Category: Science

Science

India’s space startup calls off maiden rocket launch for a fourth time

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Agnibaan SubOrbital Technological Demonstrator (SOrTeD), vehicle is seen at Agnikul’s Launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, November 28, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters India’s Agnikul Cosmos called off a test flight of its first rocket on Tuesday seconds before it was due to launch – the fourth such cancellation in the last…

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Copper becomes unexpectedly hard under extreme strain rate

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The discovery of steel transformed the course of human civilisation. The stone age ended with the invention and widespread use of copper smelting and alloying copper with other elements, thus introducing metalworking, new and more durable agricultural implements, the development of culture, trade, and governments, and new weapons of war. When heated, copper turns to…

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Caterpillars may sense threats using electric fields

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A cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillar, July 8, 2011. | Photo Credit: Quartl (CC BY-SA 3.0) Caterpillars have a sixth sense that most land-based animals do not. They can sense electric fields around them with small bristles called setae on its body — a feat called electroreception. British researchers have discovered this in laboratory experiments…

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What are colours and how do people understand them? | Explained

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Colour plays an outsized role in the human experience of modern life. It invests both natural and synthetic worlds with beauty and meaning. Colours don’t deny universalism — a red sign will make you stop anywhere on the planet — yet they also make room for human cultures to appropriate them in unique, even discordant,…

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Science

Astronomical transients: bright in the blink of an eye

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Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the 2024 Shaw Prize for Astronomy for his studies of astronomical transients. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar/The Hindu, File photo In astronomy, a ‘transient’ is any celestial object whose brightness changes in short spans of time. There are many kinds of astronomical transients, all of them united by phenomena that…

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Is there any blue pigment with enhanced colour properties, reduced cost and lower cobalt content than cobalt blue?

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The Egyptians and Babylonians used lapis lazuli 6,000 years ago. In 1802, a French chemist synthesised cobalt blue. In 2009 scientists discovered YInMn Blue, otherwise known as Oregon Blue. But most of these pigments have limitations in terms of cost, stability, colour or toxicity. In 2020, researchers reported a new class of ‘cool’ blue colourants…

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Warming climate intensifies flash droughts worldwide

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Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world, with a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. Heat and changes to precipitation patterns caused by a warming climate are driving these trends, the study found. The new study is the…

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BHU’s Covaxin safety study riddled with major limitations

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An observational study carried out by researchers from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi to assess the safety of Covaxin, particularly the long-term adverse events of special interest (AESIs) one year after vaccination, in adolescents and adults has been criticised by ICMR for the poor study design. However, till date, neither ICMR nor Bharat Biotech has…

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