Science & technology

A U.K.-based startup claims to have developed biotransformation technology that can alter the state of plastics and make them biodegradable without leaving behind any microplastics. What is biotransformation technology? Biotransformation technology is a novel approach to ensure plastics that escape refuse streams are processed efficiently and broken down. Plastics made using this technology are given …

With a roaring sound, LVM3, the heaviest payload rocket of the Indian Space Research Organisation carrying 36 OneWeb satellites on board, took off at 9.20 a.m. on Sunday from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here. The satellites separated successfully from the rocket and were dispensed …

North Korea claimed on Friday it had tested an underwater nuclear attack drone able to unleash a “radioactive tsunami”, as it blamed recent U.S.-South Korea exercises for a deteriorating regional security situation. Pyongyang carried out military drills of its own in response this week, the Korean Central News Agency said, including test-firing …

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released the country’s first ‘Ethical Guidelines for Application of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Research and Healthcare’, aimed at creating “an ethics framework which can assist in the development, deployment, and adoption of AI-based solutions” in the fields specified. Through this, they hope to …

The Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs informed Lok Sabha about coal bed methane extraction in India. At present, Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is not produced from any working/ operational coal mines in the country. Government of India had formulated a policy in 1997 to extract Coal Bed Methane (CBM) from coal-bearing areas prior to the …

The Abel Prize for mathematics was awarded to Argentine-American Luis Caffarelli. He is an expert in “partial differential equations” which can explain phenomena ranging from how water flows to population growth. This type of equation models how several variables change with respect to each other, and play a prominent role in engineering, physics, economics and biology. About the Abel Prize: The Abel …

Prime Minister Narendra of India has unveiled a vision document for rollout of 6G communications technology in India by 2030. What is 6G? Technically, 6G does not exist today. It has been conceived as a far superior technology promising internet speeds up to 100 times faster than 5G. As opposed to 5G, which at its peak can …

What are recombinants? Co-infection of multiple lineages of a virus could result in recombinations between genomes which can give rise to chimeric genomes, otherwise called recombinants. While most recombinations may not give rise to viable viruses, there is a rare possibility that recombination could result in the creation of a …

In the never-ending debate about the origin of the virus that set off the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now fresh grist for the mill for those who have held out for the zoonotic angle — that the infection skipped from animals to humans. Undisclosed genetic data from a food market …

In an effort to encourage investors to set up units to produce ethanol for blending with petrol, the State government on Saturday said investors could obtain almost all the requisite standard clearances within 30 days. The Tamil Nadu Ethanol Blending Policy (EBP) 2023, released on Saturday by the Industries Department, …