General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - August 2015

Aug 2015

Jun 18, 2019

Zebra Stripes Keep them Cool

In a first, scientists have found that zebras can manipulate their black stripes to control their body temperature.
The research, published in the Journal of Natural History, shows that it is the special way zebras sweat to cool down and the smallscale convection currents created between the stripes which aid evaporation.
They also found that zebras can erect their black stripes — further aiding heat loss. These three elements are key to understanding how the zebras' unique patterning helps them manage their temperature in the heat.
The researchers propose that the differential temperatures and air activity on the black and white stripes set up small-scale convective air movements within and just above the stripes, which destabilise the air and the water vapour at the tips of the hairs.

'Virtual biopsy' Device to Detect Cancerous Skin Tumour

Scientists have developed a 'virtual biopsy' device that can quickly and non-invasively determine whether a skin tumour is cancerous and needs to be removed surgically.
The device can determine a skin lesion's depth and potential malignancy without using a scalpel, according to the researchers from Rutgers University. The device could make biopsies much less risky and distressing for patients.
Currently, physicians who perform surgical biopsies often do not know the extent of a lesion until surgery has already begun.
The first-ofits-kind experimental procedure, called vibrational optical coherence tomography, creates a 3D map of the legion's width and depth under the skin with a tiny laser diode.

Gold and Platinum Rare Supernova's Gift to Earth

An overlooked star explosion far away in space may have given the Earth the gift of precious heavy elements such as gold and platinum, a study claims.
The research, conducted by University of Guelph in Canada and Columbia University, overturns our understanding of how heavy elements appeared on our planet.
According to the research published in the journal Nature, some 80% of the heavy elements in the universe likely formed in collapsars.
Collapsars are a rare but heavy element-rich form of supernova explosion from the gravitational collapse of old, massive stars typically 30 times as weighty as our sun. Using supercomputers, the researchers simulated the dynamics of collapsars, or old stars whose gravity causes them to implode and form black holes.
Under their model, massive, rapidly spinning collapsars eject heavy elements whose amounts and distribution are astonishingly similar to what we observe in our solar system.
Most elements were created in nuclear reactions in stars and ultimately expelled in huge stellar explosions.
Heavy elements found on Earth from long-ago explosions range from gold and platinum, to uranium and plutonium.

Fingerprint Messages to Ensure Traceability

India has asked WhatsApp to digitally fingerprint every message sent on its platform without breaking the encryption, in a move aimed at ensuring traceability of all content shared on the Facebook-owned messaging app.
WhatsApp should be able to identify where a message originated and how many people have read and forwarded it without having to read the message.
The government has been insistent in its demand for traceability of WhatsApp messages after misinformation and rumours around child kidnappings on the platform led to a spate of lynchings across India in 2018.
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging applications in India, has maintained that its end-to-end encryption does not allow for traceability.
Law enforcement officials seeking to identify the origin of messages that cause public unrest or spread sexual abuse videos have long complained that the metadata (name, display image and number of people on chat groups) provided by WhatsApp is not sufficient to apprehend perpetrators.
Draft amendments to intermediary guidelines of the Information Technology Act released in December 2018 require all internet platforms to ensure traceability of the origin of all content shared through them.
India is the largest market for WhatsApp with 350-400 million people using the messaging application.
The company is running a pilot for its payments business based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) but is yet to receive government approval for a full-fledged such business.
WhatsApp currently does not store data on messages. However, if it accedes to India's demand, it will need to redesign its entire architecture.
In December, Australia brought in a law that enables the police to bypass encryption, despite criticism from technology companies that it could undermine public safety and privacy.
In Singapore, the anti-fake news law gives authorities sweeping powers to police online platforms and even private chat groups.

Jun 16, 2019

Indian Innovators to Make AI Diagnosis Foolproof

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are driving growth in medical imaging, with deep-learning applications being integrated with radiology for faster and higher-precision diagnosis.
Algorithms mine raw data sets within seconds to classify and detect aberrations by reading images at efficiencies that humans can't match.
Even so, errors do happen in AI diagnoses. Now, a clutch of innovators in India are developing solutions that are making AI-based image diagnostics more accurate and helping resolve complex cases in a fraction of the time taken by clinicians.
Dr Vidur Mahajan, who heads a team of young scientists is working with global partners — research, academia and industry — to help modify machines to always get it right.
The team's latest project ready for market pending FDA 510(k) approval is GE Healthcare's Critical Care Suite, which has an AI that screens X-rays for pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and sends automated notification to the technologist/radiologist when there is a suspected critical finding.
This new technology assists clinicians to prioritise results that need immediate review, so that the patient gets immediate treatment faster, resulting in better outcomes, reduced costs and improved patient experience.
The global market for machine learning in medical imaging, comprising software for automated detection, quantification, decision support and diagnosis, is expected to cross $2 billion by 2023.
Apart from image processing and interpretation, AI applications include image acquisition and processing to aided reporting, follow-up planning, data storage, and data mining, among many others.

Jun 15, 2019

App to put an orchestra in living room

"NomadPlay" is all down to an algorithm which separates out the sound components of a score to remove any instrument as desired, fading out an oboe or piano part for instance, and allowing the home musician to join the fray.Clothilde Chalot and Hannelore Guittet started Digital Music Solutions in Paris five years ago. 'Their app can be downloaded for free that offers albums, ranging from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to Schubert's Fantasia in F Minor.
The concept is similar to that of karaoke, where fans grab the mic to provide their own vocals to the original track. Yet the NomadPlay app is more elaborate.
First off, you can search by level — beginner, intermediate, experienced or expert — or by instrument, as well as by composer. You can increase or slow down the tempo, repeat a bar or part of a bar and even annotate the score.
The app is brimming with educational promise as it can help budding musicians "learn a work more quickly". For professionals, the system offers a "huge time gain" as "when you practise with the others, you already have the reflexes".
"This digitally-pushed evolution eliminated the frontier between creator/artist and consumer

App to Detect Twitter Bots in any Language

Researchers have developed a new application that uses Machine Learning to detect Twitter bots in any language.
The study shows that the application is able to detect auto-generated tweets independent of the language used.
This enhances the quality of data and paints a more accurate picture of the reality.
Twitter Bots are non-personal and automated accounts that post content to online social networks. It has been estimated that around 5 to 10% of all users are bots and these accounts generate about 20-25% of all tweets posted.

World's Highest Weather Station

Climate scientists have created a history by installing world's highest operating weather station at Mount Everest's Death Zone, including five other automated stations on other parts of the mountain.
Tom Matthews and Baker Perry, along with a crew of engineers, stood on the Mount Everest's flank at 27,650 feet (8,430 metres), and erected seven-foot- building of a weather station that can withstand extreme winds and cold weather.
The weather station will record data on temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction.
Besides, the new weather stations will also give scientists direct observations to understand jet stream, and will also help understand how the climate change is affecting the Himalayas.
The other five weather stations that are located in the Mount Everest are in Balcony area (8,430 m), South Col (7,945m) at Phortse (3,810 m), Everest Base Camp (5,315 m) and Camp 2 (6,464 m).

Jun 14, 2019

India Planning to Launch Own Space Station

Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K. Sivan said that India would set up a space station, similar to the International Space Station, but smaller in size, in 5 to 7 seven years to conduct microgravity experiments in space, .
The space station, weighing 20 tonnes in weight, will be constructed once the 'Gaganyaan' human space missionis successfully completed.
According to Anurag Kumar Sinha, who heads the Directorate of Human Space Programme, the Indian space station would be stationed at an altitude of 400 kilometres from earth.
The project is still at a design stage and would entirely depend on the success of the 'Gaganyaan', which intends to put 2 or 3 Indian astronauts in space for a maximum of a week by the end of 2021.

Jun 13, 2019

Annual Report on Internet Trends

According to an annual report on internet trends by venture capitalist Mary Meeker, more than half the world's population is active on the internet, with India accounting for about 12% of them, retaining its second position.
China has the largest base, accounting for 21% of all internet users globally, and the US comes third at 8%.
The number of people active online in 2018 was approximately 3.8 billion, or 51% of the world's population.
The growth in internet users in India was driven by cut-price data plans introduced by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and cheaper smartphones.
According to Meeker, Reliance Jio has created a hybrid, online-to-offline commerce platform by integrating Reliance Retail's physical marketplace with Reliance Jio's digital infrastructure and services, thus doubling its growth in a year to a total of 307 million subscribers.

Mozilla to Bring Paid Subscription to Firefox

Mozilla, the maker of Open Source browser Firefox, is planning to offer a subscription service within Firefox that would offer users access to premium features like a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service and Cloud storage.
Chris Beard, CEO, Mozilla said that the company intends to begin offering the subscriptions starting October.
With this plan, Mozilla aims to develop "diverse sources of revenue" to avoid being heavily reliant on capital that comes from search companies that pay to be featured in the Firefox browser.

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