August 2009 - Posts - Lab Rats

August 2009 - Posts

Chandrayaan-I comes to an end

Posted by Seema Singh at 
As was feared on July 17, 2009 (when a star sensor malfunction in Chandrayaan-1 was first revealed) India's first lunar expedition came to an end today. A rather sad day for Indians who have associated national pride and Indian technological prowess with this mission, even though ISRO has been launching several important communication and remote...

More>>

How about handwriting for lie detection?

Posted by Seema Singh at 
I don't know about you but I've had mates in school and college who used to dabble in "handwriting analysis" and would often show-off by critiquing the way we dotted our "i's" or crossed our "t's", whether our "l's" were slanting or straight, whether the loop in "h" was constricted...

More>>

Modern day search for 'Sanjeevani'

Posted by Seema Singh at 
So is there, rather was there, a miracle plant called Sanjeevani ? If yes, could/can it resurrect life as different versions of the epic Ramayana tell us? Interesting questions even today, aren't they? Pulled by many such intriguing questions a team of researchers set out on their own "search for Sanjeevani ". The full account can be found...

More>>

Home-grown tech for cancer care

Posted by Seema Singh at 
India can hardly boast of any biomedical new technology that can withstand global scrutiny. (Of course there could be exceptions). So now when I learn that Cytotron (a machine for non-invasive treatment of cancer and arthritis), developed by a Bangalore technologist Rajah Vijay Kumar, has been certified by the world's leading and a century-old product...

More>>

IITs finally getting close to medical science

Posted by Seema Singh at 
It's great to see the first and the oldest of all IITs to make a move towards medical education and research. IIT Kharagpur has signed a unique partnership with the University of California San Diego Health Sciences to set up an International Academic Medical Center at IIT-K. IIT-K Director Damodar Acharya believes this collaboration to be among...

More>>

Indian tigers key to global tiger recovery?

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Indians have always taken pride in their tigers. So every time the dwindling tiger count comes to the fore, there's a national uproar. But now there's one more compelling reason to save Indian tigers. New research in today's issue of the open source journal PLoS Genetics shows that tigers in the Indian subcontinent retain 60-70% of global...

More>>

IISc is India's top ranking engg/tech institute

Posted by Seema Singh at 
...Among the 67 engineering and technological institutes which have a publishing record. Comparing this record between 1999 and 2008, Gangan Prathap and BM Gupta report in Aug 10 issue of Current Science that IISc ranks No. 1, followed by some IITs. (list below). These institutes together have published 75,166 papers during this period, according to...

More>>

India-Australia education ties still strong

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Despite the souring of ‘education' relationship between India and Australia, in the wake of recent attacks on Indian students there, institutional ties remain intact. The first plans of the $10 million IITB-Monash (University) Research Academy, to be built at IIT in Mumbai, have been released. The Academy is expected to be ready for occupation in...

More>>

Rethinking biology, with math in tow

Posted by Seema Singh at 
For long, biology and math have been somewhat mutually exclusive, at least in this part of the world and in initial years of education. In any case, introducing math to biologists later in career turns out a tad too late or difficult for optimal use. Now, a large part of the scientific community is rethinking biology education, which apparently needs...

More>>