research | TechieTonics

Titan Arm: An Affordable, Streamlined and Wireless Upper Body Exoskeleton

May 13, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Resemblance back to the normal lifestyle after getting an injury to either of the limbs is li’l difficult. Although there are physical therapies available but the process is quite lengthy plus there isn’t enough guarantee of making hundred percent recuperation. Robotics does offer an alternative solution in terms of prosthetics but the cost factor has always remained one of the biggest huddles. Research students from the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a robotic arm exoskeleton, which is portable, powerful and at the same time quite an affordable invention.…

Biomimicry: Tabbot Mimics Cartwheel Movement of Desert Spider

May 9, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

After the termites inspired crew of tiny autonomous bots, insect-inspired Micro-Robots and Gimball, biomimicry has a new entrant called the Tabbot. It is a tiny bot inspired from Morocco based spiders famous for doing cartwheels effortlessly. Interestingly, these spiders are capable of doing cartwheels up and down the sand dunes. Ingo Rechenberg, a professor at the Technical University of Berlin has been credited for this discovery. In order to preserve and utilize the resourcefulness of this unique mode of locomotion, the researcher has already fabricated a small bot that works…

Right Enzymes Replicated the Semi-Synthetic DNA: Expanded-DNA Biology

May 9, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Scientists always dig deeper into the functioning of nature in order for their better understandings. At times, these trials and errors have given rise to serendipity or accidental discoveries in science, amongst others, recent being how sliding saltwater over graphene generated electricity. While at other times, these experiments go beyond the natural order of workings even at the miniscule level.

Illustris is New Time Machine: Simulation of the Realistic Virtual Universe

May 8, 2014May 8, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

We know how our universe look today and we have pretty good idea as to how it looked before the things started taking shape somewhere around the Big Bang. But we have no idea how the galaxies evolve and what was before the Big Bang. In order to study this, researchers at the MIT have built a computer simulation, they have named it the Illustris. This simulation is so complex that calculating on single desktop might take 2k years alone and its volume comprises around 215m light years. Although there…

Magnetic Fields in Electric and Hybrid Cars Involve No Threat: Cars under Safety Margin

May 7, 2014May 16, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Majority welcomed the vehicular era when electric and hybrid automobiles took to the center stage. While there were still others who were doubtful regarding the dangers that might affect the passengers including drivers imposed by the possibly generated electromagnetic fields. However, the increasing number of electric car ownership has thwarted this idea. Seven various electric cars, including hydrogen, gasoline and diesel powered cars, were put under survey by SINTEF, Norway and they discovered that exposure of the electromagnetic radiation was less than 20%. A limit, which was suggested by ICNIRP,…

High Fiber Diet helps in Combating Overeating Problems: Acetate for Eating Disorders

May 6, 2014 Neha Shukla

Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Imperial College London have discovered an anti-appetite molecule named as acetate. These acetate molecules are discharged when our body digests fibre. The released acetate molecules carried to the brain, which then signals our body to stop consuming more food.

Unlocking East Antarctica would yield to Escalation in Sea-Level Rise: The Uncontrollable Ice-Melt

May 6, 2014May 18, 2014 Neha Shukla

Today cities situated along the coast or on the islands are under constant threat, posed by the sea level rise caused due to changes in the climate. As the climate gets warm, sea level would rise due to melting of glaciers and it is known fact that warm water requires more space than compact water stored in the form of ice. Therefore, researchers are continuously monitoring changes in the climate and its impact on the lives of millions of humans that would get displaced if the sea level rise considerably.

Absence of Large Mammals Lead to Escalation of Disease-Carrying Rodents: Ecological Imbalance

May 5, 2014 Neha Shukla

Every creature that lives on this planet has a role to play in maintaining a balance in the nature. Many animals have got extinct or on the verge of getting extinct, mainly because of human activities like deforestation, poaching, pollution and other activity. Following the extinction of large animals, the population of smaller animals like rodents will surge rapidly and this imbalance will have dire consequences on the health of humans.

Recombination Leads to Evolution of Drug Resistant Lineage: Bacterial Genomics

May 3, 2014May 3, 2014 Neha Shukla

Researchers have always wanted to know the process by which bacteria become drug or vaccine resistant over the time. They have now an answer to this mystery. To get genetic material that could make bacteria drug resistant, bacteria use recombination method, which is in other words a substitute for sex.

Farm Bots Will Milk the Cows: Robotics in the Ranch

May 2, 2014 Neha Shukla

Robots are quickly making entry into almost all aspects of human work from household to industries, these machines are just everywhere making work easier and faster too. They have also entered in dairy farms, which were so far managed by humans.

Predictive Power of Brain: Similar Activity Patterns are Exhibited amid Speakers and Listeners

May 1, 2014September 18, 2020 Neha Shukla

At times, won’t we experience that while conversing with someone, the other person just say what were thinking or were about to spill out the same topic. And then we mutter, “what a coincidence” or as I say, “great minds thing alike” 🙂 well, this actually is not the case, neuroscientists have discovered new findings about the role of the brain during a communication. They say that people often predict what the speaker is about to say, because the brain activity of the listener is similar to the speaker.

Landforms on Mars: Recent Melt-Water and Debris Flow Activity in Craters

April 30, 2014April 29, 2014 Neha Shukla

According to a recent study, researchers claim that Mars had liquid water, as recent as 200,000 years ago. In southern mid latitudes of Mars, a young crater has been discovered. Researchers say that this crater has well conserved gorge and debris of sediments created by flowing liquid water. The geomorphological feature of these formations furnishes evidence that the action of flowing water had created them in recent geological time.

Caffeine Consumption Averts Type 2 Diabetes: Nutritional Beverage

April 29, 2014 Neha Shukla

If you are coffee addict and cannot cut down on your daily caffeine intake, there is a good news for you. According to a latest study, moderately scaling up coffee consumption can avert the risk of type 2 diabetes. As per Dr Frank Hu and Dr Shilpa Bhupathiraju from the department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, who led the research team, showed that by increasing the daily coffee intake by just one and a half cups (360 ml, approximately) over a four year span proves beneficial in cutting…

Human Brain Simulated on Circuit Board: Mimicking Neurons and Synapses

April 29, 2014May 31, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Inspired by human brain, bioengineers at Stanford University have fabricated microchips that are relatively faster and energy-efficient where power consumption of PC is about 40k times more. Researchers envision that this would lead a novel way of understanding human brain as well as might take robotics especially prosthetics to the next level. Matching the Brain For an efficient mimicking of neurons and synapses, the team designed 16 Neurocore chips. Jointly these 16 chips were able to simulate about 1m neurons and billions of synaptic connections.

Laughter Sets Off Waves Akin to Meditation: The Brain’s Workout

April 29, 2014May 31, 2014 Neha Shukla

“Laughter is the best medicine” is a very well known saying and is now scientifically proven by researchers. According to a study, researchers have found that laughter in humans can set off brain waves, which are very similar to those related to meditation. The study also reveals that other kinds of incitement can generate various diverse types of brain waves.