Author: Priyanshu Mohanty

National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) added yet another feather to its cap on Monday, as its Perseverance rover scooped up and extracted its first rock sample on Mars. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California unveiled the news. This marks a significant feat in NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, which aims to comprehensively study the red planet’s geography and ecology. Initially, NASA was a tad uncertain of whether the rover had adeptly grasped the cargo hold or not, owing to preliminary images being of poor quality. The Martian rock, which was a core from the Jezero…

Since the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1981 which causes a spectrum of infections and diseases associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the two things that have been eluding scientists for four decades. One, how to prevent it by developing an effective vaccine and the second, curating a cure. Whilst a plethora of wide-ranging research has shown some promising results on possibilities of a cure if the disease is detected early, vaccine development is still, unfortunately in a rudimentary phase. However, this could change soon as human trials for an mRNA vaccine, proposed by Moderna and its…

Admit it or not, we’ve all sometimes desired productive ways to render a low-resolution nostalgic image clicked by an inferior camera lens several years ago to a relatively higher resolution with distinct features. Well, this may no longer be an impossible wishful dream as researchers at Google’s Research Brain Team have unveiled two revolutionary new models for enhancing the quality of photographs and videos. The two models, collectively termed “diffusion models”, comprise image super-resolution (SR3) and cascaded diffusion model (CDM). These leverage the prowess of AI (artificial intelligence) to generate high-fidelity pictures, thereby significantly upscaling the quality. Although the research for…

Overview The retail clothing sector has undergone many changes since the last century. Fashion and vogue change and evolve with time. But the thing that remains constant and incessant is → the consumers struggle to find the precise and right size range of clothes that will fit them. We grow weary of endeavoring to compromise and make do with the “standard fit” that are available, regardless of our height and various other measurements. Well, it might come as pleasant tidings for all the shopping enthusiasts, as there can be a paradigm shift in the Indian cloth retailing sector to accommodate…

Overview A remarkable new study, published on Nature Metabolism, reveals an uncanny connection between exercising and memory. The study, conducted on mice, has uncovered that exercising can help bolster brain health significantly due to the muscles releasing a hormone known as irisin. This hormone has previously been found in the body of humans and is typically produced in copious quantities during the event of physical exercising. Recent research has found that irisin can significantly improve neuron health, cognition and memory in healthy and those with a rodent’s version of Alzheimer’s disease. These findings can modify the trajectory of memory loss…

Overview The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken a jibe at the current ruling party in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress for hastening to conduct bypolls. This comes after TMC’s repeated beseeching and petitions to the Election Commission of India for conducting premature and early bypolls in seven assembly constituencies of the state. BJP President for West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, has alleged that it exposes the mad scramble for power that Mamata Banerjee, the de facto Chief Minister, is desirous of. Mrs Banerjee currently doesn’t hold any Legislative Assembly seat and must get legally and democratically elected from any legitimate constituency…

Myntra, an Indian e-commerce company has roped in Urbanic, a London-based digital fashion platform, marking the latter’s first venture in the domain of e-commerce. The collaboration is intended primarily for a target audience of mostly youngsters, as both the companies have significant reach among the youth. Urbanic, specifically, boasts of having worked with several celebrities and “influencers” or people who have a massive fanbase on several social media cumulatively. The brand has retailing available in countries like India, the UK, Russia and parts of Latin America, etc. In the backdrop of the prevailing pandemic situation, many businesses are coming online and…

KT Jaleel, former minister of higher education and minority affairs of the Kerala government, has appealed to the Supreme Court to annul the verdict passed by the Kerala High Court. As per a report by the Kerala Lok Ayukta, he had been accused of favouritism and nepotism and was subsequently ousted from his office. Background Mr Jaleel was implicated in one of Mr KT Adeeb’s appointments as the General Manager in the Kerala State Minorities Development Finance Corporation Ltd. The report by Lokayukta gave tidings that Mr Jaleel misused his power and privilege as a Minister to alter the requirements…

According to some investigators, toxic algae bloom is suspected to be the reason behind the deaths of a Californian couple, their baby and a family dog when they’d gone out a remote hiking trail. The corpses were recovered from the Sierra National Forest. The site is currently being treated as a hazmat site due to the likely presence of potentially toxic gases from old mines nearby. The deaths were reported on Monday, and the hazmat proclamation was subsequently lifted on Saturday after there was no concrete evidence to support the hypothesis of any gaseous or particulate toxicity. A spokesperson for…

French football striker Kylian Mbappe unlocked his fiery show of prowess with the ball once again as he helped his team cruise past the hapless opponents. The win has sealed the formidability and indomitability of the team, as they stand on top of the standings with three wins in 3 games and sustaining a healthy GD (goal difference) of +5. The win came even with two of the key, high-profile players, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. were missing out on the match. The Marquinhos’ captained team is already riding high on success and unmatched resilience with 10 goals in the…