My Science Space

Indian scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Tamil Nadu have come up with a robot, called- ' HomoSEP ' that could save and transform the lives of manual scavengers and help in terminating the inhumane practicing of manual scavenging forever.  As per census, 2011, around 794,000 cases of manual scavenging were reported across India. The state of Maharashtra topped the chart with a score of 63,173 cases; the other states that followed the list were: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Karnataka.  Manual scavenging  is a term primarily used for carrying/cleaning human excreta or disposals from an open drain or from a septic tank/sewer with the use of hands manually. In the year 2013, the definition and expression of the term 'manual scavenger' expanded. It depicted the persons or the people engaged or employed at the commencement of this Act or anytime thereafter, by any local authority/agency or by a contractor, for manually cleaning/carryin

It's been over two years now that #COVID has drenched us all from head to toe. Display of information across social media platforms or news channels played a crucial role in guiding people from time to time. Google's search tool, during this outbreak, transformed into a gigantic tool to fetch out relevant, timely and authentic information.  Before punching down itself completely, as experts say, this virus #SARS-CoV-02 will still rule in our lives for at least 2-3 years, though not aggressively.  And thus, it becomes imperative to keep ourselves updated with all the tools we have in-place and in-action.  These updates are crucial and must be enacted in time to produce a solid ground for people, who are looking for information related to vaccines, vaccine centers/PHCs, availability of booster shots, side-effects of vaccines and its treatment, testing centers, and many such relevant topics.  Google can enhance its COVID-info-wall with the following inclusions: 1. A tab on Freq

The newly circulating COVID-19 variant –‘Omicron’ is clamping up the chart at an aggressive rate just in few days or a couple of weeks. Having detected initially in South Africa and Botswana, it has spread to a wider extent across the globe, infecting larger people and the numbers are multiplying quickly without showing mercy to any of the groups out there- seniors or juniors. As per the current data available on WHO’s site, Omicron is taking over Delta in many parts of the world and its statistics are changing each day. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, WHO Health Emergencies Programme has tried to explain the behaviour and patterns of this newly detected mutant worldwide. What do we know about Omicron as the new COVID variant? "Omicron is the latest variant of concern that WHO is tracking, has been detected around the world. It is efficiently transmitting. And in fact everywhere where we have good sequencing, this variant is being detected, so it is circulating g

Having first reported to the World Health Organisation from South Africa on 24 th of November 2021, the newly circulating mutant ‘ Omicron’ or ‘B.1.1.529 ’ is becoming a cause of public health concern to the entire world. The first case of infection was confirmed from a specimen collected in the second week of November. The WHO’s independent group of experts (the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 virus Evolution/TAG-VE) assessed the potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 variant ‘B.1.1.529’ during a convention organised on 26 th of November. According to TAG-VE, the variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are becoming the reason of concern. The number of cases are apparently increasing day-by-day in almost all province regions of South Africa. Just on Sunday, the number of cases reported were 2800, much higher than the cases reported on a daily basis. Researchers all across the world including South Africa are conducting studies on this variant to have a better underst

Aiming to achieve the positioned target to vaccinate 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid of 2022, the United Nations and its Global Health agency- WHO (World Health Organisation) released a comprehensive hands-on strategic guidebook- ' Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 ' to get Global Covid-19 vaccination by next mid-summer.  The current pandemic has divided the world in a two-track pandemic:  people in poorer countries continue to be at risk while those in richer countries with high vaccination rates enjoy much greater protection forming a massive gap over vaccine inequity and unjust distribution. More than 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But those numbers mask a horrifying inequity. Low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world’s vaccines. In Africa, less

The global health agency, WHO with a group of health leaders urged for a global cooperation to accomplish the ascertained goals of COVID-pandemic related health emergency and for an equitable distribution of vaccines to the deprived or lower/middle income nations and Africa. An extensive call was made under the leadership of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined by Dr Seth Berkley, CEO Gavi, Strive Masiyima, AU Special Envoy for COVID- 19, Dr John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank, Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under- Secretary- General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission For Africa and Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa during a media briefing at WHO’s headquarter in Geneva on 14 th September 2021. Taking a dig at the current health emergency, Dr. Tedros stated, “More than 5.7 billion doses have been administered globally, but only 2% of those have been