A major factor holding back development of wearable biosensors for health monitoring is the lack of a lightweight, long-lasting power supply. Now, scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US have developed a method for making a charge-storing system that is easily integrated into clothing. “Batteries or other …
Read More »Monthly Archives: November 2018
In whose name?
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, promises to keep map-makers busy. He has not only picked up the pace in changing names of places in his State, but his colleagues in the BJP seem to be going through the atlas to identify cities elsewhere that could be re-designated …
Read More »Beyond criticism?
The uproar overSarkar reveals a strong streak of political intolerance in Tamil Nadu Bullying film-makers into shelving projects or effecting cuts is not new in India. However, it is not often that a State government or the ruling party resorts to threat and intimidation against a commercial film. The AIADMK …
Read More »Cause to remain alert
Despite the recent announcement suggesting that the Jaipur Zika virus strains cannot cause foetal microcephaly, all possible measures to control transmission and monitor pregnancies should be taken. To the best of our knowledge, there is not a specific Zika virus strain — or mutation — linked to microcephaly. All Zika …
Read More »The algebra of Opposition unity
The Opposition should see in the Karnataka byelection results a goad for united action Karnataka has done it a second time in a year, this year. The coming together of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), post-poll in May 2018, and the inauguration of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government was …
Read More »Hashimpura’s long wait for justice
The conviction by the Delhi High Court of 16 personnel of the U.P. Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) for a massacre of Muslims committed 31 years ago was seen as bringing closure to one of India’s biggest custodial killings. Omar Rashid reports from Meerut and pieces together an account of the …
Read More »London Big Ben to chime to mark end of WWI
Big Ben, one of the world’s most famous bells, is to ring out on Sunday to mark the end of the centenary celebrations of the end of the First World War. The U.K. Parliament authorities said on Thursday that, despite ongoing essential conservation works, Big Ben, will strike on Sunday …
Read More »‘Don’t compare air pollution to smoking’
Anti-tobacco activists have expressed concern that comparing the ill-effects of air pollution to that of smoking will result in trivialising the catastrophic effects of smoking. They say that such comparisons also promote the theory that it is all right to smoke as the air that we breathe is equally harmful. …
Read More »Most child deaths due to pneumonia in India
India continues to have the highest burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea child deaths in the world, with 1,58,176 pneumonia and 1, 02,813 diarrhoea deaths in 2016. This was stated in the ‘Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report’ released on Friday by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins …
Read More »Hawking auction raises astronomical sum
A copy of Stephen Hawking’s doctorate thesis signed in a shaky hand was the highlight of an auction of the British physicist’s personal items in London, which raised nearly £1.4 million. The copy, one of only five originals of the thesis entitled ‘Properties of expanding universes’, smashed pre-sale expectations four …
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