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Science Simplified!

                       JAI VIGNAN

All about Science - to remove misconceptions and encourage scientific temper

Communicating science to the common people

'To make  them see the world differently through the beautiful lense of  science'

Members: 22
Latest Activity: 11 hours ago

         WE LOVE SCIENCE HERE BECAUSE IT IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING

     THIS  IS A WAR ZONE WHERE SCIENCE FIGHTS WITH NONSENSE AND WINS                                               

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”             

                    "Being a scientist is a state of mind, not a profession!"

                  "Science, when it's done right, can yield amazing things".

         The Reach of Scientific Research From Labs to Laymen

The aim of science is not only to open a door to infinite knowledge and                                     wisdom but to set a limit to infinite error.

"Knowledge is a Superpower but the irony is you cannot get enough of it with ever increasing data base unless you try to keep up with it constantly and in the right way!" The best education comes from learning from people who know what they are exactly talking about.

Science is this glorious adventure into the unknown, the opportunity to discover things that nobody knew before. And that’s just an experience that’s not to be missed. But it’s also a motivated effort to try to help humankind. And maybe that’s just by increasing human knowledge—because that’s a way to make us a nobler species.

If you are scientifically literate the world looks very different to you.

We do science and science communication not because they are easy but because they are difficult!

“Science is not a subject you studied in school. It’s life. We 're brought into existence by it!"

 Links to some important articles :

1. Interactive science series...

a. how-to-do-research-and-write-research-papers-part 13

b. Some Qs people asked me on science and my replies to them...

Part 6part-10part-11part-12, part 14  ,  part- 8

part- 1part-2part-4part-5part-16part-17part-18 , part-19 , part-20

part-21 , part-22part-23part-24part-25part-26part-27 , part-28

part-29part-30part-31part-32part-33part-34part-35part-36part-37,

 part-38part-40part-41part-42part-43part-44part-45part-46part-47

Part 48 part49Critical thinking -part 50 , part -51part-52part-53

part-54part-55part-57part-58part-59part-60part-61part-62part-63

part 64, part-65part-66part-67part-68part 69part-70 part-71part-73 ...

.......306

BP variations during pregnancy part-72

who is responsible for the gender of  their children - a man or a woman -part-56

c. some-questions-people-asked-me-on-science-based-on-my-art-and-poems -part-7

d. science-s-rules-are-unyielding-they-will-not-be-bent-for-anybody-part-3-

e. debate-between-scientists-and-people-who-practice-and-propagate-pseudo-science - part -9

f. why astrology is pseudo-science part 15

g. How Science is demolishing patriarchal ideas - part-39

2. in-defence-of-mangalyaan-why-even-developing-countries-like-india need space research programmes

3. Science communication series:

a. science-communication - part 1

b. how-scienitsts-should-communicate-with-laymen - part 2

c. main-challenges-of-science-communication-and-how-to-overcome-them - part 3

d. the-importance-of-science-communication-through-art- part 4

e. why-science-communication-is-geting worse - part  5

f. why-science-journalism-is-not-taken-seriously-in-this-part-of-the-world - part 6

g. blogs-the-best-bet-to-communicate-science-by-scientists- part 7

h. why-it-is-difficult-for-scientists-to-debate-controversial-issues - part 8

i. science-writers-and-communicators-where-are-you - part 9

j. shooting-the-messengers-for-a-different-reason-for-conveying-the- part 10

k. why-is-science-journalism-different-from-other-forms-of-journalism - part 11

l.  golden-rules-of-science-communication- Part 12

m. science-writers-should-develop-a-broader-view-to-put-things-in-th - part 13

n. an-informed-patient-is-the-most-cooperative-one -part 14

o. the-risks-scientists-will-have-to-face-while-communicating-science - part 15

p. the-most-difficult-part-of-science-communication - part 16

q. clarity-on-who-you-are-writing-for-is-important-before-sitting-to write a science story - part 17

r. science-communicators-get-thick-skinned-to-communicate-science-without-any-bias - part 18

s. is-post-truth-another-name-for-science-communication-failure?

t. why-is-it-difficult-for-scientists-to-have-high-eqs

u. art-and-literature-as-effective-aids-in-science-communication-and teaching

v.* some-qs-people-asked-me-on-science communication-and-my-replies-to-them

 ** qs-people-asked-me-on-science-and-my-replies-to-them-part-173

w. why-motivated-perception-influences-your-understanding-of-science

x. science-communication-in-uncertain-times

y. sci-com: why-keep-a-dog-and-bark-yourself

z. How to deal with sci com dilemmas?

 A+. sci-com-what-makes-a-story-news-worthy-in-science

 B+. is-a-perfect-language-important-in-writing-science-stories

C+. sci-com-how-much-entertainment-is-too-much-while-communicating-sc

D+. sci-com-why-can-t-everybody-understand-science-in-the-same-way

E+. how-to-successfully-negotiate-the-science-communication-maze

4. Health related topics:

a. why-antibiotic-resistance-is-increasing-and-how-scientists-are-tr

b. what-might-happen-when-you-take-lots-of-medicines

c. know-your-cesarean-facts-ladies

d. right-facts-about-menstruation

e. answer-to-the-question-why-on-big-c

f. how-scientists-are-identifying-new-preventive-measures-and-cures-

g. what-if-little-creatures-high-jack-your-brain-and-try-to-control-

h. who-knows-better?

i. mycotoxicoses

j. immunotherapy

k. can-rust-from-old-drinking-water-pipes-cause-health-problems

l. pvc-and-cpvc-pipes-should-not-be-used-for-drinking-water-supply

m. melioidosis

n.vaccine-woes

o. desensitization-and-transplant-success-story

p. do-you-think-the-medicines-you-are-taking-are-perfectly-alright-then revisit your position!

q. swine-flu-the-difficlulties-we-still-face-while-tackling-the-outb

r. dump-this-useless-information-into-a-garbage-bin-if-you-really-care about evidence based medicine

s. don-t-ignore-these-head-injuries

t. the-detoxification-scam

u. allergic- agony-caused-by-caterpillars-and-moths

General science: 

a.why-do-water-bodies-suddenly-change-colour

b. don-t-knock-down-your-own-life-line

c. the-most-menacing-animal-in-the-world

d. how-exo-planets-are-detected

e. the-importance-of-earth-s-magnetic-field

f. saving-tigers-from-extinction-is-still-a-travail

g. the-importance-of-snakes-in-our-eco-systems

h. understanding-reverse-osmosis

i. the-importance-of-microbiomes

j. crispr-cas9-gene-editing-technique-a-boon-to-fixing-defective-gen

k. biomimicry-a-solution-to-some-of-our-problems

5. the-dilemmas-scientists-face

6. why-we-get-contradictory-reports-in-science

7. be-alert-pseudo-science-and-anti-science-are-on-prowl

8. science-will-answer-your-questions-and-solve-your-problems

9. how-science-debunks-baseless-beliefs

10. climate-science-and-its-relevance

11. the-road-to-a-healthy-life

12. relative-truth-about-gm-crops-and-foods

13. intuition-based-work-is-bad-science

14. how-science-explains-near-death-experiences

15. just-studies-are-different-from-thorough-scientific-research

16. lab-scientists-versus-internet-scientists

17. can-you-challenge-science?

18. the-myth-of-ritual-working

19.science-and-superstitions-how-rational-thinking-can-make-you-work-better

20. comets-are-not-harmful-or-bad-omens-so-enjoy-the-clestial-shows

21. explanation-of-mysterious-lights-during-earthquakes

22. science-can-tell-what-constitutes-the-beauty-of-a-rose

23. what-lessons-can-science-learn-from-tragedies-like-these

24. the-specific-traits-of-a-scientific-mind

25. science-and-the-paranormal

26. are-these-inventions-and-discoveries-really-accidental-and-intuitive like the journalists say?

27. how-the-brain-of-a-polymath-copes-with-all-the-things-it-does

28. how-to-make-scientific-research-in-india-a-success-story

29. getting-rid-of-plastic-the-natural-way

30. why-some-interesting-things-happen-in-nature

31. real-life-stories-that-proves-how-science-helps-you

32. Science and trust series:

a. how-to-trust-science-stories-a-guide-for-common-man

b. trust-in-science-what-makes-people-waver

c. standing-up-for-science-showing-reasons-why-science-should-be-trusted

You will find the entire list of discussions here: http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum

( Please go through the comments section below to find scientific research  reports posted on a daily basis and watch videos based on science)

Get interactive...

Please contact us if you want us to add any information or scientific explanation on any topic that interests you. We will try our level best to give you the right information.

Our mail ID: kkartlabin@gmail.com

Discussion Forum

Your truth is not a scientific fact until you provide genuine evidence

Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday. 1 Reply

Q: Why do many scientists dismiss ancient Indian knowledge without examination? Does this stem from ego, cultural bias, or fear of inner truth?Krishna: I object to the words “without examination”. No…Continue

Kinetic and non kinetic responses during warfare

Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa May 15. 1 Reply

Q: What are kinetic and non kinetic responses during warfare?Krishna: I think people are asking these questions because these things caught their imagination as these words were used during media…Continue

The role of boron during nuclear leak

Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa May 15. 1 Reply

Q: I read in some news reports that Pakistan imported Boron from Egypt after India's attack on its military installations? Some are speculating that its nuclear storage sites were hit. In what way…Continue

Type 5 diabetes is a newly recognized disease. Here are all the types of diabetes you need to know about

Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa May 14. 1 Reply

Type 5 diabetes has just been recognized as a…Continue

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 7, 2021 at 8:52am

Sport science: How do swimmers control their front crawl swimming velocity?

A research team  has reviewed the hydrodynamics literature related to swimming. They identified certain biomechanical aspects, including the relationship between velocity and drag forces, that are not completely understood. This work may help direct future research that could improve the performance of competitive swimmers.

The recent Tokyo Olympics provided impressive feats of speed in the pool, with elite athletes setting many new Olympic and World records. What viewers might not realize, however, is the complexity of the science underlying the sometimes split-second difference between winning a gold medal and going home empty-handed. Biomechanics, the study of motion of the body, and hydrodynamics, the area of physics dealing with fluid flows, contain many questions that remain poorly understood—and swimming fits right at the intersection of these topics. For swimmers who participate in races, even a tiny advance in knowledge can led to a competitive edge.

Now, a team of researchers  has drawn together research on front crawl swimming biomechanics, focusing on propulsive and resistive forces at different swimming velocities, to form a more complete picture of the relationships between the critical variables. New knowledge of swimming energetics and fluid mechanics has improved our understanding of factors that determine swimming performance.

One of the most important relationships to understand is how resistive forces, like drag when moving through the water, depend on the speed of the . The researchers looked at recent studies that indicated the resistive force increases in proportion to the cube of the velocity. To compensate, swimmers may try to increase their stroke frequency. However, this has limitations. Researchers inferred from experimental and simulation studies that there is a maximum frequency beyond which swimmers cannot further increase swimming velocity due to a change in the angle of attack of the hand that reduces its propulsive force. The different balance of forces at different swimming speeds also means that optimal technique may differ between long-distance and short-distance swimming.

The team also identified conflicting evidence over the effectiveness of kicking for increasing the speed of high-velocity front crawl. This indicates an opportunity to further optimize competitive swimming technique if future research can further unpack the relevant hydrodynamic factors.

The researchers found that certain simplified models of swimming often break down when trying to model more realistic conditions. For example, swimmers are not simply 'pushing' or 'pulling' the water to increase their velocity, as some textbooks frame it. This is because the increase in the negative pressure acting on the dorsal side of the hand is crucial for increasing propulsion. Therefore, teaching the proper technique is important, even for phases considered to be non-propulsive.

Hideki Takagi et al, How do swimmers control their front crawl swimming velocity? Current knowledge and gaps from hydrodynamic perspectives, Sports Biomechanics (2021). DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2021.1959946

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-swimmers-front-velocity.html?utm_sour...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 6, 2021 at 9:21am

Robo Pill

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 5, 2021 at 11:44am

Why words become harder to remember as we get older

As we get older, we find it increasingly difficult to have the right words ready at the right moment, even though our vocabulary actually grows continuously over the course of our lives. Until now, it was unclear why this is. Researchers  have now found out: It is the networks in the brain that change their communication over time. This makes them more inefficient.

The researchers investigated these connections with the help of two groups - younger study participants between the ages of 20 and 35 and older ones between the ages of 60 and 70. Both groups were asked to name words in the MRI scanner that belong to certain categories, including animals, metals or vehicles.

It became clear that both age groups were good at finding words. However, the younger ones were somewhat faster. The reason for this could be the different brain activities. For one thing, not only were the language areas themselves more active in the younger ones. They also showed a more intensive exchange within two decisive networks: the network for semantic memory, in which factual knowledge is stored, and the executive network, which is responsible for general functions such as attention and memory.

The reverse was true for older people. Here, executive areas showed stronger activity, indicating that the task was more difficult for these individuals overall. In addition, the exchange within the crucial networks was less effective than in the younger people. The older group was most likely to benefit from inter-network exchange, but this is associated with losses. Communication within neuronal networks is more efficient and thus faster than between them.

 Why these activity patterns shift with age has not yet been fully explained. One theory, says Martin, is that as people age, they rely more on the linguistic knowledge they have, so exchanges between networks come into focus, while younger people rely more on their fast working memory and cognitive control processes. On the structural level, the loss of grey matter in the brain could also play a role, which is compensated for by the exchange between networks.

Age-Dependent Contribution of Domain-General Networks to Semantic C...” by Sandra Martin et al. Cerebral Cortex

https://researchnews.cc/news/8725/Why-words-become-harder-to-rememb...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 2:05pm

Biomedical Innovations from Women Less Likely to be Adopted: Study

An analysis of scientists’ networks finds discrepancies in the diffusion of novel ideas through communities.

A study published Monday (August 30) by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that new ideas in biomedical research are less likely to spread when they are generated by women and minorities than when generated by men.

The authors of the study, which was not peer-reviewed, used a computational technique called natural language processing to scan titles and abstracts in MEDLINE for novel one, two, or three-word phrases originating in biomedical research papers published between 1980 and 2008. The researchers ranked these phrases by the total number of mentions they received in the year when they first appeared and analyzed the top 0.1 percent of phrases for each year to assess whether each represented an actual new idea or scientific innovation.

Ideas generated by teams of mostly male innovators were mentioned just over one percent more frequently in subsequent titles and abstracts than ideas generated by mostly female teams over a period of five years after they were first published.

Biomedical Innovations from Women Less Likely to be Adopted: Study
An analysis of scientists' networks finds discrepancies in the diffusion of novel ideas through communities.
Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 1:28pm

“Mystery Fever” Claims the Lives of Dozens of Indian Children

So far, more than 50 people have died of a febrile illness, though the cause isn’t clear.

In addition to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and an uptick of malaria cases across the country, an unknown disease has killed more than 50 people in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India in the last week; most were children. All of the patients tested negative for COVID-19, and India Today reports it is likely that scrub typhus is to blame, though other possibilities, such as dengue, have not been ruled out.

 The Hindustan Times reports, and monsoon season has brought a greater number of mosquito-borne illnesses. Now, many regions in the state are reporting illness and death due to a mystery fever.

Water-logging, and lack of sanitation and hygiene are the reasons behind the disease spread. The patients, especially children, in hospitals are dying very quickly.

According to multiple news outlets, the hundreds of people hospitalized by the illness have experienced fever, headaches, joint pain, nausea, rashes, and dehydration. A drop in platelet count has also been observed in many fatal cases. Though many of these symptoms can occur in severe dengue cases, The Hindustan Times and others report that the likely culprit is a bacterial disease called scrub typhus.

Scrub typhus can occur after a person is bitten by chiggers infected with Orientia tsutsugamushi bacteria. According to the BBC, these mites live on plants that flourish after the monsoon rains, and they can hitchhike into people’s homes on firewood. The symptoms of O. tsutsugamushi infection largely overlap with what has been seen in the patients.

According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are no vaccinations for scrub typhus and it should be treated with the antibiotic doxycycline. The agency recommends covering exposed skin to prevent chigger bites.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/mystery-fever-claims-the...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 1:23pm

Hormones May Contribute to Asymmetrical Effects of Brain Injury


Researchers studying rats claim to have found a novel connection between damage on one side of the brain and problems with the posture or movement of limbs on the opposite side of the body.

Injury to one side of the brain can cause abnormalities in posture or movement on the opposite side of the body. These effects, which are sometimes seen in people who have suffered a stroke or head trauma, have typically been attributed to neural pathways that link the right side of the brain to spinal cord neurons controlling muscles on the left side of the body, and vice versa. 

But in a new study on rats that had their spinal cords severed, researchers claim to have discovered another, parallel pathway that triggers opposite-side effects following brain injury and might instead operate via hormones circulating in the blood.

If similar mechanisms operate in humans, it’s conceivable that drugs blocking receptors for particular hormones could help treat some of the physical effects of brain injury

https://elifesciences.org/articles/65247

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/hormones-may-contribute-...


Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 12:57pm

Coronavirus epidemics first hit more than 21,000 years ago

Sarbecoviruses have crossed into humans twice in the last decade, leading to the deadly SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2002-04 and the current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A new Oxford University study, published today, shows that the most recent common ancestor of these viruses existed more than 21,000 years ago, nearly 30 times older than previous estimates.

Despite having a very rapid rate of  over short timescales, to survive, viruses must remain highly adapted to their hosts—this imposes severe restrictions on their freedom to accumulate mutations without reducing their fitness. This causes the apparent rate of evolution of viruses to slow down over time. The new research, for the first time, successfully recreates the patterns of this observed rate decay in viruses.

The study also demonstrates that while existing  have often failed to measure the divergence between  species over periods—from a few hundred to a few thousands of years—the  developed in this study will enable the reliable estimation of virus divergence across vast timescales, potentially over the entire course of animal and plant evolution.

The new model enables us to not only reconstruct the evolutionary history of viruses related to SARS-CoV-2, but also a much wider range of RNA and DNA viruses during more remote periods in the past.

Mahan Ghafari et al, A mechanistic evolutionary model explains the time-dependent pattern of substitution rates in viruses, Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.020

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-coronavirus-epidemics-years.html?utm_...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 12:52pm

Fish eyes grown in a petri dish from embryonic stem cells

A research team has demonstrated that complex retinal tissue can be cultured in a Petri dish from embryonic stem cells of bony fish. Until now, stem cells from mammals, including humans, have been used in organoid research. For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that stem cells from medaka and zebrafish can also form highly organized neural structures under controlled laboratory conditions. Among other things, the researchers expect to gain new insights into the basic mechanisms of retinal development.

Organoids are bits of tissue that are grown from stem cells and resemble actual organs. They are used in basic research to gain new information on cell organization and organ development, to investigate the origin of disease, and to develop and test new medications. The major advantage of fish organoids is that they are highly reproducible, unlike organoids from mammalian stem cells. They develop reliably and very quickly and enable a direct comparison with living embryos that in fish grow outside of the womb.

Researchers are  now able to manipulate the molecular and genetic mechanisms of retina  formation.

  Researchers used pluripotent stem cells  from medaka and zebrafish embryos. Such cells have not yet differentiated and can potentially develop into many different cell types. All the cells taken from a single embryo independently aggregated into one large retina within 24 hours. In a matter of a few days, it then formed layers of different cell types that are also found in the fish eye, including photoreceptor cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells, and ganglion cells. The growth process proved to be incredibly efficient. Hundreds of small retina organoids could be generated within a day. The high throughput allowed the researchers to precisely isolate the conditions in which structures resembling a head with two eyes, including both brain and retina, are formed.

Lucie Zilova et al, Fish primary embryonic pluripotent cells assemble into retinal tissue mirroring in vivo early eye development, eLife (2021). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.66998

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-fish-eyes-grown-petri-dish.html?utm_s...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 12:32pm

Unified theory explains how materials transform from solids to liquids

A new study unveils a unified mathematical expression that defines how soft-yet-rigid materials transition from a solid into a liquid flow when they exceed their specific stress threshold.

This study has shown   that these physical states—solid and liquid—can exist together in the same material, and we can explain it using one mathematical expression.

To develop this model, the team performed numerous studies that subjected a variety of different soft materials to stress while measuring the individual solidlike and liquidlike strain responses using a device called a rheometer.

The researchers were able to observe a material's behavior and see a continuous transition between the solid and liquid states and were able to resolve two distinct behaviors that reflect energy dissipation via solid and fluid mechanisms.

Krutarth Kamani et al, Unification of the Rheological Physics of Yield Stress Fluids, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218002

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-theory-materials-solids-liquids.html?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2021 at 11:38am

The first cells might have used temperature to divide

A simple mechanism could underlie the growth and self-replication of protocells—putative ancestors of modern living cells—suggests a study publishing September 3 in Biophysical Journal. Protocells are vesicles bounded by a membrane bilayer and are potentially similar to the first unicellular common ancestor (FUCA). On the basis of relatively simple mathematical principles, the proposed model suggests that the main force driving protocell growth and reproduction is the temperature difference that occurs between the inside and outside of the cylindrical protocell as a result of inner chemical activity.

The purpose of this study was to identify the main forces driving cell division. This is important because cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell division. This is also important to understand the origin of life.

The splitting of a cell to form two daughter cells requires the synchronization of numerous biochemical and mechanical processes involving cytoskeletal structures inside the cell. But in the history of life, such complex structures are a high-tech luxury and must have appeared much later than the ability to split. Protocells must have used a simple splitting mechanism to ensure their reproduction, before the appearance of genes, RNA, enzymes, and all the complex organelles present today, even in the most rudimentary forms of autonomous life.

In the new study, researchers proposed a model based on the idea that the early forms of life were simple vesicles containing a particular network of chemical reactions—a precursor of modern cellular metabolism. The main hypothesis is that molecules composing the membrane bilayer are synthesized inside the protocell through globally exothermic, or energy-releasing, chemical reactions.

The slow increase of the inner temperature forces the hottest molecules to move from the inner leaflet to the outer leaflet of the bilayer. This asymmetric movement makes the outer leaflet grow faster than the inner leaflet. This differential growth increases the mean curvature and amplifies any local shrinking of the protocell until it splits in two. The cut occurs near the hottest zone, around the middle.

The scenario described can be viewed as the ancestor of mitosis. Having no biological archives as old as 4 billion years, we don't know exactly what FUCA contained, but it was probably a vesicle bounded by a lipid bilayer encapsulating some exothermic chemical reactions.

Although purely theoretical, the model could be tested experimentally.

Biophysical Journal, Attal and Schwartz: "Thermally driven fission of protocells" www.cell.com/biophysical-journ … 0006-3495(21)00686-X  , DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.08.020

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-cells-temperature.html?utm_source=nwl...

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