Research Matters

This article is the second part of the series ‘The How and the Why: Interpreting Scientific Studies’, brought to you by Research Matters. The series focuses on the method of scientific studies, including emphasising the importance of meta-analyses, the repercussions of the replication crisis and the inclusion of ethics in experimental biology. We hope this series will better enable our readers to understand and evaluate scientific research they are interested in and those that could impact their lives.

In a recent study, researchers at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, have used a technique known as spin noise spectroscopy to probe the atomic, magnetic and sub-atomic properties of rubidium vapour. 

The team of researchers, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru were attempting to study and classify snakes in the Western Ghats systematically. That's when they came across Proahaetulla antiqua, which is endemic to the southern Western Ghats. What's more interesting is that it is an ancient species, thought to have evolved around 26 million years ago during the mid-Oligocene. 

Researchers from IISc, Bengaluru and IBM Research-India have developed a machine learning-based technique to manage the demand and supply of power in a network of microgrids while maximising profit. Since such local grids can run on renewable sources of energy instead of relying on fossil fuels, they also reduce carbon emissions and are sustainable.

Researchers from the Tata Trusts, Institute of Economic Growth, India and Harvard University, USA, have tried to understand how people's socio-economic status affect their food habits and the diversity of the food they eat. 

Researchers from the Desert Research Institute, USA and Urban Emissions, New Delhi, India, have investigated the emission levels of multiple pollutants in twenty Indian cities, other than Delhi.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar,  Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, and the University of Southampton, UK have tried to understand the effects of changes in land use and land cover on regional temperatures in Odisha, which frequently experiences heatwave, cyclones, droughts and floods.

A team of Indian scientists, working with collaborators from Singapore, Australia and France, have shown how clusters of circulating tumour cells—cancer cells that have sloughed off the tumour and are circulating in the blood—could help monitor the response to cancer treatments and predict a patient's survival chances using a simple blood test. 

The walls were as quiet as ever. Warmth and protection radiated from them, but all went in vain against Ourelia’s boredom. She had been counting the days, as patiently as someone could, for the past 14 years. Every day presented the meticulous, yet mechanically planned, cellular routine in the same way. She would tend to the daily tasks by nibbling on the required nutrients and oxygen. She would then move on to cook some much-needed proteins and try to find some fun in watching the machine churn out strings of amino-acids.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) and the University of Birmingham, UK hope to better understand urinary incontinence and possible interventions for those suffering from this condition.