News on Science, Technology and Research in India
Hidden in plain sight, one of the rarest fossils in the world may have been discovered in the fascinating Bhimbetka rock shelters, a Unesco site about 40km from Bhopal.
Researchers believe they have found the first-ever fossil in India of a Dickinsonia —the Earth’s ‘oldest animal’, dating back 570 million years — on the roof of what’s called the ‘Auditorium Cave’ at Bhimbetka.
Indian Space start-up Agnikul Cosmos has announced the successful test-firing of their semi-cryogenic rocket engine, which has been fully manufactured, as a single piece, using 3-D printing technology. Agnikul’s semi-cryogenic engine, called Agnilet, would be fulled by rocket-grade kerosene and uses liquid oxygen (stored at -183 degrees celsius) as an oxidizer.
India’s space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1 and three Indian payloads on 28 February in its first mission of 2021.
The Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) has been allocated Rs 14,793.66 crore in the budget 2021-22, a 20 percent increase from the current fiscal. The Ministry of S&T has three departments — The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology, and The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). All these departments played a key role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Counterfeiting a banknote containing multiple security features is rather difficult. But counterfeiting a bank cheque is not that tough because of a lack of security features. To fix this problem a group of researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) has developed a new security ink for bank cheques that is difficult to replicate.
As a result of the complete lockdown imposed by the Government of India to stop the spread SARS-CoV-2 virus from March 25 to April 14, 2020, the highways and streets of cities became almost empty, devoid of any public transport, and workplaces were closed. People were confined to their homes. This has led to an unprecedented reduction of air pollutants which rejuvenated the atmosphere.
The new species, which belongs to the genus Cyrtodactylus commonly known as bent-toed geckos, was discovered by Zeeshan Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, Harshal Bhosale and Mandar Sawant of the Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai, Faizan Ansari of the Madras Crocodile Bank in Chennai, Gaurang Gowande of Ferguson College in Pune, Pushkar Phansalkar from Pune, and Harshil Patel of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Surat.
The study explains that complex chemical reactions involving Hydrochloric Acid (HCl), which is directly emitted in the atmosphere from plastic contained waste burning and few industrial processes, is primarily responsible for high PM2.5 chloride level.
The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has developed a bio-plastic film using marine seaweed and PEG-3000 which could have a huge impact on limiting the usage of non-biodegradable plastics and a game-changer in the plastic industry. Bio-plastic films safely breakdown in the environment without leaving any toxicity. The physical and mechanical properties of bio-plastic film meet the properties of conventional plastics.
Two new species of a rare ant genus have been discovered in India. The species of the ant genus Ooceraea found in Kerala, and Tamil Nadu add to the diversity of this rare genus. They differ from others of the same genus on the basis of the number of antennal segments.
