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The 2019 draft version of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 made two sweeping assertions in seven words: “teaching is strengthened through research and vice-versa.” Are these assertions supported by evidence, however? This article restricts itself to the first part of the assertion — that teaching is strengthened through research — because of its direct…
Read More “Does research strengthen teaching? – The Hindu” »
Say you’re on a desert island on a quest for buried treasure. You’ve lost your map and run out of clues. Now you have two options: you could walk around with a shovel, digging holes at random and hoping for the best, or you could fly a drone overhead equipped with special cameras that can…
Read More “What remote-sensing reveals about plants, forests, and minerals from space” »
The hydrogen molecule H2 is the simplest stable molecule, with two protons and two electrons bound together. Scientists have studied it for more than a century because it’s small enough that theory can try to predict its behaviour from basic physics yet it’s rich enough to include many features found in larger molecules. This said,…
Read More “Hydrogen ‘tests’ basic physics more precisely after theory update” »
In the predawn darkness, a team of scientists climbs the slope of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano, one of the world’s most active and whose eruption could affect millions of people. Its mission: figure out what is happening under the crater. For five years, the group from Mexico’s National Autonomous University has climbed the volcano with kilos…
Read More “Scientists obtain first 3D images from inside Mexican volcano” »
The presence behind this name can hardly be missed. | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons SH. Siberian High. Siberian Anticyclone. The presence behind this name can hardly be missed. Winter will tell you why. Siberian High is a wind system; an intense, robust, massive system of biting cold, dry air that controls winter weather over Eurasia….
The dictionary of life has a new update. A DNA sequence that signals cells in almost all other organisms to stop synthesising proteins instead encodes a rare amino acid in some archaea, according to a study published in Science in November. Archaea are microbes that resemble bacteria in shape and size but are biologically distinct….
Read More “Unusual genetic code in Antarctic microbes yields rare amino acid” »
An image comparison the size of a supermoon (left) and the micromoon, which is the moon at its apogee micromoon (right), as seen from the earth. | Photo Credit: NASA A “wolf supermoon” is a nickname that combines two distinct ideas: a wolf moon and a supermoon. The January 2026 wolf supermoon occurred late last…
A significant telescope If we were to talk about the most popular telescopes of all time, it is unlikely that you will be mentioning the Airy Transit Circle (ATC). You’ll probably recall space observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble, and you might even spare a thought to the early versions made and…
GUWAHATI A study published in the Indian Journal of History of Science a few months ago has challenged long-held beliefs about the origins of mineral acids, suggesting that ancient Indian scholars may have understood and used them centuries before similar knowledge appeared in Europe or the Arab world. For decades, historians believed that Arab alchemists developed mineral…
Read More “Study suggests ancient Indian scholars knew mineral acids centuries before Europeans” »
Vegetation can cool a surface by evapotranspiration, i.e. water evaporating from soil and transpiring from leaves, carrying heat away. | Photo Credit: EqualStock/Unsplash Cities around the world are getting hotter for two reasons: the climate is warming and urban areas often trap heat more than the countryside. Planting more vegetation, especially trees, has become a…
Read More “Green paradox: planting trees will cool a megacity unless it’s dry” »