Aha Octopus

It’s your favorite eight-legged science teacher, the mighty Aha Octopus! As a highly curious creature, I’m always exploring the depths of science and discovering new wonders of the natural world. I’m also a champion problem-solver. Whether I’m camouflaging myself to avoid predators or figuring out how to open a tricky jar, I’m always up for a challenge.

Aha Octopus

So what we do at Aha Octopus?

The main aim of this volunteer-led club is to take science to the larger mass. We also debunk myths and misinformation in science in regional languages, Indian Sign Language and English. We follow the path led by visionaries like Narendra Dabholkar, Gauri Lankesh, and Kalburgi to instil a scientific spirit and curiosity among the Indian masses.

If you are interested in joining hands with us, do ping me at a.sivashakthi@gmail.com

Note – We have currently put a rain check on the club’s activities as we are giving it a facelift. We will be back soon!

Conference Presentations

1. Siva Shakthi A., Astronomy outreach: a multilingual approach, Public Engagement in Astronomy in the Pandemic Era, 2021
2. Siva Shakthi A., Communicating Science in India: A Multilingual Approach, Inclusive SciComm Symposium, 2021
3. Siva Shakthi A., Science Communication: A Multilingual Approach, No Coast SciComm, 2022

Race to Global Leadership

Is the West at a loss in Science?

After the Second World War, Europe lost its long-standing position as the global leader in science. Since then, the United States of America has been the doyen of scientific research. But the pivot seems to have shifted again – this time to China. Several quantitative indicators show the rapid rate at which China is moving ahead. These indicators include quantitative indicators of science such as the number of researchers, papers and patents, besides exchange rate, purchasing power parity, and gross expenditure on research and development. But where exactly is China in the race?

Last fortnight, researchers from the South Asian University, New Delhi, in collaboration with researchers in the USA, reported an analysis. They considered not just quantitative indicators but also qualitative indicators such as strategic investment, longterm plans, and science education.

Qualitative indicators are not as easy to interpret as quantitative indicators. The researchers took strategic investment in science and technology as a qualitative indicator. They also relied on anecdotes from the World Technology Evaluation Center, US. The researchers stress the need for such indicators to understand the full picture.

China has been allocating funds to boost research in nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology. At present, China is the lead manufacturer of carbon nanotubes and boasts some 170 best supercomputers. The country has the capacity to launch humans into space – once an American dream.

Another qualitative indicator favoring China’s position as the global leader is its effort to bring home Chinese scientists trained in the West. By offering attractive packages and facilities, China has strengthened its scientific and technological workforce. This, in turn, has improved the quality of science education within the country – of vital importance in the long run. China’s march to achieve the goal of indigenous innovation is another qualitative indicator.

The studies by the World Technology Evaluation Center appreciate the level of sophistication achieved by China to perform high-quality interdisciplinary research. However, China is still behind the West in terms of the number of citations and patents.
What is more, high levels of plagiarism plague the country! While China’s rise towards global leadership is prominent, it might take another decade or so for it to capture the throne, say the researchers.

Scientometrics 117.1 (2018): 249-269.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 7, 10 OCTOBER 2018

Lab-on-body: Wearable Sensors

Flexible electronics step forward

In the past two decades, the electronics industry has witnessed some paradigm shifts – device miniaturisation, organic base materials and flexible components. Thanks to these advancements, we now have wearable health monitors, human–robot interfaces, and soft-actuators. But there remains an underlying challenge: developing components that are pliable and which adapt to human skin.

Though there exist magneto-electric systems based on ultra-thin glass, metal foil and polymer substrates, these fall short of expectations due to their fragility, opacity and thermal instability. Last fortnight, scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the National Chiao University, Taiwan presented an approach to overcome these limitations. They developed a pliable magneto-electric nano-composite that responds to changes in the magnetic field by changing its electrical properties.

To build the nano-composite, the researchers used muscovite, a transparent, poly-silicate mineral containing potassium and aluminium, as substrate. Muscovite is elastic and has
high thermal stability, properties that make it a good choice as substrate. Moreover, the two-dimensional nature of muscovite facilitates van der Waals epitaxy, alleviating stringent lattice matching conditions. The result is a sensing structure with almost freestanding layers, an essential property of pliable devices.

The researchers fabricated a heterostructure comprising bismuth ferrite rods embedded in a cobalt ferrite matrix. Cobalt ferrite has large magneto-striction and bismuth ferrite has ferroelectric properties. Together, they offer high magneto-electric coupling. This, in turn, influences the sensitivity of the device.

Thus, with a sound combination of materials and fabrication techniques, the researchers created the largest lab-on-body to perform non-invasive sensing. They are sure that this would accelerate progress in the area of flexible electronics. For capitalists aiming to find a niche, here is something to invest in.

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 51(23): 234006

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2018

 

Automatic Emotion Recognition

The human mind has remained a puzzle for ages. From marketing to mental health monitoring, there is a dire need for automatic detection of human emotions in candid environments.

The current facial recognition technologies are not sufficient to decode emotions. They detect emotions but these work only within laboratory conditions. Now, Aparna Mohanty and Rajiv Sahay from the IIT Kharagpur have come up with a solution.

The researchers used a machine learning technique, convolution neural network, a bio-inspired technology based on how neurons take up a signal, process it, and elicit an action in the brain. A convolution neural network acts as a stack of detection filters with every subsequent layer searching for more abstract details than the preceding layer.

The researchers employed a Microsoft Kinect sensor to collect colour and depth information from pictures that depict emotions. They then fed the information to the convolution neural network. And compared details from the filters against an inbuilt dataset of various emotions.

To validate their technique, Aparna and Rajiv used photographs of Bharatanatyam dancers.

Navarasa or the nine emotions along with hand gestures form the soul of Bharatanatyam. The researchers collected photographs of fourteen individuals each performing a navarasa ten times.

A subset of these photographs formed the dataset for training the network. The team used two other subsets for validation and for testing.

By tweaking the number of network layers and the detection capacity of each layer, the researchers could achieve high accuracy in detecting emotions.

To validate the efficiency of their technique in unconstrained environments, they used videos from dance concerts. Despite confounding factors such as make-up, lighting and
non-frontal postures, their system accurately recognised emotions from the video frames.

In a world where human-computer interaction is on the rise, emotion recognition has become imperative. Once considered a superpower in a fictional universe, automatic emotion recognition is now within our reach.

Pattern Recognition, 79: 97–113

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 1, 10 JULY 2018

Circular Economy

A sustainable business model?

As population grows, so does dependence on natural resources. Resources are dwindling. The planet can no longer support ‘take-make-dispose’ industrial models.

To restore balance, researchers propose a circular economy. Here, resource input, waste production, and energy leakage are minimised. A circular economy suggests slowing, closing and narrowing energy and material loops to allow the system to regenerate.

Researchers from the Institute for Competitiveness, India and the Grenoble Ecole de Management, France examined how feasible circular economy would be in India. With 17% of global population, India has a well-balanced population pyramid. The researchers evaluated the business models of three companies, Goonj, Attero and HaathiChaap, as
case studies.

HaathiChaap, based in Rajasthan, makes paper products out of elephant dung. The manure is disinfected, dried, beaten to pulp, and drawn to sheets of paper. Water from
the treatment is used as fertiliser. Elephant dung has, thus, created employment opportunities for tribal communities in the region. The researchers laud HaathiChaap for removing taboos associated with using animal waste.

Goonj, a Delhi-based NGO, collects unused clothes, sorts and distributes them to weaker sections. Goonj also trains women from rural communities to make sanitary pads and mattresses with unused clothes – a parallel economy for weaker sections, drawing resources from urban communities. The researchers found Goonj successful in creating a trash to cash system.

Noida-based Attero is an electronic waste management enterprise. Tonnes of electronic waste go untreated in India. Attero extracts metals of value from waste. The metals are
then used as raw material in the electronics industry. Attero has also launched an online platform to directly sell refurbished products. With Attero, the researchers identify efficient management of waste.

The researchers highlight the importance of entrepreneurs in value creation and value delivery. For a more sustainable future, industries would do well to adopt circular economy models.

Thunderbird Int. Bus. Rev., 60(5): 729–740

Science Last Fortnight, CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 5, 10 SEPTEMBER 2018

Quest for Rechargeable Cells

Lithium sulphur combination

Lithium–sulphur composites have transformed batteries over the past decade. Lithium–sulphur batteries are economical, lighter and offer high energy density. Such features are in high demand.

However, lithium–sulphur batteries are unstable. Polysulphides that form during every battery cycle dissolve the cathode: electrodes degrade fast. This affects battery efficiency over time, preventing large-scale commercial exploitation of the technology.

Last fortnight, researchers from the IIT Kharagpur reported developing a prototype of a lithium–sulphur based composite cathode with improved electrochemical activity. They impregnated titanium dioxide, the base of the cathode, with sulphur. Titanium dioxide is polar. So it adsorbs sulphur better, boosting discharge capacity. But it also weakens electrical conductivity.

To keep the electrical pathway between sulphur and titanium oxide strong, the researchers used reduced graphene oxide. And to reduce the loss of sulphur during discharge cycles, they coated the sulphur on the cathode with polyaniline.

The researchers say that even after twenty cycles, the discharge capacity reduced only by less than three percent before stabilising. In available lithium–sulphur batteries, efficiency reduces drastically within the first few cycles before stabilising.

The cathode composite not only offers better electrical conductivity but is flexible. So, beyond improving lithium–sulphur batteries, the research may lead to new applications.

DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2018.05.070

Science Last Fortnight, CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 6, 25 SEPTEMBER 2018