The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) recently unveiled the blueprint of a new mosque that is to be built at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. While most have welcomed the “futuristic” design, some have expressed discontent over the plan. The mosque features a sky-lit spherical glass dome, a hospital, a community kitchen, a museum and an Indo-Islamic cultural research center. SM Akhtar, dean of faculty of architecture and ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university in Delhi, is the project’s chief architect. Pushpesh Pant, acclaimed food critic and historian will be museum curator. The mosque will come up on a 5-acre plot of…
Author: zenger.news
The story of Montezuma’s treasure has captured the fancy of Mexicans and foreigners alike. Mexico is portrayed as a warrior’s land, no matter how many battles it has won or lost. The country’s glorious history reveals how the Aztec Empire made use of technological advances, resources, and wealth, long before the arrival of the Europeans, in 1519. Once the Spanish Conquest took place, Emperor Montezuma II, the Aztec leader, was executed. In 1521, his lands were plundered by Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conqueror, who later lost most of his newfound wealth to theft or the demands of the Spanish Crown.…
Mexico City’s majestic Palace of Fine Arts is a source of pride for many Mexicans. Located between the Alameda (Mexico City’s Central Park) and the Post Office Building, a variety of factors conspired to cause its construction to span three decades. The Italian architect Adamo Boari designed the palace and began building it in 1904, at the behest of Mexican President Porfirio Díaz’s administration. Operating under the motto “Order and Progress,” Díaz sought to create projects that would better the nation, and the Palace of Fine Arts was one of them. He gave the order to finish the building to…
BEERSHEBA, Israel — Cockroaches and lizards served as the inspiration for a new amphibious robot developed at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which can swim, run on water and crawl over difficult terrain. Bioinspired and Medical Robotics Laboratory Director David Zarrouk and graduate student Avi Cohen presented the mechanical design of the AmphiSTAR robot and its control system at the virtual International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, which began on Oct. 25 and runs until Jan. 24. “The AmphiSTAR uses a sprawling mechanism inspired by cockroaches, and it is designed to run on water at high speeds like the basilisk lizard,”…
RAMAT GAN, Israel — A groundbreaking innovation by Israeli startup Yehonatan Medical is addressing staff and ventilator shortages in the country’s COVID-19 intensive care units. Developed in collaboration with Dr. Ori Efrati, director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Unit at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, the novel ventilation system can be used by 3-5 patients simultaneously — which means more patients being treated by fewer ICU employees. A revolutionary ventilator for multiple patients. (Photo courtesy of Yehonatan Medical)“Conventional ventilators, aside from being very costly, are limited in that they can only be used with one patient at a time,” Efrati said in a…
A recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Dec 9, 2020, has revealed the food habits of the people of the Indus Valley Civilization. Traces of the meat of animals like sheep, cattle, pigs, goat and buffalo along with dairy products were found on ancient ceramic vessels at Indus Valley sites in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in India. The Indus Valley Civilization was South Asia’s first urban civilization with archeological sites spread across Pakistan, and northwest and west India. Though much is known about its modern architecture and drainage system, not many are…
CHENNAI, India — In November, when the lockdown finally eased in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT) opened its doors to tourists and visitors again. However, on November 11, a Giant Aldabra Tortoise went missing from its premises. Valued at Rs 15 lakh ($ 20,200), these are second in size only to the Galapagos turtles, with a life span of up to 150 years. “It was one of the most difficult incidents we have experienced,” said writer, educator and naturalist Zai Whitaker, co-founder and Managing Trustee. “It underlines the scale of the exotic animal trade and…
A major fire broke out on December 29, 2020, in the pristine Dzukou valley that straddles the states of Nagaland and Manipur in India’s northeast. The fire, which started in the portion of the valley that lies in Nagaland, soon spread to adjoining Manipur. “Fires are raging on seven out of the nine ranges of Mount Iso (also known as Tempu), the highest mountain peak of Manipur,” said D John Sha, Divisional Forest Officer, district Senapati, Manipur, to Zenger News. The government sent in four Indian Air Force helicopters, over 100 specialized disaster response personnel, forest officials, and hundreds of…
RAMAT GAN, Israel — Changing the gut microbiome can reprogram the immune system to attack malignant tumors in at least some cancer patients, concludes a recent clinical trial at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. The results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Science by a research team led by senior GI oncologist Dr. Ben Boursi, senior oncologist Dr. Gal Markel and M.D.-Ph.D. student Erez Baruch. “For the first time in the world, we have successfully fought cancerous tumors by changing the gut microbiome,” Boursi said. “Currently, immunotherapy works for only 40-50% of patients. We anticipate that with the help of this revolutionary…
TEL AVIV, Israel — Paying a security deposit when starting to rent an apartment is one of life’s unpleasant realities. For renters, it means money from their pockets is in someone else’s. For landlords, it means all kinds of rules about how that money must be protected. “In the past, a landlord could run out and buy a Ferrari with the deposit money. Now they have to hold it in a separate account, pay interest and report it all to the IRS,” explains Omri Dor, chief operating officer for Obligo, an Israeli startup that has developed a technology that disrupts the…