Category: Science

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls mosquitoes the “world’s deadliest animals”. They have good reason. Small, annoying but dangerous: this disease-carrying insect helps kill more than a million people in the world every year. Now, as the world becomes warmer, their domain could be expanding. Previously, mosquitoes were only a concern…

Read More “Mosquitoes suck — but should we simply get rid of them?” »

The story so far: The Supreme Court, in Kattavellai @ Devakar v. State of Tamil Nadu, recently issued guidelines to maintain the integrity of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples in criminal cases. The court directed the Director Generals of Police of all States to prepare sample forms of the Chain of Custody Register and all other necessary documentation…

Read More “What do SC guidelines say on DNA? | Explained” »

A regulator has approved a world-first vaccine to protect koalas from chlamydia infections, which are causing infertility and death in the iconic native species that is listed as endangered in parts of Australia. The single-dose vaccine was developed by the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland state after more than a decade of research…

Read More “Australia approves world’s first vaccine to save koalas from chlamydia” »

Fashion is a part of our lives, we breathe it every day. Look around, and you’ll find garment stores everywhere: from small roadside stalls to giant malls, from local shops to global brands. Fashion never goes out of trend. But have you heard of the term fast fashion? Let’s find out what it means. What…

Read More “The hidden polluter in your wardrobe: How fast fashion is fuelling the next pollution crisis” »

In 1994, a landmark paper in Science reported the isolation of an antibody called b12from an HIV-infected individual. The study showed that while pooled plasma containing billions of antibodies from HIV patients could neutralise viruses isolated from only 3 of 12 patients, b12 alone achieved similar neutralisation in 8 of the 12, and that, with…

Read More “HIV strains in India resist some top broadly neutralising antibodies” »

Solar System in the galaxy illustration September began with bang with the Full Moon also known as Corn/Harvest moon and a total Lunar Eclipse on September 7 that was visible throughout Asia and Australia and the central and eastern parts of Europe and Africa. Now, get ready for the next half. New Moon: The Moon…

Read More “Action-packed September – The Hindu” »

Modern computing banks on conventional electronics and algorithms to process data. But because the hardware operates according to the laws of physics, data processing has a physical speed limit. The availability of power further constrains this speed, especially if the software being run is a power-guzzling artificial intelligence (AI) model. Thus one major preoccupation of…

Read More “The physics of light-based computers can change the way AI works” »