Table of Contents
MARCH 2018- SCIENCE REPORTER
➢ A push for Artificial intelligence research
➢ VR-headsets: caution necessary
➢ Dual-gated device makes gadgets power efficient
➢ Mercury-free lamp purifies water
➢ Geospatial study in Namdapha national park
➢ Smart phones: changing paradigms
➢ Water purification through plastic waste
➢ Neuromarketing: pressing your buy button
➢ THE MAD TREE
➢ Raseela Rasbhari
➢ MESSENGERS
➢ Parasites can be useful too!
➢ Ecological principles and Biodiversity pattern
➢ DEAD SEA: WORLD’S DEEPEST HYPER-SALINE LAKE
➢ GOGGLE FOR BLIND (G4B)
➢ A push for Artificial intelligence research
The budget presented on 1st February 2018 in the Indian Parliament signaled the
government’s intention to push for the development of cutting-edge technologies
like machine learning, Artificial intelligence, internet of things and 3D printing.
The government has also promised to offer incentives to startups and venture funds
that undertake application-oriented research artificial intelligence across key sectors
including banking, insurance, education, health, retail and transportation.
While, to begin with, funds under the Atal innovation mission will be used to
catalyse programmes on a nationwide scale, the department of science & technology
is also looking into setting up centres of excellence that will push investments in
“research, training and skilling in robotics, artificial intelligence, digital
manufacturing, big data analyses, quantum communication”.
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics have of late been subjects to
a lot of debate primarily on account of fears that robots might soon take up most of
our jobs.
➢ VR-headsets: caution necessary
VR-induced headache and nausea is well known. VR can also have neurological
effects because of its strongly realistic simulated motion. These conditions are called
“Simulator sickness” and “virtual reality sickness”.
In VR-headset, the mobile screen is only a few centimeters away from our eyes. Even
in normal circumstances (when the screen is more than a foot away from our eyes), it
causes immense eye strain if used for extended time periods. Due to increasing
mobile use, eye diseases like eye fatigue, dry eye, etc. are increasing.
Besides, current VR-headset are bulky and this added weight on the facial bones may
cause pain.
➢ Dual-gated device makes gadgets power efficient Over the years, transistors- the building blocks of digital devices- have become smaller by the day, making devices faster and compact. But this has also meant increased wastage of power. A group of Indian scientists have found a way to address this problem.
Transistors work by acting like electronic switches controlling the flow of current
across circuits.
The most common type of transistors called MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor
field-effect transistors) cannot switch from ‘on’ ‘off’ abruptly and thus leak current
even after the device is turned off. The smaller the transistors are more the power
they waste.
Tunnel FETs (field-effect transistors) waste much less power but are more suited for
low performance devices like watches or notebook computers.
Scientists at the Indian institute of science (IISc) at Bengaluru have combined these
two different types of transistors into a single device that can easily switch between
power-efficient and high performance modes, depending on the need.
The device has a special type of metal-semiconductor junction which can be tweaked
to make it behave either like a MOSFET or a tunnel FET.
➢ Mercury-free lamp purifies water
A group of Indian scientists have developed a mercury-free ultraviolet lamp that can
be used in water purifiers. Scientists have engineered an optimized dielectric
discharge based mercury-free vacuum UV/UV light source for water sterilization.
The lamp can produce the desired level of wavelengths for deactivation of bacteria
within ten seconds without the use of mercury.
The lamp has been developed by scientists from CSIR labs-central electronics
engineering research institute (CEERI), Pilani and the national environmental
engineering research institute (NEERI), Nagpur-working along with the Birla institute
of scientific research (BISR), Jaipur.
Naturally available water may contain pathogenic organisms and toxic compounds.
UV radiation is preferable for water purification is preferable for water purification
over chemical treatment. UV radiation is widely used for water sterilization as it
does not create any by-product during treatment and does not alter the taste of
water. It also does not eliminate minerals. But it has several disadvantages, which
include start-up time, filament failure, sleeve breakage, dimensional restrictions and
non-reparability. Mercury-containing UV-lamps generate a considerable amount of
toxic mercury waste at the end of their life as a typical UV lamp contains 20 to 200
mg of mercury.
The unique structural design of the lamp enables it to produce desired UV
wavelengths. The lamp has been tested for five types of bacteria-E. coli,
shigellaboydii, Vibrio, coliforms and fecal coliform. Within ten seconds, all bacteria
got deactivated.
➢ Geospatial study in Namdapha national park
A study was carried out by the Indira Gandhi Conservation monitoring centre
(IGCMC), WWF-India, supported by the ministry of environment, forest and climate
(MoEFCC) to develop a management plan for the Namdapha national park in
Arunachal Pradesh.
Habitat suitability Map for Tiger in the national park along with the identification of
potential sites for location of watch towers in the park was prepared using Geospatial
techniques.
The various threats in the park include hunting, illegal fishing and trapping of wild
fauna, illegal felling of trees and collection of non-timber forest products for their
livelihood by local inhabitants (Lisu, Chakma and Mishmi). Habitat destruction poses
further threat to wildlife.
➢ Smart phones: changing paradigms
THE world’s first mobile phone call was made on 3 April 1973. Martin Cooper, a
senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival telecommunications company from a
phone that weight a staggering 1.1kg and measured 228.6*127*44.4mm. This device
took 10 hours to charge and the talk-time you got was only 30 minutes.
Privacy and security
Personal data security has become an issue of concern. Smart phone companies are
therefore replacing these traditional passwords with biometrics like fingerprint
scanners, facial recognition, iris scanner, voice recognition etc.
Voice recognition bio metrics:
Also called ‘speech recognition’, this is a technology that converts a speech signal
captured by a microphone to a sequence of words. The frequency spectrum of
speech signal is encoded and stored in the internal system memory. The sound
signal is digitized and then the digitized signal is compared previously recorded
samples held in a database to find the closest match.
Facial recognition: in this, a user can unlock the smart phone just by looking at it.
Many algorithms like colour segmentation, template matching, etc. for face
detection.
The technology uses an infrared light that illuminates the face, and a projector
projects an array of infrared dots at it.
An IR camera snaps an image of these dots, which the phone uses to authenticate
you against an already stored image of your face.
Recently this technology has been launched by Apple by the name face ID. The
iphone X, a new phone range of Apple has this face recognition technology called
TrueDepth. The iphone X has several sensors packed into the device, including an
infrared camera, dot projector, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.
Sensors used in smart phones
Smart phones are becoming more like personal assistants, tracking our movements,
monitoring our behavior and even anticipating our requirements. Many operations
in mobile phones are today done with the help of specific sensors, for instance, the
display turns off when he put our phone on the ear while calling, the brightness sets
automatically, compass positioning, etc. different sensors are responsible for
different functions.
1. Proximity sensor: This is able to detect the nearby objects without any physical
contact and is placed the earpiece of the mobile. It consists of infrared LED and IR
light detector.
2. Accelerometer and Gyroscope: Accelerometer determines the orientation of the
device. Gyroscope do the same but with greater precision. An accelerometer
measures linear accelerometer of movement, while a gyro measures the angular
rotational velocity.
The data help phone’s software to determine in which direction the phone is and
rotates the screen accordingly. These sensors are used for Virtual Reality (VR)
applications, 360⁰ videos, games and many other applications.
3. Ambient light sensor: This sensor detects the amount of light and is used to set
automatic brightness in the device.
GPS: The system navigates by means of a map with help from GPS satellites.
GPS receivers in phones are passive devices and determine the position using data
from at least three GPS satellites and the receiver through trilateration.
The data is transmitted via radio signals. Trilateration uses the distance between the
satellites and the receiver to create overlapping “spheres” that intersect in a circle.
The intersection is your location on the ground.
Barometer: a sensor that can measure atmospheric pressure. It is used to determine how high the device is above sea level, which in turn results in improved GPS accuracy.
Magnetometer: This is the digital compass that shows the direction. With its ability
to sense magnetic fields, it points the compass relative to the earth’s magnetic
north pole.
Touch screens: They replaced the button system in phones. They are of four typesresistive,
capacities, surface acoustic wave and infrared touch.
Integrated camera
The first cameras introduced on phones were considered to be just an extra feature
providing low quality images. But today many consumers have completely discarded
their cameras using just their cell phones instead.
VGA camera: VGA stands for video graphics array that typically has a visual graphic
size of 640*480 pixels (equivalent to about 0.3 MP). These are the most basic flash
less cameras. VGA is now an outdated visual technology.
MP cameras: MP or megapixel (one million pixels) is the measurement of the
imaging sensing capacity of a camera. The higher the number of pixels, the better is
the resolution of the image. For example, a 3 MP camera covers an area nine times
as large as covered by a one VGA camera. 1.3 MP camera has a scanning area of
1280*960 pixels.
LED flash: Camera phones are now expected to take quality pictures in low-light
conditions too.
Dual lens cameras: Dual cameras made their debut in 2011. Dual cameras capture 3D
images. Depending on the type of the secondary camera used. It can also help you
add 1x or 2x optical zoom to the phone.
Screens and displays
Displays have also evolved markedly in terms of pixels density, resolution, colour
production, picture quality, brightness and more screen space.
• Pixels per inch (PPI): It is the measures of pixel density or resolution of the
screens of your gadgets. The more the number of pixels the better is the
resolution.
• Liquid crystal display: Liquid crystals have an ordered crystalline structure
with elongated molecules oriented in specific directions that can flow like a
liquid.
• TFT-LCDs: These are the most common type of display units used across
mobile phones with one transistor at each pixel making it more responsive to
change.It offers better image quality and higher resolution compared to
earlier generation LCD displays but is limited to narrow viewing angles and
poor visibility when exposed to direct light or sunlight. The technology being
cheaper is used to manufacture budget phones and lower-end smart phones.
Large TFT displays consume more power and hence are not battery friendly.
• IPS-LCD: IPS stands for In-place switching.This is another LCD technology that
improves on TFT-LCDs. It highlights two transistors for each pixel. IPS-LCDs
have wider viewing angles and better colour reproduction. Lower power
consumption leads to a much improved battery life. IPS-LCDs are costlier
than normal TFT-LCD and hence are found in mid-range to higher-end smart
phones.
• OLED: Organic light emitting diode (OLED) is a newer displays technology for
mobiles and monitors. It consists of an organic layer sandwiched between
two conducting sheets (an anode and a cathode) with a glass plate at the top
(seal) and bottom (substrate). The carbon-based organic material emits
electro-luminescent light when electricity is applied across the two
conducting sheets. The panel is much thinner as it does not require backlight
and filters. OLED are superior to LCDs in fast response times, wider viewing
angles, higher brightness and extremely light weight designs.
• AMOLED: Abbreviated for Active-Matrix organic light emitting diode.
AMOLED displays are a type of OLED displays for mobiles. AMOLED screens
have all the attributes of an OLED display like brilliant colour reproduction,
light weight, better battery life, higher brightness and sharpness. AMOLED
displays are now getting into the mainstream and most of the latest higherend
smart phones are now coming with AMOLED displays.
SUPER AMOLED: An even advanced version of AMOLED displays is super
AMOLED. It is built with touch sensors on the display itself, in contrast to a
separate touch sensitive layer. Which makes it the thinnest display
technology on the market. With higher resolution and for resolutions above
720×1280 pixels.
Retina display: Retina display got its name from Apple which claims that its pixels
cannot be individually distinguished by the human eyes, thus making the display
super sharp with brilliant picture quality. The Retina display is a 640×960 pixel
version of IPS LCD used in Apple iphone 4.
Gorilla glass: For added protection and reliability of smart phones, the manufacturers
now use gorilla glass on gadget display. It is a scratch-and impact-resistant durable
glass shield that helps protect mobile screens from scratches, drops, and bumps of
everyday use. It is made up of alkali-aluminosilicate, formed by bonding aluminium,
silicon and oxygen together.
Smart storage
The internal storage capacity of mobiles started expanding much after the micro SD
card became a common accessory. There are various types of memory types storage
in a mobile, but the two main memory types are RAM and ROM. The concept of
cloud storage has also gained much popularity.
➢ Water purification through plastic waste
Researchers from the CSIR-Indian institute of toxicology research (CSIR-IITR),
Lukhnow have now discovered a new way to reduce the burden of plastic waste by
using it for decontamination of water.
They have developed a low cost magnetically responsive adsorbent material that
can be used to remove an antibiotic Cephalexin from water.
They have also formulated an effective strategy of upcycling polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) into a functional material to mitigate another critical
environmental problem-the emerging levels of antibiotics in water.
The widely used antibiotic, Cephalexin, is detected as a micro pollutant in the
environment.
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The study suggests that the minimal adsorbent dose of 0.4 gram per liter could
remove greater than half of the initial Cephalexin concentration under laboratory
conditions.
These advantages make it an efficient adsorbent for removal of emerging micro pollutants.
➢ Neuromarketing: pressing your buy button
Neuromarketing uses medical technologies like functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) to study the brain’s responses to marketing stimuli. It is a relatively
new field. The term ‘neuromarketing’ was coined by Ale Smidts in the year 2002.
The technology
A number of neuroscience technologies that record the brain’s electrical and
metabolic activity, such as electroencephalography (EEG), Transcranial magnetic
stimulation (TMS), magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), and positron emission Tomography (PET) are
implemented in neuromarketing. Neuromarketing also uses several psychological methods like the implicit
associations’ test (IAT) and biological data collection techniques like facial coding
system, eye-tracking, galvanic skin response (GSR), assessing the breathing and heart
rates.
Eye Gaze: Babies particularly tend to attract more attention.
Effective packaging: Attractive packaging draws customers.
Emotional colours: Colours evoke a wide range of emotions.
Reward and punishment: Video gamers use psychological principles in the product
design process, using reward and punishment in order to make engaging games.
Increasing the reward also increases the levels of dopamine (a neurotransmitter)
within the brain. This neurotransmitter is associated with pleasure and positive
associations, which can increase the attachment to keep playing.
Another medical technology is fMRI, which gives an estimation of the oxygen level
in the brain’s blood flow. The working of fMRI is based on the fact that blood
contains iron, which can change the magnetic fields around them.
This technique is more accurate than EEG in determining the increased brain
activity in a certain region in response to a certain stimulus as compared to EEG.
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Neuromarketing intends to measure memory retention, emotional engagement,
purchase intention, response to the advertisement message, affinity to a certain
brand and novelty of a product.
Neuromarketing business
Neuromarketing is currently a 2-billion dollar industry, salesbrain claims to be the
first neuromarketing agency in the world.
According to the company’s website, ‘SalesBrain’ has been accurately targeting the
brain’s ‘buy button’ since 2002 and has trained over 25000 people worldwide.
➢ THE MAD TREE
The Mad Tree, Pterygota alata is one such uncommon and rare tree.
The mad tree is unique because leaves of this tree are variable in form, shape,
nature and degree of segmentation and lobation of the lamina or the leaf blade to
such an extent that no two leaves of this tall deciduous tree are similar. It is a native
species of our country. The mad tree is locally known as ‘Pagla Gaach’. It belongs to
the family Malvaceae.
The Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Gardens (Indian Botanic Gardens),
shibpore, Howrah, The Agri-Horticultural society of India. Alipore, Kolkata, and
Sanjeeviah park, Hydrabad, Telangana are its home.
New researchers report high stomatal diversity in the mad tree. The presence of 13
different types of stomata.
The mad tree is a true type species- species that germinate with similar composition.
Its flowering time is February and March and it is propagated from cutting and
layering. Its varied leaves represent the unity in diversity in our Indian society.
➢ Raseela Rasbhari
NATIVE to South America, English colonizers were so much in love with its taste that,
in 1774 they began to cultivate this plant in England.
The popular
Fruit is known as ‘Physalis’ but the more widely circulated names are ‘Golden berry’
and ‘Cape Gooseberry’.
It has numerous vernacular names such as ‘Kuntali’ in Sanskrit ‘Rasbhari’ and
‘Maccoi’ in Hindi, ‘Teypari’ in Bengali, ‘Phopati’ in Marathi, ‘Thol Thakkali, in Tamil,
‘Budde HAnu, in Kannada and ‘Buddabusara in Telugu.
Apart from being tasty, Rasbhari is also full of nutrition. According to USDA, every
100g of Rasbhari contains moderate amount of carbohydrates (11.2g), proteins
(2.6g) vitamins (vitamin C 15.4 mg, vitamin B1 0.15mg, and vitamin B3 3.92mg) and
minerals (Phosphorus 40mg, Calcium 13mg and Iron 1.4 mg) while other nutrients
like fat (0.7g) are negligible.
The fruit is low in calories (53 K Cal) but rich in fructose and pectin and has
adequate amount of polyphenols, with anolidesm, melatonim and carotenoids.
The seed oil consists of fatty acids (mainly linoleic acid and oleic acid) and
phytosterols (mainly betasitosterol and campesterol).
Being low calorie fruit and rich in fructose content, it is good for diabetic patients.
Higher amount of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) present in Rasbhari, helps to eliminate
free radicals and oxidative stress.
It can also boost cognitive ability in kids, increasing memory, focus, and
concentration skills.
Thiamin (vitamin B) produces acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that transmits
messages. Another vitamin Niacin (vitamin B3) plays a role in increasing the blood
flow throughout the body.
Moreover, daily consumption of Rasbhari fulfils the daily requirement of iron,
calcium and phosphorus and exerts an overall protective effect on the body.
However, the unripe fruit is supposed to be toxic to some people as it contains
mildly poisonous alkaloids. Rasbhari is used in traditional medicine as antibiotic,
antipyretic, anticancer and immune modulator, and also for diseases like
dermatitis, hepatitis, leukaemia, malaria and rheumatism.
For instance, the Muthuvan tribes living in the Shola forest of Kerala-Tamil Nadu
border regions use Rasbhari against jaundice.
Rasbhari controls the movement of free radicals in the body, maintains the bone
and skin health enhances the immunity of the body, regulates cholesterol level and
also protects the liver from oxidation stress.
➢ MESSENGERS
The master organ, the brain, in response to various environmental stimuli shoots off
orders on how to behave through chemical messengers called neurotransmitters,
produced within the neurons.
The brain uses these messengers to tell your heart to beat, lungs to breathe and
your stomach to digest.
Neurotransmitters are the brain chemicals that communicate information
throughout our brain and body via neurons.
Neurotransmitter-major functions
Acetylcholine
Controls muscle contractions, Excitation, Cognitive enhancement Dopamine
Stimulates neurons in pleasure centers, feel good factor, Appetite suppression Serotonin
Regulates temperature, sleep, mood, mood modulation Glutamate
Major mediator of excitatory signal, learning, memory enhancement
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
Muscle coordination, inhibits unwanted neurons, reduction of anxiety and tension
Endorphins
Inhibit transmission of signals from pain censors, reduction of anxiety and tension
Melatonin Regulates day/night cycles including sleep
• There are two kinds of neurotransmitters – Excitatory and Inhibitory.
Excitatory neurotransmitters are not necessarily exciting-they stimulate the brain.
Those that calm the brain and help create a balance are called inhibitory. Inhibitory
neurotransmitters balance mood and are easily depleted when the excitatory
neurotransmitters are overactive.
Glutamate is classified as an excitatory neurotransmitters. Acetylcholine is another
example of excitatory while dopamine acts both as excitatory as well as inhibitory.
A cautionary note: Neurotransmitter levels can be depleted in many ways. Stress,
poor diet, neurotoxins, genetic predisposition, drugs (prescription and
recreational), alcohol and caffeine usage can cause these levels to be out of optimal
range.
➢ Parasites can be useful too!
Parasites can play pivotal role in the assessment of environmental quality, healing of
diseases, understanding ecological principles and other miscellaneous roles. An
interesting aspect that has come to light is that parasites can even boost the
reproductive potential of the host.
Parasites as Bio-monitoring Tools: Various studies have shown that environmental
deterioration affects the community structure of parasites. There are two ways by
which parasites can be used as bio-indicators: (i) they can be used as an effect
indicator, or (ii) can be used as accumulation indicator.
Parasites for curing diseases: The role of parasites in curing different diseases has
been advocated in recent times by researchers and medical practitioners, which
stems from the hygiene hypothesis. The hygiene hypothesis states that early
exposure to infection is necessary in order to get required immunity. In simple
terms we can say that populations with infection exposure have more chances of
developing immunity against diseases.
Danish scientists (cancer cell) found that attaching cancer-killing toxin to the
malarial protein could be lethal for cancerous cells, thus showing the potential of
malarial parasite in therapeutics.
Chemical secretions from hookworms can suppress asthma by increasing the
immunity and preventing over-reaction to the allergic agents.
Various diseases have been treated by parasite therapy, for instance, Crohn’s and
many autoimmune diseases have been treated by using helminth parasites.
The medical value of different parasite species has been recognized in inflammatory
bowel disease, Malaria, Epilepsy, Poliomyelitis, Multiple sclerosis, Allergic rhinitis
and Celiac disease.
➢ Ecological principles and Biodiversity pattern
Parasites play important roles in shaping the biodiversity patterns.
As they are found at every trophic level, parasites are interlinked with different
trophic levels and therefore play a pivotal role in ecological functioning.
Recently, a relationship between parasitic infection and biodiversity pattern has been
established.
In simple terms, if your crop shows less genetic variety (or more sameness), then
there are ample chances that it will be affected by more diseases.
Other roles
In the recent past, it has been shown that parasites can even change the
reproductive potential of hosts thus enhancing the success rate of the host.
The typical example of such behavior has been found in Wolbachia which parasitizes
on insects. This parasite was initially thought to be detrimental to the host; however,
in recent years it has been shown that this parasite increases the reproductive
potential of the host.
DEAD SEA
➢ WORLD’S DEEPEST HYPER-SALINE LAKE
The posthumously famous anti-sinking lake is one of the saltiest water bodies on
Earth, with an approximate salinity of 34%
Dead Sea is a landlocked hyper-saline (extremely high in salt content) lake between
Israel and Jordan. It is also the lowest point on dry land on earth, with its surface
and shores more than 400 metres below sea level.
Dead sea is one of the saltiest water bodies on Earth. With an approximate salinity
of 34%. Which is about 340 g/L. for the sake of comparison, on an average seawater
in the world’s ocean has a salinity of just 3.5%. That means this lake is almost 10
times as salty as the ocean.
In most of the seas and oceans on Earth, the salt in the water is around 85% sodium
chloride (NaCI). But the mineral content of the Dead sea is quite different, having a
composition of around 50% magnesium chloride (MgCI₂), 30% sodium chloride, and
other salts.
Due to high natural buoyancy, anyone can float easily in the Dead sea, and hence a
popular wisdom about this Jordanian water body is that you cannot drown in it. This
is merely a myth; Dead sea’s unusually high salt concentration means that people can
easily float because salt dissolved in water increases its density. The more salt we
add to the water, the higher its density becomes, which in turn increases its natural
buoyancy.
If a person drowns in saltwater, it’s mostly because he/she can’t enough oxygen or
expel carbon dioxide. Because breathing in saltwater acts a physical barrier between
your lungs and the atmospheric air. So once the saltwater is removed, one can
breathe again.
➢ GOGGLE FOR BLIND (G4B)
A young student of class XII from Arunachal Pradesh has developed “G4B” – Goggle
for blind –to help them detect neighbouring objects without any physical contact.
Anang Tadar’s brilliant innovation was recognized with the ‘Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
IGNITE Award 2017’ on 22 November 2017. Anang used the principle of
echolocation used by bats. Echolocation is the use of sound waves and echoes to
determine whether there is any object present in the vicinity.
Generally bats use echolocation to navigate and find food in the dark. He developed
a microcontroller-based goggle for the visually impaired the device uses two
ultrasound sensor and an infrared sensor to detect objects in the surroundings by
giving a vibration feedback to the person wearing it.
The two ultrasound sensors of the goggle detect the echo and send a vibration alert
though coin vibration motors fitted on the two temples of the goggle. The motor on
the right temple vibrates if the obstacle is on the right side, and the same type of
vibration will be felt on the left temple motor if the obstacle is on the left side.
The intensity of vibration of the motor will vary based on the distance from the
obstacles. Closer the obstacle, the more intense will be the vibration. The G4B can
detect an obstruction from a distance of two metres.
G4B is a low cost goggle. But it is a little heavy and difficult to use for a long time.
Anang says that it could be produced commercially and made available in the market
at a price of around Rs. 3000 per set.
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