Research

A new study conducted by Indian researchers will help understand the egg-laying behaviour of certain pests and therefore help in designing specific control measures. This study has been conducted by the researchers at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)’s Bengaluru based laboratory Indian Institute of Horticultural Research. They have published their study in the science journal Current Science .

Dr. Vanish Kumar, an Inspire Faculty Fellow, has developed an ultra-sensitive, easy-to-use sensor for detecting arsenic contamination in water and food samples in 15 minutes. The developed sensor is highly sensitive, selective, involves a single step, and is applicable for various water and food samples. The developed sensor can be easily operated by a common man by just correlating the colour change (on sensor surface) with the standard labels.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s customised space-themed merchandise programme in partnership with industry has taken off with multiple companies on board.

A group of engineers from MinusZero in India have developed an autonomous system that promises to work effectively even in Indian traffic conditions. We got to interact with Gagandeep Reehal, co-founder and CEO of MinusZero to better understand how they could bring the autonomous vehicle future to India.

The piezoelectric molecules developed by the scientists called bipyrazole organic crystals recombine following mechanical fracture without any external intervention, autonomously self-healing in milliseconds with crystallographic precision.

The new study has taken the work forward by getting new insights that suggest that PPE2 could also be playing an important role in regulating the synthesis of Vitamin B12 in the bacterium. Vitamin B12 plays a fundamental role in bacterial metabolism and gene regulation. The human body cannot synthesize Vitamin B12 and depends upon gut microbiota or external food supplements to meet the daily requirement of Vitamin B12. M.tb, on the other hand, has genes for Vitamin B12 synthesis. The true nature of the Vitamin B12 pathway in the bacterium, however, is still a mystery. The new study gives some insight into this.

The research was led by Dr. Pankaj Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER Bhopal. The model development and results of the prediction studies have been recently published in the International Journal of Climatology, in a paper co-authored by Dr. Pankaj Kumar and his research scholar Aditya Kumar Dubey.