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Given so much of the world’s population lives along coasts, mangroves’ functions directly benefit many people. | Photo Credit: Getty Images Saltwater would kill most plants, but it cannot fell the ancient mangroves species distinct for their giant stilt roots. So how do they survive on brine? International researchers and authors of a new paper…
Read More “How mangroves’ cells helps plants survive in saltwater” »
Achal Agrawal, founder of India Research Watch. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Achal Agrawal founded the India Research Watch (IRW) after his observations of grave academic misconduct in India. Dr. Agrawal, now a freelance data scientist in Raipur, told scientific journal Nature how shocked he was when a student spoke casually of using software to…
Read More “‘Publication retractions from India have skyrocketed since 2022’” »
Visual: Max Born was the maternal grandfather of this celebrated musician and actor. Name her. | Photo Credit: Eva Rinaldi Q: Max Born was the maternal grandfather of this celebrated musician and actor. Name her. A: Olivia Newton-John Q: Max Born made many contributions to quantum theory. This said, he was awarded the Nobel Prize…
Read More “Science Quiz: Remembering Max Born, quantum physics architect” »
As India moves closer to flying astronauts as part of Gaganyaan, human-rating has emerged as a central but oft-unseen part of the story. Launch vehicles like LVM-3 already fly satellites safely but carrying people demands a lower tolerance for risk and a different way of thinking about failure. What’s the definition of human-rating? Human-rating is…
Read More “Why human-rating matters as India prepares for Gaganyaan” »
A golden apple snail climbing the edge of a lotus leaf in a pond. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement In Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva’s third eye is said to open only in moments of great transformation. What if this isn’t just a mythic symbol of cosmic vision but also a metaphor for renewal? Ever wondered…
Read More “The snail as a model for restoring vision in humans” »
This illustration provided by NASA depicts the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. | Photo Credit: AP NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade. Also Read | MAVEN beams first images from Martian atmosphere Maven abruptly stopped communicating with ground stations…
Read More “NASA loses contact with MAVEN spacecraft after a decade in Mars orbit” »
There’s at least one space race already underway to get to the moon. There’s also another one: to claim radio frequencies and orbital slots in the limited space around the earth. The main participants of this race are companies launching large fleets of satellites working together, called megaconstellations. These megaconstellations are already revolutionising Internet access…
Read More “Satellites, science, and the new fight for spectrum in space” »
Earlier this month, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, professor Aninda Sinha and his former doctoral student Faizan Bhat linked the esoteric mathematics of Srinivasa Ramanujan with the principles underlying the physics of turbulent fluids and the expansion of the universe. The bridge they laid was π (pi) — not the humble one but the transcendental…
Read More “Math whiz Ramanujan’s century old formulae for pi echo in modern cosmology” »
When heating water in a microwave, avoid overlong heating and be careful when adding anything to it. | Photo Credit: Dewang Gupta/Unsplash A: Water has a property called surface tension: its surface behaves like a stretched skin that tries to shrink. When a vapour bubble forms inside hot water, surface tension tends to squeeze it….
Read More “Why do microwave ovens sometimes overheat water?” »
The western tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus) is one of India’s rarest pheasants and the state bird of Himachal Pradesh. It was once found across parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, but now survives in small fragmented pockets. Studies in the forests of Kazinag and Limber in Jammu & Kashmir have revealed that while…
Read More “India’s western tragopan steadied by captive breeding, an interim fix” »