Category: Science

For more than a century, physicists have looked for a material that conducts electricity with zero resistance at room temperature — practical enough to transform how the world generates and uses energy. But for a long time, the highest temperature at which a material became superconducting at room pressure was -140 °C. Some other materials…

Read More “New technique helps superconductor break 33-year temperature record” »

On July 29, 2011, the Cassini mission captured five of Saturn’s moons in a single frame with its narrow-angle camera. | Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Last week, the Minor Planet Centre (MPC) announced 15 new moons had been found, four around Jupiter and 11 around Saturn. The Jovian moons were found by the U.S.-based Scott Sheppard…

Read More “What is the Minor Planet Centre?” »

From African deserts to the Arctic circle: humans spread across the planet faster and farther than any other wild vertebrate, making us outliers in the animal kingdom. While we occupy 132 million sq. km of land, a typical wild mammal occupies 165 sq. km. How did humans achieve this feat?   The answer lies in…

Read More “How humans came to inhabit every corner of the world” »

In the 2026-27 budget, the outlay for the PM-KUSUM scheme nearly doubled to Rs 5,000 crore, signalling the government’s renewed emphasis on increasing solar power production centred on India’s farmers. Specifically, the scheme aims to provide energy and water security to farmers, enhance incomes, and decarbonise the farm sector through decentralised solar pumps and power…

Read More “How agriPV can turn India’s farms into dual-purpose powerhouses” »

An artist’s impression of an exomoon. Dense hydrogen atmospheres and internal heating could keep these moons habitable for billions of years, finds a study. | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons The Hindu’s weekly Science for All newsletter explains all things Science, without the jargon. In an astonishing discovery in 2009, a mission to the moon chanced…

Read More “Science for All Newsletter: Some moons may have conditions suitable for the emergence of life” »

Are the risks to structures in the Himalayas and north-eastern states from earthquakes overestimated? Scientists, structural engineers, representatives from several government ministries are expected to deliberate and report back to the Cabinet Secretariat in the coming weeks. This follows a ‘withdrawal’ earlier this month by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) of a set of…

Read More “Cost concerns delay safer building codes despite Himalayan threats” »

The elephant named Suvarna engages with her calf ‘Sudha’ at Bannerghatta National Park, 2020. | Photo Credit: File photo All living beings communicate. In honeybees, communicative signals in the form of a wiggle dance transmit information on the location of flowers. Recipient bees decode this information and use it to guide their behaviour. Human language…

Read More “Animals that show intentional communication is not just human” »

Policemen stand near the wreckage of a car that caught fire, subsequently engulfing a house nearby, in Indore, March 18, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI The story so far: A fire tore through a house in Indore on March 18, killing eight people including two children. An electric vehicle (EV) charging point outside the house…

Read More “Indore tragedy: why do EV batteries catch fire? | Explained” »