Research

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Nagpur based constituent laboratory National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), has conducted Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of Microbial Diversity of river Ganga. The study will reveal the identity of microbes that inhabit the river that help maintain the health of river as well as those that are now inhabitants that have been added due to anthropogenic activities, researchers said.

Scientists have fabricated a device that can mimic human brain cognitive actions and is more efficient than conventional techniques in emulating artificial intelligence, thus enhancing the computational speed and power consumption efficiency.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad has developed nano fibre-based, controlled-release oral tablets of amphotericin B (AmB) to treat post-Covid fungal infections. Researchers have kept the technology free of intellectual property rights and are looking for pharmaceutical partners who can take up mass-scale production. Currently, AmB is an injectible drug.

Scientists have found that the natural indigo dye extracted from leaves of a plant of the bean family is capable of protecting human eyes from harmful laser radiation. It could be used to develop optical limiters useful in weakening the potentially harmful radiation and protecting the human eyes or other sensitive optical devices from accidental damage in an environment where such lasers are in use.

BHOPAL: Amidst lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in

In a first, space transportation firm Bellatrix Aerospace has tested the country’s first privately built Hall Thruster, a highly efficient electric propulsion system for satellites. Tests were carried out at the sophisticated spacecraft propulsion research laboratory Bellatrix has set up at the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Society for Innovation and Development (SID).

Now, researchers from IIT Guwahati claim to have developed smart window materials that can control the amount of light and heat permeating through, when a voltage is passed thought it. They say this can help develop efficient automatic climate control systems in buildings.

Harikrishnan Aravindakshan, Prof. Amar Kakad, and Prof. Bharati Kakad from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, have developed thetheory. Prof. Peter Yoon of the University of Maryland, USA also joined the Indian scientists.

Didymocarpus is a genus belonging to the plant family Gesneriaceae (commonly known as ‘African Violets’) and its members are distributed from Western Himalayas to Sumatra. Most of these species are narrow endemics and require specialized habitats to survive, thus acting as an indicator of pristine habitats. There are 106 currently known species of this genus, of which 26 are present in Northeastern states of India.