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Researchers at NIMHANS, Bengaluru have shed new light on early molecular events that may trigger Parkinson’s Disease (PD), proposing a shift from conventional theory that has guided drug development for decades. Their study has suggested that disease-specific chemical changes in α-Synuclein (αSyn) — a protein strongly linked to Parkinson’s — may promote the trapping of…
Souvik Das, a researcher under the DST-INSPIRE programme, is attempting to examine how gravity behaves under the Sun’s extreme heat and pressure. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement The Sun may be doing more than warming planet Earth. It may also be helping scientists rethink one of nature’s most fundamental forces. Researchers at Tezpur University in…
Coconut is one of the largest horticultural crops in peninsular India, and an increasing number of farmers are taking up coconut plantations due to a lack of labour availability and the intensive attention required to raise annual crops. The three States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala together account for about 82-83 % of India’s…
Read More “Why participatory science is crucial to tackling coconut root wilt disease” »
Wikipedia unveiled new business deals with a slew of artificial intelligence companies on Thursday as it marked its 25th anniversary. The online crowdsourced encyclopedia revealed that it has signed up AI companies including Amazon, Meta Platforms, Perplexity, Microsoft and France’s Mistral AI. Wikipedia is one of the last bastions of the early internet, but that…
Read More “Wikipedia inks AI deals with Microsoft, Meta and Perplexity as it marks 25th birthday” »
Datacentres are a growing share of global electricity consumption, and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving those power demands up. This is because AI datacentres use dense clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) for running machine learning workloads, both when training large language models and deploying them. Since the generative AI boom shows no signs of…
Read More “Can datacentres in orbit solve for AI models’ soaring energy demand?” »
Daily Quiz: On ISRO’s PSLV rocket Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle | Photo credits: ISRO START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | The liquid-fuelled second stage of the PSLV rocket uses the Vikas engine, which is based on the French Viking engine. In 1974, rather than pay cash, ISRO acquired this technology from France in exchange…
Although a spinning fan changes continuously, we don’t perceive its blades’ every intermediate position perfectly. | Photo Credit: Delaney Van/Unsplash A: This is an illusion caused by the way our eyes and brains sample motion in discrete snapshots and the fact that fans have identical blades. Although a spinning fan changes continuously, we don’t perceive…
Read More “When a fan is spinning fast, why can it seem like it’s spinning backwards?” »
The story so far: Futuristic space and marine biotechnology research focuses on using underexplored environments, such as the deep oceans and outer space, to develop new biological knowledge, materials, and manufacturing processes. Marine biotechnology involves studying microorganisms, algae, and other marine life to discover bioactive compounds, enzymes, biomaterials, food ingredients, and biostimulants. These organisms have…
Read More “What is futuristic marine and space biotechnology? | Explained” »
Imagine you’re a detective looking for proof of something extraordinary. You find what looks like the perfect clue, a smoking gun that seems to prove your theory. But what if that clue could be explained by something more ordinary? Many physicists around the world are trying to create and identify special materials with unusual electronic…
Read More “Scientists urged to rethink ‘smoking gun’ signals in topological physics” »
Back to school | Photo Credit: Si-Gal A school bus approaches, and even from far away, its bright yellow coat catches your eye, gleaming in the sunlight. There’s a reason you rarely see school buses in red, blue, or green. And it’s all yellow In the VIBGYOR spectrum, yellow falls in the mid-to-long wavelength range…