Amid new diagnostic methods and treatment options, early detection is an emerging paradigm which seeks to decrease patient morbidity and mortality. And here comes saliva diagnostics with huge potential, possibly replacing the painful pricking on fingers or on wrists. Saliva diagnostics is emerging as the latest and easiest way to detect disease at a phase where it is easily treatable. ...
Read More »Author Archives: Pallavi Guha
Mystery of the 2000-year-old Basel papyrus mirror writing deciphered
Since the 16th century, Basel has been home to a mysterious papyrus. With mirror writing on both sides, it has puzzled generations of researchers. A research team from the University of Basel has now discovered that it is an unknown medical document from late antiquity. The text was likely written by the famous Roman physician Galen. The Basel papyrus collection ...
Read More »35-year solar power contract enables lower prices
The world’s first 35-year day or night solar contract (ACWA Power’s with DEWA in Dubai) also had a record-low price for solar with storage – of just 7.3 cents per kWh. Energy developers always look to find ways to structure deals to reduce their costs. A key task in developing utility-scale renewable energy projects is finding every possible way to ...
Read More »China archeo-tools suggest Man left Africa earlier than previously thought
Ancient tools and bones discovered in Shangchen in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau by archaeologists suggest early humans left Africa and arrived in Asia earlier than previously thought. The artefacts show that our earliest human ancestors colonised East Asia over two million years ago. They were found by a Chinese team that was led by Professor Zhaoyu Zhu of the ...
Read More »Growing a dinosaur’s dinner, the way it was 150 million years ago
Scientists have measured the nutritional value of herbivore dinosaurs’ diet by growing their food in atmospheric conditions similar to those found roughly 150 million years ago. Previously, many scientists believed that plants grown in an atmosphere with high carbon dioxide levels had low nutritional value. But a new experimental approach led by Dr Fiona Gill at the University of Leeds ...
Read More »Deaths from heart-related disease rising in India, study finds
Death due to heart-related disease is on the rise in India, causing more than one-fourth of all deaths in the country in 2015 and affecting significantly rural populations and young adults the most, suggests a study. This work is the first nationally representative study to measure cardiovascular mortality in India, led by Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for ...
Read More »84 endangered Amur leopards found in China, Russia
In a good and bad news to tiger conservationists, scientists estimate that 84 highly endangered Amur leopards are roaming in the wild across its current range along the southernmost border of Primorskii Province in Russia and Jilin Province of China. This new estimate of the Amur leopard population was recently reported in the scientific journal, Conservation Letters by scientists from China, Russia, ...
Read More »JEE, NEET go GMAT way, to hold entrance test twice a year
The Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be conducted twice a year instead of just once, and the best score will be taken into account for admissions. Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar announced it on Saturday that the National Testing Agency (NTA) would conduct of these exams and not the ...
Read More »Where’s world’s largest mobile manufacturing unit? It’s here in NOIDA, India
Samsung India will open its new manufacturing in India that would be the largest mobile manufacturing unit in the world, beginning Monday, July 9, 2018. With this, China’s lead in making mobile phones will come down. Built in a 35-acre complex at Sector 81 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh but almost in Delhi, the new factory will be inaugurated by the ...
Read More »The odds of living up to 110 years or more level out at 105, says study
Want to be a supercentenarian? The chances of reaching the ripe old age of 110 are within reach – if you survive the perilous 90s and make it to 105 when death rates level out, according to a study of extremely old Italians led by the University of California, Berkeley, and Sapienza University of Rome. Researchers tracked the death trajectories ...
Read More »‘Breakthrough’ algorithm exponentially faster than any previous one
What if a large class of algorithms used today — from the algorithms that help us avoid traffic to the algorithms that identify new drug molecules — worked exponentially faster? Computer scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a completely new kind of algorithm, one that exponentially speeds up computation by ...
Read More »New spider species found deep in southern Indiana cave
IMAGE: This is a female specimen of the newly described rare spider species Islandiana lewisi. Credit: Dr. Marc Milne Spiders are ubiquitous within our forests, fields, and backyards. Although you may be used to seeing the beautiful yellow and black spiders of the genus Argiope in your garden, large ground-scurrying wolf spiders in your yard, or spindly cellar spiders in your ...
Read More »NASA infrared data reveals Tropical Storm Emilia is strengthening
IMAGE: On June 28 at 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 UTC) the AIRS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite showed powerful storms with very cold cloud top temperatures (purple). Credits: NASA JPL, Heidar Thrastarson Infrared NASA satellite imagery provided cloud top temperatures of thunderstorms that make up Tropical Storm Emilia. Comparing those NASA temperature readings with another satellite’s data obtained the following day, forecasters ...
Read More »How the scent of a male sensed to measure him up by female blackbucks?
At Tal Chhapar, a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the Thar desert, a strange drama is staged twice every year. In the blistering heat of summer from March to April and the post-monsoon months of September and October, up to a hundred blackbuck males stake out territories on the flat land to entice females to mate with them in ...
Read More »Self-monitoring diabetes reduces future costs by half: Study
Self-monitoring of type 2 diabetes used in combination with an electronic feedback system results in considerable savings on health care costs especially in sparsely populated areas, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. Self-monitoring delivers considerable savings on the overall costs of type 2 diabetes care, as well as on patients’ travel costs. Glycated hemoglobin testing is ...
Read More »Forests may lose ability to protect against extremes of climate change: Study
Forests, one of the most dominate ecosystems on Earth, harbor significant biodiversity. Scientists have become increasingly interested in how this diversity is enhanced by the sheltering microclimates produced by trees. A recent University of Montana study suggests that a warming climate in the Pacific Northwest would lessen the capacity of many forest microclimates to moderate climate extremes in the future. ...
Read More »What makes dog man’s best friend?
From pugs to labradoodles to huskies, dogs are our faithful companions. They live with us, play with us and even sleep with us. But how did a once nocturnal, fearsome wolf-like animal evolve over tens of thousands of years to become beloved members of our family? And what can dogs tell us about human health? Through the power of genomics, ...
Read More »Cyclone Prapiroon: NASA’s GPM satellite finds heavy rainfall on southwestern side
When the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, it saw very heavy rainfall occurring in one part of Tropical Storm Prapiroon. Tropical Depression 09W was located east of the Philippines when it was upgraded early today, June 29, to Tropical Storm Prapiroon. The tropical storm is in a favorable environment for intensification. ...
Read More »Facing music from volcano eruption? Better listen to it before, says study
A volcano in Ecuador with a deep cylindrical crater might be the largest musical instrument on Earth, producing unique sounds scientists could use to predict its eruption, said a new study. New infrasound recordings of Cotopaxi volcano in central Ecuador witnessed eruptions in 2015 and its crater changed shape. Now the deep narrow crater makes air to reverberate against the ...
Read More »Teleconnection? To forecast winter rainfall in LA, take cue from New Zealand summer
Variability in El Niño cycles was long considered a reliable tool for predicting winter precipitation in the Southwest United States, but its forecasting power has diminished considerably over the years. Scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have found a new link to predict wet or dry conditions for the winter far ahead. “Influences between the hemispheres promise earlier and ...
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