Telver Blog

Israel has isolated a key coronavirus antibody at its primary biological research centre, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday. He called it a “significant breakthrough” towards a possible treatment for Covid-19. In an official statement, Bennet claimed that the “monoclonal neutralising antibody” developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) “attacks the virus and neutralizes it” inside the virus carrier’s body. Monoclonal antibodies, as the name suggests, are cloned from a single recovered cell. Thus, they are much easier to create and use, as opposed to polyclonal antibodies which will have to be derived from multiple cells. In typical antibody vaccines, neutralisation occurs when the laboratory-developed antibodies mimic the body’s natural immune response and attack the virus when exposed to it. More at :  Official Link

NEW DELHI:  The government Tuesday suspended all existing visas granted to foreign nationals, barring a few categories, till international air travel to and from India remains shut due to the coronavirus pandemic, an order said.In a separate order, the Union Home Ministry also said it has extended on 'gratis' basis the visas of foreigners stranded in India due the lockdown. The extension will be for a period of 30 days beyond opening of international travel in the country. The ministry also said it has kept in abeyance multiple-entry life-long visas given to Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card holders till international travel remains suspended.However, the OCI card holders who are already in India can stay in the country for "any length of time", it said. All existing visas granted to foreigners -- except those belonging to diplomatic, official, UN international organisations, employment and project categories -- shall remain suspended till prohibitio...

The ESO says that the hidden black hole in HR 6819 is one of the very first stellar-mass black holes found that do not interact violently with their immediate environment and, therefore, appear truly black. new black hole has been discovered, and it is almost as if it is next door. In fact, this is situated just 1000 light years away, and is in the system called HR 6819 in the Constellation Telescopium. This has been discovered by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This discover comes as the team was observing the HR 6819 system as part of a study of double star systems. They were astonished to find that there was a previously undiscovered third body in the HR 6819 system, the black hole. In the system, one star is orbiting the black hole while the other orbits this pair. “The observations needed to determine the period of 40 days had to be spread over several months. This was only possible thanks to ESO’s pioneering service-observing scheme under which ...