital services and if it continuous to do so then time is not far when we would no longer be able to communicate, the financial markets would be paralyzed, no TV, no internet, no phone calls, no satellites, life would come to a halt, literally! Satellite collisions would initiate the catastrophic snow balling effect amplifying the cascade of destruction. The movie Gravity did call for some serious thinking about the impacts that debris can cause. Although the movie had some serious flaws but that is…

Glucose Sensor in Brain Discovered: Controlling Blood-Sugar Level

August 4, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Experts at Yale School of Medicine have identified a control switch of glucose within brain that has a direct linkage with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Ventromedial nucleus (VMN, or ventromedial hypothalamus, VMH) is a nucleus of the hypothalamus that contains an enzyme called the prolyl endopeptidase. This enzyme initiates a chain of steps that assist in controlling the levels of glucose in blood stream. Researchers envision that this finding would help them in leading towards new treatments for diabetes.

New Spray-on Solar Cells: Thin-film Photovoltaic Technology

August 3, 2014August 4, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

In an interesting way, a group of researchers at the University of Sheffield was able to develop perovskite solar cells with the help of spray-painting process. Although the process is not new but using perovskite as a spraying material is being employed for the first time. Sheffield’s experts from the department of Physics and Biological Engineering have already used the spray-painting process to fabricate solar cells but the material used was organic semiconductors. In 2012, the researchers were able to successfully demonstrate the efficiency of photovoltaics based on organometal halide…

Earlier Asteroid Impacts led to the formation of Earth’s Crust: Geological Evolution

August 2, 2014August 3, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Last year we talked about how meteor impact led to pastoral revolution and now recent research on Earth’s surface revealed that the planet was in a constant reprocessing process due to the huge asteroid impacts. The new approach utilizing the terrestrial bombardment model based on lunar and terrestrial data disclosed that asteroid collisions where the game changer which caused evolution of the topmost layers of Earth during its initial stages, which happened around 4.5b years ago. Yvonne Pendleton, NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Director added that repeated…

Color changing Ice Cream: Fruit-flavoured treat invented by a Physicist

August 1, 2014July 31, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

In an interested way in doing something unconventional, a Spanish physicist pioneered in preparing magical ice cream that changes color as it is tasted in a cone. Wanting to do something different from the usual research work, the engineer, professor and physicist Manuel Linares thought of doing something in the line of cookery. His love for ice cream and fascination towards the phenomenon, which causes its change in color under fluorescent lights, compelled him to create an ice cream that varies in color as per the temperature and acids found…