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Gangaichthys indonepalicus, the newly discovered species (This article forms a part of the Science for All newsletter that takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Subscribe now!) In 2024 a short video clip circulated on TikTok showed an unknown, tiny, colourless creature emerge from a borewell near the border between India and…
A recent report by NITI Aayog, about ‘Ease of Doing R&D in India’ revealed some uncomfortable truths about India’s R&D ecosystem. Together with a companion survey with inputs from more than 400 institutional leaders and 850 scientists, it reported that close to 80% of funding under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) — the flagship…
Read More “Why India’s R&D system needs a map of where the money really goes” »
In mid-July, two OpenAI models escaped their confined testing environment and gained access to the internet, where they found and attacked Hugging Face [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS ChatGPT-maker OpenAI faces an investigation by the state of Alabama after the company revealed last month that its models went rogue and hacked an AI platform during…
For much of the 20th century, a rocket tearing a white seam through the sky did for India roughly what football did for Argentina and Brazil. Nations shut out of the councils where economic and strategic weight was measured found, in a game of European origin, an arena where their poverty did not disqualify them….
Read More “Escape velocity: On what India’s space sector must focus on” »
Dung beetles are pivotal to many terrestrial ecosystems. | Photo Credit: File photo Dung beetles are humble insects. They feed on the faeces of other mammals. In many species, a male dung beetle flies to a fresh pile of dung, shapes a piece of it into a ball, and quickly rolls it away from the…
Read More “Dung beetles prefer dog poop, but their children pay the price” »
Shortly after an intense heatwave struck South Asia earlier this year, World Weather Attribution (WWA) reported that climate change had made the event about three times likelier and up to 1° C warmer than it would have been in a world without climate change. WWA is an international research group that assesses the impact of…
Read More “The science of blaming climate change for extreme weather has limits” »
Datura fruit | Photo Credit: Diptho Banerjee/Wikimedia Commons The online sale of datura fruit and seeds prompted the Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration Department to suspend the licenses of e-commerce giants Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket. According to an order issued by Food Safety Commissioner K. Srinivas, the department has also directed the three…
Read More “‘Datura’ lands e-commerce platforms in trouble in Karnataka: What is the plant?” »
Climate models predicted the 2026 El Niño during early spring, just as they had in 2023. And the predictions have turned out to be accurate, with the robust evolution of a strong El Niño by the summer. Models had predicted the 2023 monsoon to be slightly deficient, and the final seasonal total, at 94% of…
Read More “Models struggled to predict the 2026 monsoon’s rapid changes” »
The Long March-5 Y14 rocket carrying the Chang’e-7 lunar probe is seen being transferred to the launching area at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan Province, China, on August 19, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP A: On August 24, China called off the launch of its Chang’e 7 mission to the moon’s south pole…
The study says that sterilisation, shelters, fencing or removals cannot succeed when urban landscapes provide food subsidies to animals without corresponding responsibility. | Photo Credit: File Photo A new study on the Indian street dog states that “food subsidies” — availability of abundant, predictable food through garbage and intentional feeding — have an impact on…