1. ITER FACILITY IN FRANCE TO RECEIVE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL MAGNET

It will produce a magnetic field 280,000 times stronger than the one made by Earth!

Sameer Sharma

Image Source: Twitter/ITER

France is all set to get the world's most powerful magnet for a fusion reactor that aims to replicate the process that powers the Sun. Manufactured by the United States, the central solenoid is the most powerful of ITER’s magnets. The central solenoid will play a critical role in ITER’s mission to establish fusion energy as it induces a powerful current in the ITER plasma, helping to shape and control the fusion reaction.

ITER:

ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at replicating the fusion processes of the Sun to create energy on earth. It is a joint operation between India, United States, European Union, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and China.

Reference: World's Most Powerful Magnet on the move.

1. The Mosquito Task Force

Mosquitoes outfitted with virus-fighting bacteria effectively reduce dengue infections and hospitalizations.

Manav Shah

Mosquitoes do not naturally carry viruses. They (only the female mosquitoes that bite humans) pick up viruses by biting infected people, and the virus spreads when the mosquitoes bite again. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary transmitter of dengue, Zika, and yellow fever viruses. Wolbachia is a ubiquitous bacteria that occurs naturally in 60% of insect species. It is safe for humans, lives inside insect cells, and passes from one generation to the next through the insect eggs. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes don't usually carry Wolbachia, unlike other mosquitoes, but when they do, the bacteria competes with viruses present. It makes it harder for the viruses to reproduce inside mosquitoes, reducing the mosquitoes' chances at spreading the virus from person to person. Thus, the nonprofit, World Mosquito Program (WMP), which studied this property, proposed a strategy to reduce dengue infections – breed Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes and release them into areas affected by mosquito-borne diseases.

The strategy passed one of the most rigorous tests in a cluster-randomized clinical trial conducted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, becoming a massive success as it reduced dengue infections by 77% compared to untreated areas.

References:

1. Mosquitoes armed with virus-fighting bacteria sharply curb dengue infections, hospitalizations | Science | AAAS (sciencemag.org)
2. How it works | World Mosquito Program
3. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/mosquitoes-armed-virus-fighting-bacteria-sharply-curb-dengue-infections

1. European Space Agency(ESA) announces EnVision.

Manav Shah

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced EnVision, their latest mission focussed on perceptions of Venus, to comprehend its history and the associations between the atmospheric and geologic processes. It also aims to explain the reason behind Venus being a corrosive hellscape (harsh environment).

NASA, being a vital partner in the mission, will provide VenSAR, a Synthetic Aperture Radar, to make high-resolution measurements of the planet's surface. A synthetic aperture radar is an active sensor that first transmits microwave signals and then receives back the returned signals, or backscattered signals, from the planet's surface. It is a versatile remote sensing technology capable of determining geophysical information, often not available by other remote sensing methods.

While in orbit of Venus, EnVision will utilize two different radar instruments to study the planet's surface. They will also be able to investigate evidence of geological processes like lava flows and buried craters. The probe's spectroscopy suite will also analyze rocks and atmospheric composition.

At present, the ESA plans to dispatch EnVision in May 2032, arriving at Venus in August 2033.

References:

1. Then There Were 3: NASA to Collaborate on ESA’s New Venus Mission | NASA
2. New EnVision Mission Will Study Venus Alongside NASA Probes - ExtremeTech
3. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/ESA_selects_revolutionary_Venus_mission_EnVision

4. Qué Golazo[1] - Quantifying the role of chance in football

Rahul Krishnakumar

With the Euros tournament extending the carnival of football into summer this season, we see plenty of goals flying into the net. But can we tell how many of these were due to the sheer skill of the players and how many involved a good deal of chance? Quantifying luck and integrating it into game patterns and training routines sounds very challenging, if not impossible. Yet, a recent study did just that!

Dr. Daniel Memmert and his group from the German Sport University, Cologne, showed that in almost every second goal (46%) some form of random influence could be identified. They considered 6 variables – deflected shots, own goals, defensive errors and few others – to perform their calculations. The researchers combed through 7263 goals scored in the English Premier League in the 2012/13 to 2018/19 seasons, using video analysis of match footage. The main focus of the study is a combined variable (referred to as "random") which indicates whether a goal is subject to at least one of the six variables defined.

Apart from this 9 situational variables such as match location, scoreline, time interval, etc were considered to check for their influence on proportion of "random" goals. To avoid inherent interdependencies in these variables, a joint analysis was conducted. A logistic regression was performed using the random variable as the binary dependent variable and each of the nine situational variables as independent variables. To know the full details of the statistical analysis performed and other intriguing results of this study check out the link in the references and here.

Reference: Quantifying the role of chance in professional football | phys.org

[1] Qué Golazo : What an amazing goal!

5. Google Announces AI-BASED App To Diagnose Skin Conditions

Rahul Krishnakumar

Imagine if instead of asking your friends and family what to do next when you get a rash or a mole, your phone could guide you with a range of possible diagnoses. Your imagination is now a reality! Google has announced a new app, Derm Assist, which harnesses the power of AI loaded into your smartphone to diagnose common skin conditions.

Here is how it works: On launching the app, you use your mobile camera to capture three images of the skin condition of concern and then answer a few questions about it. The app analyzes this information and searches its database of 288 skin conditions to create a list of possible matching conditions that you can then research further. However, Google is quick to assert that this app does not provide you with a final diagnosis but instead a realistic set of possibilities that can help you make a more informed decision about your next step.

However, there are a few concerns regarding this app. The researchers used a training dataset of 64,837 images from 12,399 patients, but only 3.5% of these came from patients with Fitzpatrick skin types V and VI—those representing brown skin and dark brown or black skin, respectively. Hence, due to "biased sampling" from its available database of images, the app could end up either over-or under-diagnosing people who are non-white.

Reference: forbes.com