chakravarthy

A compound that makes chilli peppers spicy may help curb lung cancer spread, according to a study that may pave the way for a novel treatment against the deadly disease. Most cancer-related deaths occur when cancer spreads to distant sites, a process called metastasis. "Lung cancer and other cancers commonly metastasise to secondary locations like the brain, liver and bone, making them difficult to treat", said Jamie Friedman, a doctoral candidate who performed the research at Marshall University in the United States. "Our study suggests that the natural compound capsalcin from chilli peppers could represent a novel therapy to combat metastasis in lung cancer patients", Friedman said.  In experiments involving three lines of cultured human non-small cell lung cancer cells, the researchers observed that capsalcin inhibited invasion, the first step of the metastatic process. Additional experiments revealed that capsalcin suppresses lung cancer metastasis by inhibi...

Scientists have been altering the genes of mice, pigs, goats, chicken and butterflies for quiet some time. But even as a Crispr, a transformative gene-editing tool, made seemingly impossible genetic alterations possible, reptiles had remained untouched. That changed with the birth of a nearly transparent Anolis lizard, the first gene-edited reptile, according to the draft of a study made public in April 2019. Ashley Rasys, a graduate student at the University of Georgia who was involved in the lizard's creation, arrived shortly after he broke through his thick shell. "I was floored", she said. "We weren't really expecting to generate an albino lizardat first", she added.  "We can now create two to four mutant lizards from just a day's work", said Douglas Menke, the Director of the Genetics Department at the University of Georgia and another author of the study. The scientists could have altered a variety of gene, but they focused on the mut...

A team of NASA researchers, including and Indian-origin scientist has found the surface inside the International Space Station (ISS) is littered with microbes just like in a gym or office on Earth - threatening astronauts' health at the orbiting laboratory. The knowledge of the composition of the microbial and fungal communities on the ISS can be used to develop safety measures for NASA for long-term space travel, said the researchers in a paper that appeared in the Journal 'Microbiome'. The authors found that while fungal communities were stable, microbial communities were similar across locations but changed over time. The microbes on the ISS were mostly human-associated. They included organisms that are considered opportunistic pathogens on Earth such as 'Staphylococcus Aureus' and 'Pantoea' and 'Bacillus'. There are currently six astronauts on board the International Space Station. Whether these opportunistic bacteria could cause disease in a...

Scientists have discovered evidence of different forms of bacteria embedded within a Martian meteorite, suggesting that life had once existed on the Red Planet. Named Scientists from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences discovered embedded organic material in mineralised form such as different forms of bacteria in ALH-77005, the Martian meteorite.  [ Courtesy: The Times of India dated 09th April, 2019 (Tuesday) ]. - Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy - ---------------------------------------------------------

Scientists have decoded how the bronze weapons of China's iconic Terracotta Army remained pristine and shiny despite being buried for nearly 2,000 years. The team found that the chrome plating on the weapons - once thought to be the earliest form of anti-rust technology - derives from a decorative varnish rather than a preservation technique. The study, published in the Journal "Scientific Reports', reveals that the chemical composition and characteristics of the surrounding soil, rather than Chromium, may be responsible for the weapons' famous preservation power. [ Courtesy: The Times of India dated 09th April, 2019 (Tuesday) ]. - Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy - -------------------------------------------------------- 

Those renouncing Indian citizenship will now have to declare the circumstances or reasons for which they intend to acquire foreign citizenship. Also, only one living spouse of foreign origin of a citizen or OCI can apply for registration as an OCI card-holder. Those renouncing Indian citizenship on account of being national of another country will now have to declare the circumstances or reasons due to which they intend to acquire foreign citizenship. The home minsitry, while notifying the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2018, also made it clear that only living spouse of foreign origin of a citizen of India or overseas citizen of India (OCI) would be eligible to apply for registration as an OCI card-holder. "This is in conformity with the law that bans polygamy (except in case of Muslims by virtue of their personal law)", said a home ministry official. The amended rules also require Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) who are ordinarily resident in India for six months, spouse o...

Black Holes are long-time super-stars of science fiction. But their Hollywood fame is a little strange given that no-one has ever actually seen one - at least, until now. If you needed to see to believe, then thank the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which has just produced the first ever direct image of a Black Hole. This amazing feat required global collaboration to turn the Earth into one giant telescope and image an object thousands of trillions of kilometres away. As stunning and ground-breaking as it is, the EHT project is not just about taking on a challenge. It's an unprecedented test of whether Einstein's ideas about the very nature of space and time hold up in extreme circumstances, and looks closer than ever before at the role of Black Holes in the universe.  Capturing the Uncapturable: A Black Hole is a region of space whose mass is so large and dense that not even light can escape its gravitational attraction. Against the black background of the inky beyond, cap...