Category Technology

IIT Kharagpur team makes food packaging material from cucumber peels

Discarded cucumber peels may soon find their way back to your kitchen in the form of eco-friendly food packaging developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.

Cucumber peels have greater cellulose content (18.22%) than other peel waste. The research showed that cellulose nano crystals derived from cucumber peels possess modifiable properties due to the presence of abundant hydroxyl groups, which resulted in better biodegradability and biocompatibility.

In India, cucumber finds wide use in salads, pickles, and also in the beverage industry, leading to a large volume of peel bio-waste. This non toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible product has no adverse effects on health and environment and hence could have a huge market potential by rendering management of organic waste with high cellulose content profitable.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Jupiter’s moon Europa can glow in the dark

Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, which is fast becoming the next big destination in planetary research, may actually glow in the dark.

The findings are a result of Earth bound experiments at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, which recreated Europa and Jupiter’s interactions. The researchers found that Europa possibly glows blue-white and blue-green through its ice and water interior, even at night.

Indian-origin NASA scientist Murthy Gudipati, and his team, were working on experiments to understand how Jupiter’s incessant radiation affects Europa. Jupiter emits the strongest radiation after the sun and is surrounded by the biggest planetary magnetic field in the solar system, which accelerates charged particles to high energies. This enormous magnetosphere spans over 1 million km in radius, engulfing Europa and many other moons.

Moons are normally visible at night because of sunlight that reflects off their surfaces or atmospheres. Europa, however, seems to be illuminated through the night, even with no sun, because of charged particles from Jupiter and its interior. “If Europa weren’t under this radiation, it would look the way our moon looks to us dark on the shadowed side,” Gudipati said. “But because it’s bombarded by the radiation from Jupiter, it glows in the dark.”

Europa’s night-side glow could provide information on its surface composition and whether it has conditions suitable for life. It is covered with a solid crust made of water ice and is thought to hold an ocean of liquid water underneath. Water is one of the strongest indicators of potential habitability.

 

Picture Credit : Google

All the coronavirus in the world can fit in a teaspoon!

The total amount of Covid-19 infecting humans around the world would fit into a teaspoon, claims Australian mathematician Matt Parker. The microscopic size of coronavirus means its total volume is a minuscule 8 ml, he added.

Parker started his calculation with an estimate of the number of cells in each coronavirus patient. The mathematician based this on the viral load measured from swabs. He calculated the number of people infected with coronavirus on the assumption that each person was infected for two weeks and at least 300,000 new cases are recorded daily.

The size of coronavirus is so small that you cannot see the virus with naked eyes. The size of a human cell is about 100 micrometers, which is equal to the width of a hair found on our heads. The size of human cells is 10 million times the size of the Covid-19 virus.

Covid-19 has infected over 55 million people across the world and has caused the death of 1.34 million people.

 

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What is dawn minimal calendar?

Dawn is a minimalistic calendar app that aims to be your central point for remembering and getting things done. It lets you sync your calendars and reminder lists, and sort, categorize, and filter your events. Create unique Spaces to organize different aspects of your life – group tasks, create itineraries, manage projects, plan vacations, and more. Dawn’s Today page is an adaptive homepage that changes as your day goes by. Quickly add tasks to your day and check off tasks you’ve completed. Never miss a thing with multiple reminders. Pinpoint busy days with Calendar Heatmap and day summaries. Free for iOS.

The app lets you organise yourself effortlessly and gives you some interesting unique features to focus on your objectives.

  • Pinpoint your busy days with heatmaps and day summaries.
  • Manage everything in one place with integrated to-dos.
  • Keep your days organized with the ability to add subtasks.
  • Sync events with Apple’s native Calendar and Reminder apps

 

Picture Credit : Google

How to remove disruptive participants on Zoom?

The first rule of Zoom Club: Don’t give up control of your screen. 

You do not want random people in your public event taking control of the screen and sharing unwanted content with the group. You can restrict this — before the meeting and during the meeting in the host control bar — so that you’re the only one who can screen-share.

Zoom allows meeting hosts to pause a meeting and remove unruly participants and Zoombombers (pranksters who invade calls). Click on the ‘Suspend Participant Activities’ feature under the Security icon. All video, audio, in-meeting chat, screen sharing and recording during that time will stop. An unruly participant’s details along with an optional screenshot can be shared with Zoom. Once you click ‘Submit’, the reported user will be removed from the meeting, and a notification sent to Zoom’s Trust & Safety team. The feature is enabled by default for all free and paid Zoom users.

Zoom is a great way to stay connected right now, and we hope these tips will help you continue to host amazing events using our platform! If you’re not sure whether a public Zoom event is the way to go, share the meeting link only with your close friends, co-workers, and clients. You can even password-protect it for another layer of security.

 

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What is tabnabbing?

Tabnabbing is a phishing attack that takes advantage of an idle tab in your internet browser. When a malicious script detects that the user has moved to another tab or has been inactive for some time, it quietly refreshes the idle background tab, redirecting it to a fake login page of a seemingly legitimate website. When you click on the tab, you’ll probably assume that you opened the site yourself. If you log in, your credentials are sent to the owner of the malicious website.

To prevent tabnabbing, keep as few tabs open as possible. Check the address bar for the correct url. Look out for differences between the page and the genuine site (e.g., spelling mistakes and unusual layouts).

Tabnabbing is a social engineering attack. It depends on the victim’s attentiveness and the ability of the hacker to con the victim into believing in his malicious site.

 

Picture Credit : Google