Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink has received US Food and Drug Association approval to begin human trials. Neuralink is making a Class III medical device known as a brain-computer interface (BCI). The device connects the brain to an external computer via a Bluetooth signal, enabling continuous communication back and forth. Working The device itself is a coin-sized unit called a Link. It’s implanted within a small disk-shaped cutout in the skull using a precision surgical robot. The robot splices a thousand tiny threads from the Link to certain neurons in the brain. Each thread is about a quarter the diameter....Read More

Scientists used AI to discover a new antibiotic abaucin that can kill a deadly superbug Acinetobacter baumannii. ABOUT ABAUCIN Abaucin is known to compromise the normal function of a protein called CCR2. It was originally developed to treat diabetes. Abaucin had “modest bactericidal activity against A. baumannii” in a medium containing other compounds that the bacteria resisted. ABOUT ACINETOBACTER Acinetobacter is a group of bacteria commonly found in environment, like in soil and water. Most common cause of infections is Acinetobacter baumannii, which accounts for most Acinetobacter infections in humans. baumannii is a Gram-negative bacteria, which means it has a....Read More

The protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar have expressed their willingness to undergo narco analysis tests, provided that it is monitored by the Supreme Court and broadcasted live for the entire country to witness. ABOUT NARCO TESTS In a narco analysis test, a drug called sodium pentothal is injected into the body of the accused, which transports them to a hypnotic or sedated state in which their imagination is neutralised. In such state, the accused is understood as being incapable of lying and is expected to divulge the truth. In India, Narco analysis tests were notably used in the 2002 Gujarat....Read More

Microsoft has launched Jugalbandi, a generative AI-driven multilingual chatbot accessible via popular messaging platform, WhatsApp. The chatbot has been developed by AI4Bharat in collaboration with IIT Madras. The bot has been especially made to cover areas of rural India.Read More

The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune has been ranked 75th in the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. The system is installed under National Program on AI by Government of India. AIRAWATis manufactured by Netweb Technologies. It is India’s largest and fastest AI supercomputing system, with a remarkable speed of 13170 teraflops. The supercomputer runs on AMD EPYC 7742 64C 2.25GHz processor with 81334 cores. OTHER INDIAN SUPERCOMPUTERS IN THE TOP 500 LIST PARAM Siddhi-Al supercomputer ranked at No.131 Also....Read More

India is hosting the 44th edition of the coveted annual ISO COPOLCO Plenary from 23-26 May 2023 in New Delhi. The event is being organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body of India. ABOUT COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER POLICY ISO COPOLCO, or the Committee on Consumer Policy, is a committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) responsible for promoting consumer interests in the standardization process and for ensuring that standards are developed with the needs of consumers in mind. COPOLCO members are ISO members. Objectives: helping consumers to benefit from standardization, improving consumer participation in....Read More

Allahabad HC ordered carbon dating of a structure at Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. Carbon dating is a widely-used method to establish the age of organic materials, things that were once living. Carbon-14 (C-14), an isotope of carbon, is radioactive, and decays at a well-known rate (Half-life of 5,730 years). Most abundant isotope of carbon in atmosphere is C-12. Ratio of C-12 to C-14 in atmosphere is almost static, and is known. Also, age of things that are more than 40,000-50,000 years cannot be arrived at through carbon dating. This is because after 8-10 cycles of half-lives, the amount of C-14....Read More

PM inaugurated National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility in Navi Mumbai. Hadron Beam Therapy is an advanced and highly precise radiation treatment for tumors. The idea of using protons for cancer treatment was first proposed in 1946 by the physicist Robert Wilson   In this, the irradiating beams are made of charged particles (protons and other ions, such as carbon). Charged particles can penetrate the tissues with little diffusion and deposit the maximum energy just before stopping allowing specific regions to be irradiated. With the use of hadrons, the tumor can be irradiated while the damage to healthy tissues is less....Read More

PM dedicated the Molybdenum-99 production facility located in Trombay Campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to nation. ABOUT MOLYBDENUM-99 Molybdenum-99 is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), a short-lived, gamma-emitting isotope. Tc-99m is used in more than 85% of imaging procedures for the early detection of cancer, heart disease etc and for the study of organ structure and function. Tc-99m is especially useful for nuclear medicine procedures because it can be chemically incorporated into small molecule ligands and proteins. Tc-99m is currently produced through a multistep process that begins with the neutron irradiation of fissile U-235 contained in highly enriched....Read More

PM recently laid down the foundation stone of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – India (LIGO-India). The LIGO-India facility is being constructed in Hingoli district in Maharashtra. LIGO - India is a planned advanced gravitational- wave observatory to be located in India as part of the worldwide network. The project was given “in principle” approval in 2016 to be completed by 2030. Operational LIGOs Besides the United States (in Hanford and Livingston), such gravitational wave observatories are currently operational in Italy (Virgo) and Japan (Kagra). Funding by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It....Read More