Author Archives: Srinivas Chakravarty

4 Years After India, US House Passes Legislation to Ban TikTok

TikTok

While the US House of Representatives recently passed legislation that could pave the way for a ban on TikTok, utilized by over 170 million Americans, it was India that initially took action to block the Chinese short-video platform, which boasts a global user base. On June 29, 2020, India enforced a ban on TikTok, a platform controlled by the Chinese ...

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India bans 18 OTT Platforms due to obscene content

In a decisive move, the Indian government has announced the prohibition of 18 over-the-top (OTT) platforms due to their dissemination of obscene, vulgar, and in some cases, pornographic content. This action follows repeated warnings issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, as disclosed by Union Minister Anurag Thakur. Among the targeted platforms, one app alone had accrued over 10 ...

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PM Modi greets Amitabh Bachchan on his 80th birthday

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted Amitabh Bachchan on his 80th birthday. Shri Modi has said that Amitabh Bachchan is one of India’s most remarkable film personalities who has enthralled and entertained audiences across generations. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said; “A very happy 80th birthday to Amitabh Bachchan Ji. He is one of India’s most remarkable ...

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No Picnic in the Clouds! It’s JPL aerobot

JPL’s Venus Aerial Robotic Balloon Prototype Aces Test Flights A scaled-down version of the aerobot that could one day take to the Venusian skies successfully completed two Nevada test flights, marking a milestone for the project. The intense pressure, heat, and corrosive gases of Venus’ surface are enough to disable even the most robust spacecraft in a matter of hours. ...

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ANTI-NARCOTICS OPERATION

In a coordinated operation at sea, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Indian Navy apprehended a suspicious vessel carrying more than 200 kgs of narcotics. The boat with its crew, has been escorted to Kochi for further investigation. This is significant not only in terms of quantity and cost but also signifies a focus on collaborative efforts for disruption of the ...

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These Mouthwashes may suppress SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is an airborne disease transmitted via aerosols, which are spread from the oral and nasal cavities—the mouth and the nose. In addition to the well-known division and spread of the virus in the cells of the respiratory tract, SARS-CoV-2 is also known to infect the cells of the lining of the mouth and the ...

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b-type procyanidin-rich foods consumed in right amounts have multiple health benefits

B-type procyanidins

B-type procyanidins, made of catechin oligomers, are a class of polyphenols found abundantly in foods like cocoa, apples, grape seeds, and red wine. Several studies have established the benefits of these micronutrients in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes. B-type procyanidins are also successful in controlling hypertension, dyslipidemia, and glucose intolerance. Studies attest to the physiological benefits of ...

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2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Former Berkeley Lab scientist Carolyn Bertozzi wins

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.” Bertozzi, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, is the eighth woman to be awarded the prize. From 1996 to 2015, before joining Stanford, she was a faculty scientist ...

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India emerges as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar and world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar

Sugar Exports

India emerges as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar and world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar. Records over 5000 LMT sugarcane produced in sugar season 2021-22; 35 LMT sugar used to ethanol production and 359 LMT sugar produced by sugar mills in the season. Records highest sugar exports of 109.8 LMT. Sugar mills/distilleries generate ₹ 18,000 crore from ...

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‘Love hormone’ revealed to have heart healing properties in Humans like EpiPCs regenerate organs in zebrafish

The neurohormone oxytocin is well-known for promoting social bonds including trust, empathy, positive memories, processing of bonding cues, and positive communication and generating pleasurable feelings, for example from art, exercise, or intimacy. Now, researchers from Michigan State University show that in zebrafish and human cell cultures, oxytocin has yet another, unsuspected, function: it stimulates stem cells derived from the heart’s ...

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VMC is biomarker of ageing for nematode; what is its role in Humans?

We all grow old and die, but we still don’t know why. Diet, exercise and stress all effect our lifespan, but the underlying processes that drive ageing remain a mystery. Often, we measure age by counting our years since birth and yet our cells know nothing of chronological time—our organs and tissues may age more rapidly or slowly regardless of ...

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Scientists sequence world’s largest pangenome to help unlock genetic mysteries behind finer silk

Silk worms

BGI Genomics, in collaboration with Southwest University, the State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, and other partners, has constructed a high-resolution pangenome dataset representing almost the entire genomic content in a silkworm. Previously, due to the scarcity of wild silkworms and technical limitations of former studies, many trait-associated sites were missing. This is the first research ever to digitize ...

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‘Mystery gene’ matures the skeleton of the cell

Microscopy image of actine. (Actine is yellow, cell core is blue)

“I’m a professional pin-in-a-haystack seeker,” geneticist Thijn Brummelkamp responds when asked why he excels at tracking down proteins and genes that other people did not find, despite the fact that some have managed to remain elusive for as long as forty years. His research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute has once again managed to track down one of these “mystery ...

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Bitcoin Mining: Researchers find it environmentally unsustainable, threat to future energy

Taken as a share of the market price, the climate change impacts of mining the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin is more comparable to the impacts of extracting and refining crude oil than mining gold, according to an analysis published in Scientific Reports by researchers at The University of New Mexico. The authors suggest that rather than being considered akin to ‘digital gold’, Bitcoin ...

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Webb Telescope, Hubble Telescope Capture Detailed images of DART Impact

Two of NASA’s Great Observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique NASA experiment designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world’s first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. These observations of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble ...

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Astronomers Detect Protective Shield Defending Pair of ‘Dwarf Galaxies’ with help of FUSE, Hubble

For billions of years, the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxies – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – have followed a perilous journey. Orbiting one another as they are pulled in toward our home galaxy, they have begun to unravel, leaving behind trails of gaseous debris. And yet – to the puzzlement of astronomers – these dwarf galaxies remain intact, with ongoing vigorous star ...

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Did the pandemic change our personalities? Increased neuroticism among young adults seen: Study

Crowd during Pandemic

Despite a long-standing hypothesis that personality traits are relatively impervious to environmental pressures, the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the trajectory of personality across the United States, especially in younger adults, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Angelina Sutin of Florida State University College of Medicine, and colleagues. Previous studies have generally found ...

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Celebrate ‘International Observe the Moon Night’ with NASA [Details]

Celebrate 'International Observe the Moon Night' with NASA

The public is invited to participate in NASA’s celebration of “International Observe the Moon Night” on Saturday, Oct. 1. This annual, worldwide public engagement event takes place when the Moon is close to first quarter – a great phase for evening observing.  Last year about 500,000 people participated from 122 countries and all seven continents. This celebration provides opportunities to learn about ...

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Voice control smart devices might hinder children’s social, emotional development: Study

Voice control devices

Voice control smart devices, such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, might hinder children’s social and emotional development, argues an expert in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, in a viewpoint published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. These devices might have long term effects by impeding children’s critical thinking, capacity for empathy and compassion, ...

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