Category: Science

Why does the idea of eating insects provoke discomfort, even before taste or nutrition enters the conversation? At an edible insects stall during a food mela at the Science Gallery, Bengaluru, this question surfaced repeatedly as visitors negotiated curiosity, disgust and the boundaries of what they considered “normal” food. Many assumed they were encountering a…

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(From left) Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch greet the crowd at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, April 3, 2023. | Photo Credit: NASA A: Artemis II is the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis programme. It will be the first time humans will travel to the vicinity of…

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Many think the idea of ‘dumping’ in global trade is a red herring. The reason is obvious: if country A is able to dump certain goods in country B, it’s not because A has smuggled them in. It’s because someone in country B was interested in receiving those goods, and B’s laws allowed for them…

Read More “If data is the new oil, what does that make data centres?” »

Scientists at a nuclear fusion reactor in China recently surmounted an important obstacle in operating reactor vessels at high density. They pushed plasma density 65% beyond a special threshold, entering a stable state that overcomes a long-standing barrier to achieving burning plasma, the stage where a fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining. Fusion power mimics what happens…

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Von Daeniken addresses a press conference in Bern, Switzerland, in October 1999. | Photo Credit: REUTERS Best-selling Swiss author Erich von Daeniken, who built a lucrative career on his argument, rubbished by scientists and archaeologists, that humanity owes much of its development to the intervention ‍of extraterrestrial beings, has died aged 90. Chariots of the…

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