Category: Science

Science

Exploring the ‘wonderful world’ of symplectic geometry to solve problems in mechanics

September 26, 2024 admin

Yakov Eliashberg speaking at the TNQ Distinguished Lecture in Mathematics at IIT Madras on September 26, 2024. | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj Russian-American mathematician and Wolf Prize laureate Yakov Eliashberg delivered a public talk at IIT Madras on Thursday, as part of the inaugural annual TNQ Distinguished Lecture in Mathematics. The talk was part…

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Sci-Five | The Hindu Science Quiz: On Electroreception

September 26, 2024 admin

Sci-Five | The Hindu Science Quiz: On Electroreception A bee flies over a cosmos flower at a park in Seoul, South Korea, September 23, 2024. START THE QUIZ 1 / 5 | What is electroreception? The ability to perceive lightning The biological ability to perceive electricity The ability to perceive magnetic field The ability to…

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Could rotating black holes be the wind turbines powering the distant future?

September 26, 2024 admin

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of our Milky Way black hole released in 2022, has captured a new view of the massive object at the centre of our Galaxy: how it looks in polarised light. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarisation, a…

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Scientists are using ancient DNA to reveal the Iberian lynx’s ‘weapon’ against extinction

September 26, 2024 admin

Many large mammals have lost genetic diversity, often thanks to the actions of people shrinking their populations. The implications can be severe because without genetic diversity, a population does not have a “genetic database” to fall back on to adapt to environmental change. The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is no stranger to this reduction in diversity. Human…

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Octopuses, fish hunt together using surprisingly complex decision-making

September 26, 2024 admin

A new study lifts the veil on what happens when octopuses and fish hunt together. As it turns out, this cross-species relationship is more complex than anyone expected. | Photo Credit: The Hindu A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution lifts the veil on what happens when octopuses and fish hunt together. As it turns out, this…

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Extinct volcanoes could help sate humanity’s hunger for rare earth elements

September 26, 2024 admin

Scientists found that some rare magma types are surprisingly efficient at concentrating rare earth elements. | Photo Credit: Shutterstock Extinct volcanoes are hard to study – we never see them erupt. Using a unique experimental technique, we were able to recreate a certain type of extinct volcano in a lab, learning more about the magma…

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Evolution can change how an ecosystem collapses, study finds

September 25, 2024 admin

Dying coral reefs, rainforests transforming into savannas, grasslands turning into deserts – these are ecosystem “tipping points”, boundary lines we’re desperate not to cross. In dynamic systems filled with life, these critical thresholds aren’t set in stone. Since organisms can evolve, the tipping points within these ecosystems might evolve too. Most of us think of…

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Earth is getting a new mini-moon, and it won’t be the first or the last

September 25, 2024 admin

Earth is going to have its very own mini-moon from September 29 until November 25. The regular Moon’s new, temporary friend is 2024 PT₅, an asteroid captured from the Arjuna asteroid group (called the “Arjunas”). | Photo Credit: AFP Earth is going to have its very own mini-moon from September 29 until November 25. The regular Moon’s…

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BEL, ARIES to collaborate to ensure satellite safety

September 25, 2024 admin

Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, have signed an MoU to collaborate on space technologies, particularly focusing on Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Image processing techniques, software for data analytics solutions, as well as instruments and laboratories, will soon be developed for tracking space objects, especially near-earth objects and…

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