Research Matters

In this digital age, ruled by smartphone apps, how about one to tell you how fresh your milk is? Although there are stringent safety rules concerning the quality of milk, almost 68% of what is available in the country does not conform to them. In a recent study, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have come up with a paper-based detection system to detect if a sample of milk is pasteurised and fresh. This technique, they say, is cost-effective, rapid, user- and environment-friendly.

About five earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher on the Ritcher scale occur on our planet every day. Researchers from the IISc, Bengaluru, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, and BARC, Mumbai, have reported a method to better identify building sites with soil that could be susceptible to damage from earthquakes.

Researchers from NCBS, NHM, WII, Mizoram University, Pachunga University College, and IISc have documented a new genus and species of Natricine snake from Northeast India. 

Researchers from Bose Institute, Kolkata, investigated the effect of air circulation and the varying climatic conditions on the mustard aphids that migrate across the Indo-Gangetic Plains in Northern India. The authors traced the pests’ exact origin by studying the backward courses of air movement along known migratory routes.

Every year, the 5th of June is observed as the World Environment Day to “encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment”. For 2019, the theme is ‘Air Pollution’, and the host country is China. On this occasion, Research Matters caught up with three leading scientists from the country that are actively pursuing research on different aspects of air pollution. The three researchers, Prof. A R Ravishankara, Prof. S K Satheesh and Prof. Navakanta Bhat shared their work and thoughts on the ‘burning’ problem of air pollution.

Researchers from the IIITD, CSIR-IMT and DU designed NeuroPIpred, a web-based tool that uses machine learning techniques to craft insect-specific pesticides.

Researchers from the Nature Conservation Foundation, explored organisation of plants and fruit-eating bird communities of the Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh. They observed 43 plant species and 48 bird species in the region, and have identified the different networks formed between the trees and their avian seed dispersers.

Bengaluru’s decreasing tree cover and expanding concrete jungle in recent decades paints a grim picture of the city’s biodiversity. The tales of sparrows nesting on the roofs, parakeets pecking on the juiciest fruit in the backyard tree or the myriad coloured butterflies dancing in the garden are now fragments of imagination! So where have all the birds, animals and insects gone?

Researchers at the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru, have assessed the cost effectiveness of a self-help group program, called Parivartan, in Bihar. They studied the economics of implementing maternal health programs through self-help groups.

Forests, with their rich biodiversity, play a critical role not only in the ecology of a region but also in social systems that involve humans. Researchers from the University of Illinois, USA, used artificial intelligence to evaluate the forest management policies in Himachal Pradesh, India.