Science & technology

Health Canada opens risk assessment draft flagging health risks linked to talcum powder use for public comments The debate over whether talcum powder poses serious health risks is in the spotlight again. A risk assessment draft on talc published by Health Canada, the country’s public health department, states that talcum …

Scientists have successfully used a virus to engineer a better type of memory in computers. The research, published in the journal Applied Nano Materials , found that a key way to develop faster computers is to reduce the millisecond time delays using the virus M13 bacteriophage. These delays usually come …

Tests on over 100 sea turtles — spanning three oceans and all seven species — have revealed microplastics in the guts of every single turtle, scientists say. Synthetic particles were found, the most common being fibres, which can come from clothing, tyres and cigarette filters, and equipment such as ropes …

Researchers have created a new artificial intelligence tool that can read text captcha schemes used to defend the majority of the world’s most popular websites from cyber attacks. It can solve a captcha within 0.05 of a second by using a desktop PC, researchers said. This means that this first …

An Indian scientist in the U.K. is working on a way to grow crops in arsenic-contaminated soil, a study which is likely to have wide ranging impact for farmers in northeastern India. Dr. Mohan T.C., from Dr. Alex Jones Laboratory at the School of Life Sciences at the University of …

In a medical first, a mother who received a uterus transplant from a dead donor gave birth to a healthy baby, researchers reported on Wednesday. The breakthrough operation, performed in September 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, shows that such transplants are feasible and could help thousands of women unable to …

India’s first six-tonne-class ‘big bird’ in space, advanced communication satellite GSAT-11, was put into orbit in the early hours of Wednesday from the European spaceport in Guiana in South America. Its mission is to enable high-speed satellite-based Internet services to users in rural and remote areas and to businesses down …

Professor-research scholar duo invents device that yields a near-accurate mileage of a car Why does your hatchback, sedan or SUV give you a mileage different from what the car manufacturer claims under test conditions? This question made a Mizoram University professor and a research scholar invent a measuring device that …

A part of ISRO’s new satellite fleet for high-speed Internet services, it will take off from French Guiana A team of top officials and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (IISRO), now stationed in the Guiana Space Centre, South America, is going over the last steps before it sees …

NASA is set to launch a rocket to get a closer look at the how the earth’s atmosphere is leaking into space. Understanding atmospheric escape on earth has applications all over the Universe — from predicting which planets might be habitable, to piecing together how Mars became a desolate landscape. …

It felt as if humanity had crossed an important line: In China, a scientist named He Jiankui announced recently that twins had been born in November with a gene that he had edited when they were embryos.But in some ways this news is not new at all. A few genetically …

Rotavirus infection is one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis in children under five years By studying the complex interplay between the sugars and microbes in mother’s milk and the baby’s gut microbes, an international team of researchers has tried to understand neonatal rotavirus infection. Rotavirus infection is one of …

The isolation of single sheets of carbon, known as graphene, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010. This discovery has ushered in an era of two-dimensional materials. It offers immense possibilities in building electronics using similarly thin films. A family of materials that have been investigated in this area are …

A novel anode developed by researchers at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune for use in lithium-ion batteries has five times more capacity than carbon-based electrodes and can be fully charged in about 15 minutes. The team led by Satishchandra Ogale from the Department of Physics at …

Progesterone treatment prior to surgery reduces chances of migration and invasion ability of primary cancer cells to other parts Researchers from Mumbai-based ACTREC-Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) have uncovered the biological mechanism by which a single injection of progesterone administered prior to surgery benefits breast cancer patients immaterial of whether progesterone …

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Saturday approved procurements estimated at Rs. 3,000 crore. These include BrahMos cruise missiles for two stealth frigates to be bought directly from Russia and armoured recovery vehicles for the Arjun tanks. “As a follow-up to the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security in …

Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have developed six Zika virus antibodies which may help diagnose as well as treat the mosquito-borne disease that has infected over 1.5 million people worldwide.The antibodies “may have the dual utility as diagnostics capable of recognising Zika virus subtypes and may be further developed …

Scientists have successfully created ‘mini-placentas’ that can provide a window into early pregnancy and help transform our understanding of reproductive disorders such as still-birth and miscarriage. The placenta supplies all the oxygen and nutrients essential for growth of the foetus. It may also be used for screening the safety of …

A Chinese scientist who stoked criticism over his claim that he had created the world’s first genetically-edited babies faced mounting pressure Thursday as China ordered a halt to his scientific activities and warned he may have broken the law. China’s National Health Commission has ordered an investigation into He Jiankui’s …

When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government. Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers …