Eating too much red meat increases body's biological age

                A diet containing too much red meat and not enough fruits and vegetables could increase tour body’s ‘biological age’ and lead to health problems, according to a latest research. Research led by the University of Glasgow and published on 29 April in Aging, has found that a moderate increase in serum phosphate levels caused by red meat consumption, combined with a poor overall diet, increases biological age in contrast to chronological age (years of age). The study, which looked at participants from the most deprived to the least deprived in the NHS Greater Glasgow Health Board area, also demonstrates that deprived males were the worst affected. Study suggests that accelerated biological aging, and dietary derived males, were directly related to the frequency of red meat consumption. Experts believe that excess red meat affects this group because of their poor diet and “sub-optical fruit and vegetable intake”.

Indian scientists developed eco-friendly nanotechnology for water purification

                The Scientists team from the Institute of Advance Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati in Assam developed an eco-friendly nanotechnology for water-softening applications. The report was published online on 30 March 2016 in the journal Nanoscale and the authors are Upama Baruah and Achyut Konwar of IASST. The green technology is the first of its kind with potential to act as a biodegradable and green material for water-softening applications. The technology is basically a biopolymer, which uses a naturally occurring substance called Chitosan.

Soon, low-fat chocolate that melts in your mouth

                You may soon be enjoying your favourite sweet treat guilt-free as scientists have found a way to make low-fat chocolate that easily melts in your mouth. Chocolate is full of fat. But reducing the fat content of the confection makes it harder and less likely to melt in your mouth, researchers said. Researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium found that adding limonene could improve lower fat versions texture and ability to melt. The researchers focused on the crystallization of cocoa butter, which undergoes several important transformations at different times and temperatures. The researchers examined crystallization at 17 degrees Celsius and 20 degrees Celsius using differential scanning calorimeter and X-ray diffraction to examine cocoa butter profiles when limonene was added. The Belgian researchers found that adding the compound accelerated cocoa butter crystallization at 17 degrees Celsius, but inhibited cocoa butter crystallization at 20.

New Water-Based Polymer with tiny electronic can be put inside body

                The human body is a marvel, but it’s not perfect. There can be a defect, things can break, and illness can strike with little or no warning. If we could augment ourselves with electronics, we might be able to solve some of these problems. But such devices have traditionally presented issues of their own: They’re often hard, rigid pieces of silicon and plastic. The body doesn’t react well to them, and they don’t work well inside you.

                A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have hit upon a solution. They’ve developed a new form of hydrogel – a water-based polymer that can look and feel like muscles and tendons. Such a gel could contain tiny electronics that can monitor our insides, deliver medicine, or provide needed electrical stimulus.

                Since, the hydrogel is flexible, it can bend and twist without breaking or tearing. And because much of the human body is made from similar materials, there’s little chance we would reject the material as a foreign object. We’re still some years away from US Food and Drug Administration approval, but should that happen, this new breed of hydrogel may prove to be the foundation upon which an entirely new class of medical devices is built.

Supercomputer 'Param Kanchenjunga' unveiled at Sikkim NIT

                On 17 April 2016, Sikkim Governor Shrinvas Patil formally unveiled Supercomputer named ‘Param Kanchenjunga’ at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Sikkim. It is named after Kanchenjunga Mountain (8586 m), the third highest mountain in the world. The Param Kanchenjunga is the most powerful and fastest among all available at the 31 National Institute of Technology’s. It has been jointly developed by Pune based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the NIT Sikkim. The total cost of the Supercomputer is around three crore rupees.

Tiny liquid metal for heat free soldering

                Scientists have developed micro-scale, liquid-metal particles that can be used for heat-free soldering and fabricating, repairing and processing of metals – all at room temperature. The project started as a search for a way to stop liquid metal from returning to a solid. This is called ‘undercooling’ and it has been widely studied for insights into metal structure and metal processing. Researchers from Iowa State University in the US thought if tiny droplets of liquid metal could be covered with a thin, uniform coating, they could form stable particles of undercooled liquid metal.

Lab-made 'sand' to cool electronics

                US scientists have engineered a kind of ‘sand’ – made of silicon dioxide nanoparticles coated with a polymer – that can inexpensively cool power-hungry electronic devices. The unique surface properties of the ‘sand’ conduct heat at a potentially higher efficiency than existing heat sink materials, researchers said. The theoretical physics behind it is complicated, but the bottom line could potentially be a new class of high-thermal-conductivity materials useful for heat dissipation from power electronics with high fluxes.