chakravarthy

[ Based on an article written by Anurada Shyam, published in The Hindu, dated 02nd November, 2015 (Monday) ]. A classroom is a living textbook. A space, where our beliefs are challenged. As teachers, we are privy to everything; from the latest pop star to the ever shifting definitions of what 'cool' is. We play agony aunts and dispensers of tough love. We are often the solo voice of authority, in an otherwise chaotic student world. Sometimes, the situations we face are so alien to our own sense of security; we are forced to rely on an inner (or higher!) intelligence. History battles : Many years ago, armed with idealism and theories of great thinkers, I worked as a co-teacher in a class-room with students from various nationalities. A new student from Japan walked in, with the customary trepidation, of facing a new class of ten-year-olds. We asked her to introduce herself, and sit next to a group of students in the second row. The student we asked her to sit next to walke...

After decades of adopting specialisation as the way forward, the education system in India is now beginning to see that inter-disciplinary studies is what is required to solve challenging problems. Be it climate change or computational biology in the natural sciences; gender studies or development economics in the social sciences or even financial management or international relations in the management sector, the complexity of situations we see in real life demands that problem-solvers cultivate knowledge and skills that cut across disciplines. This comes as a challenge to our education system, where most schools stress on discipline-based division of lessons and even note-books. Yet the trend has already set in and the IISERs, several new central universities, State universities like Ambedkar University, Delhi, and private players such as Ashoka University and FLAME University, to name but a few, are focusing on giving a boost to inter-disciplinary education. While the need for int...

European Union and US consumer watchdogs announced on Tuesday they are filing complaints against a clutch of smart toys that can 'spy' on children and their homes, for allegedly breaching privacy and data protection laws. The complaints target smart toys My Friend Cayla, i-QUE Intelligent Robot and Hello Barbie, according to the European Consumer Organisation BEUC and US groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Complaints are being filed with French and other European authorities as well as the US Federala Trade Commission. Internet-connected Cayla and i-QUE, manufactured by Los Angeles-based Genesis Toys, hook up with a user via a phone or tablet while Hello Barbie links to the internet through Wi-Fi, said the consultancy Bouvet on behalf of the Norwegian Consumer Council. Hello Barbie is not sold in Europe. "By purpose and design, these toys record and collect the private conversations of young children without any limitations on collection, use, o...

A pair of mummified legs have been identified to be the remains of the Queen Nefertari - the favourite wife of the pharaoh Ramses II who reigned Egypt in the 13th century BC - scientists say. Researchers including Stephen Buckley and Johann Fletcher from the University of York in the UK used radiocarbon dating, anthropology, palaeontology, genetics and chemical analysis to identify the remains. - Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy RSS, 16-03-2019, Saturday - -----------------------------------------------------------------

Drivers who miss between one and two hours of the recommended seven hours of sleep may nearly double their risk for a crash, a new study warned. The study shows that drivers missing two to three hours of sleep in a 24-hour period more than quadrupled their risk the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration associates with driving over the legal limit for alcohol, researchers said. - Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy RSS, 16-03-2019, Saturday -  -----------------------------------------------------------------

Earth's technosphere, which compress all the structures that humans have constructed to keep them alive on the planet, amounts to thirty trillion tonnes, a new study has found. Researchers, including those at University of Leicester in the UK, made the first estimate of the sheer size of the physical structure of the planet's technosphere. "The technosphere is a major new phenomenon of this planet - and one that is evolving extraordinarily rapidly", said Professor Mark Williams from University of Leicester. - CHALLAPALLI SRINIVAS CHAKRAVARTHY, 16-03-2019, SATURDAY - -----------------------------------------------------------------

Billions of tonnes of melt-water flowing into the world's oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilise regional climate within a matter of decades, researchers said on 06th February, 2019 (Wednesday). These melting giants, especially the one atop Greenland, are poised to further weaken the ocean currents that move cold water south along the Atlantic Ocean floor while pushing tropical waters northward closer to the surface, they reported in the journal Nature . Known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, this liquid conveyor belt plays a crucial role in Earth's climate system and helps ensures the relative warmth of the Northern Hemisphere. "According to our models, this melt-water will cause significant disruptions to ocean currents and change levels of warming around the world", said lead author Nicholas Golledge, an associate professor at the Antarctic Research Centre of New Zealand's Victoria Uni...

Sub-clinical vitamin deficiencies in children and pregnant woman is alarmingly high in Hyderabad. Most of the time they don't know they have these deficiencies. A study on 270 people from Hyderabad found that 50 percent of people had deficiency of Vitamin B2 followed by Vitamin B6. This is because intake of fruits and vegetable has dipped drastically. The main reason for micro-nutrient deficiency is because of changes in food habits of people, nutritionists said. India has the highest number of malnourished people and child malnutrition rate is unacceptably high, shows a research on micro-nutrient malnutrition. According to rersearch published in the journal 'Nutrition', 50 percent of the people who were studied in Hyderabad have deficiency of Vitamin B2, followed by Vitamin B6. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcys) was also widely prevalent (52 percent) in the subjects. High levels of it are linked to early development of heart disease. Riboflavin is a vitamin that is needed for ...

[ B ASED ON A NEWS ITEM PUBLISHED IN DECCAN CHRONICLE DATED 08TH FENRUARY, 2019 (FRIDAY) ]. A study analysed suicide deaths since 1990. (1). When adjusted for age, the global mortality rate from suicide decreased in same period. (2). Suicide rates were higher for men (15.6 deaths per 1,00,000) than for women (7 deaths per 1,00,000). (3). Higher rates tended to be linked to higher levels of social and economic deprivation.  (4). Suicide trends vary substantially across countries and between groups.  (5). It reflected a complex inter-play of factors that warrant further investigation. (6). The WHO aims to reduce suicides by one-third between 2015 and 2030. (7). Data from Global Burden of Disease Study used to describe patterns of suicide mortality. (8). Suicide leading cause of age standardised years of life lost in the high income Asia Pacific region.  (9). 44.2% of those who took their own lives in 2016. (10). 6.7% rise in number of suicide deaths ...

[ Based on a news item published in The Hindu dated 22nd November, 2017 (Wednesday), p. 24 ]. A rocky cigar-shaped object detected in space in October 2017 came from another solar system, astronomers said on 21st November, 2017 (Monday) as they confirmed an unprecedented observation. The discovery may provide clues as to how other solar systems formed, said the researchers, who published their study in the British Journal ' Nature '. The asteroid, named Oumuamua by its discoverers, is 400 meters long and highly elongated, perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide. That odd shape is unprecedented among the some 7,50,000 asteroids and comets observed in our solar system where they formed, said the researchers.  Once a year: They concluded that the cigar-shaped thing is from another solar system due to data on its orbit. Asteroids like Oumuamua enter our solar system about once a year. But they are hard to trace and had not been detected until now, thanks to stronger telescope...

Blue Whales, the world's largest animals, usually favour their right side when they lunge to catch food - a preference similar to right-handedness in people, researchers said. But on certain occasions, while moving upward in shallow water, these righties will almost always shift to their left to keep a good eye on their favoured prey - tiny crustaceans known as krill. The reason for this situation-specific choice is likely simple: to get as much food in their mouths as possible, said the report published in Current Biology . "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example where animals show different lateralised behaviours depending on the context of the task that is being performed", said co-author James Herbert-Read of Stockholm University in Sweden. The report was based on analysis of the movement of 63 Blue Whales (Balaenoptera Musculus) off the coast of California. These giant creatures are almost as long as three school buses and weigh as much as 25 eleph...