Will Nanofabrication Recall 3D TV Without Glasses?

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…

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Hummingbirds Too Can Create New Tunes

Neha Shukla

In the animal kingdom, the burden lies with the males to seduce and impress the female for mating. We have already covered an article on peacocks, who had mastered the art of dance to impress the peahens. Apart from dance, singing is another way that male birds try to impress its female counterpart. One such research conducted on hummingbirds, showed that they are capable of changing the tunes of the songs that they learned at tender age or even create a new melody altogether. Traditionally it was believed that these…

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Graphene Morphs From Hydrophobic To Hydrophilic

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.

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Fire Ants versus Crazy Ants: Battle For The Ecosystem

Neha Shukla

We are familiar with the species of ants known as fire ants, which are famous for their painful stings. The venom in the stings causes acute pain in humans and fatal for other species of ants and insects, is known to be twice or thrice more toxic than DDT when compared on a per weight basis. Therefore, these are known to dominate the territory where they reside. However, recently a species of ants have invaded the fire ant territory and giving a tough fight to these native ants. 

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Satellite Servicing: Refueling Missions versus Resurrecting Satellites

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…

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

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…

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Native Apps versus HTML5 Based Apps: The War Goes On

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…

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Researchers Observe Tree Climbing Behavior Among Crocodiles

Neha Shukla

Most people believe that the crocodiles are mainly or semi aquatic and therefore, can hide and attack its prey on land and under water. Many of us would not ever imagine a crocodile climbing a tree to attack its enemy or to feed. But this is a fact, as seen by scientists from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, crocodile can easily climb and have been seen reaching up to the tree crowns.  

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How To: Improve PC Performance For Win OS

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…

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Robots Capitalizing On The Efficiency Of Nature: Biomimicry

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…

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Arctic Polar Bears’ Genetic Adaptations Help Fight Hibernation

Neha Shukla

Black and brown bears are known to go to hibernate during the winter seasons, to stay warm, cozy and to conserve energy. But researchers are curious to find an answer, why polar bears residing at higher latitudes, unlike brown and black bears hibernate and how do they stand the freezing cold of arctic tundra. Only female expecting babies are often seen to hide in caves during winters to save themselves in exceedingly low temperatures. 

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Graphene Sandwich Results In Higher Resolution Images Of Biomolecules

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…

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Neurofeedback And Brain Power

Wa'd Abuzurayk

The advanced brain imaging technology magnetoencephalography (MEG) could be the next big thing in the world of neurology and rehabilitation. “MEG is a new technology that measures the very faint magnetic fields that emanate from the head as a result of brain activity”- PBS.org . MEG measures and captures magnetic fields generated by nerve cell circuits in the brain at a matchless time resolution. This gives us the ability to observe brain activity as it happens, according to Dr. Sylvain Baillet, acting Director of the Brain Imaging Centre at The…

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