The webinar was jointly organised by the Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, and The Hindu as part of the series titled “Biotechnology: Role in Industry 5.0 — Sustainable Future Pathways”. Biotechnology graduates are the architects of the next animal science revolution in the country, experts said at a webinar on “Biotech Careers: Food and Nutrition” … Read more
On a cold February morning, Jassuram Khanna, a farmer from Sujau village in Chakrata in Uttarakhand, felt a tightness in his chest on his way to the market. After waiting a few minutes, he called his son Suresh to come and take him to the doctor. They hired a private car and went to the … Read more
A Hudsonian godwit on Minimoy Island in the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts, U.S. on August 21, 2017. | Photo Credit: AFP Chasing an endless summer, one shorebird species undertakes a gruelling annual journey from the Arctic to the tip of South America and back — a feat increasingly fraught with peril. The Hudsonian godwit … Read more
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
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
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
Around 2.7 million years ago, the world’s oceans cooled by 2.5 C. | Photo Credit: Egle Sidaraviciute/Unsplash Oceans more than gases helped earth cool When researchers recently analysed Antarctic ice cores to reconstruct the earth’s climate over the last three million years, they found that the world’s oceans cooled by 2.5 C, most of it … Read more
A farmer fertilizes rice seedlings in Vayalur near Tiruchi, on Friday | Photo Credit: VENGADESH R The ongoing conflict in West Asia has disrupted global trade, leading to LPG shortages and a surge in crude oil prices. Data now indicate that the crisis could also affect India’s supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), putting at … Read more
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
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
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
Quantum systems like atoms or electrons can exist in superpositions: a particle can be in two states at once until it is measured. Causality itself can be the same way. | Photo Credit: Valeria Saggio/University of Vienna In everyday life, cause always comes before effect. A window won’t break before you throw a ball at … Read more
ISRO’s NavIC constellation, for which it has launched 11 satellites since 2013, is in operational distress. Only three satellites remain capable of providing position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services, leaving the constellation unable to fulfil its purpose of replacing the U.S.’s GPS system over the Indian subcontinent. A PNT constellation requires at least four PNT-capable … Read more
This image is from an 1837 publication. | Source: First Notebook on Transmutation of Species. Published – March 19, 2026 05:00 pm IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit
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
The call woke me from a dead sleep. The ER physician uttered the words STEMI, short for ST elevation myocardial infarction. She didn’t need to say more: I was out of bed as she narrated the rest. A STEMI occurs when a ruptured cholesterol plaque triggers a cascade of clot formations, sealing the artery shut. … Read more
Published – March 18, 2026 05:00 pm IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit
World Frog Day on March 20 celebrates the role of frogs, the world’s most numerous amphibians. They live at the interface between freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, eat insects and in turn get eaten by other vertebrates, and are thus crucial in converting insect biomass into vertebrate biomass. Losing them can mean a boom in insects … Read more
The mind is more than just a bunch of cells. | Photo Credit: cdd20/Unsplash Evidence points to the human mind not being a physical object you can touch but a process the brain creates. Scientists generally agree the mind arises from the complex activity of the physical brain. The foundation of the mind consists of … Read more
The ongoing war in West Asia has plunged the world into a deep energy crisis. In India, the availability of domestic fuel, LPG, has been hit due by the disruption in supplies from the Persian Gulf. The global energy crisis is reminiscent of the Oil Shock of 1973 when members of the Organisation of Petroleum … Read more
On the morning of February 28th, as hundreds of young girls were attending their classes in Minab’s Shajareh Tayyebeh school, the building was struck by a missile. Residents and rescuers, who rushed seeing black smoke rising in place of the school, found blood-stained backpacks, severed arms, and dead children buried under piles of rubble. Their … Read more
A file picture taken on July 19, 2013 shows a scientist walking in a tunnel inside the A view of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during maintenance works on July 19, 2013, in Meyrin, near Geneva, July 2013. | Photo Credit: AFP The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new particle, the 80th identified so … Read more
According to the researchers, the sun vibrates constantly with acoustic waves generated by turbulent motions beneath its surface. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto GUWAHATI Researchers from Tezpur University in North-central Assam have found that the subtle vibrations on the sun’s surface could be transporting enormous amounts of energy into its outer atmosphere. The research, conducted … Read more
Melanoma is one of the most dangerous common skin cancers. It starts in melanocytes, the skin cells that make melanin, the pigment that gives skin its colour. Cancer doesn’t appear overnight. A normal cell becomes cancerous in steps, as its DNA and its gene-control systems pick up changes over time. These changes push the cell … Read more
The BRICS grouping, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is a globally significant collective defined by its substantial contributions to global GDP, scientific and technological capacity, natural resources, and total population. Since its formation, the group has evolved into a prominent international voice, representing countries that seek to challenge and provide an alternative … Read more
A young girl was born in the early 1900s in Kolkata, an era when girls were barely given an education and were often pushed into marriages at a very young age. She, however, stood out and went on to become one of the first Indian women to obtain a postgraduate degree in physics. This is … Read more
A young girl was born in the early 1900s in Kolkata, an era when girls were barely given an education and were often pushed into marriages at a very young age. She, however, stood out and went on to become one of the first Indian women to obtain a postgraduate degree in physics. This is … Read more
In 1823, English geologist William Buckland discovered a skeleton in a limestone cave in Paviland, southern Wales, which he identified as a prostitute from the Roman era, as the bones were coated in red ochre. Nearly a hundred years later, further studies, including that of grave goods, also painted in red, proved that the skeleton, … Read more
