A handheld device that can detect malaria in less than 30 minutes has won the ‘Best Innovator’s Pitch’ award at the recently concluded Innovation Centre Stage event held in Delhi. The award is given by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Government of India.
Small and medium enterprises in India, especially those in the manufacturing sector, absorb new technologies when they want to rise above the competition, finds a new study from IISc. Improving quality, customer demand and scale expansion are the main motivations for these enterprises to adopt new technologies.
A new “nozzle”, a device used in aeroplanes, can reduce the noise levels in our airports and boost the performance of aeroplane engines. Developed at the Indian Institute of Science, these nozzles also have potential applications in next generation eco-friendly refrigerators and fuel cells.
Prof. Vijayan has been examining the structure of molecules that are found in living systems all his life. After playing a role in deciphering the structure of insulin at Nobel Laureate Dorothy Hodgkin’s lab at Oxford, Prof. Vijayan was “the first trained protein crystallographer to return to India, to the IISc”.
A probe to detect palladium, a metal used in pharmaceuticals and to control vehicular exhaust. High levels of palladium in the environment can affect human beings and other living organisms.
One possible means of bridging the gap between India’s abundant, varied natural resources and her ever-increasing requirements like clean water, food and rapid, low cost diagnostic machinery is the use of nanotechnology, write Arindam Ghosh and Yamuna Krishnan in the international journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Molecules made of a metal ion attached to an organic compound can be used to detect explosives made of nitroaromatic compounds, like picric acid and trinitrotoluene (TNT). With further research, these can go on to replace the conventional metal detectors we all walk through in airports and malls. Bappaditya Gole and others from P S Mukerjee’s research group in the department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry have been involved with developing a metal-organic combination that can detect nitroaromatic compounds efficiently. The research project has been published in a series of three papers in the international journal, Chemistry: A European Journal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave away a series of awards at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in the presence of Defense Minister Arun Jaitley and a host of other dignitaries. Academy Excellence Awards were presented to Professor S Mohan, a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Nanoscience at IISc and Prof Kamakoti from IIT Chennai.
Here is a possible addition to medical technology: a tiny needle, about a thousand times thinner than the thinnest hospital syringe available today. The needle can pierce the skin and deliver drugs directly into the body.
The Centre for Sustainable Technologies at the Indian Institute of Science has a strange roof that generates power. which produces more than 10 units (kWh) of electricity daily through the year. This can power four tubelights, four fans and a couple of computers daily. The secret of this lies in the solar-panel roof that besides harvesting sunlight also shelter the indoors.