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Scientists have interpreted the TLPs’ existence to mean the moon is more dynamic than they once believed. | Photo Credit: Mike Petrucci/Unsplash For centuries, sky-gazers have reported seeing peculiar, short-lived events on the moon’s surface, from strange flashes of light to hazy glows and patches of unusual colour. These fleeting occurrences are called transient lunar…
Many people fervently believe that coin tosses are random. The Indian men’s test cricket team captain Shubman Gill lost all five of his tosses against England this summer. The probability of such an event is only 3.1%, or one in 32, if winning or losing is assumed to be random. Some cricket enthusiasts realised then…
Read More “‘Sholay’, Shubman Gill, and the non-random randomness of coin tosses” »
The northeast monsoon has kicked in early this year, and at least four days sooner for the second year running, over Tamil Nadu. Last year, this phase of the monsoon ended with the State recording 33% more rain than the long-period average, and forecasters expect this year to go the same way as well. Historically,…
Read More “Early northeast monsoon onset creates ‘triple whammy’ in South India” »
Immunology has increasingly taken centerstage in modern biomedicine, powerfully capturing the popular imagination. From revolutionising vaccine development during the COVID-19 pandemic to yielding profound insights into autoimmune disorders and cancer treatment, immunological research now drives biomedical innovation more significantly than ever. The recent pandemic revealed immunology not as an esoteric branch of science but as…
Read More “Better future for India in medicine means embracing immunology today” »
Baratang’s mud volcano in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. | Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons The samples collected from India’s only active mud volcano at Baratang in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands belong to the Oligocene age, which was around 23 million years ago, a Geological Survey of India (GSI) official said. The lithoclasts ejected from the…
A artist’s depiction of the Chandrayaan 2 Lander Vikram on the Moon. Photo: YouTube/ISRO Official The Chandrayaan-2 mission, launched in 2019, has made the first-ever observation of the effects of the Sun’s Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on the Moon using its onboard scientific instruments, ISRO said on Saturday (October 18, 2025). This observation would help…
Read More “Chandrayaan-2 makes first ever observation of Sun’s impact on Moon, says ISRO” »
In science and technology, as is the case in many other fields, progress often isn’t accomplished by one person acting in isolation. Renowned English polymath Isaac Newton probably summed this idea best in a letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke in 1675, when he stated that “If I have seen further [than others], it is…
Read More “JVA, the inventor of the first electronic digital computer” »
As the principal investigator in the phase III trials of the Rotovac vaccine to prevent rotavirus related gastroenteritis Gagandeep Kang is “very excited” with the publication of the results of a study that established the effectiveness of the vaccine, country wide. Currently director of the global health team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, responsible for enterics, diagnostics, epidemiology and genomics portfolio, Dr. Kang, in a previous position with the Christian…
Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently has warned that the type of microbes in rice paddies can determine whether arsenic, a notorious carcinogen and plant toxin, builds up in rice grains and triggers drastic crop losses. The study has identified an important balance between arsenic-methylating bacteria, which convert inorganic arsenic…
Read More “Microbial link between arsenic in soil, lower rice yield uncovered” »
Edible palm weevil larvae (Rhynchophorus phoenicis) at a traditional food market in Puerto Francisco de Orellana, Ecuador. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto We depend on insects in many ways for producing food for the world’s population. They pollinate our crop plants, break down decaying plant and animal matter, and are natural pest controllers. We also…
Read More “Edible insects are moving from taboo to the table” »