Month: March 2022

** Mumbai teen attempts record for batting longest, stays at crease for over 72 hours

19-year-old Siddarth Mohite passed compatriot Virag Mane’s 50-hour record, created in 2015, before batting for 72 hours and five minutes during a marathon net session

Eyeing a new world record for batting the longest, Mumbai teen Siddarth Mohite stayed at the crease for a whopping 72 hours and five minutes during a marathon net session and is now waiting for the Guinness Book of World Record to recognise the feat.

The 19-year-old Mohite passed compatriot Virag Mane’s 50-hour record, created in 2015, before batting for 72 hours and five minutes over the weekend.

** IISc. researchers help develop math model to predict COVID-19 vaccine efficacy

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and Queensland Brain Institute in Australia have developed a mathematical model that predicts how antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines confer protection against symptomatic infections

The protection offered by vaccination has been touted as a major factor in reducing the damage caused by the third wave of Covid-19 infections. Several vaccines offer a high degree of protection, with some reducing the number of symptomatic infections by over 95% in clinical trials. But what determines the extent of protection? Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) and Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in Australia have addressed this question by developing a mathematical model that predicts how antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines confer protection against symptomatic infections. The study was published in Nature Computational Science.

***

** Tamil Nadu Government Begins Work on India’s First Dugong Reserve in Palk Bay

Dugongs are endangered species that are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), in a study, reported that only 200-250 dugongs are left in the wild of which 150 are found in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar off Tamil Nadu.

The WII said that the area was being used as a breeding ground and therefore identified as critical habitat.