The phenomenon of Raman spectroscopy generally was first discovered by Sir Chandrasekhra Venkata Raman in 1928 using sunlight as the source of light, a telescope as a collector and his eyes as a detector. With further development in new technologies such as varieties in laser excitation sources, varieties in improved detectors, collimators, lenses, polarizer, monochromators etc, sensitivity of the Raman spectroscopy have enhanced tremendously and minute details of the spectrum exhibiting the nature of the sample can be examined.

In the initial stage, for achieving a highly monochromatic input light, development was mainly limited to the improvements in excitation sources. Various lamps such as Helium, lead, zinc and bismuth lamps were developed but due to their low intensities they were not considered fit for a variety of sample studies. Mercury excitation sources were first used for Raman spectroscopy in the 1930’s. Later a mercury excitation source s....Continue

Definition

Level of significance is an important measure while drawing conclusions from a hypothesis test in statistical studies. It is a pre-defined parameter or probability that decides when to reject a null hypothesis even when it is true. It is a measure of Type I error and is determined considering the trade-off between Type I and Type II errors and various other factors. Significance level determines whether a sample drawn from a population is statistically significant (linearly related in case of correlation between two variables). In case of statistically significant samples, the null hypothesis or the population mean can be rejected with probability of the sample mean falling in the range less than the significance level.

Significance level (S.L) for 1-tailed analysis test is simply the subtraction of the confidence level (C.L.) from 1 or (1 - C.L.). While, S.L. for 2-tailed analysis test is the subtraction of the confidence level ....Continue

Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis) is a rare fungal infection caused by a group of organisms called mucormycetes. These molds are prevalent everywhere in our environment including soil and moist atmosphere. Normally, they cannot cause much harm to us as we are naturally built up with a robust immune system. However, it can grow in cases where a patient has a questionable immunity, targeting those with uncontrolled blood sugar, patients with comorbidities, and might contaminate unhygienic oxygen concentrators and nasal canulas. It usually presents itself in the form of necrosis and tissue infarction leading to the serious manifestation of diseases involving the nose, sinuses, jaw, palate, lungs, and brain. The lowered immunity of an infected or recovered COVID patient and the indiscriminate use of steroids are supposedly the major cause behind this nightmare amidst the pandemic. [Continue

Vaccines train the immune system to recognize a germ and prepares the body to fight against disease-causing pathogens. They simulate the infections and activates the body to produce antibodies against the disease-causing organisms without giving rise to any illness. Vaccine making and putting it out in the public includes a tedious and lengthy process with a lot of steps and efforts. Research is the basis of the entire programme which is followed by pre-clinical and clinical phases. Building factories, manufacturing, approval, and distribution completes and accomplishes the whole cycle. There are almost 29 licensed human vaccines for COVID-19 and almost all of them work based on protective antibody responses. Antibodies are made against the protein on the surface of the virus which apparently is the objective of the entire process.So essentially all the neutralizing antibodies are against the spike protein of SARS-CoV2. A simple way to think about antibodies is t....Continue

Ageing is a natural biological process in which a person goes through various stages of one's life, accompanied by the gradual transformation of organs leading to their degradation with time. It is an inevitable process that may increase the body's susceptibility to diseases and limit human life span. Rates of cancer, CVS diseases, diabetes, and dementia increase with age, making it the primary risk factor for illness. However, recent studies show that certain biological hallmarks of ageing, like telomere shortening and accumulation of senescent cells, can be reversed for the improvement at a cellular level. Telomeres are protective caps of the DNA, and as we age, their lengths get shortened, which coincides with the wearing and tearing of the cell. Thereby longer the telomeres better we are. Senescent cells are the cell which after cell division gets fatigued and die. This further leads to the accumulation of several unwanted cells in the body....Continue

What is the power source for next generation Electric vehicles (EVs)? Why are the current Li-ion battery driven EVs not as feasible as the combustion engines in terms of cost, maintenance and safety? How car makers are dealing with the change in the market demand for sustainable EVs? The answer may lie in the development of solid state battery technology. Governments all across the globe have been pouring funds in support of decarbonisation technologies with the major part of it being utilized for the development of this technology. Japanese government has released a fund of around 2 trillion yen ($19.2 billion), while U.S. government has planned to invest $400 billion in clean energy including latest battery technologies and electric vehicles [here]. Indian government as well recently came up with a plan of incentivizing advanced b....Continue

“The human species is in the midst of a war with the microbial world –a resilient foe that will never be completely defeated.” - Anthony Stephen Fauci, Director of the National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

WHO states that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change in ways that render the medications used to cure the infections they cause, ineffective. Antibiotics are medicines used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Our body comprises more bacterial cells than all the collective human cells. These bacteria cells live in our bodies, thrive, and compete with each other for food and resources. Thereby some cells sustain infection and become infective, causing disease in our body. Resistance occurs when bacteria become overpowered and thus resistant to the drug which where once offered to treat them, leading to far-reaching consequences i....Continue

Sustainability in agriculture has been the major pressing issue in the world today. Future agricultural practices must consider food sufficiency, nutrition, impact on soil biodiversity and income of the farmers at the same time so that there is no shortage of food in the coming generation on account of environmental degradation. Planning and discussions must be initiated on standardizing the practices and adoption of newer techniques of agriculture so that extensive exploitation of farm soil by the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can be prevented. In a financial driven society where high productivity and yield are of primary concern multiplied with non availability of any other sustainable options in hand, farmers and agri-based businesses are forced to adhere to traditional ways of agriculture which needs to be tackled with revised national policies of the governments across the globe and by spreading awareness. Also the current lifecycle assessment (....Continue

Digital presence for any organisation is of paramount importance in today’s world. With that in vision, it is also necessary to expect unforeseen circumstances that could impact financial standing, reputation and assets. This is the precise time at which crisis management becomes vital in order to mitigate the risks and sail over the bad times. Examples of crises can be:

1. Natural Disasters
2. Cyber attacks
3. Financial crimes or distress
4. Technological or industrial threats
5. Supply chain failure
6. Product safety or recall
7. Environmental

The above mentioned are some of the most common crises that we encounter in organisational parlance. However, what if a crisis arise whose frequency is once in a century type. Are organisations prepared to handle such crises? Or what are the steps or structural changes which must be inserted into the strategy for proper handling?

Right now ....Continue

CRISPR is a gene-editing system, that is equivalent to scissors, for editing genes. It advances as a prominent tool in the field of gene editing. It employs the cutting-edge CRISPR-Cas 9 technology that earned Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer .A. Doudna the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. It came about through a preliminary research project, which has been aiming at discovering how bacteria fights viral infections. This technology allows scientists to make changes to the DNA in the cells that could allow us to cure genetic diseases. Thus starts the quantum leap of technology that may have far-reaching relevance in microbiology, biomedicine, and agriculture.

What is CRISPR?

CRISPR is the acronym for CLUSTERED REGULARLY INTERSPACED SHORT PALINDROMIC REPEATS. It naturally occurs in bacteria and archaea as a defence system against invading viruses. When the virus attacks the bacteria, the bacteria incorporate pieces of the virus's DNA into the....Continue

5G is a wireless technology that is currently gaining popularity within the telecommunication sector and major industries such as automotive and satellite services for its superior network quality as compared to 4G-LTE. With the advent of internet of things (IOT), it has become possible to connect household devices and equipments in industries over the internet and even establishing connections between cars on roads for a self driving experience. These objectives cannot be achieved with the current 4G network system due to its high latency, low strength, low data rates, low reliability, low bandwidth and inability to connect to more number of devices in a given area. Apart from the connectivity hurdles, the other aspects involved in the path of fulfilling these objectives includes computational delays, energy inefficiency and security concerns all of which can easily be overcomed by adopting 5G network technology. 5G technology also have the potential to enable s....Continue

By laws of physics, time and space forms the fundamental multidimensional continuum through the universe that is interwoven and was suggested first by Einstein. We humans occupy a small part of this large space-time continuum and inhabit within it with limited range in our naked perception. Considering space as a dimension, humans have so far been able to measure the distance across our observable universe (46.508 billion light years) using advanced telescopes and radio detectors, and the smallest measured distance in the quantum scale which is the planck length (1.616255*10-35m). In the time domain with the use of advanced attosecond (10^-18 s) laser technologies, scientists have found the way to track ultra fast events that were only previously predicted by their initial and final outcomes such as of a chemical reaction. They have recently been able to measure the shortest time interval or the time taken by light photons to travel across a molecule of hydrogen.....Continue

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) is currently the largest airborne space observatory in the world consisting of a 2.7m aperture (effective diameter of 2.5m) reflecting-parabolic primary mirror and a secondary hyperbolic mirror (0.37m dia.) that is built sensitive to a wide range of infrared wavelengths. The telescope optical path involves two nasmyth foci including both IR and visible range focus (as a guide) using gold and aluminium coated flats respectively. The telescope is mounted on a Boeing 747 SP aircraft which flies at an altitude of over 45,000 feet (13.72 km) to prevent the effect of water content in the atmosphere (reduced 100 times that of the terrestrial sites) from interfering with the infrared range of the spectral data obtained from distant celestial objects. The primary and secondary mirrors are placed in the aft part of the aircraft with a doorway that can be opened and closed. This part is separated from the observer cha....Continue

Cryptocurrencies have seen a major breakthrough in the financial, business and inter-organisational sectors from the last 5-6 years. Over 1500 cryptocurrencies are being circulated in the market currently among which the Bitcoin is the most widely used. These cryptocurrencies can be defined as a decentralized medium of peer to peer digital transaction system which is secured by complex cryptographical algorithms. The underlying technology behind these is the blockchain technology that relies on a series of transaction blocks added one after the other in the form of a sequence or chain.

Evolution of Bitcoin

The earliest evidence of this technological revolution dates back even before the introduction of the Bitcoin with the development of digital monetary systems and e-cash. Chaum and Brands were the earliest individuals to have developed protocols for issuer based ecash in 1983. Haber and W Scott Stornetta then put forward an idea of a ‘Crypt....Continue