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One of the biggest challenges at the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic was ensuring aggressive testing of vast populations in several countries across the world. With time, new testing techniques were developed to ease the process. And since the COVID-19 pandemic is very much still there, a team of engineers at MIT and Harvard University has designed a small device that can detect and report SARS-CoV-2 from a saliva sample within an hour. The study also demonstrates that the test is as accurate as a PCR test.

The research team says that the device can also detect mutations related to SARS-CoV-2 that several countries have already reported. And since the results are available within an hour, it makes it easier to track different variants. The entire system can be assembled at $15 (roughly Rs. 1,100), researchers said, adding that the cost is expected to come further down when the production is carried out on a large scale.

James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and a senior author of the study, told MIT News that the team demonstrated that the device can be programmed to discover new variants of COVID-19, adding they could also repurpose it quickly. As part of the study, the team targeted the SARS-CoV-2 variants reported in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK. “You could readily adapt the diagnostic platform to address the Delta variant and other ones that are emerging,” said Collins.

The test

The team first experimented with the device with human saliva spiked with synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequences, followed by nearly 50 samples of patients, who had tested positive for coronavirus. Researchers discovered that the device was just as accurate as the PCR tests used widely across the world. The PCR tests, though, use nasal swabs and take more time.

This device, on the other hand, produces a fluorescent readout that anyone can see with the naked eye. Besides, the researchers have also designed a smartphone app that can read the results and send them to public health departments for easier tracking. They said that the device could be produced for as low as $2 to $3 (roughly Rs. 150 to Rs. 220).

The researchers added that if the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the production of these devices on a large scale, it could prove to be a breakthrough for areas without widespread access to PCR tests. Apart from that, those wanting to test themselves at home may also make use of the same.

Helena de Puig, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and one of the lead authors of the study, said that the ability to detect and track these variants is crucial to effective public health. But, she added that variants are currently diagnosed only by nucleic acid sequencing at specialised epidemiological centres that are scarce even in resource-rich nations.

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Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

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May 20, 2025

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Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

Medieval alchemists would have been stunned to see lead turned into gold – but that’s what scientists at CERN’s Awesomely Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have done. Through near-miss collisions rather than head-on atomic bashes, the team at the ALICE collaboration can convert lead to gold at a rate of 89,000 atoms each second. Although each gold atom survived only a tiny fraction of a second, the experiment is a testament to the precision of modern particle physics. It serves as a testament to the LHC’s growing ability to change the very structure of the atom.

CERN Scientists Create Gold from Lead Using Proton Removal at LHC—But Only for a Split Second

As per the report from CERN, three protons are stripped from the lead nuclei, transforming them into gold. These odd metamorphoses occurred when lead atoms barely missed each other, resulting in powerful electric and magnetic fields that could have shuffled the particles. Their detectors would work on both large and small particle-event scales “because it’s the small ones that you need to see that those tiny changes would be different,” ALICE project chief Marco Van Leeuwen mentioned.

Despite the astonishing atom-per-second count, the total mass of gold created between 2015 and 2018 added up to just 29 picograms — far less than visible to the naked eye. Uliana Dmitrieva, a physicist from the collaboration, highlighted that it represents the first observation of this type of gold production at the LHC and with their sophisticated detectors. Though recent upgrades have almost doubled output, the gold remains more symbolic, scientifically, than economically.

The findings have a broader significance than mere novelty. As physicist John Jowett explains, this is fine-tuning of electromagnetic dissociation in theoretical models, and it helps estimate beam losses, which are important for improving the LHC as well as future colliders. While commercial alchemy remains in the realm of science fiction, it helps push forward the understanding of particle manipulation and atomic science.

This transient artifice of gold illustrates not only human creativity but the distance technology today has travelled from the desires of the alchemists of old.

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Scientists Discover Three-Eyed Sea Moth From Half a Billion Years Ago

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May 20, 2025

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Scientists Discover Three-Eyed Sea Moth From Half a Billion Years Ago

Scientists have discovered a half a million years old three eyed “sea moth” from a cache of museum fossils in Canada. These finger-sized feisty predators are speculated to lurk in the primordial seas, hooking prey into its mouth while breathing through long gills on its butt. This species is named Mosura fentoni because of its resemblance to the fictional Japanese monster Mothra. This species, belonging to the group of ancestral arthropods called radiodonts, gives valuable insight towards the surprising diversity and adaptations in the ancient arthropods.

About the species

According to a study by Paleontologists Joseph Moysiuk and Jean-Bernard Caron, earliest-diverging arthropods, the radiodonts, exhibited comparatively limited variability in tagmosis. Unlike them, the newly found species M. fentoni exhibits up to 26 trunk segments, the highest number reported for any radiodont, despite being among the smallest known.

The species also had the longest gills relative to body length of all known radiodonts. the back-end gills were most likely a specialized system for respiration; horseshoe crabs, wood lice and some other living arthropods have subsequently evolved a similar system. Researchers aren’t certain why M. fentoni needed the long butt gills, but they speculated it was an adaptation to low-oxygen environments or an active lifestyle.

While paleontologists are still learning why Mosura fentoni had a third eye, researchers believe the eye may have been used to detect light and the seascape it moved through. Perhaps Mosura fentoni’s median eye was used to orient themselves during high-speed hunts, according to the U.K. Natural History Museum.

Key Insights

Arthropods are a large group of invertebrates with hard exoskeletons, segmented bodies and jointed legs. Today, they make up around three-quarters of all living animals, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans. One of the reasons for their evolutionary success is their specialized body segments. Radiodonts are probably the first group of arthropods to branch out in the evolutionary tree, so they provide key insight into ancestral traits for the entire group. The new species emphasizes that these early arthropods were already surprisingly diverse and were adapting in a comparable way to their distant modern relatives.

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NASA’s LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown



Acer AI TransBuds With Ear-Hook Design Unveiled at Computex 2025

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NASA’s LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown

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11 hours ago

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May 20, 2025

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NASA's LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown

NASA’s LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) has taken high resolution picture of the landing area for the ispace SMBC and HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lunar lander. It has been named RESILIENCE. This is scheduled to land on June 5, 2025, at a plain lava site near the north of the Moon, and within Mare Frigoris, dispersed with large-scale wrinkle ridges. This image gives enough details to the researchers preparing for this mission of lunar attempted ambition. This view is around 3.13 miles wide below the north. 

Ancient Lunar Terrain of Mare Frigoris

According to the research by NASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, Mare Frigoris is a basaltic plain built before 3.5 billion years, at the time of volcanic activities on the Moon. Image formed by LROC displays a terrain formed by the ancient lava flow with wrinkle ridges, built by tectonic features due to the cooling crust of the Moon. Such formations give valuable clues regarding geological history of the Moon and the driving forces that shaped its surface.

Why Mare Frigoris Was Chosen

This landing site has been chosen for relative smoothness and scientific interests. Mare Frigoris provides a stable surface, ideal for its soft landing. Ispace’s RESILIENCE is the second Japanese-led mission if it touches down successfully after HAKUTO-R in 2023, which ended due to a crash descent.

A Commercial Step Toward the Moon

The mission quite valuable because it is a commercial venture operated by Japans ispace in collaboration with SMBC Group. The ander is designed to showcase key technologies for future lunar logistics, long-term lunar infrastructure and resource exploration. There is a need to build a sustainable lunar economy with the rise in international interest in the Moon including Artemis program and more. 

Mapping the Path to Lunar Success

With the June launch window coming near, the new image generation by LROC helps the scientists to refine their landing path and allow them to understand the site. With the success of RESILIENCE, there will be another step forward to humanity’s renewed presence on the Moon.

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