Pooja Kashyap | TechieTonics

Will Nanofabrication Recall 3D TV Without Glasses?

February 17, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Jayan Thomas, an assistant professor at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center is at the verge of showing a red flag to the conventional 3D television, where one needs to wear the glasses to have a feel of 3D effect. The researcher has already received a grant of US $400 000 to work towards fabricating the materials that would be able to create a 3D image. As per him, he wants to create a TV, which would be something like table, and the images will resonate on top of it and people…

Graphene Morphs From Hydrophobic To Hydrophilic

February 14, 2014August 7, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Graphene is taking the role of Zeus in the fraternity of materials. Its astounding properties come to the fore every time researchers try to do something new with it. Interestingly this time, the material has shown its ‘romantic inclination’ towards water. Its hydrophobic nature allows graphene to repel water however, narrow capillaries fabricated from the material reverses the nature of the same material, turning it into hydrophilic. Rapid permeation occurs when the layer of water molecule is of same dimension as that of graphene itself, that is, one atomic thickness.

Satellite Servicing: Refueling Missions versus Resurrecting Satellites

February 14, 2014February 14, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Satellites do not know concepts like repairing or re-fueling. Once they are put into orbit, they last until the task is completed and then de-orbit. In case of malfunctioning, they are just forgotten about and are left to contribute to space junk. So what exactly would robots in manned cosmonautics do, although researchers envision that the bots would help in repairs and maintenance at the ISS along with other things including minimize human work. Interestingly, DARPA is trying to resurrect the ‘dead’ satellites by imparting the required skills to its…

Researchers Map Out Ganymede’s Grooved Terrain: Jupiter’s Largest Moon

February 13, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

After several years of consistent hard work, researchers from Brown University were able to complete the first global gelological map of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, which is also largest in the solar system. Geologists envision that the map might assist in future exploration since they expects habitable environment upon Ganymede. The moon’s terrain and the possibility of underground waters have made it a subject of curiosity and investigation by the researchers. Voyager and Galileo spacecraft were used to take images for constructing the map. In 1979, Voyager made its first…

Native Apps versus HTML5 Based Apps: The War Goes On

February 12, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

It’s been a decade now, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working towards converging on standards of coding as per which, single chunk of code is to be displayed across connected devices be it app or webpage. Amongst others, automotive industry is looking forward to the new coding standards, called the HTML5. With this, they envision reduction in the cost and at the same time, opening up of new apps for a connected vehicle. Complete specifications of HTML5 was published in Dec 2012, however, the actual set of standards…

How To: Improve PC Performance For Win OS

February 11, 2014April 6, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Lately, I have noticed that my machine with Win OS is running slow. Though this is not a general problem but happened recently so I worked along the following strategies. It helped me improving my machine’s overall performance. I hope the following eleven steps might serve you well too in case any of you are facing the same issues. 1. Disk space: At least 15% of the storage space must be kept free as it helps in efficient running of the machine. How this can be done? Go to My…

Robots Capitalizing On The Efficiency Of Nature: Biomimicry

February 11, 2014February 21, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Tentacles of biomimicry have entered into the technology realm as well and hence we are witnessing robots derived from the workings of mother nature. Researchers are working towards developing designs that might bestow the animal capabilities to machines. Cats Inspired E-Whiskers Electronic whiskers are one such offshoot created by the researchers at the Berkeley Lab. They fabricated this design using carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles. With this it seems after eclipsing the Silicon, the CNTs would now make its presence felt among robotics as well. These artificial whiskers are made…

Graphene Sandwich Results In Higher Resolution Images Of Biomolecules

February 10, 2014August 7, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Biomolecule when sandwiched between sheets of graphene results in a high resolution of atomic level images of the molecule, a rare research put forth by the researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The molecule called ferritin, an iron-storage protein, was imaged in the research. Prior to this method, imaging of any Biomolecule was taken of course with an electron microscope along with a liquid stage container that is placed between thick windows of silicon nitrate to protect the sample from vacuum. Graphene’s superior transparency becomes instrumental in providing an…

New Laser Printed Bone Like Material To Be Both Light And Strong

February 4, 2014February 4, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Humans are curious by nature and this curiosity has led them to morph from Stone Age to Bronze Era. As the centuries progressed, humans too evolved intellectually and hence quenched their thirst for more by reaching solutions technologically. As we can see in the current century, technology is touching its zenith researchers are busy manipulating substances at atomic level so that human race can witness totally new and evolutionary materials. Until now, it was difficult to find or to create bone like material artificially but a team of researchers headed…

High Haze Paper Might Replace The Plastic Substrates Of Solar Cells

January 24, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Paper coming from wood fibers would now be replacing plastic substrates that are employed in the manufacturing solar cells. Researchers from University of Maryland, the South China University of Technology, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have proposed this evolutionary step towards future technology. As per the researchers, solar cells gives maximum output when the materials involve have high optical transparency and high optical haze. Diffusion of light is of high quality when the optical transparency is high. And high optical haze helps in increasing the scattering of light which further…

The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

January 7, 2014February 16, 2021 Pooja Kashyap

The book is quite enlightening in terms of conveying message as to how the world works. Things are not as easy as they appear to be. We are stuck in a complex web of randomness, which our mind is incapable of comprehending, a higher dimension so to say. Change by nature is erratic unlike constant, which we actually think it to be and such events are termed as Black Swans by Taleb. This book is an embodiment of idea, “what we don’t know is more important than what we know”…

Rise Of The Lizard Bots: Gecko Robot Might Go For Spacewalk Soon

January 3, 2014March 27, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

What would be the field of robotics without biomimicry, I guess, nothing. After Cheetah bot and the Big Dog, researchers have come up with lizard-bot, to which they call gecko robot. Fabricated by a research team in Canada, the gecko robot can easily cross through a vertical surface. This mechanism (of sticking) is brought about by means of dry microscopic toe hair called the setae. Christened as Abigaille, the bot weighs around 240 gram. The six-legged climbing bot project is indeed inspired from the way lizards glue and walk effortlessly…

Einstein, The Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark

December 29, 2013February 16, 2021 Pooja Kashyap

One of the best biographies, I have read so far, although I had to re-read some of Einstein’s concepts to make myself clear for the next move. The progression from one part to the other is like moving a higher level with respect to Einstein’s journey and getting to know more of him at personal level. Before reading this book, I have always wondered had Einstein not discovered the theory of relativity, what would have happened to physics. But the answer wasn’t too difficult to find, there would have been…

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

December 28, 2013February 16, 2021 Pooja Kashyap

Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus. Society where we are brought up determines our thought process and hence instills the foundations of rights and wrongs in our life. But there are people although very few in numbers who are not conditioned by the society. They have their own rules and dictate their life accordingly. They believe in doing their work and are not affected by what others have to say. And these are termed as ‘Prime Movers’. World cannot move ahead with prime movers yet it treats them cruelly.…

First Artificial Leg That Reads Brain Signal To Walk

December 28, 2013December 27, 2013 Pooja Kashyap

Groundbreaking research conducted at RIC has found a way of controlling an artificial leg via brain. Researchers have come up with first of its own kind bionic, mind controlled leg, taking bionics to the next level. This advancement in medical field is still in its testing phase. Although, mind controlled bionic arm has already been available to amputees so far. As per Zac Vawter, 32, who in a bike accident lost his leg 4 years back says, there’s nothing special that he had to learn like giving some tugs or…