Category: Science

Patna: An IndiGo aircraft makes a landing at Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport in Patna, December 4, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI The recent disruptions in India’s aviation sector, in particular IndiGo’s wave of flight cancellations, have placed the spotlight firmly on the new fatigue and rest norms developed by the Directorate General of Civil…

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A computer model showing filaments, walls, and voids forming web-like structures in the universe. | Photo Credit: Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato Cosmic or galaxy filaments are the largest ‘threads’ in the universe’s cosmic web. A single cosmic filament is a structure spanning hundreds of millions of lightyears, formed as a result of gravity pulling…

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The passage of time, especially that inhabited by humans, has often been named based on the materials we use during that time. The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages are, for instance, a three-age system that divides human prehistory based on the primary materials in use then. It makes sense as the materials we use helps…

Read More “Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic” »

Science quiz: Tools of writing Visual: Name this insect. The natural dye carmine is derived from an acid it secretes to protect itself. START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | Name this insect. The natural dye carmine is derived from an acid it secretes to protect itself. 2 / 6 | This historical ink was…

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The ‘breakup’ of a water stream into droplets is not caused by external noise or dysfunctional nozzles but by “thermal capillary waves,” physicists have found. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Why is the leaky faucet – that most irksome domestic malaise – so universal? Perhaps its scourge may be behind us now as a new scientific…

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Nuclear activities worldwide generate around 200,000 m3 of radioactive waste every year. Of this about 10,000 m3, less than 5% by volume but containing most of the radioactivity, needs deep, long-term geological storage in the form of geological disposal facilities (GDFs). These caverns purpose-built hundreds of metres underground are packed with waste containers, cement backfill,…

Read More “Low-pH cements could let microbes seal cracks in deep nuclear vaults” »

“Wastelands”. That’s how India’s biodiverse semi-arid grasslands and savannas have been undervalued ever since the British colonial era. For the masters, the woody forests of the subcontinent fuelled industrialisation, while the grassy biomes served no purpose in their timber-driven colonisation. Much of post-independence policy and jurisprudence drew heavily from the erstwhile rulers and “wastelands” made…

Read More “World Soil Day: Grassland soils, not trees, anchor India’s climate resilience” »

Helical paths are everywhere in the microscopic realm. Many bacteria and parasites don’t simply swim or glide in straight lines. In three dimensions, they trace corkscrew-like tracks through their surroundings. Malaria parasites, for example, glide through soft 3D gels and, in the skin of a bitten host, on paths that look like stretched springs. For…

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