Category: Science

Science

NZ treaty may allow people to sue on ‘behalf of whales’

April 16, 2024 admin

In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, to recognise whales as legal persons. Image for Representation. | Photo Credit: AP In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga…

Science

How are hydrocarbons extracted from under the ground? | Explained

April 15, 2024 admin

Over millennia, mighty geological processes in the earth’s crust heated and compressed together pieces of life-forms that had been dead for a while. Eventually, this mulch of organic matter accumulated as hydrocarbons inside rock formations. The two Industrial Revolutions were the result mainly of people finding a way to extract these hydrocarbons and using them…

Science

How fast is the universe expanding? New data keeps mystery open

April 15, 2024 admin

A big open problem in cosmology is the Hubble tension. There are two equally valid ways to measure how fast the universe is expanding, but they have yielded two very different estimates. No amount of rechecking and refining calculations has made this tension go away. In a study published recently in Monthly Notices of The…

Science

Entrepreneur and pilot, Gopichand Thotakura is aiming for a place in Indian space history

April 14, 2024 admin

Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist. Photo: X/@blueorigin via PTI Earlier this month, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin announced six crew members who would be part of a forthcoming commercial flight to space. Of interest to India is one participant, Gopichand…

Science

Geroscience: the science related to aging

April 13, 2024 admin

Benefits: Senior citizens will greatly benefit from exercise and thus inhibit the aging-associated enzyme (gerozyme) | Photo Credit: Getty Images Dr Daniel Belsky, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, New York (my Alma Mater), has coined the term ‘geroscience’, meaning geriatric, or related to age. Here, he has devised a novel blood test which determines the…

Science

Concurrent heatwaves, sea level rises pose a threat to coastlines

April 13, 2024 admin

Concurrent occurrences of heatwaves and extreme short-term sea level rise at the same coastal locations significantly increased between 1998 and 2017 when compared to the preceding twenty years, as per a study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. The study also suggests that these events may be five times more likely to occur between 2025…

Science

Blood bank study reveals true incidence of Long COVID

April 13, 2024 admin

The pandemic has claimed over seven million lives officially, but the actual death toll is believed to be much higher. Among COVID-19 survivors, a significant number develop long-term health problems. The World Health Organization uses the term Long COVID for individuals experiencing such symptoms for over three months without another explanation. Unfortunately, measuring chronic illness…

Science

Is there any evidence that eyes have evolved several times independently of one another?

April 13, 2024 admin

Scientists have discovered a bristle worm with such sharp-seeing eyes that they can measure up to those of mammals and octopuses. The Vanadis bristle worm, also known as polychaetes which are nocturnal, has eyes as big as millstones, relatively speaking. As a set, the worm’s eyes weigh about twenty times as much as the rest of the…

Science

First Indian space tourist to fly on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission

April 13, 2024 admin

Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos crew mates after they flew on Blue Origin’s inaugural flight to the edge of space in 2021. File. | Photo Credit: Reuters Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s…

Science

The Science Quiz | SI-derived units

April 12, 2024 admin

Construction tape measure on a wooden floor | Photo Credit: andreygonchar Questions: 1. X is the derived unit used to measure solid angles. 1 X is roughly 3,283 square degrees. More generally, it’s the amount of solid angle a unit area on a unit sphere’s surface subtends at the sphere’s centre. Name X. 2. The…

Science