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Incessant rainfall has wreaked havoc in India’s southeast, leaving at least 17 dead in Andhra Pradesh and thousands homeless and at the mercy of floods in Telangana. The Indian Meteorological Department has also warned of heavy rains in parts of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. Unpredictable, erratic rainfall has been becoming the norm for the…
Read More “What role does Arctic sea ice play in Indian monsoon?” »
In scientific circles, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is well-known as a vasculopathic agent: a damager of blood vessels. The dominant respiratory symptoms associated with COVID-19 are largely due to clotting and inflammation in the blood vessels of the lungs (rather than the direct involvement of the airways). Its more severe complications, including neurological ones like stroke,…
Read More “Mice study claims to have found long COVID’s ‘real’ perpetrator” »
File photograph used for representational purposes only | Photo Credit: AP A blood test measuring fats in serum could help predict if weight loss will be effective in helping a pre-diabetic patient manage blood sugar levels, according to a new study. Pre-diabetics are individuals whose blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet…
We do tend to be indoors more often in poorly ventilated areas during the winter and this aids the airborne transmission of the virus. | Photo Credit: Usman Yousaf Q: Why do people catch colds and flu more often in the winter? Are viruses transmitted more easily in damp air, is the resistance of the…
Read More “Why do people catch colds and flu more often in the winter?” »
Biologist Thayana Giao holds a Green Sea turtle during an intentional capture to monitor turtles’ health, weight and pollution level, by Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), in the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 29, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters Sea turtles in the Guanabara Bay of Rio de Janeiro are getting healthier after…
Read More “After water quality improves, scientists find sea turtles in Brazil get healthier” »
Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects. So an Alorica representative who speaks, say, only Spanish can field a complaint about a balky printer or an incorrect…
Read More “AI may not steal many jobs after all, it may just make workers more efficient” »
Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects. So an Alorica representative who speaks, say, only Spanish can field a complaint about a balky printer or an incorrect…
Read More “AI may not steal many jobs after all, it may just make workers more efficient” »
A nugget of gold on public display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, U.S., November 17, 2012. | Photo Credit: James St. John Sometimes a scientific study comes along that reminds us not all the natural mysteries of this world demand highly specialised knowledge or million-dollar experiments to solve. Instead, they reveal something…
Read More “Could quakes explain why gold nuggets are found in quartz veins?” »
Empires of old are shrouded in mystery and are the subject of intense historical investigation. Given the enormous time scales and the lack of written records, accurate details of most founders of these empires have been lost to the vagaries of oral history. Many of them have been turned into legends, their life stories left…
Read More “Gene of thrones: genomes of rulers reveal how empires rose and fell” »
Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop cocoa substitutes. Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on ways to make more cocoa that stretch well beyond the tropics, from Northern California to Israel. California…
Read More “Will chocolate’s future hinge on success of growing cocoa in the lab?” »