Category: Curious Bends

Curious Bends – flying cars, a teen innovator, fighting Ebola and more

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

1. The flying car may finally become a reality thanks to interest from humanitarian organisations

The last thing you’d expect an Amazonian tribe to inspire is a flying car, but that’s the story behind the Maverick, being developed for humanitarian aid workers. Backed by French investors (and its army) the Maverick’s creators promise a vehicle to negotiate most disaster-prone areas with 250-kg payloads and three crew. (8 min read)

2. A plane crash attracts world headlines but nobody cares about 380 people dying on Indian roads

This is a bizarre, take-it-in-your-stride tragedy that sits at the nexus of bigger yet similar issues: bad public infrastructure, lack of driving etiquette and dysfunctional policy. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong to believe that the truck that rams into a scooter crossing the road isn’t to blame — and there are those who agree. It takes more than unfortunate, accidental events to kill more people per day than AIDS does. (8 min read)

3. Turning breath into words

Arsh Shah Dilbagi, a 16-year old from Panipat, India, has built a device that allows breath to be converted into words for the disabled. Dubbed an “augmentative and alternative communication” solution, it helps convert a person’s shorter and longer exhalations to the dots and dashes of Morse code and synthesise speech. While not yet widely tested, Arsh is a finalist in the 2014 Google Science Fair on the back of its strength, and expects to be able to integrate it with Google Glass one day. (2 min read)

4. An NGO reunites mentally ill homeless people with their families

Since March 2006, the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation has reunited more than 2,500 mentally ill homeless people with their families. This is a heart-warming service. But when you ask why it exists, you realize you’re exploring why mentally ill people end up lost on India’s streets. Why did they leave home? Were they sent away or did their caretakers not care enough? Complicating the problem further is the fact that in many parts of rural India, mental illnesses are not understood for what they really are — although there is at least one outstanding exception, and the sign of a way ahead. (4 min read)

5. Featured longread of the week: The hunt for Ebola medicines is being accelerated

“The biggest problem remains containment, especially in the months before new medicines arrive. Virologists, such as Dr Ball at Nottingham, worry that increasing human-to-human transmission is giving Ebola the opportunity to become more transmissible. Each time the virus replicates, new mutations appear. It has accumulated and hung on to some mutations, like ‘cherries on a one-armed bandit’, he says. Nobody knows what would happen if Ebola hit the jackpot with a strain that is even better-adapted to humans. But the outcome could be grim, for Africa and the rest of the world.” (8 min read)

Chart of the week

More than 840,000 people killed themselves every year around the world. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), India is the single biggest contributor to this morbid statistic, which is too high a number for something that can be prevented. The reasons may be complex but the WHO is hoping an internationally driven project could propel significant change. Read the report hereand see a visual analysis by Vasudevan Mukunth here.

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Image by James Vaughan.

Curious Bends – LED Diwali, insecticide-laden uniforms, Tokay geckos and more

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

1. Continue the festival of light, get an LED bulb at 97.5% discount provided for by govt subsidies

“Rs 400 LED bulb would be available for just Rs 10, at a steep discount of 97.5%. And it is not part of any festival special megasale offer. Instead the scheme has been formulated by the government’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL, a joint venture of public sector companies of Ministry of Power) along with electricity distribution companies. EESL would procure LED bulbs in bulk and sell them to households at Rs 10. The electricity distribution companies will then repay EESL over a period of five to eight years from the savings that accrue due to use of this energy efficient lighting technology.” (3 min read, downtoearth.org)

2. One way to fight dengue: wear insecticide-laden school uniforms

“Using data from dengue studies in Thailand, the study examined the cost-effectiveness of uniforms treated with insecticide under various scenarios. Aedes aegypti, the vector of the dengue virus, bites during the day when most children are in school. In Thailand, children aged 5–14 make up about 65% of dengue haemorrhagic fever patients. Using the WHO-definition of cost-effectiveness, intervention would be cost-effective if it could reduce dengue incidence by 50 per cent and that the uniform for each child would cost US$5.30 or less per year.” (2 min read, scidev.net)

3. Brain gain: how some Indian scientists in the US are being encouraged to migrate back home

“Since 2009, Young Investigator’s Meet in Boston has helped about 80 young scientists get back to India with new, independent careers. The goal is to have around 300 people in the next 5 years and about a thousand scientists in the next 15–20 years back in India. These thousand people could influence the next generation of scientists to think differently,” Parayil says. (8 min read, natureasia.com)

+ The author of this article, Subhra Priyadarshini, is the editor of Nature India.

4. The solution to India’s sanitation crisis lies in changing behaviour not building toilets​

“India’s toilet crisis is largely about its men. Women want the safety and privacy of a toilet at home. But how do you convince a man to give up his scenic open-air loo, with its cool breeze and its ringside view of a verdant paddy field for a cramped, smelly, dark room with a hole? Dog trainers, marriage counsellors, dietitians, hypnotists — currently, Arghyam is enlisting ideas from anyone who has successfully nudged someone to make a behavioural change in men.” (7 min read, livemint.com)

5. Saving tigers and rhinos means losing pangolins, Tokay geckos and star tortoises?

“Come Diwali and it is not just apparel and electronic goods doing brisk business online. It is owls as well. Rummaging through difficult-to-find data and trends, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau’s (WCCB) cyber wing has noticed how the smuggling of owls picks up during Diwali-the nocturnal bird is said to be the vehicle of Goddess Laxmi. The trade is not limited to owls. There is an alarm over the sudden spurt in trade of pangolins across north India-a phenomenon that has been observed over the last six months, endangering the scaly, small mammal.” (4 min read, indiatoday.com)

Chart of the Week

China no longer has a stranglehold on the world’s supply of rare earth metals

“In the end, Gholz argues, China didn’t get that much benefit from restricting rare earths — save for the release of a fishing captain who had been detained by Japan. Japan has now adjusted and is less vulnerable to trade pressure over rare earths than once believed. The United States, too, managed to wiggle out of China’s rare-earth grip in short order. A few years ago, military planners had worried that crucial weapons systems might be at risk if China disrupted the rare earths supply. But subsequent analyses have shown that this was unlikely.” (4 min read, vox.com)

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Curious Bends – pizza slices, Raman effect, Indo-Pak floods and more

Akshat RathiLeave a comment
1. Simple physics is at the heart of a cheap test for sickle-cell disease

Every year, 300,000 children are born with sickle-cell disease, primarily in Africa and India. It is a genetic disorder that causes some blood cells to become abnormally shaped. The result is that those who suffer from it have a shorter lifespan. The disease can be managed if it is diagnosed early, which means it rarely kills in rich countries, such as the US. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is most prevalent, most children with the disease still die before their fifth birthday. Now a diagnostic test that costs less than ₹30, takes only 10 minutes to run and uses simple, high-school physics could help save many lives.

2. A 19th century mathematician taught us the best way to hold a pizza slice

New York-style pizza is great, but it has a holding problem. There is a solution, and you probably know what it is: just fold the pizza into a U-shape. Turns out the maths behind why such folds beat gravity is fascinating and has many interesting applications. Here, in his typical clarity, is Aatish Bhatia explaining it all with pictures and videos.

3. Understanding why the oceans are blue led to applications for detecting bombs and discovering new drugs

Almost a hundred years ago, on a ship back from London, Chandrashekhar Venkata Raman asked the question why the sea is blue. Having heard the answer that it is a reflection of the sky, he remained dissatisfied, for the blue in the oceans seemed too fantastic to be a mere reflection. His quest won him a Nobel Prize and gave the world the Raman effect. Now scientists in India are finding new applications that use the Raman effect, from detecting bombs to finding new drugs.

+ The author, Priyanka Pulla, is a Bengaluru-based freelance journalist and Takshashila Institute scholar.

​4. Academic faces jail for sharing scientific documents online

“Diego A. Gómez Hoyos, a 26-year-old student in Costa Rica, faces up to 8 years in jail and a monetary fine for making available a document that helps conservationists in Colombia — the second most biodiverse country in the world. It is not an institution or publisher that is pursuing these criminal charges, but the author of the document. It is bizarre and unfortunate that an academic would press criminal charges against another academic for spreading their work.”

5. As the Indo-Pak floods worsen, it is clear that the Indus Waters Treaty needs to be prioritised

Signed in 1960, this treaty has survived the stress and strain that come with Indo-Pak relations. And yet, it is time that the treaty gets an overhaul. With floods in the waters that feed the Indus river having already killed more than 200 people, an update could help spur the developments needed to help prevent and deal with such natural disasters.

Featured longread: Taking a break from technology…for one year

“Do you know what I do for a living? I asked Huck. His eyes grew wide. “All you do is sit on your computer and say, ‘Blah blah blah Congress, blah blah blah Mitt Romney’!” We all — OK, mostly my wife — got a big laugh out of that. For my birthday that year, she and the boys gave me a print emblazoned with Blah Blah Blah. I was 40 years old, due for a midlife crisis, and I didn’t want to have an affair or buy an impractical sports car, so instead I decided that I would take a break. A big one. For a year, I would leave behind online life to attend more closely to what we Internet people call meatspace.”

Chart of the week

The year 2012 was the first year when less than 50% of India’s workforce was employed by the agricultural sector. In the recent decades that shift has been rapid, but what else are these former agricultural workers now doing? An analysis by Datastories.in reveals that a lot of them have been absorbed by the construction sector. The trouble is — you should click here to see more charts — most of these constructions workers become casual labourers with no form of social net. This must change to improve the lives of those at the bottom.