Beijing: A reusable uncrewed space vehicle returned to Earth on Monday morning after spending 276 days in orbit, according to a media report.

There is not much information about the space vehicle as China’s space authorities have not released any pictures or technical data, and experts suspect it could be used to gather intelligence, South China Morning Post reported.

The reusable experimental spacecraft, was launched with a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan satellite centre in Inner Mongolia in 2020.

Space defence contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the classified mission is a “complete success” and “marks an important breakthrough” in China’s research into the technology.

The reusable spacecraft “will provide a more convenient and cost-effective way for peaceful use of space”, the company was quoted as saying.

The spacecraft resembles the US Air Force’s Boeing X-37B, Xinhua news agency had reported earlier.

The X-37B is an unmanned space plane that operates like a smaller version of the Space Shuttle, which is launched by a rocket and cruises back to earth for a runway landing. It has flown four classified missions to date, carrying secret payloads on long-duration flights in Earth orbit.

According to some experts, the Chinese craft could be equipped with advanced imaging and sensing equipment to gather intelligence on potential targets or monitor sensitive areas of interest, the report said.

Another potential use is the deployment of small satellites or other payloads into orbit. This could include communications satellites, navigation systems, or other types of sensors that could be used for military or government purposes.

The government has asked the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) to make sure that FM Radio is accessible on all mobile phones to help people during natural calamities and emergencies.

In an advisory, the IT Ministry said that it should be ensured that wherever the mobile phone is equipped with an inbuilt FM Radio receiver function or feature, that function or feature is not disabled or deactivated but is kept enabled/activated in the mobile phone.

“Further, it is advised that if the FM Radio receiver function or feature is not available in mobile phones, it may be included,” MeitY told ICEA and MAIT, asking them to circulate the advisory among all the mobile phone manufacturers/brands on priority basis.

The move will help people get access to information through radio service in remote areas during natural disasters.

The IT Ministry said that during the last 4-5 years, there has been a drastic fall in mobile phones with FM tuner feature, thereby affecting not only the ability of the poor to get free FM Radio service, but also the government’s ability to disseminate real-time information during emergencies, disasters and calamities.

“The FM broadcast is a robust and reliable communication system. FM stations serve as important communication links between the local authorities and people in times of natural disasters (in catastrophic situations),” the ministry added.

As per the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in times of emergencies and disaster, radio broadcasting is one of the most powerful and effective ways of delivering early warnings and alerting the public to save lives.

Further, there is need for speedy, timely, and reliable communication via FM-enabled mobile phones (apart from regular standalone radio sets and car receivers) during disasters as this can save precious lives, livelihood and also prepare us better to deal with disasters.

“The availability of a vast network of FM transmitters and FM radio in the country played a key role in India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the ministry in its advisory.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal have created a new family of organic molecules that emit light in the near-infrared (NIR) range, opening possibilities for OLEDs for various applications.

Light-emitting diodes or LEDs are tiny light-emitting devices that are commonly used in applications such as television screens, gadget displays, etc. They are different from traditional filament bulbs in that while bulbs emit light when heated, LEDs emit light when electricity (in the form of electrons) passes through them.

OLEDs are a form of LEDs where the light emitting materials are organic molecules — chemicals made largely of carbon and hydrogen.

Although visible light-emitting OLEDs have already found mass application in displays for gadgets, televisions, and lighting, producing NIR-emitting OLEDs is challenging due to their unique molecular energy structure.

Light-emitting molecules generate light when electrons fall from a high energy state (HOMO) to a low energy state (LUMO) inside the molecule, and the colour of the emitted light depends on the energy difference between the two states. The energy difference in organic molecules corresponds to visible light, making visible light-emitting OLEDs easier to design.

The team at IISER created new organic molecules that have a very low-energy LUMO. This means that the energy difference between LUMO and HOMO is smaller, resulting in near-infrared light.

“We have achieved a nitro group containing polycyclic aromatic molecules that exhibit fluorescence (light emission) in the near-IR wavelengths,” said Prof. Jeyaraman Sankar, IISER Bhopal, in a statement.

The team’s new approach to obtaining stable electron-deficient molecules with NIR emission using nitration as a strategy is unique and has been published in the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry – Chemical Science.

The innovation lay in fine-tuning the structure of the nitro-group-containing molecules that typically do not fluoresce and are therefore usually non-light-emitting.

Another challenge is to position the emission in the near-IR region. The team engineered the structure of the molecules such that they emit near-IR light. In addition, the synthesised molecules show strong electron affinity values, excellent stability, and structural rigidity.

The fluorescence quantum yields (the amount of near-IR light emitted) are among the best for any known near-IR light-emitting electron-deficient materials, the team said.

Apart from their use in OLED applications, the strong electron affinity, NIR emissive nature, high stability, and redox robustness of these molecules make them excellent candidates for catalysts.

These molecules can also be used for near-IR devices that help in side effect alleviation, after selected chemotherapy procedures.

The potential applications for near-IR-emitting OLEDs are vast, including biomedical sensors, short-range communication, night vision, and security.

The discovery could potentially extend the use of organic light-emitting devices beyond visible light, with implications in a range of applicationsAfrom medical equipment to advanced security gadgets, the researchers said.

San Francisco:  Leading biotechnology company Twist Bioscience Corporation has announced to lay off 270 people, or about 25 per cent of its workforce, as it aims to accelerate its path to profitability.

The company enables customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform.

Twist said it will focus resources on the support of key commercial and development opportunities that have the potential to deliver significant return on investment.

“Twist conducted a comprehensive review of the business and is resizing many teams throughout the organisation and reducing its workforce by approximately 270 employees, or about 25 per cent,” it said while delivering its fiscal second quarter 2023 financial results.

The biopharma team has been resized to focus on revenue-generating partnerships and Twist said it will moderate its investment in DNA data storage while maintaining its competitive lead.

“We reported a strong quarter overall, breaking the $60 million revenue threshold for the first time and exceeding our guidance,” said Emily M. Leproust, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience.

“In January, we shipped the first products from the Factory of the Future and are now manufacturing the vast majority of our genes, gene fragments and oligo pools in our Wilsonville facility,” Leproust added.

Additionally, Twist plans to maintain its global commercial presence to drive top-line growth while streamlining teams including R&D across the business to focus on programmes, where the company believes it has a clear competitive advantage and sees the greatest potential for long-term profitable growth and value creation.

“Following a strategic and holistic analysis of the business, we prioritised and reengineered our cost base, and with these substantive changes, we believe we are operating from a position of strength, operating as a leaner organisation,” said the company CEO.

Leading online travel company MakeMyTrip on Monday said it has collaborated with Microsoft to make travel planning more inclusive and accessible by introducing voice assisted booking in Indian languages.

The new, in-platform tech stack powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Services, will converse with the user to offer personalised travel recommendations based on their preferences and curate holiday packages.

“We have pioneered offerings at the intersection of e-commerce, travel, and technology, and are proud to introduce a feature that breaks down the barriers of language, literacy, inability to navigate complex app environments, physical impairments, etc,” said Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.

“This Generative AI integration through our collaboration with Microsoft involves simple visual cues and voice commands in native Indian languages that will alter the landscape of travel bookings hereon forth,” he added.

Currently, the beta version of this integration has been introduced in English and Hindi for flights and holidays customers.

The next stage of voice assisted booking flow will cover other transport offerings. The feature has been embedded into the landing page of the platform and can be activated with a single click, said the company.

MakeMyTrip’s latest offering uses the power of AI and Machine Learning to make travel-related solutions all pervasive, no matter the use case or scenario.

Microsoft’s large language models and Indic language speech models, coupled with MakeMyTrip’s natural language understanding capability and travel domain content creates the base for users to interact with the platform in any Indian language.

“The new update will elevate the user experience and make our platform more inclusive, accessible, and easy to navigate. The beta phase will offer us learnings to further fine-tune all use cases before rolling it out to users at scale. As such, we’ll do a very controlled roll-out of this feature with a subset of our customers,” said Sanjay Mohan, Group Chief Technology Officer, MakeMyTrip.

The intuitive interface powered by Azure OpenAI Service’s GPT technology, will analyse specific user requirements and sift through thousands of options, to recommend, customize and book holiday packages, transforming what has been a time-consuming process into a quick and hassle-free experience.

It will also summarize hotel reviews, extracting unique traveller impressions, that is cohort specific – whether a solo traveller, business traveller, couple, family, etc.

“Bringing together MakeMyTrip’s expertise with Microsoft’s AI capabilities, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, our collaboration will help make travel more inclusive and accessible for travelers across India, with trust and security at the core,” said Sangeeta Bavi, Executive Director, Digital Natives, Microsoft India.