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The dictionary of life has a new update. A DNA sequence that signals cells in almost all other organisms to stop synthesising proteins instead encodes a rare amino acid in some archaea, according to a study published in Science in November. Archaea are microbes that resemble bacteria in shape and size but are biologically distinct….
Read More “Unusual genetic code in Antarctic microbes yields rare amino acid” »
An image comparison the size of a supermoon (left) and the micromoon, which is the moon at its apogee micromoon (right), as seen from the earth. | Photo Credit: NASA A “wolf supermoon” is a nickname that combines two distinct ideas: a wolf moon and a supermoon. The January 2026 wolf supermoon occurred late last…
A significant telescope If we were to talk about the most popular telescopes of all time, it is unlikely that you will be mentioning the Airy Transit Circle (ATC). You’ll probably recall space observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble, and you might even spare a thought to the early versions made and…
GUWAHATI A study published in the Indian Journal of History of Science a few months ago has challenged long-held beliefs about the origins of mineral acids, suggesting that ancient Indian scholars may have understood and used them centuries before similar knowledge appeared in Europe or the Arab world. For decades, historians believed that Arab alchemists developed mineral…
Read More “Study suggests ancient Indian scholars knew mineral acids centuries before Europeans” »
Vegetation can cool a surface by evapotranspiration, i.e. water evaporating from soil and transpiring from leaves, carrying heat away. | Photo Credit: EqualStock/Unsplash Cities around the world are getting hotter for two reasons: the climate is warming and urban areas often trap heat more than the countryside. Planting more vegetation, especially trees, has become a…
Read More “Green paradox: planting trees will cool a megacity unless it’s dry” »
The story so far: Climate change is real, and for India to continue meeting domestic food demands, agriculture needs to cope with the increasing unpredictability of the weather, declining soil health, and growing air pollution. What is climate-resilient agriculture? Climate-resilient agriculture uses a range of biotechnology and complementary technologies to guide farming practices and reduce…
Read More “Why does India need climate-resilient agriculture? | Explained” »
The Greenland shark can live up to 500 years. The kind of longevity that probably has something to do with its home: cold, dark depths of the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Scientists have been studying the sharks’ biology — from its slow metabolism to cellular repair — to find answers for healthy ageing…
Read More “How long can humans really live? Inside the longevity science boom” »
A digital accelerometer from a Motorola Xoom smartphone. | Photo Credit: Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA) A: Your smartphone knows which way is up due to its accelerometer. It’s a chip whose parts shift slightly when the phone accelerates or when gravity acts along a particular direction. The phone’s software reads the accelerometer’s measurements along the…
Over the last two decades, a small shelf of Indian nonfiction has treated the city itself as an environmental object. Jyoti Pande Lavakare’s Breathing Here is Injurious to Your Health and Siddharth Singh’s The Great Smog of India explored North India’s atmospheric pollution as a human-made crisis with human costs sustained by official short-termism and…
Read More “What Delhi’s wilderness says about the city’s politics” »
Frail participants were more likely to be female, have higher body weight, live with multiple long-term conditions, and lower educational attainment. They were also 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia |Image used for representational purpose only | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT Older adults who are frail and have depression could be at…