Saturday 22 March 2014

Why is Pound represented by lb?



Most of the abbreviations are quite easy to comprehend. kg for kilogram, cm for centimetre, in for inch and the list goes on. But why is it that the imperial unit of mass - Pound is represented as lb. Doesn't quite make any sense right? lb can in no way be read as pound! But still we continue to represent pound as lb without even thinking about it. 

Here's the catch. It comes from ancient Rome. Libra was a unit of mass used then, which was equivalent to 328.9 grams. Libra, in Latin means scales or balance. This abbreviation of Libra is used to represent Pound nowadays. 

Sunday 2 March 2014

Indigenous Glucometer - India


So that's a happy news for the typical Indian, who suffers from one of the major lifestyle disease - diabetes. Glucometers are of great help for common people to monitor their blood glucose levels periodically and keep it under control without having to spend a considerable amount from their monthly savings to visit a lab and get it checked. But this isn't quite inexpensive as the device and its disposable strips aren't cheap. The price of devices commonly used in India range from  Rs. 1,000 to 2,500 while their strips cost from  Rs. 18 to 35 a piece. The major players in the Indian market are OneTouch and Accu-Check. 

With the indigenous glucometer hitting the Indian markets, an individual would be able to buy them for a cost of around Rs. 500 to 1000, which is way below the current prices. The strips also are way cheaper ranging from Rs. 2 to 4. The device has been developed with the funding from Indian Council of Medical Research. The key players behind its development are Indian Institute of Science and Technology, Mumbai and the Birla Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. One can expect to buy this by mid 2014.