News on Science, Technology and Research in India
Scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, have recently come up with an efficient, low-cost electro-catalyst from fish gills that can help develop environmentally friendly energy conversion devices.
The mission will also serve numerous other applications: surveillance of continental and coastal waters, follow up of urban heat traps, risk monitoring (fire detection and volcanic activity), study of the cryosphere (glaciers, frozen lakes) and radiation budget assessment.
Researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science &Technology, Govt. of India, have developed a sensitive and low-cost sensor to rapidly detect bacteria. The portable device can detect as low as ten bacterial cells from a sample size of one milliliter in just 30 minutes. At present, they are working on a method for simultaneous separation and detection of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium.
The Indian government has been promoting the idea of video conferencing in this time of crisis as part of a challenge. The coronavirus crisis has rendered video conferencing as the only effective method of conducting meetings and meeting other people.
Scientists from Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have developed a substrate (the surface or material on which an organism lives, grows) for optical sensing applications using a gold nanostructure. Such substrates are sensitive to change in the refractive index of the surrounding medium and can detect biologically important molecules and chemicals in the laboratory.
Dr. Ramendra Sundar Dey and his team from INST have formulated an interesting synthetic strategy to overcome the long-standing challenges of pseudocapacitors, their cycling stability, and rate capability. Pseudocapacitors are a type of supercapacitors which store electrical energy by electron charge transfer.
A team of Indian medical scientists in Kyoto, with support from a professor and students from IIT Roorkee, has developed an AI based software which uses X-ray to not just detect cases of the novel coronavirus but also predict the same in asymptomatic patients
Researchers from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have embarked upon developing an inactivated virus vaccine for the dreaded novel coronavirus. Inactivated vaccines are known for their safety and easy production.
Researchers at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvananthapuram are in the final stages of developing a kit that promises to help detect SARS CoVID-19 infection as early as four days post-infection of the virus.
A team at the Indian Institute of Technology of Bombay (IIT-B) has developed a “smart stethoscope” that can listen to heartbeats from a distance and record them, minimising the risk of healthcare professionals contracting the novel coronavirus from patients. The data or the auscultated sound from a patient’s chest is wirelessly sent to the doctor using Bluetooth, doing away with the need to go near to take readings, according to members of the team.
