News on Science, Technology and Research in India
As it awaits the arrival of its successor in August this year, Chandrayaan-2 has once again found new developments happening under the surface of the Moon. Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) instrument onboard Chandrayaan-2 has found Argon-40 in the tenuous lunar exosphere.
A team of researchers at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in Australia have addressed this question by developing a mathematical model that predicts how antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines confer protection against symptomatic infections. The team has published a report of their study in Nature Computational Science.
Researchers say that neutrinos in supernovae, neutron stars, and in the early Universe may change flavor (type) collectively and unstably, due to neutrino-neutrino forward scattering. Neutrinos emitted by exploding stars can change their flavor via collective flavor (type) instability. Scientists have identified the ingredient for flavor instability which will have observable consequences for the observations made by telescopes and neutrino detectors.
Hornbills are frugivorous, or fruit eating birds, that disperse seeds of large trees such as Ficus, and play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community
Prof Haridas has collaborated with virologist Prof. Guruprasad Medigeshi from the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), and biochemist Prof. Bishwajit Kundu from the Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, IIT Delhi, for this research work.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, have used hydrochar derived from orange peels as a catalyst to convert biomass-derived chemicals into biofuel precursors.The research will help develop biomass-based fuel to overcome the socio-political instabilities associated with dwindling petroleum reserves.
A team of scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s Delhi-based Centre for Fire, Explosive, and Environment Safety (CFEE), has developed a special suit that promises to help fight fighters tackle fire more effectively.
The rocket will also carry two small satellites as co-passengers—a student satellite (INSPIREsat-1) from Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) in association with the Laboratory of Atmospheric & Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a technology demonstrator satellite (INS-2TD) from ISRO, which is a precursor to India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B).
Motivated to find a way, a research team led by Prof Gopinadhan Kalon, Assistant Professor, Physics and Materials Engineering, IITGN, created controllable water transport channels in graphite crystal with the help of an electric field and potassium chloride (KCl) ions, which allowed only fresh water to move through the crystal and blocked all the salt ions. The research team comprises IITGN PhD scholars Lalita Saini, Aparna Rathi, Suvigya Kaushik, and a postdoctoral fellow Siva Sankar Nemala.
A team of researchers led by Prof. Sridharan Devarajan, an Associate Professor at the Centre for Neuroscience & Associate faculty in Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, is seeking to find answers to these questions and develop therapies for treating attention disorders.
