IIT-Madras powers up a desi chip

Microprocessor developed by the institute’s computer scientists is fabricated by Intel

These are the kind of chips that India always wanted, but could not make. Now, computer scientists and a student team from the IIT- Madras have developed the first of a family of six industry-standard microprocessors.

The initial batch of 300 chips, named RISECREEK and produced under Project Shakti, have been fabricated free at Intel’s facility at Oregon, U.S., to run the Linux operating system.

The IIT team says its microprocessors can be adapted by others, as the design is open source. They optimise power use and compete with international units such as the Cortex A5 from Advanced RISC Machines (ARM).

On the test bench, the IIT design fared better than the A5, measured in terms of the DMIPS per megahertz rating, scoring 1.68 against the competition’s 1.57. At a frequency of 350 MHz, RISECREEK can meet the demands of defence and strategic equipment such as NAVIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite) and Internet of Things (IoT) electronics, its developers say. “Our process helps us develop the processor three times sooner than industry standards,” says Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Professor of Computer Science at the IIT- Madras, who led the project.

What makes RISECREEK different is the open source nature of the designs. “This is made in India, but even if it were made in the U.S., it would be contemporary,” says G.S. Madhusudan, project adviser from the IIT- Madras.

The team, led by Dr. Neel Gala, an alumnus of the IIT- Madras, is thrilled, not just because it developed a viable industry grade chip, but also because the process can be tapped for future efforts in semiconductors. “The Shakti plan started in 2014 as an IIT-M initiative. Last year, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology funded a part of the project,” says Dr. Kamakoti.

Family of six

The plan includes a family of six types of microprocessors. The first to be ready is the C class, RISECREEK. The E class of microprocessors that can be used in smart cards, IoT devices, fan/motor controls, etc, is almost ready and the I class, which can be used for mobile phones, desktops and mobile phones is soon to follow. The design for the S class which can be used for enterprise class servers is underway, and the H class, which will be used for building High Performance computers with a massive parallel processing capacity.

The H Class is part of the next phase of development, which the team calls the Para-SHAKTI (parallel SHAKTI) project. Para-SHAKTI will make microprocessors for indigenous high-performance computers with over 32 SHAKTI cores.

“The Shakti project is not aimed at only building processors. It also aims to build high speed interconnects for servers and supercomputers based on variants of the RapidiIO and GenZ standards. These are key to build large clusters of processors to get Petaflop and Exaflop level supercomputers,” says Mr. Madhusudan.

Small team

With a team of about eight students and three computer scientists, the team used BlueSpec System Verilog language to capture the processor functionality. Everything from that to making the final chip layout was done within the campus. The chip layout was sent to Oregon, to be fabricated by Intel. Once that was done, mounting the chip on a 10-layer verification board and bringing up the chip was done again at IIT Madras. The board bring- up and booting Linux was done in four days. “There are 70 million instructions from the point we switch on the system till the prompt comes. The chip executed these instructions without any bug at the first shot. This gives a lot of confidence to move ahead,” says Dr. Kamakoti.

Intel has fabricated the chip free of cost, and the team incurred a development cost of about ₹1.2 Crore. Regarding vulnerabilities due to outsourcing the fabrication of the chip, he says, “Since the entire design has been developed in-house, it is extremely difficult for a foundry to add backdoors or security vulnerabilities. But yes, an external fab can always induce vulnerabilities. A probable solution for this is to move towards a controlled fab.”

Source: The Hindu, 6-08-2018

IISc researchers observe superconductivity at ambient temperature, pressure

A mixture of two metals — silver and gold — shows superconductivity

For the first time, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru have been able to achieve superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure. A large number of materials have been found to undergo normal to superconducting transitions. But such transitions require extremely low temperature and/or extremely high pressure. Achieving this transition at ambient temperature and pressure therefore gains great significance. The pre-print findings are reported in ArXiv.

A material is said to exhibit superconductivity when it is able to conduct electric current with practically zero resistance. So unlike the conventionally used materials such as copper and steel, a superconductor can carry a current indefinitely without losing any energy.

Superconductors are already used for many applications such electronics, levitation of trains, particle accelerators, and superconducting coils.

However, they need to be cooled to very low temperatures, which restrict their use in our everyday life. The ability to achieve superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure therefore becomes very significant.

A two-member team, led by Professor Anshu Pandey from the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit at IISc, observed superconductivity in nano-sized films and pellets made of silver nanoparticles embedded in a gold matrix. Superconductivity was observed at minus 37 degree Celsius. The resistance observed is very low — 10-4 ohms — but not zero. The limitation to measure even lower resistance arises from instrument sensitivity, the authors claim.

Though gold and silver are not known to exhibit a superconducting state independently, the team was able to achieve superconductivity in nanostructures made by embedding silver particles of 1 nanometre size into a gold matrix. The nanosized silver particles were prepared separately before they were incorporated into a gold matrix.

“The results look robust and interesting. At the same time, it is a surprising result as a mixture of two metals — silver and gold — shows superconductivity,” said Professor Pratap Raychaudhuri from the Superconductivity Lab at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

It’s a remarkable achievement and I am very excited about it. To me it is a pleasant surprise but not a shock,” said Dr. Ganapathy Baskaran from Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences who has been working in the field of superconductivity for nearly 30 years. “They didn’t observe zero resistance but the resistance seen is very low, much lower than any metal.”

Meissner effect

Professor Pandey’s team did observe the Meissner effect though the effect is relatively low. Meissner effect is where the magnetic fields are completely expelled by the superconducting state and is a crucial evidence for superconductivity.

“Though they didn’t observe perfect Meissner effect, they did observe samples becoming strongly diamagnetic, which is consistent with superconductivity,” said Dr. Baskaran, a SERB Fellow. A diamagnetic material is repelled by magnetic field and is consistent with superconductivity.

Though the diamagnetism observed is not complete it is strong enough. “There may be several reasons why they didn’t observe complete diamagnetism. For instance, it is difficult to observe complete diamagnetism in the material that they have used,” said Professor Raychaudhuri.

“The observed diamagnetism is far stronger than the values associated with most normal materials, as well as with previous reports of nanostructured gold or silver. The magnitude of the observed diamagnetism is thus consistent with a granular superconductor,” the authors write.

“Even granular superconductivity at this temperature is a remarkable achievement. Now other scientists should be able to reproduce this,” comments Dr. Baskaran.

“The temperature at which diamagnetism is observed is the same as when the resistance goes to nearly zero,” said Professor Raychaudhuri. The authors have observed superconductivity up to 320 K but haven’t measured the diamagnetism.

Source: The Hindu, 27/07/2018

Why Isro has a legacy of success

It has managed to deliver on a level few other comparable government agencies have

The 39th flight of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle last week was justifiably lauded. The playing up of the record-breaking nature of the flight—104 satellites is by some distance the most a single launch has ever managed— echoes the bouts of self-congratulation that follow every major Isro success, and there have been a fair few of those. Well and good; bragging rights and the resultant positive public perception are valuable assets for any space programme. But there is another issue worth examining: why Isro has managed to deliver on a level that few other comparable government agencies have.

Perhaps the most apt point of comparison is the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). They share a number of similarities. Both work in areas where technological and research capital is paramount. Both deal with targets that require advanced application of that capital. Both, importantly, work on projects that can take decades to come to fruition, with all the uncertainty that it engenders—and indeed, given the nature of the beast, may turn out to ultimately be unsuccessful. The DRDO’s reputation has perhaps obscured some of its achievements, but the gulf in outcomes between it and Isro—similarities notwithstanding—is nevertheless clear. There are a few reasons for this.

The first is organizational structure. In 1962, the department of atomic energy—which had been entrusted with space research— set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research (Incospar) with scientist Vikram Sarabhai as chairman. In 1969, the committee was replaced by the newly founded Isro, again under Sarabhai, which took on the responsibility of developing space technology and overseeing its application. The final step in the evolution of India’s space programme was the constitution of the department of space (DOS) and the Space Commission. Isro was brought under DOS in 1972, with the commission formulating policy and seeing to its implementation. The entire structure functioned directly under the prime minister.

The absence of the otherwise mandatory layers of bureaucracy present in any government body is the obvious takeaway. The fact that specialists in the field and technocrats—starting with Sarabhai himself—rather than mandarins have populated the upper echelons of the hierarchy compounds this. For instance, Isro’s current chairman, A.S. Kiran Kumar, is also chairman of the Space Commission and secretary of DOS. This set-up has promoted vertical integration between policymakers—who are in a position to understand the nature of the long-term projects Isro undertakes—and those delivering the end results.

Contrast this with the DRDO, which functions under the ministry of defence and is entrenched in the bureaucratic culture. The fetishization of civilian supremacy over the military has resulted in the heads of the Armed Forces not having a place at the table when it comes to policy decisions—and the political and bureaucratic setups have failed to articulate a long-term vision to understand the needs of the Armed Forces. This means that the DRDO functions at a remove from the end users of its technology, and with inadequate leadership at the ministry level.

The second reason is international cooperation. Although there have been some impediments—Isro, along with a number of other government agencies, was removed from the US’ entity list only in 2011, and a decade-old US policy that hampers the use of Indian launch vehicles by American companies is still in effect—Isro has been able to work with the international scientific community since inception. This has been a throughline from the first component of the space programme, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, established by Incospar, to the agreement between Isro and the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration to work on future joint missions to Mars.

The DRDO, on the other hand, has faced far greater barriers here. This has partly to do with geopolitics and international restrictions on sharing defence-related technology. Partly, it is the Indian political leadership’s stress on entirely indigenous development in past years. This has been counterproductive. As the then director general of DRDO, V.K. Saraswat, said in 2011, “if anyone wants complete homegrown products in critical areas, it is because of the lack of (understanding) of the dynamics of the market and a lack of understanding of what is global competitiveness.”

A third difference is accountability in the form of outcome budgets. This is too recent to judge its impact on both agencies; outcome budgets were mandated in 2005-06. And given the nature and risks of technological projects with long gestation periods, strict financial accountability is not feasible. But some level of periodic oversight is necessary—and while DOS submits an outcome budget that contains a detailed breakdown of Isro projects, the ministry of defence, and thus DRDO, are exempt. More likely than not, this will eventually result in further divergence in the outcomes of both agencies.

Given the nature of Isro’s work and its unique organizational structure, it’s not possible to employ all the lessons learnt elsewhere. And there are unquantifiables such as institutional culture in the mix as well. But there is no harm and potentially much good in examining its success and the methods that can be successfully translated, such as streamlining decision-making mechanisms and lateral entry at the policymaking level for area experts. The political and bureaucratic will to actually employ those methods elsewhere is, of course, another matter entirely.

Source: Mintepaper, 21-02-2017

ISRO sets the bar high

e Indian Space Research Organisation boosted its reputation further when it successfully launched a record 104 satellites in one mission from Sriharikota on Wednesday by relying on its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. An earth observation Cartosat-2 series satellite and two other nano satellites were the only Indian satellites launched: the remaining were from the United States, Israel, the UAE, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Switzerland. Of the 101 foreign satellites launched, 96 were from the U.S. and one each from the other five countries. Till now Russia held the record of launching 37 satellites in a single mission, in 2014, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U.S. launched 29 satellites in one go in 2013. Last June, ISRO had come close to NASA’s record by launching 20 satellites in one mission. But ISRO views the launch not as a mission to set a world record but as an opportunity to make full use of the capacity of the launch vehicle. The launch is particularly significant as ISRO now cements its position as a key player in the lucrative commercial space launch market by providing a cheaper yet highly reliable alternative. At an orbital altitude of around 500 km, the vehicle takes about 90 minutes to complete one orbit. Though ISRO had sufficient time to put the satellites into orbit, it accomplished the task in about 12 minutes. With the focus on ensuring that no two satellites collided with each other, the satellites were injected in pairs in opposite directions. Successive pairs of satellites were launched once the vehicle rotated by a few degrees, thereby changing the separation angle and time of separation to prevent any collision.

ISRO plans to launch more Cartosat-2 series satellites and even an improved version. Besides setting the record for the most number of satellites launched in a single mission, the Indian space agency has launched two nano satellites weighing less than 10 kg. It is a technology demonstrator for a new class of satellites called ISRO nano satellites (INS). The main objective of the INS, which will be launched together with bigger satellites, is to provide a platform on which payloads up to 5 kg from universities and R&D laboratories, and ISRO itself can be easily integrated for carrying out scientific research activities. With many Indian universities already building and launching nano satellites, the availability of a dedicated nano satellites platform is sure to boost space research in India.

Source: The Hindu, 16-02-2017

World's first floating city on the horizon?

DAILY MIRROR & AGENCIES





Experiment At Sea In French Polynesia To Allow People To Try Things That Haven't Been Tried Before

A non-profit thinktank is spearheading a project to build the world's first floating city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to ABC, the government of French Polynesia has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US-based The Seasteading Institute, and they hope construction work will begin in 2019. According to a news release issued by the institute, the legislation to be worked out under the MoU would allow its Floating Island Project its own “special governing framework, creating an innovative special economic zone“.
Seasteading is a concept that involves building permanent dwellings at sea.
The institute hopes to build autonomous floating cities around the world where, ac cording to its website, “residents and entrepreneurs (are) free to operate their own lives and businesses“. Randolph Hencken, executive director of the institute, said: “What we're interested in is societal choice and having a location where we can try things that haven't been tried before.“
The Seasteading Institute has spent the past five years trying to work out how to build “permanent, innovative communities floating at sea“.While it had initially envisaged the floating cities in international waters, to begin with, the institute has settled for territorial waters. “I don't think it will be that dramatically radical in the first renditions... We were looking for sheltered waters, we don't want to be out in the open ocean -it's technologically possible but economically outrageous to afford,“ Hencken added. Among the institute's motives, it says, is to build societies that respect nature and are based on sustainable energy sources as well as infrastructure that seeks to tackle climate change.
French Polynesia, a collection of 118 islands in the southern Pacific, is at risk from rising sea levels.
“They (French Polynesia) also have very stable institutions so we're able to work with a government that wants us there, that we have respect for and they have respect for us,“ Hencken said. The MoU, the BBC reported, “outlines objectives the institute must meet to get possible go-ahead for its first seastead community, off the island of Tahiti“.
The MoU will lead to further studies about the economic and environmental impact of the scheme, plus investigations into the legal implications of a floating city .Hencken is hopeful the government of French Polynesia will support his firm's efforts: “We are confident there will be both a direct and an indirect benefit for them economically ,“ he added. The pilot project, according to the institute, is expected to cost between $10 million and $50 million.

Source: Times of India, 18-01-2017

World's most heat resistant material found

MM





The finding may pave the way for next-gen hypersonic vehicles

Scientists have identified materials that can withstand temperatures of nearly 4,000 deg rees Celsius, an advance that may pave the way for improved heat resistant shielding for the faster-than-ever hypersonic space vehicles.Researchers from Imperial College London discovered that the melting point of hafnium carbide is the highest ever recorded for a material.
Tantalum carbide (TaC) and hafnium carbide (HfC) are refractory ceramics, meaning they are extraordinarily resistant to heat.
Their ability to withstand extremely harsh environments means that refractory ceramics could be used in thermal protection systems on highspeed vehicles and as fuel cladding in the super-heated environments of nuclear reactors.
However, there has not been the technology available to test the melting point of TaC and HfC in the lab to determine how truly extreme an environment they could function in.
The researchers developed a new extreme heating technique using lasers to test the heat tolerance of TaC and HfC.
They used the laser-heating techniques to find the point at which TaC and HfC melted, both separately and as mixed compositions of both.
They found that the mixed compound (Ta0.8Hf0.20C) was consistent with previous research, melting at 3,905 degrees Celsius, but the two compounds on their own exceeded previous recorded melting points. The compound TaC melted at 3,768 degrees Celsius, and HfC melted at 3,958 degrees Celsius.
The findings may pave the way for the next generation of hypersonic vehicles, meaning spacecraft could become faster than ever.
“The friction involved when travelling above Mach 5 ­ hypersonic speeds ­ creates very high temperatures,“ said Omar Cedillos-Barraza, currently an Associate Professor at the University of Texas.
“So far, TaC and HfC have not been potential candidates for hypersonic aircraft, but our new findings show that they can withstand even more heat than we previously thought ­ more than any other compound known to man,“ said CedillosBarraza, who carried out the research as a PhD student at Imperial College London.
“This means that they could be useful materials for new types of spacecraft that can fly through the atmosphere like a plane, before reaching hypersonic speeds to shoot out into space,“ he said.

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 26-12-2016

Transmit password via your body

New Tech A Safer Option Than Transmission Through Wi-Fi Or Bluetooth

Scientists have devised a way to send passwords through the human body rather than over airborne radio waves like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth which are vulnerable to hacking.University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers have devised a way to send secure passwords through the human body using benign, low-frequency transmissions generated by fingerprint sensors and touchpads on consumer devices. “If I want to open a door using an electronic smart lock, I can touch the knob and touch the fingerprint sensor on my phone and transmit my credentials through my body to open the door, without leaking that personal information over the air,“ explained Merhdad Hessar, a student at the university .Sending a secret code over radio waves like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth means anyone can eavesdrop.
“Fingerprint sensors have so far been used as an input device.We have shown for the first time that these sensors can be re-purposed to send out information confined to the body,“ said Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor at UW .The process employs a sequence of finger scans to encode and transmit data. The team achieved rates of 50 bits per second on laptop touchpads and 25 bits per second with fingerprint sensors -fast enough to send a password or code through the body and to a receiver within seconds. In tests with 10 different subjects, the researchers were able to generate usable on body transmissions on people of different heights, weights and body types. The system also worked when subjects were in motion.
“We showed that it works in different postures, like standing, sitting and sleeping. We can also get a strong signal throughout your body . The receivers can be anywhere -on your leg, chest, hands -and still work,“ said Vikram Iyer, a UW electrical engineering doctoral student.
Normally , sensors use these signals to receive input about your finger. However, the engineers devised a way to use these signals as output that corresponds to data contained in a password. When entered on a smartphone, data that authenticates your identity can travel securely through your body to a receiver embedded in a device that needs to confirm who you are.
The technology could also be useful for secure key transmissions to medical devices which seeks someone's identity before sending or sharing data.

Source: Times of India, 29-09-2016

MIT scientists use terahertz waves to read closed books

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a new technology that can read the pages of a closed book, an advance that may help archaeologists look into antique books without touching them.

Researchers, including Ramesh Raskar from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S, tested a prototype of the system on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on the top nine sheets.

“The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don’t even want to touch,” said Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at MIT.

He said that the system could be used to analyse any materials organised in thin layers, such as coatings on machine parts or pharmaceuticals.

Researchers from MIT and Georgia Institute of Technology developed the algorithms that acquire images from individual sheets in stacks of paper, and interprets the often distorted or incomplete images as individual letters.

“A lot of websites have these letter certifications (captchas) to make sure you’re not a robot, and this algorithm can get through a lot of them,” said Mr. Heshmat.

The system uses terahertz radiation, the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light, which has several advantages over other types of waves that can penetrate surfaces, such as X-rays or sound waves.

Terahertz frequency profiles can distinguish between ink and blank paper, in a way that X-rays can not, and has much better depth resolution than ultrasound.

The system exploits the fact that between the pages of a book tiny air pockets are trapped about 20 micrometres deep.

The difference in refractive index — the degree to which they bend light — between the air and the paper means that the boundary between the two will reflect terahertz radiation back to a detector.

In the new system, a standard terahertz camera emits ultrashort bursts of radiation, and the camera’s built-in sensor detects their reflections.

From the reflections’ time of arrival, the algorithm can gauge the distance to the individual pages of the book.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: The Hindu, 12-09-2016

Inspired by Stephen Hawking, Bihar boy makes voice-controlled wheelchair

Moved by his octogenarian grandfather’s insistence on wanting to maintain his independence in the twilight years of his life, a young man from Bihar has created a voice-controlled, battery-operated wheelchair.

“My grandfather hates it when somebody tries to help him with his daily chores or holds his hand to help him walk. I am sure there are many more like him. I wanted to do something for them,” said Ashutosh Prakash, a final semester student at the Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, about the source of his inspiration.

Prakash came up with the idea during his internship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, three years ago. “My internship guide, Dr Atul Thakur, helped me realise the idea,” he said.

The wheelchair, which is being compared with the one used by acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, is a traditional wheelchair that responds to voice command for four basic movements — left, right, forward and reverse; it even stops when it encounters an obstacle or approaches a staircase. “It senses unevenness on the floor, near a staircase and stops, ensuring the safety of the person using it,” he said.

The wheelchair has been fitted with a voice-processor, microcontrollers to amplify control signals, motor and battery, besides microchips. The existing wheelchair is fit for a person weighing up to 80 kgs and costs just `20,000. “Depending on the weight of the person using it, the wheelchair may need stronger battery and motor, adding to its cost,” Prakash said.

Born to teacher Pramod Kumar Mishra and homemaker Renu Mishra, the Darbhanga boy has kept the design open-ended and wants other people to improve on it. He explained his objective is to not make profit, but to help people like his grandfather.

This is not the first time Prakash has used technology to improve lives of those in need. Earlier, he had designed an inexpensive prosthetic limb that would respond to brain signals.

72 more emoticons like shrug, selfie coming soon

Andrew Griffin

THE INDEPENDENT





Everyone's emoji vocabu lary is about to receive a huge expansion as authorities roll out new pictures.The Unicode Consortium, which maintains the standards for emoji so that they can work across sites, is sending out a new update.And it includes a wide variety of pictures.
Some of those serve obvious purposes, like a picture that shows someone rolling on the floor laughing or a shrug. Others are slightly more unexpected, like a face with a cowboy hat and a gherkin.
Yet more tend to build on existing pictures to give them more possibilities. That includes the addition of a glass of milk, clinking glasses and a tumbler full of whiskey , building on the existing beer and martini glasses.
It could still take some time for the emoji to actually arrive on your phone. Though the consortium will approve the new emoji towards the end of the month, they have to be drawn and integrated into particular operating systems by the firms that make them.
That has led to some problems with the little images, which experts have said can potentially cause huge amounts of confusion because each company draws them differently .

Source: Times of India, 4-06-2016

Now, an app to find the closest blood bank

Bengaluru-based engineer’s Ausodhyatmika gives details of all registered banks

Moved by the plight of people who frantically search for blood donors and blood banks during medical emergencies, a Bengaluru-based software engineer has developed a mobile app that provides details of these facilities situated close by, from any location in the country.

Access on Google Maps

Krishna Kant Tiwari has designed Android appAusodhyatmika (available for free in Google Play) that lists the details of all registered blood banks of the country and their location, with contacts that can be accessed through Google Maps.

All blood banks located within a 100 km radius, with their distance, can be checked.

Blood banks beyond this limit can also be located using the advanced search option.

The app offers an option for any donor to enrol his/her name on the list of prospective donors to help people who are in need of a blood group, which is not available in any blood bank.

“Mobile phone users could easily find donors’ contact number and also can track them using the in-built GPS system,” said Mr. Tiwari.

The app also has a list of ambulances and names of all the registered hospitals of the country, their contact numbers and their addresses.

The app provides details of other healthcare entities such as clinics, nursing homes, pathology labs, diagnostics, pharmacies, and veterinary hospitals that are registered with the Government of India.

Database of medicines

Besides this, the app also has the database of over one lakh medicines and their combinations.

Mr. Tiwari said that in order to prevent any misuse, the app has an option called ‘Report Abuse’, using which, any user can report wrongful use of the app.

Keywords: Blood bank app, Ausodhyatmika

Source: The Hindu, 24-05-2016

EINSTEIN'S PREDICTION COMES TRUE AFTER 100 YEARS - Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves for First Time

Hari Pulakkat

Bengaluru:





Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces via a tweet that India would build a gravitational wave detector that would form part of Ligo network

An international consortium of physicists, including those from many Indian institutions, detected gravitational waves for the first time in the world.This is considered to be an enormous achievement as the gravitational waves are very hard to detect.“This is the scientific moonshot,“ said David Reitze, LIGO Laboratory Executive Director as he announced the news. “And we have hit the moon.“This signal was produced by two colliding black holes 1.3 billion years ago. “We are opening a window on the universe,“ said David Reitze. Observing gravitational waves would enable scientists to study the universe probably not possible in any other way . Just as the news was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced through a tweet that India would build a gravitational wave detector that would form part of the Ligo network. This . 1,000-crore project has been wai` ting funding for a few years, and it was cleared by the Cabinet on Thursday evening. There was a danger that this observatory will go to Australia, as Australian politicians was now reportedly keen on building it there.
Many Indian scientists worked on the Ligo project. An observatory in India would be at the right distance from the two existing observatories in the US to calculate precisely the nature of gravitational waves. It would also give Indian astrophysicists an opportunity to work at the frontier of the new field of gravitational astronomy .
At the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, physicists celebrated the discovery and then the Modi announcement, as a big moment was replaced by a bigger moment for the Indian scientists.Many of them had developed techniques used by the Ligo observatory in the detection.
The big moment for astrophysicists came on September 14 last ye ar, when the Ligo observatory in Lousiana recorded a signal, exactly as predicted by Einstein to be when two black holes merge. Precisely 17 milliseconds later, another observatory in Washington state in the US recorded the same signal. These two signals enabled the scientists to decode the nature of the gravitational waves precisely . The event recorded two other significant events.It was also the first time we have seen two binary black holes merging.
It is also the first evidence that binary black holes exist. It was like two stars, each thirty times the size of the sun, hitting each other at half the speed of light. This collision created gravitational waves, which travelled 1.3 billion light years to reach the earth now.

Source: Economic Times, 12-02-2016





Created: New substance harder than diamond

Jonah Bromwich

NYT NEWS SERVICE





New Tech Helps Develop Q-Carbon At Room Temp; Can Also Make A Carat Of Gems In Just 15 Minutes

Until recently, diamond was the hardest known naturally occurring ma erial. But a new process appli ed to carbon has uncovered a substance that a group of scien ists say is even harder.Researchers at North Caro ina State University say they have developed a technique for creating a substance they are calling Q-carbon, which repre sents a third phase, or distinc orm, of carbon alongside grap hite and diamond. The discove ry could have many applica ions, notably in the fields of me dicine and industry .
But Jay Narayan, the lead scientist of the study, has made a stunning claim. “In 15 minu tes, we can make a carat of dia monds,“ Narayan said. A carat is 200 milligrams.
The process of creating Q carbon produces minuscule synthetic diamond “seeds,“ which can yield gems. While the amount of diamond is tiny com pared with traditional industri al techniques, the process can be carried out at room tempera ture and air pressure, the rese archers say , meaning it could be easier to reproduce on a large scale than other methods. But Narayan says the poten tial for creating synthetic gemstones pales next to possib le applications of Q-carbon which the researchers said is magnetic, fluorescent and electroconductive.
A tiny laser beam is trained onto a piece of amorphous carbon for 200 nanoseconds, hea ting it extremely fast. The spot then cools in a process known as quenching, creating Q-carbon.
Wuyi Wang, the director of research and development at the Gemological Institute of America, said , “if they are true, it will be very exciting news for the diamond research community .“
Narayan described possible uses for Q-carbon in creating synthetic body parts, improving tools like deep-water drills, and producing brighter, longer lasting screens for televisions and cellphones.
Casey Boutwell, who works on commercial licensing for sci entific discoveries at the university's office of technology transfer, said he was bracing for strong interest in the technique. “We don't know exactly how this can be best applied, and we're excited to get the market's input,“ he said.
Neil Krishnan, the director of technology platforms at the Swedish industrial toolmaker Sandvik Hyperion, called Mr.Narayan's discovery “extremely interesting.“ “I still think it's at a nascent stage for us to consider it a competitive threat per se,“ he said. “But it would definitely be a new technology that we'd be interested in.“

Source: Times of India, 4-12-2015

How China's Become an Innovation Dynamo





We have to learn from, not mock, Chinese R&D

Forget China's slowdown for a moment. A recent report in The Economist, based on research by McKinsey Global Institute and PwC, confirms China's transition to a global innovation powerhouse. The private sector drives innovation in China, going by the ability of companies to expand revenues and raise profits as proof of successful innovation, rather than the number of patents filed. A PwC survey also shows that Chinese companies are increasing investments in R&D faster than competitors in any other market. It debunks the notion that Chinese companies are mere copycats, capable only of incremental improvements. Data shows that Chinese companies compare with Silicon Valley firms in innovation.China is an innovation heavyweight due to its massive catch-up in R&D investment and education. World Bank data shows China's R&D spend at about 1.98% of GDP in 2012. It wants to eventually match the R&D spend in the US, at 2.8% of GDP . That's huge compared to India's pal try 0.9% of a much smaller GDP . Indi an companies spend minuscule sums on R&D and often pass off market re search expenses as R&D outlay to get a tax break. The best R&D should hap pen in Indian universities and compa nies, not just India-based R&D centres of multinational companies, if India is to excel in manufacturing.
Huawei spends about $5 billion a year on R&D, on par with Ericsson, and is in the forefront of research in 5G mobile communications. There is no Indian player in this space. WeChat, developed by Tencent, is seen as a good example of Chinese innovation. Chinese firms also adapt new technologies to the mass market quickly . To get there, India needs to build on its own strengths. It should align research with teaching institutions, instead of R&D being consigned to specialised state-run laboratories. This will enable industry to commission serious research projects to university departments. Indian companies also need to be more imaginative, and that requires quality education. The government must push reform, and not just aspire to gain from China's pain.
Source: Economic Times, 24-09-2015

Scientists discover secret to live beyond 100

London: PTI





Scientists have cracked the secret of why some people live a healthy and physically independent life over the age of 100: long telemores and low inflammation.For the first time, a team of experts from Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, explored which biological and pathological processes may be the most important for successful ageing after 100 years of age.
They identified that to live past the age of 100 you must keep inflammation down in the body and telomeres long -which are part of human cells that affect how our cells age. Severe inflammation is part of many diseases in the old, such as diabetes or diseases attacking the bones or the body's joints, and chronic inflammation can develop from any of them.
“Centenarians and supercentenarians are different -put simply , they age slower.They can ward off diseases for much longer than the general population,“ said professor Thomas von Zglinicki, from Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing.

Father of SMS passes away

London: PTI





Matti Makkonen, known as the father of SMS after developing the idea of sending messages via mobile networks, has died. Makkonen, a Finnish national, passed away on Friday at the age of 63 following serious illness, Finnish language daily Ilkka reported.Despite being known as the father of SMS, Makkonen was often quick to point out that he did not invent the technology single-handedly . In 2012, he told BBC News -in an SMS interview -that he believed texting in some form would be around “forever“.
Speaking on the 20th anniversary of the first text message, Makkonen said he considered the development of SMS a joint effort and that it was Nokia who helped to popularise the service. “The real launch of the service, as I see it, was when Nokia introduced the first phone that enabled easy writing of messages (No kia 2010 in 1994),“ he had said.He said he did not use “txt spk“ himself, though he pointed out that texting could be thought of as having had an impact on the development of language.
Jarmo Matilainen, managing director of Finnish telecoms group Finnet Association, described Makkonen as a“grand old man of the mobile industry“. “It's very sad. He was just going to retire and he should have had many years ahead,“ he said. PTI





IIMK students developed mobile app to help police

Students from Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) has developed Spider, a new mobile application that can act as a communication bridge between Ernakulum Rural Police and the public. The app will be launched at Aluva on 13th March by the Minister of Home and Vigilance, Ramesh Chennithala.

The mobile app will be available on the android platform. One of the key features of this application is that the users can report the incidence of crime or violations of law by a single touch of a smartphone. The report would automatically contain the information of the location of the user.

The application also has provisions to add photographs, as evidence, if the users wish to do so. Another key feature of the application is that there is an option for checking the status of the petitions online by entering the appropriate petition number.
Users are also aided with emergency contact information of the Ernakulam Rural Police, which they can dial on a single touch. They can see important rules regarding traffic fines, regulations etc. in the application. Ernakulam Rural Police can reach the public with notifications and news items through this application, as well.

The application was developed as a part of the Social Development Project (SDP) of the Executive Post Graduate Program (EPGP) of Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK). The project team was led by the Ernakulam Rural SP, Yathish Chandra GH IPS. It was mentored by Professor Satish Krishnan of IIMK. Professor Anubha Shekhar Sinha and Professor Priya Nair Rajeev of IIMK are the coordinators of the SDP programme. The team consisted of students of EPGP 2013-2015 batch of IIMK Kochi Campus viz. Antony TM, Banarji B, Geo Joe Mathew, Nirmal Sajo Thomas and Renjith Viswanath.

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In a first, China unveils facial-recognition ATM

Beijing:





New Machine Can Also Identify Counterfeit Notes

Chinese researchers have successfully developed the first automated teller machine (ATM) with facial recognition technology to reduce the risk of theft, reports said.The developers include Tsing hua University and Tzekwan Technology , a Hangzhou firm in eastern China's Zhejiang province that provides security protection for financial transactions.Tzekwan chairman Gu Zikun, an anti-counterfeit technology expert, believes the technology will curb ATM-related crimes. The product has already passed certification and would soon be available for sale.
China currently relies mostly on imported ATM technology , the report said, but the new machine, which combines high-speed banknote handling, improved counterfeit-bill recognition and facial recognition, was wholly Chinese.
However, it is unclear who will manufacture the ATMs and how it will collect facial data.
The news come a week after the state launched its “Made in China“ campaign, which aims to transition the mainland from a manufacturing hub for low-end goods to high-quality products within the next 10 years.
Cash machines using fingerprint authentication have sprung up in countries like Chile and Colombia, though these biometric ATMs have not found favour with some countries like the United States because of privacy concerns and its high cost.
The new ATMs are expected to connect with the country's banks and public security networks, which allows only cardholders to withdraw money , even if someone else knows the password.
But opponents to the technology have voiced their concerns about privacy and accuracy online. “What happens if someone had plastic surgery to look like someone else,“ one user asked.“How much will it take to turn my face into Jack Ma's (founder of Ali Baba)? questioned another. PTI

Knowledge and Innovation are the Keystones of Progress, says President 

Report by India Education bureau, New Delhi: A speech of the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of the Second convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi was read out in abstentia today (March 15, 2015) by Shri M. Natarajan, Chairman of the Board of Governors. The President was unable to reach Mandi from Chandigarh due to bad weather. 

The President said in his speech that India`s technical institutions must usher in social consciousness amongst our budding engineers and scientists. Along with professional competence, these centres of scientific learning must inculcate a social orientation in students. Our higher educational institutions are an integral part of the local eco-system. They must assume greater responsibility for overall development. The Government has taken important initiatives, aimed at financial inclusion, creation of model villages, Clean India and building of digital infrastructure. Institutions of higher learning including IIT Mandi should adopt five villages each and convert them into model villages in line with the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. He also asked them to play a key role in realizing the objectives of the ‘Digital India’ programme. 

The President said the growing demand for engineering education has resulted in the establishment of a number of technical institutions. Yet in this proliferation drive, quality of instruction and physical infrastructure has taken a backseat. Rejuvenating our higher education sector calls for greater dynamism on the part of our institutions. They must identify one or two departments, in which they have core competence, and nurture them into centres of excellence. The quality of faculty must be of a high order to provide students world-class instruction. With fast occurring changes in various disciplines, the faculty must keep themselves abreast with the latest developments. 

The President said to bring about qualitative changes in teaching, the newly-established IITs must leverage the expertise available in the older IITs. The National Knowledge Network offers a platform for academic institutions to collaborate through peer group learning in emerging areas. Additionally, this network can compensate for shortages in faculty, infrastructure and resources. Our educational institutions must also make an effort to develop linkages with international academic institutions. 

The President said knowledge and innovation are the keystones of progress. Competitive advantage can be derived from an eco-system conducive to new learning, research and innovation. Inter-disciplinary approaches in course curricula and research, strengthening under-graduate research and making research integral to the teaching-learning process must gain focused attention. Strong linkages must be built with the Industry. The success of initiatives like the ‘Make in India’ programme depends on the manufacturing of quality industrial products. Good academia-industry interface can play a critical role in this regard. 

The President said higher educational institutions, particularly engineering institutes, must promote a scientific temperament and spirit of inquiry in their students. They must encourage their students to follow their curiosity and explore their creativity. They must equip students to think beyond their textbooks and come up with ingenious ideas.

PHYSICS, NO BIO - Secret of chameleons' colour change is out

Geneva PTI





Light-reflecting cells in the skin provide chameleons their uncanny colour-changing abilties that help them attract mates and ward off predators, scientists have found. Unlike other animals that change col our, such as the squid and octopus, cha meleons do not modify their hues by accumulating or dispersing pigments within their skin cells, the researchers found.Instead, the lizards rely on structural changes that affect how light reflects off their skin. Researchers found that chameleons have two superposed thick layers of iridophore cells -iridescent cells that have pigment and reflect light.
The iridophore cells contain nanocrystals of different sizes, shapes and organi zations, key to the chameleons' dramatic colour shifts, the researchers said. The chameleons change the structural arrangement of the cells by relaxing or exciting the skin, which leads to a change in colour. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.