Kayakalp Play School: An Initiative towards Social Transformation

From the comfort of air conditioned office in the national capital to the by lanes of Ranchi, the distance may seem too long, but not for Shashank Shekhar. An engineer and management professional Shashank along with a team of young resident of Hatma, Ranchi sat down together almost a year back to start the first of its kind, “Kayakalp Play School” for the children of Hatma, a village situated on the periphery of Ranchi City.

It turned into reality when, Chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL)/CMD, CCL Shri Gopal Singh himself came down to inaugurate the first “Kayakalp Play School” at Hatma, Ranchi. The school is based on a unique model, wherein it has been opened with complete co-operation of the locals. For instance, the Kayakalp Play School has been started at Community Hall of Hatma Village, readily offered by the villagers. The local themselves will take care of administration & management of the school, which will ensure responsibility of each stake-holder in this model project. And most importantly at “Kayakalp Play School” these kids will be imparted free education.

During the conversation Shashank emphasized, that one of the thrust areas of vibrant India is “quality education” for it paves the foundation of any nation. It’s the responsibility of the youth of this young country to ensure the bright future of their country. Disclosing his futures plan, Shashank said that the children will be taught on a pre-defined syllabus that has been chalked by his team. He is planning to open 100 play schools in the rural and interior parts of Jharkhand and he is already in touch with youths of many villages.

In order, to maintain the quality and ensure proficient monitoring of all the school, they will be connected through a centralized control center. These play schools will have e-classes and children will be taught the through video conferencing (VC), in order to maintain the quality and as add-on. The basic idea here is to prepare these children for getting admission in primary schools. These children will also be helped to secure admission in private schools where 25% seats reserved for children from economically weaker section (EWS) as per Right to education.

Sharing his thoughts, Shashank said that it’s equally important to motivate the parents of these children, so that they send them to play school regularly. It has not been easy and he has met several times with parents of each child at “Kayakalp Play School”, Hatma and he knows he has to work really hard in other villages too.

Inaugurating the first “Kayakalp Play School”, Shri Gopal Singh said that this will go down as one of the most important initiatives taken in a country, for it has been driven by none other but the youth of this country. This event will provide new direction to the society, state and country. It is the responsibility of the youth of this country to create a society in which we there is smile on every face and these youths lead by Shashank Shekhar will be an inspiration to others.

Recently, On January 15th Chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL)/CMD, CCL Shri Gopal Singh inaugurated “Kayakalp Public School” at Bukru village, Ranchi. This school will help the young but impoverished children and their family to realize their dreams, to provide them with right opportunity, which is a benchmark of equality. It will be a center for other institutions to replicate. Only, children from impoverished families and dropouts will be eligible for admission. “For the underprivileged people in India, education is perceived as a high-priced luxury, and this pessimistic outlook continues on with every generation.” Shri Singh said 

CCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited under energetic leadership of Shri Gopal Singh has initiated various schemes to ensure inclusive growth of the society. He has always believed that children of poor families have every right to study in English medium school and they should be provided the best education facilities. The school will have the best infrastructure with no compromise on quality of teaching. “Our objective is to create good human being so that they can play active role in nation building of the country,” Shri Singh has said often.

School has been started with 30 students and it will run on CBSE pattern. The students would be given technical & skill development training when they reach class 9 so that they could be equipped with additional certificate apart from the CBSE certificate. In addition to it, performing students will also be provided coaching and assistance for various competitive exams like Engineering, Medical etc. Digital Board and Wi-Fi facilities will be provided to the students of this school. Free mid-day meal will be provided to the students. The students will be undergoing regular medical check-ups by a team of doctors/specialists from Central Hospital, CCL, Gandhinagar to ensure their physical well being. Many qualified officers, retired teachers and others have voluntarily offered their service free of cost, which has given the impetus to this movement. On this occasion, Shri Gopal Singh said that this school will be a significant step towards realising the dream of our honourable PM i.e. “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas”

With a goal worth achieving, “Kayakalp Play School”, Hatma, Ranchi is the first towards it.

REVOLUTIONARY WATER FILTER BOTTLE

A British start-up, nkd has shaken up the global bottled water market with the recent launch of its pod+

Representing the next generation of filtration, this little beauty allows you to fill up your bottle from the dirtiest lakes, rivers, ponds and puddles – in fact any source except sea water. Then as you drink, the state-of-the-art technology, from the NASA space programme no less, immediately filters out up to 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The result? The cleanest, safest and best tasting water imaginable.

The problem with the bottled water we buy every day is that by the time we get to drink it, after a long process of bottling, shipping, storage and shop display, it has lost most of its potential health giving properties. What’s more, harmful chemicals can actually leach into the water from the bottle plastic.

Not only does the pod+ clean, it actually supercharges, resulting in water that is slightly more alkaline, ionised and higher in antioxidants thereby helping to hydrate you faster and take away old debris from your cells!

The pod shaped water bottle is impact resistant and leak proof while the fully attached cap protects the mouthpiece from exposure to dirt or germs.

Then of course there are the benefits to the environment of using the pod+ in place of bottled water. In the UK 75% of plastic bottles end up in landfills where they can take up to 1000 years to decompose, whilst in the Pacific, 90% of surface debris in the ocean is attributed to plastic.

This is also the invention that keeps on giving. For every litre of water a pod+ consumer enjoys, nkd will provide the same for a child in need in a developing country.

The striking and easy-to-use 585ml bottle comes in six different colours. The pod+ filter lasts 300 bottle refills, equivalent to 175 litres of water or around two months’ regular use, before it needs to be replaced.

Set to change the way we drink - and how we protect our world, the pod+ has been a massive success since its launch with Harrods in London and has quickly become the fastest selling water filter bottle in the UK.

Now available in INDIA the nkd pod+ is available from Croma, Relay Airport Stores, Amazon, Flipkart and Croma Retail Online across India.

The big bang is coming in health care, and it will spark the next industrial revolution

The big bang is coming in health care, and it will spark the next industrial revolution

This year's emergence of breakthrough innovations illustrates the vitality of the health care industry. And biopharma is largely what's underpinning this paradigm shift in the global health-care ecosystem.

The biopharma innovation flow in 2017 was the most exciting the world has seen. New modes of action emerged, and in quantity. These included cell therapy using energized T-cells to go out as foot soldiers to find and hunt down cancer cells. Gene therapy came upon the scene, this time to fix a specific gene defect in the retina of the eye.

In the recent PWC Money Tree report on venture capital money flow in 2017, the top sectors in 2017 investment inflows were the internet, which got the most investor money ($6.5 billion), followed by health care ($4 billion). These two sectors were ahead of mobile and telecommunications and software (non-internet and mobile). While internet is part of an industrial revolution, health care has been waiting for its turn.

Innovations creating magic — past and present

Industrial revolutions occur when there is an unmet need and when different technologies come together to create magic. New industrial revolutions begin even as previous industrial revolutions are continuing. They are not in series; they overlap, as in a Gantt chart.

The First Industrial Revolution, which spanned the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries, occurred by the harnessing of energy (from coal and water power) to replace human or animal labor. These included innovations such as the steam engine and cotton-spinning machines. Because it was led by countries in the West, it set the stage for rising living standards in those countries.

The Second Industrial Revolution, in the second half of the 19th century and up until World War I was primarily powered by even "smarter power": electricity (e.g. telegraph) and hydrocarbons (e.g. internal combustion engine).

Just like electricity and petroleum followed coal and water power to become drivers of the Second Industrial Revolution, the Third Industrial Revolution, which began in the '80s, was driven by electronics, a "smart derivative" of electricity.

Electronics ushered in the personal computer, the internet, fast communication transmissions and lasers. Earlier, I stated that industrial revolutions overlap, as in a Gantt chart. This Third Revolution continues even as the Fourth Industrial Revolution has begun.

The Fourth Revolution is about networked power at a scale the world has never seen. More than 2 billion people in the world now carry a networked supercomputer (e.g.iPhone or other smartphone) in their pockets. Autonomous vehicles, big data, artificial intelligence are making our planet more instant and more tightly connected than ever before.

Just like the first two industrial revolutions drove people out of farms and into factories, there is now the angst of what happens to full employment if artificial intelligence displaces entire categories of workers. The common belief remains that humans will continue to adapt and prosper as we go through this Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Harnessing the power of the biological sciences

This brings me to the Fifth Industrial Revolution. The previous ones were all about the mechanical or physical sciences. The Fifth Industrial Revolution will be powered by the coming acceleration in harnessing the biological sciences.

Biology is difficult to characterize, difficult to chart on a systems basis. It is ever changing, difficult to intervene at specific intervention points and can take evasive action when human intervention occurs. Biology is ruled by nature, much more than the laws of physical science or mechanical science.

he stars are now aligning for the Fifth Industrial Revolution to start within the next decade. The need is clearly there. Just look at Alzheimer's. The world faces a tsunami as boomers start going past 80 in 1926 — only eight years from now. One in two beyond the age of 80 will get Alzheimer's. The cost of nursing-home care alone can bankrupt health-care systems. Fifteen years ago the beta amyloid thesis presented great hope. It is now coming under challenge as massive and expensive drug trials keep failing. Besides Alzheimer's, there are other diseases where the unmet need remains large.

In addition to the need, the convergence of technologies will power the coming Fifth Industrial Revolution.

Never before has it all come together in such a profound way. This includes the growing knowledge of disease cascades and intervention targets. It also includes the bubbling genomic science and data science. The research institutes around the globe, whether they be the NIH or Max Planck — are building on each other's findings and accumulated knowledge — all at an exponential pace.

Some say as much new research is getting added on in the previous two years as the entire period before that. The cost of sequencing a genome has dropped below $1,000, a stunning drop from $2 billion level less than two decades ago. This cost will keep dropping. It is estimated that more than a billion people will soon supply the world's databases with their genomic and phenotypic information to carry out correlations that educate us about gene variants and their linkage to diseases — and even lifestyles. Artificial intelligence will aggregate learnings to rapidly help find druggable protein targets at a pace never seen before.

The European Medicines Agency was rapidly emerging as a science-driven regulatory body that, along with the FDA, was the world's authority in assessing and approving innovation. Now, with Brexit causing confusion to the London-based EMA, the FDA has again emerged preeminent, like it was before the EMA was founded 23 years ago. Fortunately, the FDA is showing its determination to modernize and change. In 2017 we saw 46 new product approvals, about double the pace 10 years earlier.

Already, every 10 years, we are adding about two years to wellness and longevity. That will get even better. For example, we may find very early biomarkers, maybe 15 years earlier, to identify people at risk for Alzheimer's so they can take proactive measures. These biomarkers could be sophisticated PET scans or new approaches, such as using A.I. technology. Once the condition becomes predictable at an early stage, approaches could be deployed to prevent or mitigate the inflammatory cascade that is associated with Alzheimer's.

This Fifth Revolution, which I predict will start in the next decade, will make this century the Life Sciences Century for Mankind. We will succeed in taming biology and making it into a more predictable science that can be harnessed, similar to the way the previous four industrial revolutions harnessed the physical and mechanical sciences.

As the Fifth Industrial revolution unfolds, the pace of human development will accelerate. More and more of us will be living longer and living better.

RARE CARDIAC SURGERY SAVED LIFE OF A SEVERELY PREMATURE BABY GIRL

At the current rate of allegations raging against corporate hospitals, the bills for the rare treatment and three months hospital stay of the severely preterm baby girl would have been a bomb.

But the baby girl of a migrant worker availed it completely free! At 23 weeks, she also becomes the youngest child to survive heart surgery for a congenital heart defect.
The premature baby girl was born at 23 weeks, which in itself is a deathly condition, with a rare heart condition called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) that would send too much blood into the lungs and make it impossible for her to breathe. That she got a new lease of life in an area infamous for female feticide and a skewed sex also makes this a rare event.

The frail girl also showed an extraordinary fighting spirit. She valiantly battled her condition for the past 3 months at Artemis. Baby Anandita (name changed) was extremely underweight, about 500, equal to the size of our palm. Right after birth, she struggled to breathe and had to be connected to a ventilator to keep her alive. She needed a heart surgery promptly to survive.

Her parents being migrant workers, who live off their daily wages, could not afford such a surgery along with months of specialized care- that was necessary to keep Anandita alive. The hospital management came forward to show utmost generosity and decided to bear the complete cost of surgery, medicines as well as hospitalization.

Dr. Aseem Ranjan Srivastava, Senior Consultant Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, said, ‘Baby Anandita was suffering from Patent Ductus Arteriosus– an easy fix if one were dealing with a grown up child. But when you have a child which is equal to the size of your palm things are sensitive. Her severe prematurity, made the surgery extremely complex and fraught with danger.’

Dr Srivastava further said, ‘Operating through the chest, you are trying to close an abnormal artery carrying blood under high pressure, that has walls that are less than paper thin, in probably the tiniest baby you will ever see’

Dr Srivastava added, ‘At 23 weeks, she is the youngest child to survive heart surgery for a congenital heart defect. She is recovering well at hospital’s Neonatal ICU under Dr. Prabhat Maheshweri Head- NICU, and is expected to be discharged by next week. She will be visiting the hospital very frequently for about a year, after which she will probably be just another healthy kid with no heart disease but the small scar on her chest that will always tell stories about a ‘Brave child’ who fought against all odds to survive.’

3D structure of a protein linked to longer lives Revealed

Scientists have unveiled the 3D structure of a protein linked to longer lives, paving the way for new therapies to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including diabetes, obesity and certain cancers.

Named after the Greek goddess who spun the thread of life, Klotho proteins play an important role in the regulation of longevity and metabolism.

Researchers from Yale University in the United States revealed the three-dimensional structure of one of these proteins, beta- Klotho, illuminating its intricate mechanism and therapeutic potential.

The Klotho family of two receptor proteins are located on the surface of cells of specific tissues.

The proteins bind to a family of hormones, designated endocrine FGFs, that regulate critical metabolic processes in the liver, kidneys, and brain, among other organs.

X-ray crystallography used

To understand how beta-Klotho works, the research team used X-ray crystallography, a technique that provides high- resolution, 3D views of these proteins.

The researchers’ analysis yielded several insights.

First, beta-Klotho is the primary receptor that binds to FGF21, a key hormone produced upon starvation.

When bound to beta-Klotho, FGF21 stimulates insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism, causing weight loss.

Can help in Diabetes Therapies

This new understanding of beta-Klotho and FGF21 can guide the development of therapies for conditions such as type 2 diabetes in obese patients, the researchers said.

“Like insulin, FGF21 stimulates metabolism including glucose uptake,” said Joseph Schlessinger from the Yale School of Medicine.

“In animals and in some clinical trials of FGF21, it shows that you can increase burning of calories without changing food intake, and we now understand how to improve the biological activity of FGF21,” Mr. Schlessinger said.

The study, published in the journal Nature, also describes a new variant of FGF21 that has 10 times higher potency and cellular activity.

The team presented evidence of how a structurally-related enzyme, glycosidase, which breaks down sugars, evolved into a receptor for a hormone that lowers blood sugar — which may not be a coincidence, Mr. Schlessinger added.

Hopes for multiple maladies

Having untangled the structure of beta-Klotho, researchers have a platform for exploring potential therapies for multiple diseases.

By developing drugs that enhance the pathway, Mr. Schlessinger said, researchers can target diabetes and obesity.

Conversely, using agents that block the pathway, they hope to explore therapies for conditions such as liver cancer and bone diseases, among others.

“The next step will be to make better hormones, make new potent blockers, do animal studies, and move forward,” Mr. Schlessinger said.

Want To Catch A Killer? Know Your Science

For a doctor, putting puzzle pieces together is essential to becoming a master diagnostician. Being a detective is a vital skill employed daily in medical practice. So, despite the fact forensics routinely involves the deceased and primary care the living, the two disciplines amazingly run in parallel, sharing much common ground.

As a result, a new report on expanding the use of science to estimate time of death better in suspected homicides caught my attention.

After all, I did consider being a medical examiner for a whole week many years ago -- until I recognized that working all day usually without windows in basements, never delivering happy news and being surrounded by the macabre day in and day out might not best gel with my optimistic nature and spirited disposition. Instead, I binge watch Law & Order and its various permutations, documentaries and read fascinating medical mysteries to get my fix and hone my problem-solving abilities.

This brings me to work just published in Scientific Reports which details the challenges of determining time of death after a long post-mortem interval (PMI, or time after death) in criminal investigations of suspected homicide. Estimating the PMI is a main focus within forensic science dating back to 1894 when stages of body decay and decomposition were first defined.

Estimating minimum PMI (PMImin) depends on medical assessment of the body's physical changes and entomological evidence. This method of evaluation can be pretty reliable within hours, weeks, even months of death, but with the greater passage of time the PMImin accuracy weakens. Thankfully, it is infrequent that such older decomposed bodies are found that warrant more involved investigations, but it does happen often enough for the authors of this study to recommend the utility of combining several independent lines of evidence to pinpoint more ideally PMI, and thus time of death.

The deterioration of a corpse follows well-established stages: fresh, bloated, active decay, advanced decay, dry and remains.This is further influenced by weather conditions (e.g. temperature) and predators, for example. The necrobiome is understood as the microbial life after death or the dynamic ecosystem that evolves after death (see here). As one's body shuts down and its internal environment allows for bacterial growth previously incompatible with life, skin break down affords entry to bugs and foreign exposures while body fluids seep out and react with the environment (e.g. soil, micro-organisms).

Analyzing a crime scene includes but is not limited to tests of the body, the soil chemistry beneath the victim and the critters to tell the ultimate tale.

In this report, the researchers presented a case of human remains discovered in a Swiss forest. Through a multidisciplinary approach, they managed to approximate the PMI of the deceased, identify him by age, gender and name and create a timeline of his movements. Through a combined analysis of the human remains alone and the soil samples beneath it, they got many answers from scrutinizing the following five components (some examples listed):

• Bone and Hair
  • young, adult human male
  • died 1-2 years prior to discovery
  • bones showed he was burned in-situ
  • as a result of these conclusions, he was identified - he was last seen 22 months prior 
• Mites
  • helped reveal part of decomposition took place on site and the body was there at least 8-9 months with greater likelihood > 1 year
  • revealed he was moved from the original spot elsewhere to the forest soil when already in late stage of decay
  • life cycle of one type determined body burned on the soil and just months before discovery
• Nematodes
  • helped reveal part of decomposition took place on site and the body was there at least 8-9 months with greater likelihood > 1 year
• Micro-eukaryotes (like fungi)
  • helped reveal part of decomposition took place on site and the body was there at least 8-9 months with greater likelihood > 1 year
• Soil Chemical/Numerical Analyses
  • Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA), hierarchical clustering, Indicator Value

Ultimately, knowing the degenerating acceleration tendencies of a body's exposure to hot weather and the subsequent increased scavenger access it causes, they were able to conclude from all the information collected that he died in the fall or winter, started to deteriorate in a confined space (e.g. farm) then was likely moved to the final location in early spring of the next year where he was partially exposed to fire.

Due to confidentiality issues, further descriptions were excluded. Overall, the team managed to meet their goal:

"The main aim of this work was to provide a strong incentive for case work as well as experimental studies to further develop a comprehensive toolbox for forensic or crime scene investigations."

CES 2018: everything you need to know about the world's biggest tech show

CES 2018 is a wrap, folks! The show that brought us a week's worth of gadgety goodness is saying so long to Las Vegas. 

If you want to see the best of the best from this year's show, check out the TechRadar 2018 CES Awards. From Best in Show winner The Wall by Samsung to People's Choice recipient HTC Vive Pro, this year's batch is truly a worthy group.

Before the show even kicked off on January 9 and we started scouring the crowded halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, we saw a rollable LG OLED TV, new Sony smartphones and ultra-thin laptops from a wide range of manufacturers. On the show floor, we went up close with everything from 8K TVs to solar-powered smartwatches.

What were the big themes at this year's CES? Nearly every company infused their tech with AI and voice assistants, meaning our smart products are about to get even smarter.

The Revolution: Revolutionary Green Nano Technology For Treatment ...

The Revolution: Revolutionary Green Nano Technology For Treatment ...: After successfully developing biocompatible gold nano materials for medical applications, scientists are moving forward to use phytochemi...

Revolutionary Green Nano Technology For Treatment of Cancer & Tumor

After successfully developing biocompatible gold nano materials for medical applications, scientists are moving forward to use phytochemical substance present in plants and seeds for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles for treatment of cancer. This emerging technology is more popular among scientists as Green Nano Technology. Nano Technology in the form of Gold Nanoparticles is already in use in pharmaceuticals to fight cancer.

Now the scientists have taken a step forward by using Green Nano Technology. As the substances used in green nanotechnology are obtained from natural sources, it is foreseen as a safe and precise treatment for persistent cancer and tumor. Scientist at Department of Science and Technology, Dr. Ruckmani Arunachalam said, “In Nano Technology, nanoparticles are used for example bioactive molecule needs to be incorporated along with the drug molecule that we want along with the carrier.

For this material which is used as a carrier, we researchers are now trying to use only bio products. That is extracted naturally from plants. For example cumin, cinnamon, these are plant products. For example products obtained from tea. These are naturally obtained from plants. These are used as carrier so this is the Green Nano technology.” Till today Gold Nano particles have been used for cancer treatment. But it has certain limitations like these nanoparticles contain toxic chemicals which are unsafe for health. In Green Nanotechnology, extracts from herbs like Cinnamon-sweet wood "karuvapatta", Black tea, Cumin will be used in medicine. As it does not have any contaminated substance so there is no side effects. Dr. Ruckmani Arunachalam added, “It will be like any green revolution, like when we go for example Bio Pesticide, the same way all this which are naturally and not going to give any harm to human body. Because they are already naturally present. They are part of our food material. That we take, for example turmeric, it’s all part of the food we are taking and they have more bio activity. Naturally it has very good benefit compared to conventional ones.”

A research of University of Missouri in green nanotechnology says that Cinnamon and other species such as herbs, leaves and seeds will serve as a reservoir of Phytochemicals, which has the capability to convert metals into Nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are biologically rapidly active against cancer cell.

The common sources of Phytochemicals are pomegranate, curcumin, cumin seeds etc. Professor at the department of Biochemical Engineering& Biotechnology of IIT Delhi Dr. Prashant Mishra said, “In green nano technology the idea is that, we have to come up because whenever we talk about medicine it takes lot of efforts. It goes through different trials. So once these trials are complete it can come in the market. So the only limitation is that it requires long incubation before a drug comes in the market. The research is already on and it is definitely going to make a tremendous change in the way we are treating.” The research on applications of green nanotechnology in medicine is still on and it is expected to bring a revolutionary advancement in medical science.

Smart Watches Trends for 2018 in India

Smartwatch can actually be the first and the last companion of your smartphone, especially when it comes to pairing and sharing essential features to enhance your productivity while doing what a watch and a fitness band can do. 

Today's smartwatches can perform a ton of novel tricks, such as enabling you to search the internet with your voice, tracking your exercise over GPS, and letting you check-out at the grocery store without pulling out your wallet. 

Take a look at the best smartwatches you can buy in India right now. 

1. Apple Watch Series 3

World's best smartwatch for a reason

OS: watchOS 4 | Compatibility: iOS | Display: 1.53" OLED | Processor: S2 dual-core | Band sizes: Varies drastically per watch size | Onboard storage: 8GB / 16GB (Non-LTE and LTE respectively) | Battery: 18 hours | Charging method: Wireless | IP rating: IPX7 | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFCAccurate fitness trackingBest interfaceBattery is too short for sleep trackingSimilar design

The Apple Watch 3 is the most advanced smartwatch available in the market right now. Yes, we agree that it's very similar to the Apple Watch 2 visibly, but the new there are some incremental changes internally. Apple did not launch the LTE variant in India, which was one of the key features this time, which unnecessarily adds up to the price of the watch. The non-LTE variant offers all the smarts of the Watch 2 but with a better battery ife and faster processing. It is still water resistant which means you can take it with you to swim or jog on a rainy day. There's a GPS onboard to navigate and track your running, and it also has the latest watchOS 4 software.

2. Samsung Gear S3

OS: Tizen OS | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Display: 1.3" 360 x 360 Super AMOLED | Processor: Dual-core 1.0GHz | Band sizes: S (105 x 65mm) L (130 x 70mm) | Onboard storage: 4GB | Battery duration: 3 days | Charging method: Wireless | IP rating: IP68 | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G

Despite a serious lack of original apps, the Samsung Gear S3 is one of the best smartwatch options on the market.

The intuitive controls and Super AMOLED screen from the Samsung Gear S2 are back in full form here. Plus, GPS makes its debut on the Gear S3.

3. Asus Zenwatch 3

One of the best looking smartwatch out there

OS: Android Wear 2.0 | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Display: 1.39" 400 x 400 AMOLED | Processor: Snapdragon Wear 2100 | Case dimensions: 44mm diameter, 9.9mm thick | Onboard storage: 4GB | Battery: 2 days | Charging method: via proprietary USB charger | IP rating: IP67 | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Vivid displayExcellent battery lifeLacks heart rate sensorProprietary straps

If you are in the market for an Android Wear smartwatch, the Asus ZenWatch 3 is one of the finest out there. It has an attractive conventional watch like design, good display and hardware buttons that are actually useful.

GPS of Brain : A New Technology to Map Network Connection of Brain

Scientists have created a new technique, sort of GPS of Brain, it will help to map the network of connections within the brain and to understand how the organ works.

The human brain is composed of billions of neurons wired together in intricate webs and communicating through electrical pulses and chemical signals.

Although neuroscientists have made progress in understanding the brain's many functions - such as regulating sleep, storing memories, and making decisions - visualising the entire "wiring diagram" of neural connections throughout a brain is not possible using currently available methods.

Using Drosophila fruit flies, researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the US have developed a method to easily see neural connections and the flow of communications in real time within living flies.

The research, published in the journal eLife, is a step forward toward creating a map of the entire fly brain's many connections, which could help scientists understand the neural circuits within human brains as well. "If an electrical engineer wants to understand how a computer works, the first thing that he or she would want to figure out is how the different components are wired to each other," said Carlos Lois, research professor at Caltech.

"Similarly, we must know how neurons are wired together in order to understand how brains work," he said. When two neurons connect, they link together with a structure called a synapse, a space through which one neuron can send and receive electrical and chemical signals to or from another neuron. Even if multiple neurons are very close together, they need synapses to truly communicate.

Researchers developed a method for tracing the flow of information across synapses, called TRACT (Transneuronal Control of Transcription). Using genetically engineered Drosophila fruit flies, TRACT allows researchers to observe which neurons are "talking" and which neurons are "listening" by prompting the connected neurons to produce glowing proteins.

With TRACT, when a neuron "talks" - or transmits a chemical or electrical signal across a synapse - it will also produce and send along a fluorescent protein that lights up both the talking neuron and its synapses with a particular colour.

Any neurons "listening" to the signal receive this protein, which binds to a so-called receptor molecule - genetically built-in by the researchers - on the receiving neuron's surface. The binding of the signal protein activates the receptor and triggers the neuron it is attached to in order to produce its own, differently coloured fluorescent protein. In this way, communication between neurons becomes visible.

Using a type of microscope that can peer through a thin window installed on the fly's head, the researchers can observe the colourful glow of neural connections in real time as the fly grows, moves, and experiences changes in its environment.