NIT-Rourkela researchers develop new waste water treatment tech
Researchers at the National Institute of Technology Rourkela have developed ways of treating the industrial wastewater contaminated with persistent dyes such as Bismarck Brown R.
Imagine a situation where you are walking down a highway and a truck laden with essential supplies stops to ask for directions. The driver shows all symptoms of Covid-19. Do you give him the directions he seeks or report him immediately to the Covid-19 helpline? If you give him directions, supplies reach needy people. But if you do so, you also potentially expose many people to infection.
As Covid-19 grips the world, such choices confront citizens on a regular basis. Philosophers and psychologists have been observing how we match up safety versus welfare for a long time. One of the famous thought experiments, the Trolley Problem (which has also become a meme in popular culture!), has been a guiding light to study this question.
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This dilemma can be stated as such: A runaway trolley is hurtling down a track where 5 workmen are tied onto the rails. You are standing nearby and see a lever which if pulled can swerve the trolley to a different track. But if you divert the trolley, 1 workman on that track is going to be killed. Would you pull the lever to divert and kill 1 workman and save the 5 others? Or would you let the trolley continue on its course and kill 5 people? And what if instead of one workman on tracks, it was a friend or a family-member of yours? Do you see your previously morally choice changing?
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Now, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur are conducting a 3-minute online survey to determine how people react to a tangible dilemma. The study seeks to unravel aspects of the human psyche in its struggle with the environment. The researchers invite people to participate in the survey by visiting srivalab.cse.iitk.ac.in/pd/pandemic.html
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