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'
Members: 22
Latest Activity: 20 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 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
Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday. 1 Reply 0 Likes
Q: In your opinion, were the covid vaccines a success or a failure?Krishna: No, opinions don’t count in science. Only data and evidence.CDC data show that vaccination offered significant…Continue
Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday. 1 Reply 0 Likes
The idea that aliens may have visited the Earth is becoming increasingly popular. Around a fifth of UK citizens …Continue
Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday. 1 Reply 0 Likes
Why our solar system's moons have no ringsOf the nearly 300 moons found to date in our solar system, not a single one is a ringed moon!If giant planets in our Solar System have rings, and if…Continue
Started by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa. Last reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Q: Dr.Krishna, I have read your article on Nocebo Effect. But what…Continue
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After each flight test, the team continuously improved the functionality of their technology.
Source: NASA
Part 2
A team at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical (laser) communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the moon during the Artemis missions.
Historically, NASA has relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data faster than radio frequency systems.
Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA's Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie, sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.
The signals traveled 22,000 miles away from Earth to NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), an orbiting experimental platform. The LCRD then relayed the signals to the ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then sent data back to Earth. During the experiments, High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN), a new system developed at Glenn, helped the signal penetrate cloud coverage more effectively.
A team of neuroscientists and behavioral specialists has found differences between male and female brain structure in areas associated with decision-making, memory processing and handling emotions.
In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group compared more than 1,000 brain scans to better understand why men and women are more prone to different kinds of brain illness.
Prior research has shown that male babies are three times as likely to be diagnosed with autism as they grow older than are female babies—they are also twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. On the other hand, female babies are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or mood disorders later in life than are boys.
Mental health specialists have wondered for many years why there are differences, and many suspect that it is due to physical brain differences between the genders. The research team thinks they may have found evidence for such differences.
To spot possible gender differences in the brain, the researchers focused their attention on subcortical gray matter regions that prior researchers have associated with mental health, including the amygdala and the thalamus. They then analyzed MRI scans of 1,065 male and female brains, looking for differences in brain microstructure, such as the way cells are concentrated, their arrangement or even their physical characteristics.
The research team found what they describe as "large, sex-related differences in microstructures." They noted that such changes were still apparent after adjusting for age and the relative size of the brains under study. They also found diffusion metrics in the amygdala and thalamus that they believe could be associated with mental disorders such as anxiety, ADHD, social skills issues and depression.
They suggest that further study of diffusion MRI imagery could provide more insight into gender-based brain disorders.
Richard Watts et al, Sex and mental health are related to subcortical brain microstructure, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403212121. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2403212121
Tree bark surfaces play an important role in removing methane gas from the atmosphere, according to a study published 24 July in Nature.
While trees have long been known to benefit the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this new research reveals a surprising additional climate benefit. Microbes hidden within tree bark can absorb methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from the atmosphere.
An international team of researchers has shown for the first time that microbes living in bark or in the wood itself are removing atmospheric methane on a scale equal to or above that of soil. They calculate that this newly discovered process makes trees 10% more beneficial for climate overall than previously thought.
Methane is responsible for around 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times and emissions are currently rising faster than at any point since records began in the 1980s.
Although most methane is removed by processes in the atmosphere, soils are full of bacteria that absorb the gas and break it down for use as energy. Soil had been thought of as the only terrestrial sink for methane, but researchers now show that trees may be as important, perhaps more so.
Vincent Gauci, Global atmospheric methane uptake by upland tree woody surfaces, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07592-w. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07592-w
NASA’s Perseverance rover has made very compelling observations in a Martian rock that, with further study, could prove that life was present on Mars in the distant past – but how can we determine that from a rock, and what do we need to do to confirm it? Morgan Cable, a scientist on the Perseverance team, takes a closer look.
It is the human experience, in the face of pain, to want to feel better. As a result—and in conjunction with millennia of evolution—our brains can search for ways to help us feel better.
It releases chemicals, which can be measured.
The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vaults this species of parasitic flatworm into the ranks of complex animal societies such as ants, bees and termites, which also have distinct classes of workers and soldiers that have given up reproduction to serve their colony.
When it gets into humans, usually via the consumption of raw or undercooked fish, this species of flatworm, Haplorchis pumilio, can cause gastrointestinal issues and, in severe cases, stroke or heart attack. Fully cooking fish or freezing any meant to be eaten raw for at least one week is enough to kill the trematodes, per Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
While there are no specific statistics for Haplorchis pumilio, foodborne trematode infections cause 2 million life years lost to disability and death worldwide every year.
Unlike bees and termites, the colonies of this species of flatworm are not underground or in a tree hollow, but inside the body of a live snail. The parasites don't kill the snail, but instead siphon off nutrients for years as they pump out free-swimming clones that search for fish, the flatworms' next host in their complex life cycle.
These flatworms could become invaluable tools to probe fundamental questions of sociobiology—like, 'how does this kind of social organization evolve?
This study is the first evidence for trematode soldiers that are so physically specialized to their task that they lack any reproductive tissues and appear permanently incapable of reproduction.
Daniel C. G. Metz et al, The physical soldier caste of an invasive, human-infecting flatworm is morphologically extreme and obligately sterile, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2400953121
As if komodo dragons weren't amazing enough, these giant lizards literally have teeth of iron.
A new study of these formidable predators' chompers has revealed concentrated deposits of iron along the serrated tearing edges and the tips of their teeth, helping to keep them razor-sharp for tearing the flesh from the prey they devour.
Although many vertebrates have iron enhancements in their teeth, komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) and other similar species with serrated teeth, called ziphodonts, represent the most striking examples found to date.
In fact, so much iron is concentrated along the sharp edges of komodo teeth that they are tinted orange.
Never before has iron been found so localized along the cutting edge of a vertebrate tooth. This suggests that a stronger cutting edge confers a competitive advantage, and may yield insights into how some of the fiercest dinosaurs devoured their food.
Scientists have discovered a way to control mutation rates in bacteria, paving the way for new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics are given to kill bad bacteria; however, with just one mutation a bacteria can evolve to become resistant to that antibiotic, making common infections potentially fatal.
The new research, published recently in the journal PLOS Biology, used high-performance computing to simulate more than 8,000 years of bacterial evolution, allowing scientists to predict mechanisms that control mutation rates.
They then made more than 15,000 cultures of E. coli in lab conditions to test their predictions—that's so many that if you lined up all of the bacteria in this study, they would stretch 860,000 km, or wrap around the Earth more than 20 times.
The tests revealed that bacteria living in a lowly populated community are more prone to developing antibiotic resistance due to a naturally occurring DNA-damaging chemical, peroxide. In crowded environments, where cells are more densely packed, bacteria work collectively to detoxify peroxide, reducing the likelihood of mutations that lead to antibiotic resistance.
The finding could help develop "anti-evolution drugs" to preserve antibiotic effectiveness by limiting the mutation rates in bacteria.
By understanding the environmental conditions that influence mutation rates, we can develop strategies to safeguard antibiotic effectiveness. This new study shows that bacterial mutation rates are not fixed and can be manipulated by altering their surroundings, which is vital on our journey to combat antibiotic resistance.
Peroxide, a chemical found in many environments, is key to this process. When E. coli populations become denser, they work together to lower peroxide levels, protecting their DNA from damage and reducing mutation rates. The study showed that genetically modified E. coli that is unable to break down peroxide had the same mutation rates, no matter the population size. However, when helper cells that could break down peroxide were added, the mutation rate in these genetically modified E. coli decreased.
Rowan Green et al, Collective peroxide detoxification determines microbial mutation rate plasticity in E. coli, PLOS Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002711
Researchers are using biological matter to create unique new materials that can adapt to their environment and repair themselves.
Researchers are developing what they call "living materials," for use in the aerospace and transportation sectors. These living materials are, precisely as they sound, literally alive. They contain microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria, which give them the capacity to sustain their integrity and self-healing.
The goal is to make engineered structures that can behave like living organisms, able to sense and adapt to mechanical stresses.
The material they are developing is a composite that combines living fungi cells and wood. It consists of a hydrogel and mycelium, a root-like structure of a fungus that normally lives underground.
They chose to work with fungi because fungus is a really robust organism, it is tolerant to harsh conditions and is relatively easy to cultivate.
Moreover, fungal cells have a great ability to connect. Mycelium can grow a vast sensing network that allows it to send signals throughout the organism. That means the scientists can distribute only a few cells throughout the material, and these cells will reconnect and form a sensing network.
Biological materials could help to improve the performance and durability of critical structures used in areas like aerospace and transportation.
These materials are very lightweight and more sustainable than currently used materials.
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© 2024 Created by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa.
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