chakravarthy

Scientists have developed a new Avtar-style technology that allows a human controller to manoeuvre a turtle's path just using their thoughts. In the 2009 blockbuster 'Avtar', a human controls the body of an Alien. Researchers are developing 'brain-computer interfaces' (BCIs) following recent advances in electronics and computing. These technologies can 'read' and use human thought to control machines. Studies have demonstrated the possibility of combining a BCI with a device that transmits information from a computer to a brain, or a 'computer-to-brain interface' (CBI). The combination of these devices may be used to establish a functional link between the brains of different species. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed a human-turtle interaction system in which a signal originating from a human brain can affect where a turtle moves. The entire human-turtle setup includes a head-mo...

Robots that can lay six times as many bricks a day as human builders are set to turn the construction industry on its head. New York-based firm Construction Robotics has developed a robot called SAM (short for Semi-Automated Mason), which can lay 3,000 bricks a day. That's significantly more than most human builders, who can lay an average of 500 bricks a day. The devices have started replacing humans on some sites in US.  "We are going over to the UK in the coming months to meet with some companies and see if we can find a home for SAM there", Scott Peters, the company's President told The Times. While SAM has the ability to pick up bricks, apply mortar and lay them, the robot needs to be heavily supervised. Human workers still need to set up the robot, supervise health and safety and assist with laying bricks at difficult angles, as well as clearing up, according to Construction Robotics. However, some of Britain's biggest construction firms have warned that...

When the head of a small Italian museum called Detective Inspector Alexander Horn of the Munich Police, she asked him if he investigated cold cases. "Yes I do", Inspector Horn said, recalling their conversation. "Well, I have the coldest case of all for you", said Angelika Fleckinger, Director of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeologyin Bolzano, Italy. The victim, nicknamed Otzi, has been in cold storage in her museum for a quarter century. Often called the Iceman, he is the world's most perfectly preserved mummy, a Copper Age fellow who had been frozen inside a glacier along the Northern Italian border with Austria until two hikers discovered him in 1991. The cause of death remained uncertain until ten years later, when an X-ray of the mummy pointed to foul play in the form of a flint arrow-head embedded in his back, just under his shoulder. The glacier not only froze Otzi where he had died, but the high humidity of the ice also kept his organs and skin larg...

Osmania University which celebrated its centenary in April, 2017, is the only university to have observatories. The Nizamia and Rangapur observatories have catalogued nearly three lakh stars, besides charting a large segment of sky. While the Nizamia obserrvatory, which contributed to astronomical research  for decades, is not in use now, the one at Rangapur is being used for outreach activities with negligible research work. The research work that is being done is limited to collection of data obtained from a few observatories from research institutes in other states. The Nizams had the foresight to establish an observatory for astronomy-related studies back in 1908 when it was considered a rarity. Its founder was the England-educated Nawab Zafar Yar Jung Bahadur, youngest son of Sir Khurshid Jah Bahadur, then the defence minister. Until the end of the nineteenth century, British India had only two observatories; one at what was Ootacamund and the other at Nainital. In 1908, N...

Scientists in Germany flipped the switch on Thursday on what's being described as 'the world's largest artificial sun' and which they hope will help shed light on new ways of making climate-friendly fuel. The giant homeycomb-like setup of 149 spotlights - officially known as 'Synlight' - in Juelich, about thirty kilometres West of Cologne, uses xenon short-arc lamps normally found in cinemas to simulate natural sunlight that's often in short supply in Germany in March . By focusing the entire array on a single 20 cms. by 20 cms. spot, scientists from the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, will be able to produce the equivalent of 10,000 times the amount of solar radiation that would normally shine on the same surface. Creating such furnace-like conditions - with temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees celsius - is key to testing novel ways of making hydrogen, according to Bernhard Hoffschmidt, the Director of DLR's Institute for Solar Research. Many consid...

Osmania University (OU) may have been a trendsetter in Indian educational system winning accolades from none other than Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, but there was a time when its degrees were not recognised by other universities. It was before India became free from foreign rule in 1947 that the university faced unacceptability. While all universities were imparting higher education in English, the founding fathers of OU preferred Urdu as medium of instruction, irking the British government. The princely state of Hyderabad was the only 'subsidiary state' in the British India that had freedom to run its own government and institutions including railways and postal services. But other princely states did not enjoy such a freedom and thus, they had no choice but to adopt English as the medium of instruction. By the time OU came into existence, there were seven universities. A couple of them including the University of Madras was, however, in the British Presidency. Acco...

Managing Work-Life Balance : One shouldn't worry too much about being a perfectionist because it makes you too involved with just one thing and ignore other things completely. Secondly, learn to unplug when you need to because rejuvenation gives you time to regroup and come back with fresh ideas. Being a fit woman : To me, being fit and healthy is important not just to look good, but also to be productive. I do strength training and yoga regularly. I love dancing. I also watch what I eat. Energy High and Happiness : Energy starts with the people around you, so my team at office and my family at home keep me positive and happy. Risk-Taker or a Micro-Planner? : Bit of both - there are situations where you have to gamble and go all out as it involves returns that are high. And then there are times where I study my options before taking a decision. Spiritual Diet: Work hard, have goals, but also be content with what you have, because happiness is also a state of mind. Handling ...

Primary healthcare in most Indian states is in shambles. This is despite a national flagship programme, National Rural Health Mission, having run for more than a decade and having pumped public investments of over Rs. 1.3 lakh crores from 2005-06 to 2014-15, NRHM, which was aimed at strengthening government health delivery system in rural areas with a focus on the primary care, was launched in 2005 with much fanfare and hope. Then, the commitment of the Central political leadership to the health sector was high; and so were ambitious. Those ambitions were backed by greater availability of public funding which was made possible by faster economy growth. NRHM repacked many Central programmes such as reproductive and child health, immunisation, contraception, training, etc. as well as supported many new activities such as training of new cadre of health workers, upgradation of public health facilities, constitution of patient welfare committees, etc. - all in a flexible, decentralised...

How do the changes in brain structure help boost a mother's ability to care for her child? Well...here's an answer. A study based on brain's scans, found that the volume of grey matter in certain regions of the brain decreased in women who had been pregnant. "These changes were remarkably consistent", said Elseline Hoekzema, co-author of the research from Leiden University. "So, consistent that a computer algorithm could automatically identify which of the women in our sample had been pregnant between the sessions and which (had) not". "Brain changes may sound somewhat intimidating, but our findings suggest that there may be an evolutionary purpose to these changes that may serve you in some way when you become a mother", said Hoekzema. In the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers from the Netherlands and Spain describe how they used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brain structure of twenty-five first-time mothers bef...

The theory of 'men are from Mars and women are from Venus' is fairly old but always true. In an attempt to be understood, some men have anonymously shared the things they wish women understood about them. Enlightening indeed! Men have emotions too: Underneath that mean mass and muscle is a man with a heart who wishes to be heard. While they don't express often, they hate being ridicule or seen as weak. It's true that girls aren't always the only victim at the end of a relationship: Except, sometimes, we aren't always thinking. Men often think nothing, so a woman's subtle hints often get bounced off the head. And when she is mad at him, nine out of ten times, the poor guy has no idea what's wrong. Don't leave him guessing - speak up. They are not all trying to sleep with every woman they talk to: Not always when a man trying to break the ice or complimenting a woman is he trying to get into her pants. They have insecurities, too: Not every gu...

The world's oldest mummies have just had an unusual check-up. More than 7,000 years after they were embalmed by the Chinchorro people, an ancient civilisation in modern-day Chile and Peru, fifteen mummies were taken to a Santiago clinic in December, 2016 to undergo DNA analysis and computerised tomography scans. The Chinchorro were a hunting and fishing people who lived from 10,000 to 3,400 BC on the Pacific coast of South America, at the edge of the Atacama desert. They were among the first people in the world to mummify their dead. Their mummies date back some 7,400 years - at least 2,000 years older than Egypt's. Now, researchers are hoping to use modern medical technology to reconstruct what they looked like in life, decode their genes and better understand the mysteries of this ancient civilisation. The fifteen Chinchorro mummies, mostly children and unborn babies, were put through a CT scanner at the Los Condes clinic in the Chilean capital. "We collected thous...

The shape of our noses was formed by a long process of adaptation to climate, a study says. Wider noses are more common in warm-humid climates. Narrower noses are more common in cold-dry climates.  Narrower nasal passages help to increase the moisture content of air and warm it - a bonus for those in higher latitudes. Evolution of the Nose :  The width of the nostrils and the base of the nose measurements differ across populations, researchers found. This indicates a role for natural selection in the evolution of nose shape. The width of the nostrils is strongly correlated with temperature and absolute humidity. Adapting Mechanism : Narrower nostrils alter the airflow so the mucous-covered inside of the nose can humidify and warm the air. People with narrower nostrils therefore fared better in colder climates. This lead to a gradual decrease in nose width in populations living far away from the equator. -------------------------------------------------...

[ Based on a news item published in Telangana Times dated 06th March, 2017 (Monday), p. 10 ].  A class tenth student from Tamil Nadu has developed a new technique that can non-invasively detect the risk of a 'silent heart attack', an advance that may save many lives in rural areas. Akash Manoj is staying in Rashtrapathi Bhavan as a guest of President Pranab Mukherjee under "Innovation Scholars In-Residence Programme". He is being honoured with this opportunity for his innovation called "Non-invasive self diagnosis of silent heart attack". "Silent heart attacks are extremely deadly and alarmingly common these days. In these cases, almost no symptoms are evident and thus people look so healthy to us", Manoj said at the Festival of Innovation organised in Rasjtrapathi Bhavan. "My grandfather also looked healthy but one day he collapsed following a sudden heart attack", he said. The incident served as an impetus for Manoj to develop hi...

Whether children get tensed or not, parents tend to take more pressure when it comes to exams. This is the time when it comes to exams. This is the time when parents should be supportive and help their little ones finish exams at ease. Here are a few tips that parents should keep in mind to help their kids during exams... Don't stress your child and pressure them to score high marks. Give them a short 15-minute break in between their study time. You could let them watch television, go for a walk or take them on a drive. You could also engage them in some quick board games. You might be equally busy with work and might have even had a bad day. Never show the frustration on your child. Be supportive and patient, especially now. Be a good listener. In case, your child is having any trouble with a subject or is having a problem with studies, give him/her a patient ear. Inspire your child to have positive thoughts. Even if the child is feeling confident, try to infuse positive ...

What eventually became known as International Women's Day was something of a novelty 100 years ago today, when female workers took to the streets of Petrograd to voice their demands for bread and peace, prompting working men to follow suit. None of the instigators knew they were sparking a revolution. Within days, the Tsar of all the Russia abdicated. The nation's absolutist monarchy came to a sudden end. A provisional government was put in place, but it was obliged to share power with the already established Soviets of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies. There was some crossover between the two institutions. Alexander Kerensky, for instance, who became justice minister and eventually led the provisional government was also a social revolutionary deputy in the Petrograd Soviet. The post-tsarist administration diverged sharply from the popular will in deciding to persist with Russia's role in the First World War. Bread, however, could not be won without peace. And bef...

Over 1,00,000 people from laboratories around the world for the first time have conducted a unique global experiment that verified the laws of quantum physics, thus refuting Albert Einstein's understanding of the microscopic world. Twelve laboratories from around the world came together to put in motion the BIG BELL Test. The experiment - coordinated by ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain - powered by human randomness is aimed to demonstrate that the microscopic world is in fact as strange as quantum physics predicts. Predictions such as particles behaving in a random way, determining their properties only when we look at them; strange instantaneous interactions at a distance - were all questioned by Albert Einstein, who rejected them completely. During the 48 hours in which it was 30th November at different place on the planet, participants contributed to the initiative, generating sequences of zeroes and ones as random as possible through a video game.  Each of...