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Five faculty members at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have been awarded the prestigious INSA Medal for Young Scientists for the year 2016, making it the institute with more awardees than any other. Dr. Prabeer Barpanda, Dr. Sai Siva Gorthi, Dr. Praveen Kumar, Dr. Anshu Pandey and Dr. Chandan Saha are the winners of the medal from IISc, Bangalore.

Around 150 million years ago the Indian subcontinent along with Australia, Africa and Antarctica formed the supercontinent called Gondwanaland. 150 million years ago, however, the Indian subcontinent is said to have drifted north as an isolated land mass until it reached its current position around 55 million years ago. The subsequent collision with the Eurasian subcontinent led to the formation of the spectacular Himalayan-Tibetan system. Although the migration of the Indian plate is widely accepted based on geophysical, biological and geochemical signatures, large discrepancies still exist in its exact position during the transit and the rate of migration. A collaborative effort from researchers from around the globe was required to identify the exact path taken by the Indian subcontinent.

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and HOSMAT Hospital, Bangalore, have used an analytical, computer-based model to show how stress on the spine changes after spinal fusion surgery to treat degenerative disc disease.

Considered as mankind’s greatest killer, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, has indeed become one group of bacteria which has challenged microbiologists and medical researchers for decades. Since the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882, many scientists and researchers have employed different strategies to handle and treat mycobacterial infections. Longtreatment regime, the emergence of multiple drug resistance and chronic infections are the serious challenges associated with tuberculosis control. Now scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore have tried out an interdisciplinary approach for fighting these killer bacteria.

A team at IISc, Bangalore has successfully developed a novel technique to target and destroy cancer cells through multiple actions. As a group of diseases, cancer affects over 7 lakh people every year in India alone and kills majority of those that are affected. Cancer occurs when normal cells go rogue – tweaking certain functions that makes it easier for the cancerous cells to multiply and invade normal tissues, thereby affecting the organs’ functions. The current treatment for cancer involves radiation, chemotherapy and occasionally surgery, all aimed at killing the cancerous cells. However, these therapies can, at times, be inaccurate, killing a large number of healthy cells too.

At one time or another in our life, all of us are confronted with the most fundamental question of “who am I?” Do our memories make us who we are? When our memories are lost we are thrown into a realm of confusion about ourselves. From this we can safely conclude that our memories are a significant part of our identity. But have you ever wondered about the genesis of these memories? How is it that certain memories are more profound than others? Isn’t it puzzling how the same brain that can sometimes forget the simplest of things can also remember certain incidents that haunt us for the rest of our lives!

Our world is changing - too much and too fast. Species are moving into higher latitudes and altitudes, often carrying new infectious agents with them. As climate changes, vectors of infectious diseases such as mosquitoes, often find themselves in excellent breeding environmental conditions for extended periods of time. They thrive in these altered climatic conditions, and so do the diseases they carry. Many of these vectors infect wild populations of birds. Many aspects influence disease transmission in birds - evolutionary history of the species, whether it is a migratory or non-migratory species, whether it evolved in isolation (such as on an island) or the mainland (where it was exposed to many parasites), the presence and diversity of vectors (mosquitoes and other arthropods) in its habitat, the structure and composition of the forest it inhabits, and climatic variables that influence bird migration and vector breeding.

A variety of robots are available today and each having their own, unique applications. However achieving an efficient means of communication with these robots is still problematic. It is difficult for a robot to accurately analyse and follow voice commands given by its master.

Some bacteria possess an interesting ability of incorporating a new piece of DNA from the outside.This new DNA might come from its surroundings, other bacteria or even invading virus and might help in fostering genomic diversity. In fact, scientists now believe that this phenomenonis much more common than previously thought. However, incorporating a viral DNA may be harmful where the viruses utilize every opportunity to sneak into a bacterium and, hijack its machinery to replicate the viral DNA. Hence, to protect themselves, bacteria have evolved a mechanism called restriction modification system. And yet, it could work for the advantage of the bacterium sometimes to restrain this system and usher in new foreign DNA that might contribute to its own genomic diversity.

“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” - so goes the famous quote from the highly acclaimed movie, the Dead Poet Society. While this may be the ultimate secret to a happy life, our academic institutions and mindsets often ignore Arts & Humanities.