Science News

Selva Kumar, a shrimp farm owner, and several hundred others in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh, had no idea that their crop was harboring a viral disease, not until their ponds had turned into graveyards merely 5 days into the crop cycle. It cost them their entire produce and additional thousands of rupees to identify the cause in the first place. Such incidents resurface time and again, calling our attention to the depressed state of an otherwise booming industry.

Isha Parlikar (@ishapniti) is Biochemistry and Molecular Biology post-graduate from the University of Bremen, Germany. She has worked as a research intern in ACTREC and as a cell culture analyst in Hi-Media Labs, a leading biosciences company in Mumbai. Her research experience both in academia and in the industry, and her deep passion for art has recently led her to engage in the field of science communication – developing engaging visuals for clear, simple and effective communication of scientific concepts. Samples of her sci-comm art projects can be seen at https://ishaparlikar.wixsite.com/sciart. She also plans to tweet her artwork from @sciartsoup.

In the past two decades, there have been unprecedented advancements in many frontiers of technology. But none have made more buzz than Artificial Intelligence (AI). Due to its nature, AI has been applied almost everywhere, be it academia, research or industry. As a result, its impact is visible on various domains and sub-domains. Here, we will discuss the impact of AI, specifically in biology.

Dr. Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate, while studying the unidentified collections of beetles housed at ZSI, WRC, Pune belonging to the Bolboceratidae family of dung beetles by came across a series of beetles that could not be associated with any of the already known species of the genus Bolboceras. She informed the same to her collaborator Dr. Hillert and they started working on describing the species. The new species are named as Bolboceras bopdevense and  Bolboceras trimbakense. They are named based on the “type locality” (collection locality). The discovery is published in the latest issue of the Zootaxa (23, April 2021), an International peer-reviewed journal on animal taxonomy, said Dr. Hillert.

Although the immune response to COVID-19 remains to be understood entirely, science has come a long way in breaking down the basics of immunology in COVID-19. While the immune system may be one of the most complicated systems to understand, we will try to explore how our immune system reacts to the coronavirus infection with the help of an example.

India faces an aggressive second wave of Covid-19 and reporting the world’s highest number of new Coronavirus positive cases for the last few days. However, the second wave is grappling the country with asymptomatic cases. Thus, experts suggesting the world’s most extensive vaccination program need acceleration.

Have you ever wondered how the ‘pharmaceutical companies’ function in general? Have you ever wanted to experience the ‘corporate’ more closely? Then this is the correct opportunity for you! This event was held between the 10th-13th of January.