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Every year, 19-23 million tonnes of plastic waste leaks into aquatic ecosystems | Photo Credit: AFP Recall what grandparents did, before the age of plastics. They would bring their own bags, normally of cotton or jute, bring home the purchase, and later, wash and dry the bags, ready for the next use. They also used…
Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda first proposed umami as a basic taste — in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter — in the early 1900s. About eight decades later, the scientific community officially agreed with him. Now, scientists have evidence of a sixth basic taste. In a study published recently (Nature Communications), researchers have found…
Read More “Can the tongue taste only sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami?” »
A malaria vaccine — R21/MatrixM — developed by the University of Oxford, manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India and tested in a phase-3 trial at five sites in four countries — Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Tanzania — in Africa was recommended (but yet to be prequalified) by the WHO on October 2….
Read More “Now a more efficacious, inexpensive malaria vaccine” »
Feeding a growing world population has been a serious concern for decades, but today there are new causes for alarm. Floods, heat waves and other weather extremes are making agriculture increasingly precarious, especially in the Global South. The war in Ukraine is also a factor. Russia is blockading Ukrainian grain exports, and fertilizer prices have surged because of trade…
Read More “Why India’s Green Revolution isn’t a blueprint to feed a hungry planet” »
Since beginning operations last year, the James Webb Space Telescope has provided an astonishing glimpse of the early history of our universe, spotting a collection of galaxies dating to the enigmatic epoch called cosmic dawn. Image for Representation. | Photo Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel Since beginning operations last year, the James Webb…
Read More “Scientists untangle mystery about the universe’s earliest galaxies” »
Preparations are on for the Gaganyaan Mission’s Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which is likely to be launched by the end of October 2023. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is planning to commence uncrewed flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission, has started to make preparations for the…
S. Rajasekaran , Chairman, Department of Orthopaedics and Spine Surgery, Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore. | Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL S. Rajasekaran, Chairman, Department of Orthopaedics and Spine Surgery, Ganga Hospital, has been ranked among top 2% of world scientists contributing to orthopaedic surgery by Stanford University, USA. The university on October 4 categorised the contribution of more…
Read More “Ganga Hospital Chairman ranked among top 2% of world scientists” »
Pharmacist Lena Springmann prepares a Covid-19 vaccination with Pfizer/Biontech vaccine at a vaccination center in Halle, Germany, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. The Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to two scientists whose work led to mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. | Photo Credit: AP The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will go to Katalin Karikó…
Read More “mRNA research exemplifies the unpredictable value of basic research” »
Snakes have been around for a long time: body fossils found in the UK, Portugal and the US stretch all the way back to the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. Representative Image. | Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak/The Hindu Snakes are familiar, distinctive – and often feared – reptiles. And they’ve been around for…
Read More “First fossilised snake traces discovered in South Africa” »
The 2023 physics Nobel Prize has been awarded for attosecond physics | Photo Credit: AP Questions: 1. Attosecond physics deals with light pulses that are emitted for a few attoseconds at a time, no more. By bouncing such pulses off of electrons, scientists practically have a camera that can ‘see’ electrons changing their properties. How…