Category: Science

Observed (black line) and forecast track of Cyclone Montha at 11.30 pm hours on October 27, 2025. The green area depicts the cone of uncertainty. | Photo Credit: India Meteorological Department Tropical cyclones are carried by the large-scale wind patterns that govern the atmosphere. These storms form over warm ocean waters, where the sea surface…

Read More “Why do cyclones move towards land? | Explained” »

Heavy metals are polluting the Cauvery river and its fish, researchers from Tamil Nadu have reported. They have also cautioned against consuming “regular” or “excessive” amounts of fish from here. The study was conducted by a team at Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli and was published in the journal Environmental Earth Sciences in August. Scientists from…

Read More “Heavy metals in Cauvery fish, study warns against regular intake” »

Restaurant owner Xia Juan serves steamed hairy crabs at her restaurant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, October 21, 2025. | Photo Credit: REUTERS The last three years have been the toughest for Xie Dandan and her family during more than a decade cultivating one of China’s most esteemed culinary delicacies, the “hairy crab”, named for…

Read More “China’s heatwaves threaten to dry up supply of yummy hairy crabs” »

Stanford University professor John Ioannidis recently published the latest version of the list of the world’s top 2% scientists. Its release every year causes much excitement among scientists and their institutions. And every year for a few weeks after, hardly a day passes without multiple announcements of the presence of Indian scientists on this list…

Read More “Stanford/Elsevier rank list: why all that glitters is not gold” »

Imagine a gaping, fiery crater in the middle of a barren desert — so deep it looks like an entrance to another world. This is the Darvaza gas crater, famously called the “Door to Hell,” blazing in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert. Spanning about 70 metres across and 30 metres deep, it has burned with relentless heat…

Read More “Why is there a ‘Door to Hell’ burning for decades in Turkmenistan?” »

For decades, autism has been understood as a condition that reveals itself in the first few years of life, with clinicians looking for tell-tale difficulties in toddlers. Yet a growing number of people today are diagnosed only in adolescence or adulthood, often after years of struggling in school or with relationships. A new Nature study…

Read More “New study finds different roots for early and late autism diagnoses” »

Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences. The sky is a free resource, and those who live away from city lights are fortunate to enjoy it for their passion, imagination, and even livelihoods. That’s the story of Hanle, a small Himalayan village that hosts one of the darkest skies in the world. Its Bortle-1 skies…

Read More “Hanle protects its dark skies and builds a future on stargazing” »

A hummingbird feeds on the nectar of a flower in Boquete, Chiriqui Province, Panama, 2020. Hummingbirds are known for their ability to hover mi-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15 to 80 times per second, depending on the bird’s size. | Photo Credit: AFP For decades, scientists and engineers have puzzled over how insects and…

Read More “New model finds hovering doesn’t need a complex brain” »