“ADAAB, the whole world is gripped by coronavirus and most important in the fight against it is correct news and information,” Manal Shakeel, doing her PhD in Biology, tells her Urdu audience on YouTube. She is among the 15 researchers from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, who are reaching out to the vernacular audience with information on the spread of Covid-19, while trying to dispel myths around it.

A team of scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem) and other research institutes in Bengaluru are developing new disinfection technology; efficient sampling and new pooled testing methods; and technologies to screen potential drugs to treat the virus.

"We have formed a group of more than 600 clinicians, neurobiologists, data scientists, cognitive scientists, sensory researchers, and technicians from 50 countries to develop a common voluntary survey to determine if loss or change of smell or taste is a reliable symptom to indicate (Covid-19) infection," Shannon B. Olsson, the city-based American researcher, told IANS.

The study, published in the journal Zoosytematics and Evolution, describes the new species of green pit viper,

In other developments, young scientists of the National Centre For Biological Sciences (NCBS) have initiated a series of videos on social media to create awareness about Covid-19 in regional languages.
Manal Shakeel, a

The newly created algorithm can identify individuals who are at risk of contracting the disease from high-risk contacts of a Covid positive person who are not themselves known to be infected, said researchers at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), and Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) at Chennai.

Four Indian research institutes have collaborated with the Global Consortium of Chemosensory Researchers (GCCR) to collect data via an online survey (http://gcchemosensr.org/) to find the connection between chemical senses and the novel coronavirus. The investigation will determine if anosmia is a reliable ‘early indicator’ of the disease, and when and how the change or loss of sense occurs.

NCBS will seek answers from patients to establish link between the loss of sense of smell and Covid-19.

The survey is available to individuals and clinicians on the GCCR website: http://gcchemosensr.org

To the range of symptoms attached to COVID-19, scientists are now considering “loss of smell''.

Indian herpetologists have discovered a new species of viper family in Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh and named it after Salazar Slytherin, a fictional character in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.