Reining in a rogue asteroid

by Hansraj Agrawal | Aug 11, 2025 | Science

The human race’s fascination with the moon has enriched art and literature to no small extent. After December 22, 2032 — irregardless of what happens — the fiction mills will have fresh grist.

Some years ago, scientists had noticed a rogue asteroid whose celestial swagger was initially believed to bring it close to earth, but later determined to be a false alarm.

However, another worry now looms — the probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 smashing into the moon, as recently flagged by the James Webb telescope. The probability is still small — 4.3 per cent — but large enough to set alarm bells going.

Space scientists are watching with bated breath: If the asteroid hits the moon, the ejected debris — after a spectacular ‘meteor shower’ event — could destroy several satellites and even cheat the earth’s atmosphere to reach the surface and cause untold damage.

Now, the question is, can this rogue be deflected?

The answer is ‘yes’, for it has been done before. On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. In what has been described as a “smashing success”, the DART spacecraft crashed into the space rock at 24,000 kmph, altering Dimorphos’ trajectory and shape.

But the success story has a flip side — the lurking debris could prove potentially hazardous.

So, we have a City-Killer (as 2024 YR4 is sometimes referred to) hurtling towards us, but there is little we can do except watch the sky for the dazzling meteor shower and hope our atmosphere can handle well the falling debris.

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Published on August 11, 2025

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Soft robots with life-like movements

by Hansraj Agrawal | Aug 11, 2025 | Science

BIO-INSPIRED BOTS: Magnetic soft actuators developed by IIT-Madras researchers

Imagine a medical tool that opens like a flower to gently lift tissue or a soft ribbon that curls and uncurls in a controlled, rhythmic motion, guided by forces you cannot see. These are not zany visions from science fiction, but real prototypes emerging from a lab at IIT-Madras.

A recent paper, titled Nature-inspired shape-shifting soft magnetic materials: Inspiration, fabrication, mechanism, and application, by Dharmi Chand and Sivakumar MS, unveiled a new class of soft, magnetically responsive materials that can bend, twist and grip, all without motors, wires or onboard electronics. This makes them promising for delicate applications like biomedical devices and minimally invasive tools.

Mimicking nature

The field of soft robotics draws heavily from nature. Creatures like jellyfish and sea slugs adapt their shape and motion in response to their environment. Engineers are replicating such abilities using smart materials that deform under light, heat, humidity or magnetic fields. Among these, magnetic actuation stands out for its speed, reversibility and precise control without physical contact.

The IIT-Madras team created magnetic soft actuators using flexible polymers embedded with magnetic particles.

Magnetic motion

Traditionally, soft robots have used hard magnetic particles, which retain their magnetisation. However, this also creates problems, such as hysteresis and non-linear response to changing fields.

The IIT-Madras team used soft magnetic particles that magnetise only when the field is active and return to a neutral state when removed. This results in repeatable, reversible shape changes, with cleaner control.

The fabrication of the soft magnetic actuator begins with infusing silicone-based actuators with carbonyl iron particles. These are moulded into specific shapes and exposed to magnetic fields to align the particles along the field lines. Under a microscope, the researchers observed how the particles formed long chains inside the material, storing the ability to bend when re-exposed to a magnetic field.

But instead of relying solely on this moulding process, the team devised a smarter method.

They replicated the internal magnetic structure by embedding the soft material with thin iron rods of high length-to-width ratios. These rods act like internal muscles, bending the polymer when exposed to a magnetic field. By carefully controlling the placement and angle, the team could programme complex, graceful formations without using electronics.

“Our advanced work in this direction — stamp-based printing — enables scalable fabrication of micron to submicron robots, while our UV-based shape programming advances the creation of complex, functional geometries. Together, these developments bring us closer to real-world deployment, where soft robots can be designed and manufactured efficiently, even outside high-tech labs,” says Chand.

The researchers built two demonstrator devices: a gripper and a crawler.

Flower-like gripper

Inspired by blooming flower petals, the gripper features six flexible arms. Iron rods were embedded within these arms in a layered fabrication process, sandwiching them in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). When placed in a magnetic field, the arms bend inward or outward, allowing the gripper to grasp and release objects of different shapes and materials, including a 3D-printed ball, a cylinder and soft clay.

Because magnetic fields can be adjusted externally, the grip strength and timing can be finely tuned. This makes the device ideal for tasks involving delicate manipulation, especially in constrained or sterile environments, such as surgery or laboratory automation.

Curling crawler

The second prototype is a soft strip that moves with a crawling motion when subjected to an oscillating magnetic field. Unlike the gripper, this device uses magnetic rods at both ends.

When the field changes rhythmically, the ends contract and release in a coordinated fashion, propelling the device forward at 2.5 mm per second.

What sets this crawler apart is its simplicity and programmability. The researchers achieved directional movement using just two embedded magnetic rods placed at strategic points, mimicking the contraction and extension cycles seen in biological motion. By tuning the placement of these rods, the team can modify how the crawler bends and in which direction it travels.

Looking ahead

“Soft robotics holds the key to a new generation of machines that are safe, adaptive and capable of navigating environments where traditional robots fail. From targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery to environmental sensing, wearable devices and even space exploration, their applications are vast,” says Chand.

Moreover, the new fabrication approach offers a scalable alternative to complex moulding, potentially enabling the production of customised, application-specific soft robots. As the researchers point out, this is just the beginning. Future iterations could incorporate AI-guided actuation, real-time field control and miniaturisation to tackle ever more complex tasks.

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Published on August 11, 2025

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Laser-aided machining for ultra-tough materials

by Hansraj Agrawal | Aug 11, 2025 | Science

A new hybrid machining method is set to revolutionise how we shape extremely tough materials like inconel 625 (IN625) — a nickel-based superalloy used in aerospace, nuclear, chemical and power generation industries.

Called laser-assisted turning (LAT), the method was developed by researchers at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, under the Department of Science and Technology.

It combines laser heating with traditional mechanical cutting, significantly easing the challenge of machining superalloys.

IN625 is prized for its strength, corrosion resistance and heat tolerance, but it’s notoriously difficult to cut, wearing down tools quickly and producing poor surface finishes.

The LAT technique solves this by using a high-powered laser (up to 2,500 W) to preheat the material ahead of using the cutting tool. This softens the surface, thereby reducing resistance, improving tool life and delivering smoother finishes.

Researchers tested both uncoated tungsten carbide tools and those coated with chromium-aluminum-silicon nitride nanocomposite.

The results showed 69 per cent less cutting force, 46 per cent less tool wear and 56 per cent improved surface finish, says a press release.

The team also integrated this technique into a CNC (computer numerical control) turn-mill centre, with real-time monitoring and customised adapters. They studied how tool wear changes with temperature, shifting from abrasion at room temperature to oxidation at high heat — insights useful for predicting tool lifespan.

This innovation not only boosts manufacturing precision and efficiency, but also supports India’s goals for advanced domestic manufacturing and clean technology adoption.

Biochemists use AI to study ‘intelligence’ in proteins

Can a molecule, made of atoms, show signs of intelligence? A team at the Bose Institute, Kolkata, under the Department of Science and Technology, explored this question and found surprising results.

Led by Prof Shubhra Ghosh Dastidar and his student Nibedita Ray Chaudhuri, the researchers studied TAK1 kinase, a protein crucial to immune responses, inflammation and cell survival.

They discovered that TAK1, a highly organised assembly of atoms, can display basic, context-driven responses, resembling rudimentary intelligence.

Their work, published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, bridges biochemistry and machine learning (ML) — a branch of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s part of a larger trilogy of research on TAK1, conducted between 2023 and 2025.

Proteins like TAK1 are made from long chains of amino acids, which fold into specific 3D shapes to become functional. These shapes form through countless electrostatic interactions among atoms — a kind of internal wiring that gives each protein a unique identity.

The study suggests that this internal wiring in TAK1 acts like a memory system, evolving over time and allowing the protein to process signals, adapt and respond based on its environment.

It can detect both chemical signals and remote physical cues from other molecules and adjust its activity accordingly — a feature the researchers describe as pseudo-intelligence.

This research opens new paths in understanding how molecular systems might perform intelligent-like functions, using insights from both biology and AI.

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Published on August 11, 2025

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Securing personal data in iron-clad technology

by Hansraj Agrawal | Aug 11, 2025 | Science

Plenome Co-founders (seated, from left) Anirudh Varna, Prabhu Rajagopal, Vijayaraja Rathinasamy

Two areas outside of finance that witness significant fraud in India are organ donation and electoral voter authentication.

Plenome Technologies, a start-up incubated by IIT-Madras that recently raised funds, has patented a framework based on blockchain technology to authenticate organ donors. The technology is also useful in authenticating voters.

Prof Prabhu Rajagopal of IIT-Madras, who is a Co-founder at the firm and a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee, says organ donations are tracked largely through information stored in spreadsheets. Though it is a form of digital storage, it is not immune to data tampering. Enter blockchain tech.

Blockchain is a database or ledger used to make data in any industry immutable. It is a chain of blocks that authenticates data as it moves from one block to another in the form of transactions, approvals or veracity checks. Once data moves through these chains, there is no going back to change the details of a completed transaction or check.

The only stage at which a blockchain application needs a trustworthy intermediary is data entry.

In organ donation, where data exists merely in spreadsheets, it is nearly impossible to track the origin of records. Plenome’s ‘OrganEase’ tool, built on its private blockchain framework, addresses this by recording the consent and biometric data of donors. This, says Rajagopal, “ensures organs are traceable to legitimate sources, preventing the use of trafficked organs and guaranteeing the authenticity of the entire donation process”.

Plenome is currently running a pilot of the product with the government of a southern Indian State.

Voter authentication

The company’s BlockVote software uses the private blockchain framework to ‘cryptographically’ authenticate voter IDs. Cryptography encodes information and only authorised personnel can access it.

It matches a voter’s biometrics (such as Aadhaar data) against a pre-recorded benchmark on the blockchain, ensuring only valid, registered individuals cast votes. This could also allow non-resident voters to cast their ballot from any part of India.

The technology assumes significance in the context of the voter fraud allegations that surface frequently, most recently from the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who has claimed that over one lakh fake votes were created in the Bangalore Central constituency during the 2024 general elections.

The tool was piloted during the previous IIT-Madras student elections. On the firm choosing to build a private blockchain, Rajagopal explains that a generic blockchain platform is too large for specific use cases. “It is like using a sledgehammer to fix all kinds of problems, be they big or small.”

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Published on August 11, 2025

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Short-term sugar high: rupee drop boosts Indian IT, but storm clouds gather

by Hansraj Agrawal | Aug 1, 2025 | Science

Currency-driven relief is tempered by growing macroeconomic uncertainty

The recent depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar is expected to offer a short-term margin cushion for Indian IT services firms, even as macroeconomic headwinds from the US cloud the longer-term outlook.

With the rupee breaching ₹87/USD and most IT exporters like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech billing in dollars while incurring costs in rupees, analysts estimate that every 1 per cent rupee fall can boost EBIT margins by 20–25 basis points.

With 50-60 per cent of revenues for Indian IT companies derived from the US, and a significant portion of expenses, primarily employee costs, incurred in Indian currency, the current depreciation is likely to support earnings in the near term.

Alongside, the NIFTY IT Index has dropped 20 per cent year-to-date, while the broader BSE Sensex has declined by less than 1 per cent over the same period.

High Rate

“Depreciating INR vs USD is always a positive scenario for Indian IT. For the quarterly or annual revenues, we consider the average quarterly or annual rate. Only if the USD/INR rate stays elevated from current levels on a sustainable basis in the next few quarters can we see a weaker INR-led better top-line growth from current street estimates. If we consider approximately 1 per cent depreciation in INR v/s USD in FY26 from our current estimated average rate of 85.9, then the INR-led top-line will grow by 1 per cent,” Dhanshree Jadhav, Lead Analyst – Technology Choice Institution Equities, explained.

Though the employee billing costs will increase by 30-40bps, the remaining 60-70bps top-line growth will benefit the margins. On the contrary, if there is around 1 per cent appreciation in INR v/s USD in FY26, there will be a similar negative impact on margins.

On an overall basis, she said, a weaker USD/INR rate on a sustainable basis augurs well for Indian IT companies, which bill clients in INR. However, with the rising delivery costs, passing on the currency benefits to clients might result in a slightly lower benefit than 60-70bps.

Siddharth Tyagi, Research Analyst, INVasset PMS, observed that this currency-driven relief is tempered by growing macroeconomic uncertainty due to the US’s evolving trade stance.

Stronger push

The administration recently signalled a stronger push toward domestic job creation and import substitution, including potential increases in tariffs and tightening outsourcing-related norms. These measures may affect the demand environment for offshore IT services, particularly in discretionary spending segments.

“While the recent depreciation of the rupee provides a tactical advantage to Indian IT exporters, the strategic risks associated with rising US protectionism could limit the extent of relief. The sustainability of margin gains will ultimately depend on how global clients respond to regulatory and macroeconomic shifts in the months ahead,” Tyagi added.

Similarly, Navy Vijay Ramavat, MD, Indira Groups, expressed bearishness on the IT sector. She said the industry’s future is highly uncertain.

The traditional model of charging US clients lower rates while paying Indian wages faces mounting pressures. Automation, rapid technological shifts, rising domestic costs, and fierce global competition are fundamentally changing the business landscape.

The advantages that powered Indian IT’s growth for decades are eroding, and the sector must adapt to survive. While currency movements may give a temporary boost, the long-term outlook remains unclear, and the industry faces significant structural challenges, she concluded.

Published on August 1, 2025

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Data from NISAR can help start-ups and enterprises solve various challenges, say NASA representatives

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jul 31, 2025 | Science

Mark Simons (left), Professor of Geophysics, Caltech and Gerald W Bawden, programme manager, natural hazards research, Earth Science Division, NASA

Now that NISAR is successfully in orbit, it’s not just the research community but also enterprises and start-ups that stand to gain by the huge wealth of data that the first-of-its-kind dual band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite will send back.

Speaking to businessline a day after the launch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) representatives, part of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, said that NISAR is producing about 42 terabits of raw data per day and if leveraged right, this can give rise to a new community of start-ups and businesses.

Commercial enterprises can use the output as a kind of reconnaissance tools and then reprocess things at a higher resolution to solve specific issues and problems, they said.

“If you take a look at all the data that NASA has collected in the solar system, from Mercury to Pluto… NISAR is going to be collecting three times that volume in the first year,” Gerald W Bawden, programme manager, natural hazards research, Earth Science Division, NASA, said.

“We are imaging almost the whole world at five by six metre resolution twice every 12 days. So this is an incredible opportunity for the commercial sector to come in and find opportunities in this wealth of data,” he added.

NISAR is the first satellite to have dual frequency bands, one made by NASA and the other Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite can detect the movement of land and ice surfaces down to the centimetre. The data NISAR collects also can help assess how forests, wetlands, agricultural areas, and permafrost change over time.

Now that NISAR is launched, it is going to go through a 90-day commissioning phase, Bawden explained.

“So over the next 90 days, NISAR is going to continue flying up to a higher elevation to get to what we call a reference science orbit, and that is 747 kilometres.” After checking that it’s working well, the teams will then start taking some test data, and 90 days from now, NISAR will go into operational mode.

Commercial benefits

In terms of commercial benefits, the NASA representatives expect agriculture, coastal development, disaster response and water resources study to be among key use cases.

In a boost for academia and start-ups, the data delivered by NISAR will be all open and free.

“One of the extraordinary things with NISAR and in all missions that NASA is involved with is that all data is free and open to everybody on the globe,” Mark Simons, Professor of Geophysics, Caltech and a part of NISAR mission team, said.

“It provides an opportunity to ambitious people to think about opportunities for value-added products,” he added.

Bawden added that there’s a lot of opportunities for start-ups in agriculture, infrastructure stability and safety.

Speaking about the uniqueness of the first joint NASA-ISRO partnership, the scientists said that when two agencies work together, each builds a part of the technology, but this is the first mission where both built parts that have to work well together.

“With both agencies having a rich history in synthetic aperture, it was a natural marriage,” Bawden said.

Future collaborations

Has the mission given rise to more opportunities for the two space agencies to come together?

Bawden notes that there are areas which NASA and ISRO are working on with human spaceflight being one.

“But right now my team is focused on getting the SAR up and going, and we’re not looking that far down the road as of yet,” he added.

“It’s easy to focus on hardware. But what this mission has done is introduced a large number of scientists to each other who did not know each other before, which is a true investment in the long-term future,” Simons said.

Published on July 31, 2025

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