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The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is seen in this artist’s impression handout from NASA. | Photo Credit: NASA European scientists were due to attempt a first in orbital gymnastics late on August 19, tapping into the gravity of the earth in quick succession to guide the JUICE probe towards Jupiter in the first-ever…
Read More “Europe’s Jupiter probe to stage daring lunar-earth fly-by ” »
K.M. Ajith’s first research paper, co-authored with his supervisor in 2005, was about mathematical physics they had worked out in quantum field theory. The U.K. journal to which the paper was submitted had no hesitation in accepting the quality of the research work, yet the review was quite scathing. “The reviewer pointed out grammatical errors,…
Read More “What ails Indian research papers? Poor quality or just bad grammar?” »
Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 19, 2024 | Photo Credit: Reuters Four members of a SpaceX mission that will carry out the first ever private…
Read More “SpaceX a week away from first private spacewalk” »
For 13 consecutive months, global average air and ocean temperatures were probably the hottest they have been in human history. This streak of extraordinary heat ended last month, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported, as July 2024 was only the second hottest ever recorded – 0.04°C cooler than a record set the previous July….
Read More “Earth ended a streak of 13 hot months in June, EU climate service says” »
Two scientists have flagged what they have called evidence of “problematic behaviour” in multiple scientific papers co-authored by Mandyam Srinivasan, emeritus professor of visual neuroscience at Queensland University, Brisbane. The papers are concerned with the honeybee waggle dance, a mode of communication between bees that plays a crucial role in pollination. Based on his work on…
Read More “Mandyam Srinivasan of bee studies fame faces misconduct allegations” »
Girish Sahni | Photo Credit: File photo/The Hindu Former director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Girish Sahni, passed away August 19 at the age of 68. Multiple sources told The Hindu he had died of a heart attack. On X (formerly Twitter), CSIR said it “mourns the sudden loss” in a…
Antidepressants and therapy can provide much needed relief to people with mental health illnesses. But there are many people whose symptoms don’t respond to treatment and whose road to recovery often begins after trial and error with different medicines and/or modes of therapy. And in this time their symptoms could get worse. According to one…
Read More “fMRI may reveal depression ‘subtypes’ and treatments that could work” »
A blue moon rises above the Apollo Temple in ancient Corinth, Greece, on August 30, 2023. | Photo Credit: AFP The blue moon is a common example of an invented tradition — something someone has claimed is an old, time-honoured practice but which was in fact invented more recently. A second full moon in a…
Did you know that the discovery of helium, an element we immediately link with balloons, has an Indian connection? Here, a performer floats in the air with supporters attached to helium balloons. | Photo Credit: AFP What on Earth does a gas that we normally associate with balloons have to do with Guntur, a city…
Read More “Guntur, spectral lines, and the discovery of helium” »
Sumatran orangutan named Rakus seen two months after wound self-treatment using a medicinal plant, in Indonesia. | Photo Credit: Reuters In the May 2, 2024, issue of the journal Nature, an article titled: ‘Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan’, Laumer et al. report on how…
Read More “Zoopharmacognosy: the study of how animals self-medicate” »