Research

A new species of rare ants has been discovered in Goa’s Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary. The new species has been named Vaibhav’s Protanilla, after professor Vaibhav Chindarkar who is the head of the zoology department at the Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sakhali.

Nehru Science Centre in its ‘Lockdown Lecture’ series organised ‘Comet NEOWISE – A Primer’ to discuss the exploration aspects related to comets. Director, Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi Dr. N Ratnashree explained comets, their position in the sky and how one can observe a comet through a telescope, DSLR camera or even naked eye.

Colorectal cancer that affects the large intestine (colon) and rectum is the 5th leading cause of cancer death in India, mainly because late detection minimizes chances of recovery. In the last decade, the country has witnessed a rapid increase in the rate of colorectal cancer among younger people due to poor dietary habits, lack of physical activity, obesity, increased alcohol consumption, and chronic smoking. The current detection methods need invasive biopsies, and subsequent evaluation requires special expertise. The delay in the timely detection of the disease limits access to rapid and affordable treatment.

Preservation of secondary cell lines, primary cells, and primarytissue explants outside the incubator environment for long hours and continuous monitoring of the growth and electrophysiology recording for controlled drug delivery is a major requirement.

There have been worldwide attempts to produce fuel from renewable biological resources in order to overcome future oil shortages in the world. But conversion of food resources to fuel affect the global supply-demand of food, especially in developing countries. To tackle this problem, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati researchers have developed methods to produce biofuels from non-edible seeds.

Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous organization of the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India have developed a simple, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable supercapacitor electrode derived from industrial waste cotton which can be used as an energy harvester storage device.

Two years ago, scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) had an idea. The cuckoo has always been known as the rain bird, the harbinger of monsoon. But how has it come to be so? They finally hope to find out, in what will be the first attempt to track migratory patterns of a bird to understand its relationship with climate change.

Indian institute of Technology (IIT) Madras researchers have shown that the active principle from turmeric that is curcumin can enhance cancer cell death caused by a protein called ‘TRAIL.’ They performed studies using isolated leukaemia cells from cancer patients and found that non-toxic concentrations of curcumin can significantly increase the efficiency of TRAIL-induced cell death.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the demand of ventilators across the country. To meet the escalating demand researchers from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) has developed an Emergency Breathing Assist System (EBAS), called AirBridge.