Science

A robot created at Standford University in the United States is diving down to shipwrecks and sunken planes and allowing its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers too.  The robot known as OceanOneK has humanoid top half, with eyes that have a 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full colour. It resembles a

Experiments on mice have helped scientists identify some key differences in the development of brains in modern humans and our closest relative, Neanderthals. After our ancestors split from the Neanderthals, some one hundred amino acids underwent changes and spread to almost all modern humans. The reason behind this change had puzzled scientists all this while.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are the most common neurodevelopmental disorders that are diagnosed in early childhood. While both are separate conditions, their symptoms tend to overlap which makes it quite tricky to differentiate between them. Now, in a novel study, researchers from the University of South Australia and Flinders

To understand any physical phenomenon, one must identify the variables that are responsible for it. While scientists are familiar with the variables for most physical connects, some have remained to be elusive. Now, researchers from Columbia University have used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a program that observes such physical phenomena and detects the relevant

A first-of-its-kind study has found new stars forming beyond the visible boundaries about 1.5 to 3.9 billion light years away from the Earth, according to an article by a research scholar of Tezpur University. Anshuman Borgohain, the research scholar was a member of the team of astronomers from India, the USA and France which conducted

The “origin of life” is a subject that scientists have invested an unparalleled amount of time and resources in to understand it better. How life emerged from non-living molecules continues to be a much-debated topic. But now, scientists at Scripps Research may have found something to shed light on the subject. Scientists have discovered a

The amount of time, effort, and money needed to train ever-more-complex neural network models are soaring as researchers push the limits of machine learning. Analogue deep learning, a new branch of artificial intelligence, promises faster computation with less energy consumption. The findings of the research were published in the journal ‘Science’. Programmable resistors are the

Alphabet’s DeepMind unveiled its AlphaFold software in 2020, and it has since been used to create the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (AlphaFold DB). It includes highly accurate protein structures predicted by the software. This database has been accessed by researchers to tackle real-world problems like plastic pollution, antibiotic resistance, and more. DeepMind has now partnered

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation may provide high-speed Internet to mobiles phones in near future, as suggested by a report. The Elon Musk-founded company has filed an application to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking permission to use the 2GHz spectrum to provide “mobile satellite service.” The space company has over 2,600 Starlink satellites in

Satellite startup OneWeb’s past decade has resembled a space opera. Founded by a US entrepreneur and headquartered in London, it has partnered with Google and Elon Musk, supplied Arianespace, attracted investment from Hughes Network Systems and SoftBank Group and fallen into bankruptcy. It was then rescued by the UK government and India’s Bharti Global. The

Researchers have utilised the quantum anti-butterfly effect to successfully develop a method for benchmarking the performance of quantum computers. This has helped them overcome an experimental challenge in physics that had been long puzzling researchers. According to Bin Yan, a quantum theorist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the method paves way for determining the capability of quantum

A chess-playing robot grabbed the finger of a seven-year-old boy and broke it during the ongoing match with him at the Moscow Open last week, according to news reports. The incident took place on July 19 and videos of it were soon circulated on the Internet. A clip, shared by the Baza Telegram channel, shows the

Scientists at Rice University in the United States have figured out how to hack the brains of fruit flies in order to make them remote-controlled. The team of neuroengineers were able to use magnetic signals to activate targeted neurons that control the body position and movement of the flies.   According to a study published

Researchers have suggested a new way to detect planets that orbit around dead stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs), which are essentially binary star systems that have two stars in extreme proximity to each other. The lack of distance between them leads to one star drawing material from the other, thereby dimming the second star.

Cows are considered the backbone of rural economy, but face neglect on becoming unproductive, and now a top business school has proposed a facial recognition technology-based development model integrating stray bovines. An Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) study has come out with a model using facial recognition technology for stray cows to link them

In what may lead to the development of new treatments for heart diseases, researchers have created a novel artificial intelligence (AI) technique that can detect plaque erosion in heart arteries. The technique uses optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to monitor arterial plaque. The finding is crucial as the disintegration of the plaque can serve as

E.coli is a type of bacteria that has been a major health concern and has led to numerous deaths. While the bacterium is found in the intestines of healthy humans and animals, the history of its evolution has remained unknown. Now, researchers, at McMaster University, have successfully reconstructed the first ancient genome of E.coli by

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter has captured images of portions of the Martian Valles Marineris, the largest system of canyons in the Solar System. Valles Marineris, like many other geological features on the red planet, dwarfs all terrestrial analogues. The Valles Marineris, in particular, is 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday broke its record for the number of rockets launched in a calendar year, topping last year’s slate of 31 missions amid a whirlwind campaign to launch its own internet satellites into orbit. SpaceX’s 32nd launch of 2022 using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket comes as the company races to build

Due to the harsh glare of the Sun, astronomers, while searching for asteroids in space, point their telescopes away from the centre of the solar system. Most of the asteroid surveys are conducted at night and tend to scan the region beyond Earth’s orbit for asteroids. A new study proposes that this method creates a

Amazon Project Kuiper, the e-commerce giant’s initiative to offer broadband internet via satellites, may soon be expanded to India as the Jeff Bezos-owned company is looking for an executive to handle the project’s licensing strategy in India and Asia-Pacific countries. Amazon had announced in 2020 that it will invest more than $10 billion (roughly Rs.

Our planet was recently hit by solar winds triggered by the snapping of a gigantic canyon of fire filament on the Sun. The event, earlier predicted to take place on July 20 or 21, slammed Earth on Wednesday. However, one doesn’t need to panic as the G1 geomagnetic storm was a mild one posing no

On the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, NASA announced on Wednesday that it’s shooting for a late August launch of its giant, new moon rocket. NASA will attempt the more than month-long lunar test flight with three mannequins, but no astronauts, as early as August 29. There are also two launch dates

American Space Agency NASA has selected Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) to launch their new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, from California which will explore dark matter and other subjects, according to a release by the agency on Wednesday. The launch has been tentatively set for October 2026, using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket

A founding member of Elon Musk’s Neuralink left the company in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a string of departures at the brain implant startup. Paul Merolla, who helped launch Neuralink in 2016 and worked on its chip design program, is no longer with the San Francisco

The M S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (MSRUAS) will build a student satellite “Ramaiah Sat” coinciding with ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75 years of Indian independence. The MSRUAS under Gokula Education Foundation (medical) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Indian Technology Congress Association (ITCA) to develop and build the nano

A team of paleoanthropologists have unearthed a human fossil that is estimated to be around 1.4 million years old. The fossil was found at the Sima del Elefante archaeological site in Spain during excavations on June 30. The fossil contains fragments of a human skull and is said to be the oldest ever found in

While NASA’s Perseverance Rover might not have been successful in finding signs of life on Mars yet, it has discovered a strange piece of an object, which looks like a tangle of string or shredded material that is clinging together.  According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the image was captured by the

It has been an exciting week with the release of breathtaking photos of our Universe by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Images such as the one below give us a chance to see faint distant galaxies as they were more than 13 billion years ago. It’s the perfect time to step back and appreciate

The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest photographs demonstrate that it is capable of seeing more than just cosmic objects that are far away from Earth. NASA has unveiled Webb’s first images of our own solar system, which include shots of Jupiter and whirling asteroids. According to Mashable, these images were taken by engineers when the

Despite some immunotherapies been proven to be effective in treating melanoma brain metastases, researchers remain clueless about the reason behind the tumour’s spread to the brain. Now, through an extensive study of the cells inside melanoma brain metastases, researchers have unravelled details about the condition which could lead to the development of new therapies. Melanoma

The comet C/2017 K2 has offered a spectacular celestial show for stargazers and astronomers as it hurtled past Earth this week. In its closest approach to our planet, which was on July 14, the comet was about 270 million kilometres away. Now, while the comet may have crossed its closest point to Earth, the celestial

Back in 2011, a Martian meteorite called Northwest Africa 7034 was found in the Sahara Desert. Dubbed Black Beauty, the meteorite is believed to contain some of the oldest Martian igneous material. Now, in a new study, researchers have managed to zero in on the meteorite’s origin on the Red Planet. The findings are likely