Category: Science

Science

Scientists test menstrual products with blood for the first time, and find surprises

September 3, 2023 admin

Blood really is thicker than water – yet makers of menstrual products have traditionally used saline to estimate how much liquid they can hold. The capacity to absorb of traditional menstrual products is a common way to measure the amount of blood lost. Clinicians use it to diagnose heavy menstrual bleeding, which affects roughly a…

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Science This Week | India launches Aditya-L1 to study the sun, Pragyan safely parked and more

September 3, 2023 admin

Aditya L1, India’s first ever solar mission, was launched by the ISRO on Saturday at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikotta in Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft will be positioned within a ‘haloo orbit’ around Lagrange point 1 (L1) in the Sun-Earth system, located approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth. Study will be conducted of Chromospheric and coronal heating,…

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ISRO conducts first Earth-bound manoeuvre of Aditya-L1

September 3, 2023 admin

ISRO said the satellite is healthy and operating nominally. | Photo Credit: X/@isro A day after India’s first solar observatory mission which was launched, the first Earth-bound firing to raise the orbit of the Aditya-L1, was performed on Sunday. The ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network Work (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru performed the manoeuvre. The space agency said the…

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Oldest yet fossils of a plant-eating dinosaur found in Rajasthan

September 3, 2023 admin

In a paper published recently in Scientific Reports, scientists from IIT Roorkee have characterised dinosaur fossils from the Middle Jurassic period, found in the Thar desert near the Jaisalmer Basin by the Geological Survey of India. They discovered that they had uncovered remains of a sauropod dinosaur, which is the same clade as the long-necked…

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The man behind the Mersenne primes

September 2, 2023 admin

Line engraving of Marin Mersenne. | Photo Credit: WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON You know what prime numbers are, don’t you? A whole number greater than 1 that has no factors other than 1 and itself is referred to as a prime number. These numbers have been known and researched for a long time and are intertwined…

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Chest X-ray interpretation using AI can detect more TB cases

September 2, 2023 admin

India has a powerful technology — AI-assisted chest X-ray — to screen presumptive TB cases. The AI algorithm (qXR), which was developed by the Mumbai-based Qure.ai, can help in early detection of people with presumptive TB disease in less than a minute, including people with subclinical TB. As per the 2019-2021 National TB prevalence survey…

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Is the bat’s brain wired for collective behaviour?

September 2, 2023 admin

The same neurons that help bats navigate through space may also help them navigate collective social environments (Nature). Many mammals, including bats and humans, are believed to navigate with the help of a brain structure called the hippocampus, which encodes a mental ‘map’ of familiar surroundings. For example, as one walks around the neighbourhood or…

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Why does our hair grow and become grey?

September 2, 2023 admin

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables helps in reducing greying. | Photo Credit: Getty Images As we age, our hair turns grey, which is only natural, and it actually gives us distinction, as elderly men who are retired, and experienced, have seen and used opportunities to advantage. But several men, particularly those in the movie…

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Early prediction of preeclampsia using a blood-derived biomarker

September 2, 2023 admin

A liquid-biopsy approach that measures DNA-methylation levels in the blood may improve the detection of pregnancies at risk of developing preeclampsia at early stages, a study published in Nature Medicine shows. Preeclampsia is a major cause of morbidities during gestation. Early-onset preeclampsia — occurring before 34 weeks of gestation — is associated with a higher risk of…

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Curcumin has no anti-inflammatory effect in rheumatoid arthritis, a trial shows

September 2, 2023 admin

A small trial undertaken at one site in Kochi, Kerala has found that curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric, has no anti-inflammatory property in people with rheumatoid arthritis. The trial randomly assigned participants to receive either 2 grams of curcumin along with 10 mg of piperine a day (intervention arm) or a placebo. All patients…

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