News on Science, Technology and Research in India
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati researchers have developed 3D printed urban furniture using construction material made from local industrial wastes. Traditionally, these structures were mold cast which requires more concrete material, labour, and formwork preparation. However, with 3D concrete printing, optimized designs are printed with 75 percent less concrete and without the need for mold.
Lignin, which is a natural and a nontoxic biopolymer, is an emerging material for developing coatings, films, gels, adhesives, and adsorbents. It also acts as a capping, stabilizing, and reducing agent for fabricating nanomaterials. In the new study, a team of researchers at the Department of Biotechnology’s Centre of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (DBT-CIAB), at Mohali have developed a lignin-based coating material, which when applied to a cotton cloth, was found to have antimicrobial properties.
A gene called β-MYH7 is one of the major genes implicated in cardiac diseases globally. However, not many genetic studies have been carried out on Indian cardiomyopathy patients. In the new study, the researchers chose to fill the gap by sequencing the β-MYH7 gene from 137 dilated cardiomyopathy patients along with 167 ethnically matched healthy controls to identify the mutation(s), if any, that are associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in Indian patients.
Somanath is an expert in the area of system engineering of Launch vehicles and is now the ISRO Chief. He replaced Kailasavadivoo Sivan as his tenure is ending on January 14, 2022.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has launched a start-up of IIT alumni that uses Artificial Intelligence for water purification at an affordable cost.
Now, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, have developed a novel improved natural draft charcoal retort (INDCR) to address the technological and capital investment challenges of Indian charcoal makers.
The new rock museum on the campus of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI), houses around 35 different types of rocks from different parts of India with ages ranging from 3.3 billion years to around 55 million years. It aims to educate and enlighten the masses about the lesser-known physical properties of the earth and its surrounding environment.
According to data from global IP research and consultancy firm Sagacious IP, 5,000 patents were filed in AI in India in the decade 2011-2020. But of these, 86 per cent were filed in the last five years.
A group of Indian and international scientists have spotted a peculiar binary star that shows heartbeat but no pulsations contrary to the norm of binary stars of sporting both heartbeats as well as pulsations. This star is called HD73619 in Praesepe (M44), located in the Cancer constellation, one of the closest open star clusters to the Earth.
In the new study, a team of researchers led by Prof. Sunit K. Singh, Professor of Molecular Immunology & Virology at the Molecular Biology Unit at BHU’s Institute of Medical Sciences, has found that the virus interacts with a set of cells called microglial cells, which protect the brain from infections and that a protein in the virus called ZIKV-NS1 plays an important role in its replication and immune evasion.
