Rubberized Asphalt Road Material: Recycled Roadways

Neha Shukla

Old or damaged tires are the major source of waste and concern for environmentalists. As per Environmental Protection Agency, America alone discards approximately 300 millions of waste tires annually. Such a huge volume of waste, which is extremely durable, is difficult to manage. The discarded tires are also not very suitable for landfills and often illegally dumped tires turn into breeding grounds for germ carrying mosquitoes and rodents. Piles of tires if caught fire can cause air and ground pollution. Therefore, it is required to recycle the discarded tires in…

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Fabrication of Bi-Layer Molecular Electronic Devices: Nanoscale Circuitry

Pooja Kashyap

Until now, it was difficult to charge particles at molecular scale and hence developing circuits at microscopic level has always presented a huge challenge. However, Alexander Shestopalov from University of Rochester has crossed the huddle making a step closer to the fabrication of microscopically small circuit. He powered an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with a nanoscale circuitry in where he coupled the positive and negative electrodes with one-molecule thin sheet of organic material. Experimental trials and errors have proved that it’s impossible to control current passing through such a single…

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Genes Responsible for High Tolerance for Pain: Ache’s Genetic Basis

Neha Shukla

Every person is unique and is different from others. Even identical twins have different taste and behave differently. Likewise, every person has a different threshold level of bearing pain. Researchers working on the topic have found four important genes that determine the pain tolerance threshold in an individual. And therefore, it varies from person to person depending upon the key gene expression. 

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Chimpanzees Select Tree for Making Their One-Time Use Bed: The Sophisticated Primates

Neha Shukla

A new study suggests that like humans, chimpanzees are also very particular about their bed. Chimpanzees unlike humans are known to create their bed every day starting from scratch just before their bedtime. The exclusive chimpanzees beds are called nests and it require bending, breaking stems of tree, and piling leaves in an interwoven pattern, on this structure. But researchers noticed that chimpanzees do not make their nest on any random tree, rather choose branches of Ugandan ironwood trees for the purpose. These trees provided them with sturdy and stable…

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A Dialogue with Kiki van Eijk: Leading the New Generation of Dutch designers

Pooja Kashyap

Kiki van Eijk is one of the names that are leading the new generation of Dutch designers today. She graduated with honors from Design Academy Eindhoven. Currently, she is working on her own collection which is presented in galleries, museums and fairs worldwide, in London, Paris, New York, Milan, Cologne, Venice, Kuwait, Tokyo, Montreal, Rome, Amsterdam, Basel, Miami, Rotterdam, Brussels, Monaco, Moscow etc. Besides her own collection she works on projects for companies and institutions such as Studio delkoort Paris, Design Academy Eindhoven, SKITSCH, MOOOI, Ahrend, Royal Leerdam Crystal, BKKC,…

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10 Weird Facts about Spiders: The Creepy Crawlers

Pooja Kashyap

Spiders are famous for their architectural skill that is displayed by weaving of web. Majority in the species prefer solitary life, alone in their cobwebs. They look eerie no doubts but they show such unique and weird characteristics that researchers across the globe are still trying to figure out the reasons behind these awestruck potentialities that these arachnids exhibit. Some of them are described below: 1) Bulky DNA The DNA of one spider egg is equal to the amount of genetic material of four humans combined. 2) Immortals There is…

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Frogs Resort Competition via Cannibalism: The Voracious Predators

Neha Shukla

Cannibalism in the animal kingdom is very well known fact among the inhabitants. Animals whether big or small in their race for survival, resort to kill their competition by eating them. Animals like jungle king, lions are known to kill the offspring of the revival king to pave way for better future of its own offspring. But researchers say, the behavior of cannibalism can be also seen tiny wood frog tadpoles. These innocent looking tadpoles when hungry can eat other tadpoles present in the pool. Such behavior has also been…

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Magneto-Optical Storage: The Next Generation of Plastic Computers

Pooja Kashyap

In an effort to replace silicon chips with flexible plastic within gadgets like computers, cellular devices and related systems, researchers from University of Iowa and New York University have come up with an alternative to the high capacity storage technology. During the fiber optic transmission, it is easier and convenient to encode data in light while magnetism helps in storing information with an unlimited expiry date. With the proposed technology, converting information from one form to another is a critical issue. Since, the energy cost for this process is insignificant…

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X-Ray Triggered Nanoparticle Photosensitizer: Photodynamic Therapy

Pooja Kashyap

While working upon new security-related radiation detection, researchers at the University of Texas, Arlington discovered an advance in photodynamic cancer therapy. Wei Chen, professor of physics at the UT Arlington, noticed an odd luminescence emitted by copper-cysteamine (Cu-Cy) nanoparticles when while working on an experiment where he was exposing the nanoparticles to X-rays. Upon further investigation, he found out that the luminescence was the byproduct of lost energy that the particles were diffusing. The same byproduct is also utilized in photodynamic cancer therapy to destroy cancer cells.

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Penis Discovered in Female Insect: Novel Structure in Evolution

Neha Shukla

While studying the Brazilian cave insects, researchers to their surprise discovered a penis like genitals in females and organ similar to a vagina in males. For the first time they have noticed, such an extreme switch of sex organs and have dubbed the newly revealed penis of the female insects as “gynosome” and “phallosome” for the vagina like organ in male insects. 

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Bright Points in Solar Atmosphere: Gateway to Sun’s Roiling Interior

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been able to collect data regarding the depth of the shining star, bright spots in the solar atmosphere and the strings of magnetic signatures observed on the surface of Earth. With this data, space scientists will get a peek into the insights related to the real-time mapping of the sun’s roiling interior. These understandings will help them on converging the decade long investigations of its 22-year sunspot cycle and emission of solar flares. As per Scott McIntosh, one of the lead researchers, this data…

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Sliding Saltwater Over Graphene Generates Electricity

Pooja Kashyap

Call it serendipity or chance, a group of researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China while conducting an experiment of creating voltage by plunging carbon nanotubes in a flowing liquid hit upon a discovery of generating electricity by dragging saltwater over a piece of graphene. Traditional Techniques Conventionally, producing electricity via graphene has always been an expensive task plus its unique electrical properties have required for immense work from the end of researchers.

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ASIMO the Next-Generation Humanoid: A Total Knockout

Neha Shukla

HONDA unveiled its first ASIMO robot in the year 2000. ASIMO or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility was designed to help people who lack mobility and has come a long way since then. The latest prototype of ASIMO, HONDA humanoid robot was displayed  at the International Auto Show in New York and was seen walking, running quickly and even climbing stairs with ease. Additionally, it can dance, kicks the ball, even jump and can handle uneven surfaces too.  

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Production of Blood Now on an Industrial Level: Artificial Blood from Stem Cells

Neha Shukla

The advancement in science and technology have made possible for humans to tackle life-threatening diseases to highly intricate surgeries. Medical science has reached a mark where it has potential to create artificial organs for transplant, saving millions of lives. And now researchers have discovered a way to create human blood, using stem cells.

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