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Recycling happens only when there is a steady demand for the recycled pellets. | Photo Credit: StickerIt/Unsplash A: ‘Plastics’ is an umbrella term for various materials with some similar properties. Each type of plastic has a different polymer structure and set of additives. These differences decide how a piece of plastic behaves when it is…
Read More “Why can we recycle only some kinds of plastics?” »
In every living being through history, stress from a perceived threat has automatically and immediately triggered an avalanche of reactions. ‘Fight or flight’ is an example of the choices these life-forms have confronted. Every bodily function that isn’t essential for survival is moved to the sidelines as the being prepares to respond. All available resources…
Read More “Stress primes neural hub to trigger freezing to new, unrelated fear cues” »
Over the past year, a considerable amount of recognition for machine learning (ML) has gone to researchers working in or alongside large technology firms, even as recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been financed and built on corporate infrastructure. In 2024, the Nobel Foundation awarded the physics prize to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton…
Read More “What happens when public knowledge is created on private infrastructure?” »
Over the past year, a considerable amount of recognition for machine learning (ML) has gone to researchers working in or alongside large technology firms, even as recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been financed and built on corporate infrastructure. In 2024, the Nobel Foundation awarded the physics prize to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton…
Read More “What happens when public knowledge is created on private infrastructure?” »
For well over a century, our understanding of the magnetic world had been neatly compartmentalised into two categories: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Ferromagnetism, which is the familiar force that pins a souvenir magnet to a refrigerator door, arises because many small, atom-scale magnetic moments are aligned in parallel, creating a strong, external magnetic field. Antiferromagnetism, its…
Read More “Update textbooks? Altermagnetism emerges as a new class of magnetic order” »
File image for respresentational purpose only. | Photo Credit: K.K. Mustafah Development goals don’t always have to undermine environmental concerns. As the fourth largest economy in the world, and one of the top polluters, India cannot shy away from climate action citing historical reasons and pointing fingers at the industrialised West. Indeed, India seems determined…
V. Rajaraman | Photo Credit: V. Rajaraman Among the few sectors of science and technology in which India has done remarkably well is software programming and services. Computer programming that started in a small way in academic institutions in the 1960s developed into a formidable industry within a few decades. This became possible due to…
Read More “Remembering V. Rajaraman, a tireless evangelist of computer education” »
V. Rajaraman | Photo Credit: V. Rajaraman Among the few sectors of science and technology in which India has done remarkably well is software programming and services. Computer programming that started in a small way in academic institutions in the 1960s developed into a formidable industry within a few decades. This became possible due to…
Read More “Remembering V. Rajaraman, a tireless evangelist of computer education in India” »
The journey towards recognising and addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable countries has been long and fraught with resistance. In 1991, Vanuatu, representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), first proposed the creation of an international climate fund to support nations most threatened by rising sea levels. However, entrenched opposition from…
Read More “India’s place in the meandering life of the ‘Loss and Damage’ fund” »
India’s geographical diversity and growing climate vulnerabilities place it squarely in the path of a wide array of natural hazards — most of them weather-related. From cyclones and floods to thunderstorms, lightning, and heat waves, the country faces year-round meteorological challenges that differ by region and season. In recent years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD)…
Read More “Early climate warning systems: getting there, but not there yet” »