Tag: research

Individual Genes responsible for Violent Crimes: Nature versus Nurture

Neha Shukla

The debate on what makes a person more violent than another is still on. The question is whether criminals are born with such fierce nature or any incident or experience shape up such violent trait in criminals is yet to be answered. So far, scientists have proposed that certain genes (by altering brain chemistry), might be an influential factor behind such violent behavior. But DNA clues to back this suggestion is not present. 

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LEDs Attract more Flying Invertebrates: Light Pollution

Neha Shukla

Invention of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by three scientists won them the Nobel Prize for physics. This innovative LED technology comes with many advantages such as they are energy efficient, bright enough to be used for regular lighting and last longer. But the increasing use of LEDs has certain drawbacks too, as found in a new study led by a pair of experts from Scion, a New Zealand research Institute. According to them LEDs serve light pollution and can cause ecological problems because flying invertebrates are more drawn to LED…

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Fruit Fly can sniff out Drugs and Bombs: Electronic Noses Technology

Neha Shukla

When it comes to detecting bomb or drugs, generally dog is the first animal that comes in our mind. But would you believe when I say that very soon fruit-fly might be taking over the job of detecting bombs and illicit drugs? Surprised! According to a research conducted by the University of Sussex, fruit fly’s sense of odor can be employed in an innovative technology to expose bombs and drugs. 

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Coordination and Collaboration discovered in Hunting Crocodilians: A Club of Hunters

Neha Shukla

We have already read Vladimir Dinets’ research work about certain species of crocodiles and alligators that very intelligently made use of twigs to lure its prey, to climbing tree’s crown to keep an eye on its potential prey or an approaching enemy. Apart from these, advanced parental care, complex communication are other behavior noticed in reptiles. 

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Lighting Sheets to replace Bulbs: OLED, the Next Generation Lights

Pooja Kashyap

How about customizing light source in our rooms, something that resembles the photo frames. Sounds interesting, ain’t it? Researchers have already been working in the field of light and they have come up with an approach that targets the efficiency in half amount of energy being consumed by regular bulbs by developing ‘glowing sheets’. Technology used in these light sheets would resemble the mega thin TVs and smartphones as the sheets are expected to include organic LEDs or OLEDs.

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Charging Gadget in Bedroom leads to Weight Gain: Light from Devices Disrupt Metabolism during Sleep

Neha Shukla

Gadgets have made our lives convenient, but at the same time, safety issues have thwarted their ease. Experts are still debating & studying whether radio wavelengths emitted from cellular phone causes brain cancer or not. Now another team of researchers has discovered that charging cell phones or tablets in the bedroom, during night can lead to weight gain. 

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High Sugary Drinks lead to Poor Memory: Neuroinflammation

Neha Shukla

High intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (containing high sugar or high fructose corn syrup content) are responsible for obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease and other disorders. But recently, experts have found that these beverages when consumed (especially in adolescent age) can lead to poor memory and learning skills. 

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Electrical Pulses used to reinstate Movements in Paralyzed Rats: Epidural Stimulation

Pooja Kashyap

In Frankenstein effort, Gregoire Courtine, a researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, has developed a process that has helped a paralyzed rat in walking with a precise cadence. The neuroscientist has employed electronics to reinstate realistic movements to the disabled animal. With an aim of resurrecting life in the paralyzed limbs of people, the researcher has zapped spinal cords with electrical pulses. These undulations will substitute the commands being sent by brain in normal condition however, the signals are disrupted with an injury in the spinal cord.

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On/off Switch for Aging Cells Discovered: Telomere Homeostasis

Pooja Kashyap

Newly divided cells of the human body have an ability of replenishing certain organs including lungs, skin and liver consistently. However, majority of these cells have an expiry date, which means, they cannot perform the function throughout, since each division also corresponds to shortening of chromosomes. Upon reaching a certain stage telomere, the area of repetitive nucleotide sequences situated at the peripheral of each chromatid, stops the dividing process. This leads to degeneration of organs and tissues and eventually aging. However, in the presence of telomerase, an enzyme that rebuilds…

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Mangalyaan beams back Images from Mars: India’s First Successful Mission to the Red Planet

Pooja Kashyap

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission after positioning itself successfully into the orbit, took some images of the red planet. The image reflected the planet’s crater-marked surface. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) circulated the images across its network via its facebook page. Pictures containing orange surface with dark holes were taken at a height of nearly 4,536 miles. ISRO’s lead researcher V. Koteswara Rao confirmed that the spacecraft is working absolutely fine and that it has been able to click couple of pictures of the surface and its surroundings. Soon enough,…

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PIBOT will be the next Flying Captain: Humanoid Learns to Fly Real Airplanes

Pooja Kashyap

Last week, we talked about NAO, the humanoid learning to steer wheels and now we have a similar humanoid that is learning to fly real planes. PIBOT is the name of the small and affordable humanoid that is ready to take off our expectations into the skies. PIBOT has been fabricated to operate a toned down, simulated aircraft cockpit. The intelligent synthetic creature is able to make out and use the entire controls comprising of buttons and switches present in the cockpit of a light aircraft that is especially designed…

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Google’s First Quantum Computer: A Combination of D-Wave and Universal Gate-Model

Pooja Kashyap

Quantum logic gate based on qubits is what most of the quantum computing labs is working on to make the product a reality. However, these labs show no or less confidence in companies like D-Wave, the Canadian based that came out with world’s first commercially available quantum computer functioning on 128-qubit chipset, in 2011. Lately, in an interesting turn of events, Google went a step ahead by hiring a team of researchers for building their initial Google quantum computer using quantum annealing as per the D-Wave approach than the conventional…

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GoCart, the Food Delivery Bot: Service Robot for Elderly and Health Care Industry

Pooja Kashyap

Slowly and steadily, robots are replacing labor in nearly all sectors some envision it as a threat while others think that it will make the human lives more convenient. There is no doubt that these machines would directly improve productivity and efficiency especially in service sector. Thinking on the same lines, manufactures are working across nations in developing service-oriented bots, first came James the Barman, followed by SaviOne the butler bot and now South Korea-based Yujin Robot has come up with GoCart, a meal-transport machine especially designed to function in…

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