Category: Science

The ocean, the earth’s vast blue lung, has long played a critical but underappreciated role in moderating the planet’s climate. It has absorbed 25% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and more than 90% of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gases, buying humankind precious time against the worsening effects of climate change. However, this seemingly…

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Scientists are constantly engineering new materials that exhibit exotic properties. Moiré materials are a deceptively simple. Take a material made of a single type of atom, like a block of graphite. Slice off a thin layer from the top so that you have a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms bonded together (graphene). Place one sheet…

Read More “New moiré superconductor opens the door to new quantum materials” »

Preview: November 21 was 61 years since the birth of the Indian space programme. On this date in 1963, scientists launched a Nike-Apache sounding rocket from Thumba in Kerala. These rockets helped the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) master the solid propellant technology powering India’s launch vehicles today. Around the same time as this anniversary,…

Read More “Six decades since Thumba launch, slew of private cos prep for flight” »

Pirate is standing holding a drawn sword with a parrot perched on hand | Photo Credit: Getty Images Life at sea was difficult as the pirates had to know how to navigate every inch of their vessels during bright sunny daytime and pitch black night. An excellent night vision is necessary to battle the opponents…

Read More “Why do pirates wear one eye patch?” »

When I was a kid, I liked to dig holes in my backyard in Cincinnati (in Ohio). My grandfather joked that if I kept digging, I would end up in China. In fact, if I had been able to dig straight through the planet, I would have come out in the Indian Ocean, about 1,800…

Read More “ Is it possible to dig all the way through the earth to the other side?” »

Ripples of wind pass through the Indian tricolour flutters near Wagah village, Pakistan, July 24, 2018. | Photo Credit: Naveed Ahmed A: The fluttering of flags is a dynamic phenomenon involving three forces. The first one is a constant pulling force due to the rope used to tie the flag to a pole. The second…

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The blue spot at the centre of the red ring is an isolated neutron star in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Neutron stars are formed after heavy stars go supernova, in the process emitting gamma rays alongside radiation at other energies. | Photo Credit: ESA and NASA The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) telescope is a…

Read More “MACE in Ladakh opens its one-of-a-kind eye to cosmic gamma rays” »

The colorful trompo on a brown background With just a flick of the wrist, a spinning top balances on its tiny tip, seemingly defying gravity. This dance of physics introduces us to the concept of angular momentum, a force that keeps it upright and steady. The physics of spin To understand the magic behind a…

Read More “What’s the magic of a spinning top: Science in motion” »