Welcome back data enthusiasts, Over the last two weeks, as the world saw a war unfold, the Hindu data team has been looking at how big events prop up big confusing numbers and what the underlying story is. While it’s our job on any given day to make sense of numbers and find patterns that … Read more
Of all the irreconcilable splits in science journalism, the one concerned with what we write about and how we go about has been my bugbear. On the one hand there are journalists focused on telling stories through people. On the other are journalists like me who believe there is more to acknowledging the world and … Read more
When pregnant women experience higher ambient temperatures during gestation, fewer males are born, a recent analysis of demographic and health surveys in sub-Saharan Africa and India, showed. A paper titled ‘Temperature and sex ratios at birth’ in the journal Demography, by Jasmin Abdel Ghany et al., concludes after a detailed analysis that experiencing higher ambient temperatures during pregnancy is associated with changes in the natural sex ratio at … Read more
As human populations grow, it is important to find ways to convert wasted biomass into edible products. | Photo Credit: Nick Fewings/Unsplash As the global population increases, the need for more sustainable and nutritious food sources becomes greater. In this context, the book Biomass Conversion and Sustainable Biorefinery edited by Lubis et al. in 2024,highlights … Read more
It isn’t every day someone casually mentions they are heading back to a cabin near the North Pole. Yet, that is exactly what 57-year-old Hilde Fålun Strøm, a citizen scientist based in Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost town, told me when we met last year in the frozen archipelago of Svalbard. Norwegian by nationality, Strøm grew … Read more
Abdus Salam | Photo Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 NL Published – March 05, 2026 05:00 pm IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit
The story so far: In its quest for energy security, on March 2, India signed a CAD 2.6 billion deal with Canada’s Cameco. The deal ensures a supply of around 10,000 tonnes of uranium between 2027 and 2035 to India. What uranium ‘stocks’ does India have? India has both domestic reserves and imported stockpiles of … Read more
A relaxation by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the prescribed dosage for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine and ‘free’ doses may have pushed back the inclusion of an India-made vaccine into the national programme to inoculate children against HPV. This, despite the Health Ministry in 2023 committing to preparing the India-made vaccine for … Read more
The Webb space telescope’s image of the Serpens Nebula. | Photo Credit: NASA A: Most believers of this idea follow an argument made by the philosopher Nick Bostrom. In half a century, video games have gone from dots on a screen to lifelike 3D worlds. Believers argue that in future, we will eventually create simulations … Read more
In India, urban noise is relentless yet it is largely under-recognised as a public health concern. The average Indian urban traffic reportedly routinely reaches 80-100 dB, exceeding the World Health Organization’s recommended 70 dB limit, creating a recognised risk of hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has long been viewed as an occupational disease of … Read more
Indian passengers reunite with their family members as they arrive safely from a flight via Dubai amid the international tensions in the Gulf region International Airport, in New Delhi on Wednesday | Photo Credit: ANI As tensions escalate following the United States-Israel military strikes on Iran, raising concerns about oil supplies and shipping through the … Read more
Brain co-processors are an emerging technology aimed at enhancing the human brain’s natural abilities in ways relevant to real-life situations. Photo: brain-computation.iisc.ac.in The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on March 4 launched a moonshot project to develop brain co-processors that combine neuromorphic hardware and AI algorithms to enhance or restore brain function. The project is … Read more
India’s inflation index has been updated to reflect better how households allocate their spending today. Under the earlier Consumer Price Index (CPI), consumption was grouped into six broad categories, with a wide range of everyday services — such as health, education, transport, and personal care — aggregated into a single head. The revised CPI, shown … Read more
The recent announcement that China awarded its first “practical PhDs”, doctoral degrees conferred for tangible products rather than traditional research papers, is a timely catalyst for a long-overdue conversation on the relevance, design, and culture of PhD education in India. In China’s new model, doctoral candidates are evaluated on working prototypes and real-world applications instead … Read more
Skywatchers across the country and the globe turned their gaze upward as a dramatic lunar eclipse unfolded on March 3, 2026 evening, turning the full moon into a darker orb.As Earth’s shadow moved steadily across the lunar surface, the Moon shifted its shade from a bright white to deeper shades of amber and red. The … Read more
The recent announcement that China awarded its first “practical PhDs”, doctoral degrees conferred for tangible products rather than traditional research papers, is a timely catalyst for a long-overdue conversation on the relevance, design, and culture of PhD education in India. In China’s new model, doctoral candidates are evaluated on working prototypes and real-world applications instead … Read more
Oil and gas prices have surged following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a gateway to 20% of the world’s oil exports from the Gulf | Photo Credit: Hamad I Mohammed With Iran targeting U.S. bases in other countries in the West Asian region, the U.S.-Israel attack has created a massive ripple effect extending well beyond the region, … Read more
(1) U.S. and Israeli launched an all-out war on Iran, Supreme Leader Khameini killed Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday (February 28 2026) leading to a broader military conflict involving the U.S. and left the world concerned about a bigger West Asia conflict. Several of Iran’s top political, spiritual, military leaders and scientists have … Read more
Twenty-one MPs recommended works outside the State or constituency they were elected from or are associated with, using their Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds, an analysis by The Hindu has found. And of the more than ₹18 crore spent on works which were completed based on these recommendations, the vast majority — 84% … Read more
Twenty-one MPs recommended works outside the State or constituency they were elected from or are associated with, using their Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds, an analysis by The Hindu has found. And of the more than ₹18 crore spent on works which were completed based on these recommendations, the vast majority — 84% … Read more
From the lapis-laden trade routes of the Bronze Age, blue travelled east and west, carrying with it power, devotion, and value. By the Kushan period, between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE, ultramarine pigment was extracted from Afghan lapis lazuli through a complex and painstaking process of crushing it carefully and treating it with beeswax … Read more
Rain comes down steadily, painting the skies a dull grey and sending a chill breeze wafting through the windows of high-rise buildings. On the street below, water creeps out of cracks and pores. Next to the highway lies a lake but the boundary between water and land has blurred. What was once contained spreads across … Read more
Modern cancer research is closely linked to the study of genes, with a particular focus on variants. Image used for representational purposes only | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, nearly 20 million new cancer cases were recorded in 2022, with the figure projected to surpass 35 million annually … Read more
The team tests the QR code. | Photo Credit: TU Wien By shrinking a QR code to the size of a microbe, researchers from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the German-Austrian start-up Cerabyte have shown that the future of the digital world could depend on ceramics, one of the oldest and most … Read more
Using data from NASA’s MAVEN mission, scientists have detected a type of radio wave called a whistler. | Photo Credit: NASA Radio whistles are first clear sign of Mars lightning Scientists have reported the first clear evidence of lightning on Mars. Using data from NASA’s MAVEN mission, they detected a type of radio wave called … Read more
Image used for representational purposes. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Gross GST collection increased by 8.1% to over ₹1.83 lakh crore in February, led by higher growth in revenues from imports and improved domestic sales. Gross domestic revenue rose 5.3% to about ₹1.36 lakh crore, while gross import revenue climbed 17.2% to ₹47,837 crore. Total … Read more
A webinar on ‘Constitution Under the Microscope: Federalism, Free Speech and the Indian Republic’ at Future Career Conversations. A webinar on Constitution Under the Microscope: Federalism, Free Speech and the Indian Republic, jointly organised by the SRM Institute of Science and Technology and The Hindu, focused on strained Centre-State ties in many States, the role … Read more
Indian young adults have performed poorly in Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) scores, ranking 60 out of 84 nations featured in an ongoing global mental health study. The study by US-based Sapien Labs — Global Mind Health in 2025 — also revealed that not only did Indian youths in the 18-34 age group score poorly globally, … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI) models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini often give the impression that there’s a mind at work within the machine. These days they “think” in response to queries, go back and correct themselves, apologise for mistakes, and mimic many tics of human communication. There’s no direct physical evidence to this day that a … Read more
