The 29th session of Conference of Parties (COP) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), popularly known as 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is being held from 11 November 2024 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan has launched the … | Continue reading
Forest restoration and tree plantation is a well-established strategy for mitigation of climate change. However, use of this approach in arctic worsens warming and is counterproductive to climate change mitigation. This is because tree coverage reduces albedo (or reflection of su … | Continue reading
Genetic study based on ancient DNA extracted from the skeletal remains embedded in the Pompeii plaster casts of the victims of volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE contradicts traditional interpretations about the victims’ identities and relationships. Study also show tha … | Continue reading
Asciminib (Scemblix) has been approved for adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) in chronic phase (CP). The accelerated approval was granted by the FDA on 29 October 2024. Earlier, asciminib was approved by FDA in … | Continue reading
Particle accelerators are used as research tools for the study of very early universe. Hadron colliders (particularly CERN’s Large Hadron Collider LHC) and electron-positron colliders are in forefront in exploration of very early universe. The ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Lar … | Continue reading
The thylacine de-extinction project announced in 2022 has achieved new milestones in generation of the highest quality ancient genome, marsupial genome editing and new assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) for marsupials. These advancements will not only support resurrection … | Continue reading
NASA has successfully launched Clipper mission to Europa into space on Monday 14 October 2024. Two-way communication has been established with the spacecraft since its launch and the current reports suggest that Europa Clipper is operating as expected and is ingood health. Europa … | Continue reading
On 11 October 2024, Hympavzi (marstacimab-hncq), a human monoclonal antibody targeting “tissue factor pathway inhibitor” received US FDA’s approval as a new drug for prevention of bleeding episodes in individuals with hemophilia A or hemophilia B. Earlier, on 19 September 2024, H … | Continue reading
One half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 has been awarded to David Baker “for computational protein design”. The other half has been awarded jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction”. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 recognises contribu … | Continue reading
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) belong to a family of small, non-coding, single-stranded RNA molecules … | Continue reading
The researchers have, for the first time, tracked the evolution of solar wind from its inception at the Sun to its impact on the near-Earth space environment and have also shown how a space weather event can be predicted 2 to 2.5 days in advance. The study is novel in connecting … | Continue reading
Cobenfy (also known as KarXT), a combination of the drugs xanomeline and trospium chloride, has been studied to be effective for the treatment of schizophrenia and has been approved by the FDA as an antipsychotic in September 20241. This is, however, a completely new type of schi … | Continue reading
Study of image taken by the JWST has led to discovery of a galaxy in the early universe about a billion years after the big bang whose light signature is attributed to its nebular gas outshining its stars. Now named GS-NDG-9422, the galaxy is chemically complex and does not have … | Continue reading
Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, have returned to Earth from International Space Station (ISS). They left the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and made a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan on 23 September … | Continue reading
The researchers at CERN have succeeded in observing quantum entanglement between “top quarks” and at the highest energies. This was first reported in September 2023 and since confirmed by a first and second observation. The pairs of “top quarks” produced at the Large Hadron Colli … | Continue reading
In September 2023, uniform single frequency seismic waves were recorded at centres across the globe which lasted for nine days. These seismic waves were very much unlike waves generated by earthquake or volcano hence how they were formed remained unknown until recently. A latest … | Continue reading
The mpox vaccine MVA-BN Vaccine (i.e., Modified Vaccinia Ankara vaccine manufactured by Bavarian Nordic A/S) has become the first Mpox vaccine to be added to the prequalification list of WHO. “Imvanex” is the trade name of this vaccine. The prequalification authorisation by WHO s … | Continue reading
“Hearing Aid Feature” (HAF), the first OTC hearing aid software has received marketing authorisation by the FDA. Compatible headphones installed with this software serve as a hearing aid to amplify sounds for individuals with mild to moderate hearing impairment. Assistance of a h … | Continue reading
UK’s fusion energy production approach took shape with the announcement of STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme in 2019. Its first phase (2019-2024) has come to an end with the release of a concept design for the integrated fusion prototype powerplant. It will … | Continue reading
10th edition of the Science Summit at 79th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA79) will be held from the 10th to the 27th of September 2024 in New York City. The main theme of the summit is the contribution of science in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goa … | Continue reading
The radiofrequency (RF) exposure from mobile phones was not associated with an increased risk of glioma, acoustic neuroma, salivary gland tumours, or brain tumours. There was no observable increase in relative risks for the most investigated types of cancers with increasing time … | Continue reading
To curb antibiotic pollution from manufacturing, WHO has published first-ever guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for antibiotic manufacturing ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which is sheduled … | Continue reading
BNT116 and LungVax are nucleic acid lung cancer vaccine candidates – the former is based on mRNA technology similar to “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” such as BNT162b2 of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 while the LungVax vaccine is similar to Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. … | Continue reading
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) lecanemab and donanemab have been approved for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease in the UK and USA respectively while lecanemab has been refused marketing authorisation in the EU in view of “unsatisfactory” safety and efficacy data from the c … | Continue reading
Matter has dual nature; everything exists both as particle and wave. At a temperature close to absolute zero, the wave nature of atoms become observable by radiation in visible range. At such ultracold temperatures in nanoKelvin range, the atoms coalesce into a single larger enti … | Continue reading
FDA has approved the first device for automated insulin dosing for Type 2 Diabetes condition. This follows expansion of indication of Insulet SmartAdjust technology (an interoperable automated glycemic controller) which is indicated for the management of type 1 diabetes. Now, thi … | Continue reading
The APXC instrument aboard the lunar rover of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission conducted in-situ spectroscopic study to ascertain abundance of elements in the soil around the landing site in south polar region of the Moon. This was the first in-situ study of elemental compositio … | Continue reading
The monkeypox virus (MPXV), called so because of its first discovery in monkeys kept in research facility in Denmark, is closely related to variola virus that causes smallpox. It is responsible for monkeypox (mpox) disease that has gradually emerged in Africa following eradicatio … | Continue reading
The upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in many other countries in Africa has been determined by WHO to constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). The Committee of ex … | Continue reading
Spectral analysis of luminous galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 based on observations made in January 2024 revealed a redshift of 14.32 which makes it the most distant galaxy known (previous most-distant galaxy known was JADES-GS-z13-0 at the redshift of z = 13.2). It was formed in the early … | Continue reading
In view of serious and growing outbreak of monkeypox (Mpox) disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has now spread outside the country and detection of the new strain that first emerged in September 2023 outside DRC, WHO has invited manufacturers of mpox vaccin … | Continue reading
Neffy (epinephrine nasal spray) has been approved by the FDA for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions including life-threatening anaphylaxis. This provides an alternative route of administration of epinephrine to those (especially children) averse to injections an … | Continue reading
On 2nd August 2024, Elon Musk announced that his firm Neuralink has implanted Brain-computer interface (BCI) device to a second participant. He said the procedure went well, the device is working well and hoped to perform BCI device implantation procedures on another eight partic … | Continue reading
Tecelra (afamitresgene autoleucel), a gene therapy for the treatment of adults with metastatic synovial sarcoma has been approved by the FDA. The approval was based on assessment of safety and effectiveness in a multicentre, open-label clinical trial. It is the first FDA-approved … | Continue reading
Fossils of ancient chromosomes with intact three-dimensional structure belonging to extinct woolly mammoth have been discovered from 52,000 old sample preserved in Siberian permafrost. This is the first case of fully preserved ancient chromosome. Study of fossil chromosomes can s … | Continue reading
Supernova SN 1181 was seen with the naked eye in Japan and Chine 843 years ago in 1181 CE. However, its remanent could not be identified for a long time. In 2021, the nebula Pa 30 situated towards the constellation Cassiopeia was identified with the supernova SN 1181. The white d … | Continue reading
A large-scale study with lengthy follow ups has found that daily use of multivitamins by healthy individuals is NOT associated with health improvement or a lower risk of death. Healthy individuals who took multivitamins daily had the same risk of death from any cause than individ … | Continue reading
The gigantic uniform aurora seen from the ground on the Christmas night of 2022 has been confirmed to be polar rain aurora. This was the first ground-based observation of polar rain aurora. Unlike typical aurora which are driven by the incident electrons stored in the magnetotail … | Continue reading
In a recently published report, the Will Lab team of Columbia University reports success in crossing in BEC threshold and creation of Bose-Eienstein condensate (BEC) of NaCs molecules at a ultracold temperature of 5 nanoKelvin (= 5 X 10-9 Kelvin). The molecular quantum condensate … | Continue reading
Current antibiotics used in clinical practice, in addition to neutralising target pathogens also harm healthy bacteria in the gut. The disturbance in gut microbiome has toxic effects on liver, kidney and other organs. This is an issue to be addressed. Researchers have discovered … | Continue reading
Tmesipteris oblanceolata , a type of fork fern native to New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific has been found to have the genome size of 160.45 Gigabase pairs (Gbp)/IC (1C = nuclear DNA content in a gametic nucleus). This is about 7% larger than that of Paris japonica (148.89 Gb … | Continue reading
Carrion crows can apply their learning ability and vocal control in combination to form an abstract numerical concept and use it for vocalizations. Basic numerical ability (viz. capacity to understand and apply basic numerical ideas such as counting, adding etc) has been observed … | Continue reading
The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) is world’s most common cockroach pest found in human households worldwide. These insects have an affinity for human dwellings and are not found in natural habitats outdoors. The earliest record of this specie in Europe is about 250 years … | Continue reading
Why largest Pyramids in Egypt are clustered along a narrow strip in the desert? What means were used by the ancient Egyptians to transport such large heavy blocks of stones for construction of pyramids? Experts have argued that perhaps Nile River flew by the pyramids in the ancie … | Continue reading
A study involving measurements by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggests that the exoplanet 55 Cancri e has a secondary atmosphere outgassed by magma ocean. Instead of vapourised rock, the atmosphere may be rich in CO2 and CO. This is the first instance of detection of second … | Continue reading
At least seven coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun have been observed. Its impact arrived on Earth on 10 May 2024 and will continue through 12 May 2024. The activity at sunspot AR3664 was captured by the GOES-16 satellite operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini … | Continue reading
Interspecies Blastocyst Complementation (IBC) (i.e., complementation by microinjecting stem cells of other species into blastocyst-stage embryos) successfully generated rat forebrain tissue in mice which was structurally and functionally intact. In a related study, it was also fo … | Continue reading
Spread of pathogens through the air has been described variously by different stakeholders for long. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the terms ‘airborne’, ‘airborne transmission’ and ‘aerosol transmission’ were used differently in different disciplines. It is thought that this may … | Continue reading