Biju Dharmapalan, Science Communicator

Assistant Professor & Head, School of Biosciences, Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies, Tiruvalla (MACFAST), Kerala- 68910. E-mail: biju@macfast.org/ biju_dharmapalan@yahoo.co.uk

On 20th May 2019 during the occasion ofthe World Metrology Day (WMD), India joined other Nations who adopted a global resolution to redefine four of the seven base units -- kilogramme, kelvin, mole and ampere. Theseare now defined in terms of physical constants rather than an object or phenomenon. The decision to redefine of the four SI base units was taken in 16th November 2018 when metrologists and policy-makers from 60 countries around the world met at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France. For the first time all of the basic units of measurement will be officially defined in terms of atomic properties and fundamental physics constants, rather than specific, human made objects.

When the woman they helped tripped over a step, an upset Mihika decided to design a stick to help people to walk safely by themselves. The Smart Stick uses vibrating alerts, a water sensor, LED lights and a camera with AI to recognise and track obstacles.

Mihika said: “I was so excited to be shortlisted, and I can’t believe I’ve won! My brother Arnav was a part of the Tech4Good awards in 2016 and that really inspired me to start thinking more about how technology can help other people. I can’t wait to work with BT to develop the Smart Stick further so that we reach more people who really need it.”

Mihika’s mother, Manisha, entered her young daughter into the Primary Engineer Leaders’ Awards based on her idea. Winning the whole competition and beating over 3,000 other entries brought Mihika into contact with University College London’s (UCL) Department for Electronic & Electrical Engineering (EEE).

For patients with kidney failure who need dialysis, removing fluid at the correct rate and stopping at the right time is critical. This typically requires guessing how much water to remove and carefully monitoring the patient for sudden drops in blood pressure. 

Currently there is no reliable, easy way to measure hydration levels in these patients, who number around half a million in the United States. However, researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have now developed a portable sensor that can accurately measure patients’ hydration levels using a technique known as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry.

More than 15 million colonoscopies are performed in the United States every year, and in at least 20 percent of those, gastroenterologists end up removing precancerous growths from the colon. Eliminating these early-stage lesions, known as polyps, is the best way to prevent colon cancer from developing.

To reduce the risk of tearing the colon during this procedure, doctors often inject a saline solution into the space below the lesion, forming a “cushion” that lifts the polyp so that it’s easier to remove safely. However, this cushion doesn’t last long.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital have used a novel gene-editing approach to salvage the hearing of mice with genetic hearing loss, and have succeeded in doing so without any apparent off-target effects as a result of the treatment.

The animals — known as Beethoven mice — were treated for the same genetic mutation that causes progressive hearing loss in humans, culminating in profound deafness by the mid-20s.

The new approach, described online July 3 in Nature Medicine, involves an optimized, more precise version of the classic CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system that is better at recognizing the disease-causing mutation seen in Beethoven mice. The refined tool allowed scientists to selectively disable the defective copy of a hearing gene called Tmc1, while sparing the healthy copy.