180-year-old observatory in Mumbai to digitise records

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 26, 2025 | Science

The Colaba Observatory in Mumbai, one of the world’s oldest, has been recording variations in the strength and direction of the earth’s magnetic field since 1841. It was one of the few observatories in the world to record the Carrington event of September 2, 1859, when a burst of energy from the sun travelled 150 million km to the earth, collapsing much of the telegraph systems.

The observatory preserves 180 years’ worth of work in the form of magnetograms (graphical records), microfilms, and hard copy volumes. A major record is the Moos Volume, a compilation dated 1896 that is credited to Dr Nanabhoy Ardeshir Moos, the first Indian director of the Colaba Magnetic Observatory. The Moos Volume is a reference material used worldwide.

The observatory is now part of the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), which operates 13 magnetic observatories across the country and hosts a World Data Centre for Geomagnetism, maintaining comprehensive geomagnetic data.

And now, the observatory has set itself the task of digitising all its data sets. This work would be undertaken by the recently inaugurated Colaba Research Centre. “This (digitisation) can help form a benchmark for the probability of occurrence of geomagnetic storms in the future. The centre will also carry out research activities on the impact of space weather and allied fields,” says a press release from the Department of Science and Technology.

“Historical data, when digitised, can also be analysed using AI/ML techniques to provide more insights,” observed Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, in a LinkedIn post.

Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta to lead global physics body

Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta

Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta, who taught at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) between 1976 and 2000, has been elected as President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

The Geneva-headquartered organisation is run by the physics community, with a mission to assist in the worldwide development of physics, foster international cooperation in physics, and help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity.

Prof Gupta will hold the position for a three-year term. He is only the second Indian to hold this position after Dr Homi Bhabha (1960-63).

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Intelligent vehicle detection

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 26, 2025 | Science

Using artificial intelligence, researchers at National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) have developed a ‘multi-class vehicle detection’ (MCVD) model and a ‘light fusion bi-directional feature pyramid network’ (LFBFPN) tool aimed at improving traffic management in developing countries. Led by Prof Santos Kumar Das, Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, the team leveraged an intelligent vehicle detection (IVD) system, which uses computer vision to identify vehicles in images and videos. This system collects real-time traffic data to optimise traffic flow, reduce congestion, and aid in future road planning.

While IVD systems perform well in developed countries with organised traffic, they face challenges in developing nations with mixed traffic. In India, a wide variety of vehicles — from cars and trucks to cycles, rickshaws, and animal carts, alongside pedestrians — often operate in proximity, making accurate vehicle detection difficult.

Traditional IVD methods, including sensor systems such as radar and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), are effective in controlled environments but struggle in adverse weather conditions, including rain and dust storms. Moreover, these systems are expensive. Video-based systems hold greater promise, especially for India, but traditional video processing techniques struggle with fast-moving traffic and demand significant computational power.

Deep learning (DL) models, a type of AI that learn from existing data, provide an efficient way to detect vehicles in video feeds. These models use convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify and analyse traffic images. However, they often fail to accurately detect vehicles of varying sizes and angles, particularly in busy, mixed-traffic environments.

Additionally, there is a lack of labelled data sets designed for such complex conditions.

To address these challenges, Prof Das and his team have developed the new MCVD model, which uses video deinterlacing network (VDnet) to efficiently extract key features from traffic images, even when the vehicles vary in size and shape. They also introduced the specialised LFBFPN tool to further refine the extracted details.

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Silicon carbide from moon’s soil

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 26, 2025 | Science

Researchers at IIT-Madras have tasted success in extracting silicon carbide from (simulated) moon soil — a development that could lead to the making of silicon carbide-based composites for building lunar habitats.

Nithya Srimurugan, a PhD student, and his professor Dr Sathyan Subbiah at the Department of Mechanical Engineering worked on extracting useful materials from lunar regolith.

Lunar regolith is not easy to get — after all, only 382 kg of moon rocks and soil have been brought to the earth, and nobody is going to dispense it freely to every researcher. But, fortunately, there are entities that make simulated lunar soil for research. Srimurugan got some from Space Resource Technologies and Exolith Labs.

Moon has two distinct terrains — the plains, known as maria (plural for mare), and highlands. Each has its own composition and characteristics. Highlands are rich in silicon (among other elements such as aluminium and calcium). These elements exist as oxides — to get the metals you have to drive out the oxygen.

Srimurugan wanted to make silicon carbide — the light and strong stuff with which we make abrasives. Silicon carbide is a combination of silicon and carbon. Where do we go for carbon on the moon? The breath exhaled by those living there will be made up of carbon dioxide, but this does not react with anything.

However, at the International Space Station, a boarding-cum-research lab that orbits 400 km above the earth, the Sabatier process is used to convert the carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts into methane and water by adding hydrogen from electrolysers.

At the ISS, the methane is vented into space, but it is precious for Srimurugan. When he combined the highland regolith simulant and with methane at high temperature, he was able to get silicon carbide.

In a chat with Quantum, Srimurugan stressed that more research is needed to produce bigger quantities of silicon carbide from lunar regolith, en route to making composites for building habitats on the moon. But his work, which is currently under review, marks a good beginning.

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Study warns against ‘oppressive heatwaves’ due to global warming

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 26, 2025 | Science

Killer heatwaves are caused by high temperatures, which, as is well known now, are a result of global warming. But there is a worse type, which a group of researchers have named ‘oppressive heatwaves’, triggered by a combination of high temperature and high humidity. The researchers, from IIT-Bombay and ETH Zurich, warn that oppressive heatwaves are likely to occur more frequently — so, be prepared.

‘Heatwaves’ are defined in terms of temperature exceeding a certain threshold for a specified period (days). The India Meteorological Department (IMD) defines a heatwave as three or more days with a temperature exceeding a predetermined threshold based on topography (namely above 45 degrees C in plains and above 40 degrees C in hilly areas).

The researchers examined the historical changes in heatwave characteristics and their association with human mortality in India. Given the importance of humidity in heatwave estimation, and that India experiences high humidity due to its geographical location, they classified heatwaves into oppressive (high temperature and high humidity) and extreme (high temperature and low humidity). They further examined the likelihood of future heatwave events following global warming by 1.5 degrees C and 2 degrees C, relative to the pre-industrial period, using daily maximum temperature, daily mean temperature, and specific humidity simulations from the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble Numerical Simulation (CESM-LENS) data set.

They used the IMD’s daily temperature data at 1-degree spatial resolution and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), from 1951 to 2013.

They projected the ‘oppressive heatwave’ days and ‘extreme heatwave’ days for the near future (2035-65) and the far future (2070-2100) to understand the changes in heatwaves during these two time periods relative to historical climate (1975-2005).

Then they examined the association of heat-related mortality with oppressive and extreme heatwave days from 1967 to 2007 — because there is reliable data for this period.

“The heat-related mortality is strongly positively related to oppressive heatwave days relative to dry heatwave days,” the researchers say in a paper that awaits peer review.

“Since oppressive heatwave days significantly increase over India in most climatologically homogeneous zones, we infer the exacerbated heat-related mortality in the future if such heatwave conditions increase monotonically in the future, as these have been in recent decades,” the paper says.

Five-fold increase

The paper examines the situation under two scenarios of global warming — a rise in global temperatures by 2 degrees C; and by 1.5 degrees C.

“Our results show a five-fold increase in the number of days of oppressive heatwaves under 1.5 degrees C warming in both mid (2035-2065) and end (2070-2100) of the 21st century, relative to the historical period (1975 to 2005), whereas the number of extreme heatwave days remains relatively constant in mid and end of this century,” it says.

As for 2 degrees C warming, it would result in an eight-fold increase in the number of days of oppressive heatwaves by the end of the century, relative to the historical period and 1.5 degrees C warming conditions.

“These results suggest that limiting the mean global warming to 1.5 degrees C can reduce the likelihood of oppressive and extreme heatwaves by 44 per cent and 25 per cent by the end of the century, relative to the 2-degree C warming world,” says the paper, authored by Naveen Sudharsan, Subimal Ghosh and Subhankar Karmakar of IIT-Bombay, and Jitendra Singh of ETH Zurich.

“The remarkable increase in oppressive heatwave days highlights the elevated risk of heatwaves over densely populated countries and indicates an imminent need for adaptation measures,” it warns.

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Pixxel’s hyperspectral satellite set for launch

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 12, 2025 | Science

Pixxel Space’s first commercial hyperspectral satellite, named ‘Fireflies’, is to be launched into space by SpaceX Transporter-12 rocket on January 14.

A hyperspectral satellite is an earth observation satellite equipped with optical and infra-red cameras that can capture a wide range of wavelengths, split into many narrow spectral bands. To put it simply, they provide very high-resolution images.

The space startup, backed by investors such as Accenture Ventures, Blume and Lightspeed, has three demo satellites in orbit; it intends to launch six commercial ones this year, and 18 more in 2026 and 2027.

The first three of the six are smaller, weighing 50 kg each; the others will weigh 200 kg each. Pixxel’s satellites are designed to provide 5-metre resolution while capturing 150 bands of wavelengths — making them state-of-the-art.

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Melatonin’s role in treating Parkinson’s disease

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 12, 2025 | Science

Scientists have proved that nano-formulation of melatonin, the hormone produced by the brain in response to darkness, showed improved antioxidative and neuroprotective properties and could be a potential therapeutic solution for Parkinson’s disease (PD).

One of the most common neurological disorders, PD is caused by the death of dopamine-secreting neurons in the brain due to the aggregation of synuclein protein. Available medication can only minimise the symptoms but cannot cure the disease, and this underlines the need to develop improved therapeutic solutions.

Studies over the last decade have shown the implications of PD-related genes in governing a quality control mechanism called ‘mitophagy’, which identifies and removes dysfunctional mitochondria and reduces oxidative stress.

Among several other antioxidants, melatonin, a neurohormone secreted from the pineal gland (an endocrine gland present in the brain) that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is used to treat insomnia, could be a potential inducer of mitophagy to mitigate PD.

The molecular pathways melatonin follows as a PD antagonist remain poorly elucidated, despite being a safe and potential neurotherapeutic drug with a few limitations like less bioavailability, premature oxidation, and so on.

A group of researchers from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, used human serum albumin nano-formulation to deliver the drug to the brain and studied the molecular mechanism behind melatonin-mediated oxidative stress regulation.

Using a biocompatible protein (HSA) nanocarrier for the delivery of melatonin to the brain, Dr Surajit Karmakar and his team have proved that nano-melatonin resulted in a sustained release of melatonin and improved its bioavailability.

They found that nano-melatonin demonstrated enhanced antioxidative and neuroprotective properties. It not only improved mitophagy to remove unhealthy mitochondria but also improved mitochondrial biogenesis to counteract a pesticide (rotenone) induced toxicity in an in-vitro PD model.

The improvement is attributed to the sustained release of melatonin and targeted delivery to the brain, resulting in increased therapeutic efficacy compared to bare melatonin.

The increased antioxidative effect is a result of mitophagy induction through the upregulation of a crucial epigenetic regulator called BMI1, which controls gene expression. The reduction in oxidative stress contributes to alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

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