Category: Science

A worrying new trend of ‘fake patents’, in which education companies sell thousands of patents registered in the U.K. to academics from India and elsewhere, has raised concerns among research integrity experts. The issue of ‘fake patents’ was flagged in a report published in the International Journal of Educational Integrity. Its authors, from the U.K….

Read More “A black market for ‘fake patents’ is a new poison in Indian research” »

At least 9 people have died and around 69 others have been hospitalised after an ammonia gas leak at a seafood processing plant in the Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. The incident has raised concerns about ammonia poisoning and the dangers associated with industrial gas leaks. So, what exactly is ammonia poisoning? What are the…

Read More “Watch: What is ammonia poisoning?” »

More than a thousand varieties of mangoes exist in India, the popular ones being Banganapalli, Dassheri, Alphonso, Badaami, Imaam Pasandh, and Mulgoa. There is even a “Lalbagh” variety in Bengaluru. Many of us associate the fruit with a summer childhood memory, of eating it with our bare hands, the mango juice dripping on our clothes….

Read More “Kingmakers: Meet the insects that make India’s famed mangoes” »

Women miners wearing plastic bags over their clothing to protect themselves from mud and dirt, clean rocks in water in search of gold particles at an artisanal mining site in Mongbwalu, Ituri Province, on June 16, 2026. | Photo Credit: AFP In the mines of Mongbwalu, the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak in the northeastern…

Read More “Need forces DR Congo gold miners to keep working despite Ebola” »

Scientists suggest that the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic interactions birds and fish exhibit could inform aerospace and automotive engineering, robotics and energy harvesting. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Birds fly in flocks, fish swim in schools. What bonds them together, without dispersal or collision? Mathematicians from New York University (NYU) explained the method to the madness:…

Read More “Bird flocks soar through the sky like a liquid, atomic orchestra” »

Antaram idukki | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT A team of researchers has discovered a new genus and species of tiger moth from the southern Western Ghats. Published in the internationally renowned, peer-reviewed Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society, the new species has been named Antaram idukki. Belonging to the tiger moth subfamily Arctiinae (Erebidae), the species was…

Read More “Discovery of new moth genus in Kerala’s Idukki highlights Western Ghats’ hidden biodiversity” »

Scientists studying the comet 3I/ATLAS ​have determined that this interstellar visitor is remarkably ancient – formed an estimated 10 to 12 billion years ago in a primordial planetary system – ‌and has a composition unlike anything in our solar system. An evaluation of the chemical make-up of ​3I/ATLAS – only the third interstellar object ever…

Read More “Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is much older than the solar system itself” »

In the prologue to his 1989 book The Emperor’s New Mind, the Nobel laureate Roger Penrose narrates a story. At a grand public ceremony, an ultimate supercomputer is switched on for the first time before a packed auditorium. It is the most powerful machine ever built, designed to answer any question put to it. The…

Read More “The strange link between AI hallucination and creativity” »

The story so far: An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar, claimed the lives of 12 Indian workers and one Pakistani worker on June 21. While local authorities have just begun their investigation, QatarEnergy, the country’s national energy company that maintains the gas facility, said the blast occurred when workers were…

Read More “An industrial risk the Qatar blast shares with accidents in India | Explained” »