Dr. Manu Prakash is once again at his best — solving complex problems in an extraordinarily simple fashion. Using wingbeat sound, location and time of recording, Dr. Prakash and his team from Standford University hope to make real-time global maps of mosquito distributions, which could help design better strategies to control mosquitoes and combat mosquito-borne diseases. … Continue reading Manu Prakash makes mosquito surveillance using mobile phones possible
Mobile phones
How to keep your mobile phone connected when the network is down
Paul Gardner-Stephen, Flinders University When Tropical Cyclone Debbie hit Queensland this week, one of the casualties was the region’s mobile phone network. Phone towers can stop working because they have been damaged by the wind, or because they have run out of diesel to run their generators. Whatever the cause, the end result is the … Continue reading How to keep your mobile phone connected when the network is down
Expert committee report plagiarised
Published in The Hindu on August 30, 2012 The “Report on possible impacts of communication towers on wildlife including birds and bees,” is a textbook example of how not to write scientific reports. An expert committee, also comprising a few scientists from reputed institutions, was constituted in August 2010 by the Ministry of Environment … Continue reading Expert committee report plagiarised
Editorial: Talk less, text more
Published in the Hindu on February 7, 2012 Seven months from now, all mobile phone handsets sold in India, including the imported ones, will have to meet stringent electromagnetic emission limits. The yet to be notified regulations will make mobile handsets relatively less harmful to use compared with the ones sold prior to September 1. … Continue reading Editorial: Talk less, text more
Editorial: No risk of brain tumour
Published in The Hindu on October 31, 2011 Five months after the World Health Organisation classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as only “possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B),” the findings of a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggest no risk of brain tumour from mobile phone use. There was no indication of “dose-response … Continue reading Editorial: No risk of brain tumour
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