Stay Connected. Stay Informed.
Science
Once upon a time, the thunder of footsteps from lakhs of mighty rhinoceroses echoed across the savannahs, grasslands, and tropical forests of Africa and Asia — but things have gotten pretty quiet lately. As of 2024, fewer than 28,000 rhinos remain on the planet, all five species combined. Relentless poaching has been a major threat…
Read More “Rhino dehorning brings poaching in African reserves crashing down” »
Is it a false alarm or a discovery that solves one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology? This is the question weighing on astronomers as they examine a study published recently in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, which claims to have finally detected the elusive ‘dark matter’. Dark matter is believed to have…
Read More “Why has the claimed dark matter discovery sparked debate, caution?” »
The story so far: On December 15, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) announced the launch of DHRUV64, an indigenous microprocessor that it said would strengthen the national indigenous processor pipeline. Its purported applications span the breadth of consumer electronics to industrial automation. What is DHRUV64? The DHRUV64 chip is a fully indigenous…
Read More “Making sense of DHRUV64 indigenous microprocessor | Explained” »
Dressed in an orange puffer jacket, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Iizuka stepped into a storage freezer to retrieve an ice core he hopes will help experts protect the world’s disappearing glaciers. The fist-sized sample drilled from a mountaintop is part of an ambitious international effort to understand why glaciers in Tajikistan have resisted the rapid melting…
Read More “‘Extremely exciting’: the ice cores that could help save glaciers” »
A sample of thorium. | Photo Credit: Alchemist-hp Atomic clocks keep time by counting the ‘ticks’ of electrons moving between two energy levels. Physicists have long wanted to count a nuclear tick instead. A nucleus is more shielded than an atom’s outer electrons, so its energy levels are expected to be less sensitive to disturbances….
Read More “Counting electrons reveals thorium’s nuclear tick in a solid clock” »
Blame neurogenic inflammation. | Photo Credit: Jack Newing/Unsplash When we eat spicy food containing chillies, a substance in them called capsaicin binds to receptors on the nerve endings in our mouth and nose. These receptors work like sensors. When a specific molecule attaches to them, they send a signal that triggers a response. Capsaicin attaches…
Dr Harsh K Gupta remembers the sequence of events that led to the establishment of Dakshin Gangotri, India’s first permanent research station in Antarctica, as if it happened yesterday. A year after he had moved to Thiruvananthapuram as director of the Centre for Earth Science Studies in 1982, a call for proposals to carry out…
Read More “How India established its first research station in Antarctica” »
After 10 years of battling objections from foreign nuclear suppliers, the government has brought in a new bill – It’s called SHANTI for short – The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill. It repeals the previous Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill of…
Read More “Watch: Explained: All about India’s new nuclear energy bill” »
A: The wisdom teeth are the third molars that sit at the very back of the jaw. They usually start forming in the teens and try to erupt in the late teens to the mid-20s, hence the name ‘wisdom’. We have wisdom teeth because of our ancestors, whose lives demanded more chewing to get through….
On successive weekends in November, hundreds of Delhi residents gathered at India Gate holding placards saying “I miss breathing” and “right to live, not just survive”. Winter’s onset once again plunged the National Capital Region into a dense smog, with the air quality index refusing to exit the ‘severe’ (301-400) or ‘very poor’ (201-300) levels….
Read More “Inhalable microplastics, a hidden toxin worsening Indian cities’ air” »