Category: Science

Science

Google, TCS, and the physics of air-cooling a large data centre | Explained

September 6, 2026 admin

The story so far: Following sustained local protests and pressure from civil society groups, Google has reportedly said its planned 1-GW data centre in Visakhapatnam district will use air-cooling technology to cool its servers. While air-cooling requires less water, it comes with its own trade-offs. Why does a large data centre generate heat? A large…

Science

Space Wrap newsletter: Will ISRO be part of NASA’s moonshot?

September 5, 2026 admin

A year after the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and the Axiom-4 mission that sent astronaut-candidate Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station, the U.S. space agency has formally extended an invitation to India to join its ambitious ‘Moon Base’ programme under the Artemis Accords. At the ninth meeting…

Science

Valles Marineris flood may have raised ancient Martian sea level by 34 metres: study

September 5, 2026 admin

Valles Marineris stretches more than 4,000 km across Mars’s equatorial region and is thought to have once contained extensive bodies of water, including paleolakes. Researchers estimate that these waterbodies contained about 2,369 trillion cubic metres, with simulations suggesting that roughly half was released during the catastrophic breach. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement The recent catastrophic…

Science

Arvind Gupta: Seeing the simple things around us!

September 4, 2026 admin

It was in about 430 BCE that the crucial, mind-altering, breathtaking idea of ‘everything’ being made up of atoms emerged. A cheerful Greek philosopher, Democritus, who spent a truckload of time observing nature, eventually figured out the foundational maxim of many sciences today and coined the Latin word “atomos”, which is where “atom” comes from….

Science

U.N. approves resolution in support of map that shows Africa’s true size

September 4, 2026 admin

The Mercator map distorts the relative ‌size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles. It makes ‌Greenland ⁠appear roughly the same size as Africa, though Africa is about ⁠14 times larger. | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons The United Nations on Friday (September 4, 2026) voted for ⁠a shift away from the 16th-century Mercator…

Science

Dark matter could keep tiny black holes alive inside stars: study

September 4, 2026 admin

A view of a planetary nebula. Image used for representation only. Credit: NASA Dark matter, the unseen substance that makes up most of the universe’s matter, could play a more dramatic role than previously thought. A new study suggests that heavy dark matter particles trapped inside a dense star could accumulate at its core, collapse…

Science

Indian researchers map colonial spider’s venom gland, uncover molecules with potential for future cancer and antimicrobial drug research

September 4, 2026 admin

A team of Indian researchers has produced the first comprehensive molecular and functional profile of the venom gland of Stegodyphus sarasinorum, a colonial spider species found across the Indian subcontinent, to identify numerous proteins and small molecules that could serve as promising leads for future drug discovery. Published in Springer Nature’s peer-reviewed, open-access journal Scientific Reports,…

Science

Nepal floods: Engineers in a WhatsApp group are guiding tunnel rescue efforts

September 4, 2026 admin

An army of experts in a WhatsApp group is guiding rescue workers scouring a Nepali valley after a massive flash flood more than a week ago, as they desperately search for anyone who may still be alive inside the tunnels of devastated hydropower plants. The messaging group was set up by engineers before the wall…

Science

ISRO’s GSLV-F17 carrying EOS-05 lifts off from Sriharikota

September 3, 2026 admin

ISRO successfully launches the GSLV-F17/EOS-05 mission from the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre. (Screengrab) (X/@ISRO) A GSLV rocket, carrying ISRO’s Earth observation satellite EOS-05, lifted off from the spaceport in a pre-dawn mission on Friday (September 4, 2026). The 51.7 metre tall GSLV-F17 blasted off from the second launch pad at Satish…

Science

Luna 2: touched by humans, touches the moon

September 3, 2026 admin

Picture this. You are standing on a rotating sphere that is revolving around another bigger sphere. You are then required to shoot an arrow at another smaller sphere, which is revolving around the sphere on which you are standing and is also rotating at its own pace. Given that both your platform and your target…

Science