Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication
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'
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Latest Activity: 41 minutes 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 6, part-10, part-11, part-12, part 14 , part- 8,
part- 1, part-2, part-4, part-5, part-16, part-17, part-18 , part-19 , part-20
part-21 , part-22, part-23, part-24, part-25, part-26, part-27 , part-28
part-29, part-30, part-31, part-32, part-33, part-34, part-35, part-36, part-37,
part-38, part-40, part-41, part-42, part-43, part-44, part-45, part-46, part-47
Part 48, part49, Critical thinking -part 50 , part -51, part-52, part-53
part-54, part-55, part-57, part-58, part-59, part-60, part-61, part-62, part-63
part 64, part-65, part-66, part-67, part-68, part 69, part-70 part-71, part-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?
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
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
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
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The chemical tags analysed in the study are called methyl groups, and they are added to DNA in a process called methylation. They are one example of the ‘epigenome’, features of DNA that change gene activity without altering the genetic code.
DNA-methylation patterns can be used to estimate a person’s ‘biological age’, which reflects the physiological stresses that a person’s body has accrued over time. Some research has found that biological age is a better predictor of health problems such as cardiovascular disease3 and dementia4 than a person’s chronological age.
But unlike chronological age, “biological age is quite flexible; it’s a fluid parameter. It can go up and down”.
Pregnancy advances ‘biological age’
Studies in mice and humans suggest that being pregnant can increase a person’s ‘biological age’ by a couple of years — but giving birth reverses these changes. Biological age can be estimated from patterns of DNA methylation, which occurs when chemical methyl groups are added to DNA. The patterns reflect the stresses that a body accrues over time. The work supports the idea that “biological age is quite flexible; it’s a fluid parameter. It can go up and down”, says biomedical scientist Vadim Gladyshev.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00843-w?utm_source=Live+...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S155041312400...
This research shows exposure to microgravity mimics the aging process on a largely physiological level—wasting of bones and muscles, changes in hormonal functioning, and increased susceptibility to infection—but this paper finds that self-motion is mainly unaffected, suggesting the balance issues that frequently come from old age may not be related to the vestibular system.
It suggests that the mechanism for the perception of movement in older people should be relatively unaffected and that the issues involved in falling may not be so much in terms of the perception of how far they've moved, but perhaps more to do with how they're able to convert that into a balance reflex.
Björn Jörges et al, The effects of long-term exposure to microgravity and body orientation relative to gravity on perceived traveled distance, npj Microgravity (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41526-024-00376-6
Part 2
New research finds that astronauts have a surprising ability to orient themselves and gauge distance traveled while free from the pull of gravity.
The findings of the study, done in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and NASA, have implications for crew safety in space and could potentially give clues to how aging affects people's balance systems here on Earth.
It has been repeatedly shown that the perception of gravity influences perceptual skill. The most profound way of looking at the influence of gravity is to take it away, which is why the researchers took their research into space.
Based on these findings it seems as though humans are surprisingly able to compensate adequately for the lack of an Earth-normal environment using vision.
The researchers studied a dozen astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which orbits about 400 kilometers from the Earth's surface.
Here, Earth's gravity is approximately canceled out by centrifugal force generated by the orbiting of the station. In the resulting microgravity, the way people move is more like flying. People have previously anecdotally reported that they felt they were moving faster or further than they really were in space, so this provided some motivation actually to record this.
The researchers compared the performance of a dozen astronauts—six men and six women—before, during, and after their year-long missions to the space station and found that their sense of how far they traveled remained largely intact.
The study, published recently in npj Microgravity, has been a decade in the making and represents the first of three papers that will emerge from the research investigating the effects of microgravity exposure on different perceptual skills including the estimation of body tilt, traveled distance, and object size.
part1
Researchers have brought together two Nobel prize-winning research concepts to advance the field of quantum communication.
Scientists can now efficiently produce nearly perfect entangled photon pairs from quantum dot sources. The research, "Oscillating photonic Bell state from a semiconductor quantum dot for quantum key distribution," was published in Communications Physics.
Entangled photons are particles of light that remain connected, even across large distances, and the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics recognized experiments on this topic. Combining entanglement with quantum dots, a technology recognized with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023, the IQC research team aimed to optimize the process for creating entangled photons, which have a wide variety of applications, including secure communications.
By embedding semiconductor quantum dots into a nanowire, the researchers created a source that creates near-perfect entangled photons 65 times more efficiently than previous work.
This new source can be excited with lasers to generate entangled pairs on command. The researchers then used high-resolution single photon detectors provided by Single Quantum in The Netherlands to boost the degree of entanglement.
Using their new quantum dot entanglement source, the researchers simulated a secure communications method known as quantum key distribution, proving that the quantum dot source holds significant promise in the future of secure quantum communications.
Matteo Pennacchietti et al, Oscillating photonic Bell state from a semiconductor quantum dot for quantum key distribution, Communications Physics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s42005-024-01547-3
Over a human lifespan, the modeled impacts of the suppression bias outweigh those from fuel accumulation or climate change alone. This suggests that suppression may exert a significant and underappreciated influence on patterns of fire globally.
Fire suppression exacerbated the trends already caused by climate change and fuel accumulation, the study found, causing areas burned to increase three to five times faster over time relative to a world with no suppression.
Suppression, through preferentially removing low- and moderate-severity fire, also raised average fire severity by an amount equivalent to a century of fuel accumulation or climate change.
"By attempting to suppress all fires, we are bringing a more severe future to the present", say the researchers.
However, the new findings also show that allowing more low- and moderate-intensity fire can reduce or reverse the impacts of the suppression bias. Suppression strategies that allow fire to burn under moderate weather conditions—while still suppressing fires during more dangerous fire weather—reduced average fire severity and moderated the rate of burned area increase, the team found.
Developing and implementing technologies and strategies to safely manage wildfires during moderate burning conditions is essential. This approach may be just as effective as other necessary interventions, like mitigating climate change and decreasing unintentional human-related ignitions.
Kreider, M.R., et al. Fire suppression makes wildfires more severe and accentuates impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation. Nature Communications (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46702-0
Part 2
**
The escalation of extreme wildfires globally has prompted a critical examination of wildfire management strategies. A new study reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation.
The study used computer simulations to show that attempting to suppress all wildfires results in fires burning with more severe ecological impacts, with accelerated increases in burned area beyond those expected from fuel accumulation or climate change.
Fire suppression has unintended consequences, say the researchers. We've known for a long time that suppressing fires leads to fuel accumulation. Here, the researchers show a separate counter-intuitive outcome.
Though fire suppression reduces the overall area burned, it mainly eliminates low- and moderate-intensity fires. As a result, the remaining fires are biased to be more extreme. The study, "Fire suppression makes wildfires more severe and accentuates impact...," published in Nature Communications, shows how this "suppression bias" causes average fire severity to increase substantially.
Part 1
Merck identified techniques that can help it imitate the effects of these crystals on Earth as it works to develop a drug that can be stored at room temperature.
Still, it can take years between research in space and the wide availability of a drug developed there.
Cancer research in space began more than 40 years ago but has become "revolutionary" in recent years.
Biden launched a "Cancer Moonshot" initiative in 2016, when he was then vice president, echoing a speech by John F. Kennedy some 60 years earlier outlining the bold goal of sending an American to the moon.
The goal of the "Moonshot" is to halve the death rate from cancer over the next quarter century, saving four million lives, according to the White House.
Political realities may hinder that ambitious goal, though. Congress has earmarked just over $25 billion to NASA for 2024, two percent less than the previous year and well below what the White House had sought.
"The ability of space to capture the imagination is huge. And space cancer research has a firm goal: "It can save lives." and should be pursued, according to the scientific community.
Source: AFP
Part 2
Experiments in the weightless environment of space have led to "crazy progress" in the fight against cancer, NASA officials say.
Not only do cells in space age more rapidly, speeding up research, their structures are also described as "purer."
They all don't clump together (as they do) on Earth because of gravity. They are suspended in space enabling better analysis of their molecular structures.
Research conducted in space can help make cancer drugs more effective.
Pharmaceutical giant Merck has conducted research on the ISS with Keytruda, an anti-cancer drug that patients now receive intravenously.
Its key ingredient is difficult to transform into a liquid. One solution is crystallization, a process often used in drug manufacturing.
In 2017, Merck conducted experiments to see if the crystals would form more rapidly in space than on Earth.
Two pictures taken demonstrate the difference. The first showed a blurry, transparent spot. But on the second, a large number of clear gray spots had emerged.
That photo showed that smaller, more uniform crystals were forming in space—and "forming better".
Thanks to such research, researchers will be able to make a drug that can be administered by injection in a doctor's office instead of through long and painful chemotherapy treatments.
Part 1
Scientists have developed ultra-thin semiconductor fibers that can be woven into fabrics, turning them into smart wearable electronics. Their work has been published in the journal Nature.
To create reliably functioning semiconductor fibers, they must be flexible and without defects for stable signal transmission. However, existing manufacturing methods cause stress and instability, leading to cracks and deformities in the semiconductor cores, negatively impacting their performance and limiting their development.
Scientists conducted modeling and simulations to understand how stress and instability occur during the manufacturing process. They found that the challenge could be overcome through careful material selection and a specific series of steps taken during fiber production.
They developed a mechanical design and successfully fabricated hair-thin, defect-free fibers spanning 100 meters, which indicates its market scalability. Importantly the new fibers can be woven into fabrics using existing methods.
To demonstrate their fibers' high quality and functionality, the research team developed prototypes. These included a smart beanie hat to help a visually impaired person cross the road safely by receiving alerts on a mobile phone application; a shirt that receives information and transmits it through an earpiece, like a museum audio guide; and a smartwatch with a strap that functions as a flexible sensor that conforms to the wrist of users for heart rate measurement even during physical activities.
The researchers think that their innovation is a fundamental breakthrough in the development of semiconductor fibers that are ultra-long and durable, meaning they are cost-effective and scalable while offering excellent electrical and optoelectronic (meaning it can sense, transmit and interact with light) performance.
Zhixun Wang et al, High-quality semiconductor fibres via mechanical design, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06946-0
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