Science & Technology

New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Six Indian companies are working on a vaccine for COVID-19, joining global efforts to find a quick preventive for the deadly infection spreading rapidly across the world, says a top Indian scientist.

Nearly 70 vaccine candidates' are being tested and at least three have moved to the human clinical trial stage, but a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is unlikely to be ready for mass use before 2021.

New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) As the world grapples with coronavirus, researchers have found the presence of a different kind of coronavirus -- bat coronavirus (BtCoV) --in two bat species from Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, according to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

There is no evidence or research to claim that these bat coronaviruses can cause disease in humans, said Dr Pragya D Yadav, Scientist at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and also the first author of study.

Karachi; 14 April 2020 (UMM): A team of scientists in Pakistan’s Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) claimed to have made a significant breakthrough in the treatment against Covid-19 by using plasma obtained from recovered coronavirus patients.

Melbourne, Apr 11 (PTI) Hundreds of health workers in the state of South Australia will undergo a clinical trial to test whether an established tuberculosis vaccine can be used to reduce the severity of the novel coronavirus symptoms by providing a boost to the immune system.

According to the ABC science news, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) has been researching the effects of the vaccine known as the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG), for some time.

08 April 2020; MEMO: Al-Quds University in the Palestinian city of Jerusalem has succeeded in constructing a fully-computerised and low-cost medical ventilator to be used for patients infected with the coronavirus.

PYONGYANG, Mar 30 (NNN-KCNA) – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), successfully test-fired super-large multiple rocket launchers on Sunday, it was reported on Monday morning.

The report said, the test was conducted by the Academy of Defence Science, to verify the tactical and technological specifications of the launch system “to be delivered to units of the Korean People’s Army.”

The South Korean military, said that, it observed, two short-range missiles were fired from DPRK’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan, flying 230 km with a maximum altitude of 30 km.

CARACAS, March 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela’s first communications satellite, launched in 2008, is out of service due to a systems failure, the country’s government said.

“Due to a failure, the Simon Bolivar satellite is no longer working for communication,” said the science and technology minister in a statement, without giving further details.

On Monday, the US-based news site Space News reported that VeneSat1 — the satellite’s other name — “has been stuck for 10 days in an elliptical orbit,” after a “series of maneuvers left it tumbling in an unusable orbit.”

New Delhi, Mar 23 (PTI) Pune-based molecular diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions on Monday said it has received commercial approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for its COVID-19 test kit.

The test kit by the company is the first 'Made in India' kit to receive commercial approval from CDSCO, and is named as Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit, the company said in a statement.

PYONGYANG, Mar 22 (NNN-KCNA) – Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), observed the demonstration firing of tactical guided weapon, on Saturday.

The firing was aimed at re-confirming and showing Korean People’s Army commanding officers, the tactical characters and power of a new weapon system, to be delivered to the army units, the report said.

After Kim gave an order, the projectiles were fired “with roaring sound and dazzling flare to precisely hit a target islet,” the report said.

Kolkata, Mar 21 (PTI) Researchers at the IIT-Kharagpur have developed an energy-efficient method that could support a wide range of applications in clinical and biological research.

Biological cells can be patterned by using the heat generated in closed electrical fields with the help of this method, the researchers said on Saturday.