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Once upon a time, in the 17th century, the governor of Malabar wrote a botanical treatise. Hortus Malabaricus (Garden of Malabar) is a series of 12 tomes that highlighted the flora in the Malabar Coast and its medicinal properties; it is considered an important book on India’s plant wealth. Today, this treatise finds space in…
Read More “How India’s mixologists are curating history-inspired cocktail menus” »
The story so far: On February 14, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Turner, called the media’s attention to “information concerning a serious national security threat” and urged President Joe Biden to declassify it so more experts could be recruited to mitigate the danger it allegedly posed. A…
Read More “Is Russia testing a new anti-satellite weapon? | Explained” »
On February 17, 1869, legend has it that Russian chemist and inventor Dmitri Mendeleev conceived and created the table that we now know as the periodic table. While that might be an exaggeration, Mendeleev’s role in creating the table is indisputable. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at how the periodic table came to be… Source link
File. | Photo Credit: Reuters Smoking has a lasting effect on specific human immune responses, persisting long after quitting, reports a paper in Nature this week. The study, which investigates a range of factors that might contribute to variability in immune responses, also identifies body mass index (BMI) and latent infections of cytomegalovirus (a common virus) as…
Read More “Smoking leaves a lasting adverse impact on immune responses” »
It was long thought that the fluid-filled sac around our lungs functions merely as a cushion from external damage. Turns out, it also houses potent virus-eating cells that rush into the lungs during flu infections. These cells are macrophages, which are immune cells produced in the body, and go into the lungs when there’s an…
Coffee seeds were brought to India by Arab traders | Photo Credit: Getty Images How did the word coffee come about? Coffee came from Ethiopia, where they called it qahve. Late Dr K.T. Achaya, in his book ‘A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food’ (Oxford University Press, 1998) mentioned that coffee seeds were brought to India by…
Representational file image. | Photo Credit: AFP A study that analysed the data of nearly 24,000 pregnant women in India has found the prevalence of high-risk pregnancies to be high at 49.4%. About 33% of pregnant women had a single high-risk factor, while 16% had multiple high-risk factors. Northeastern States of Meghalaya (67.8%), Manipur (66.7%)…
Read More “Nearly 50% of pregnancies in India are high-risk” »
Security personnel watch the launch of Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle, GSLV-F14, carrying INSAT-3DS satellite from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) in Sriharikota on February 17, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI The GSLV-F14 carrying INSAT-3D meteorological satellite was successfully launched on Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. About 18 minutes after the lift-off…
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Is an alligator lying still underwater, with its snout alone sticking out, alive or dead? If this is the situation, there’s a third possibility: brumation. This is the name to describe a period of dormancy or slowed activity in reptiles, much like hibernation in mammals. It typically occurs during colder months, when temperatures drop and…
Cliffside Bambootail (Phylloneura rupestris), which belongs to a group called bambootails, is named thus because it lays eggs in the moss beds in seasonal rillsthat flow over rock cliffs. Photo: Special Arrangement A team of researchers have discovered a new species of damselfly at the Ponmudi hills in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. The hills are…
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