Tag: Ars Technica

Mangalayaan

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

The launch of India’s spacecraft to Mars should not come as a surprise. Five years ago, the country sent a mission to the Moon. And going ahead, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has bolder aims. In 2015, it plans to send a probe to Venus and then another to the Sun. A reusable launch vehicle is already in the works, something that NASA is letting SpaceX develop. These achievements, however, haven’t stopped detractors from asking why India is doing this when a third of its people live below the international poverty line.

Poor countries want space programs more than rich ones do, Ars Technica, 11 November 2013.

Image credit: ISRO

Improving online learning

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

In recent years, massive open online courses (MOOCs), through the likes of Coursera, have attracted hundreds of thousands of students from across the world. But are they really improving learning? The evidence is not fully convincing. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that students suffer from attention lapses when learning through videos.

Given those findings, an improvement in students’ attentiveness is bound to pay significant dividends. To that end, Karl Szpunar, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University, might have a rather simple solution to rein in distractions, one that focuses attention in real-world classrooms: intersperse pop quizzes into the online lectures.

Testing students during video lectures improves learning, Ars Technica, 8 April 2013.

Image credit: UPenn

Nanoparticles that trap viruses

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Biology and nanotechnology are moving ever closer together. I recently wrote about the use of nanoparticles to aid delivery of stem cells in cardiac therapy. Now, Swiss researchers have developed nanoparticles that can detect, and one day could combat, viruses.

Nanoparticles formed using human viruses, to fight human viruses,  Ars Technica, 1 April 2013.

Image credit: Emil Alexov