The ascent of a launch vehicle is a battle against gravity to gain the immense velocity required to stay in orbit — while re-entry is a struggle against the atmosphere to shed that same energy in a systematic way. Initially, aerospace scientists believed that surviving atmospheric re-entry would be impossible because the massive kinetic energy … Read more
People can witness a rare celestial phenomenon, the total lunar eclipse Blood Moon, because of its colour during totality. File | Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar A total lunar eclipse will occur on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), and many places in India will be able to view the celestial event. Here is everything you need … Read more
NASA’s Artemis II SLS moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft slowly rolls back towards the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center on February 25, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) added a new mission to its Artemis moon programme involving a spacecraft docking test in Earth’s orbit … Read more
The outbreak of fresh hostilities between the U.S.-led coalition, including Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Iran seems to have triggered a newly integrated regional air defense network different from the one these actors deployed during their brief yet intense conflict in June last year. The Twelve-Day War in 2025 was until then the … Read more
A view of the Salar de Pajonales from the International Space Station’s Expedition 6, 2003. | Photo Credit: NASA One of the best places to practice hunting for life on Mars could be in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Scientists recently studied the Salar de Pajonales, an incredibly dry and freezing salt flat located 3.5 … Read more
NASA on February 27 abruptly said it was shaking up its Artemis lunar program that has suffered multiple delays in recent years, a bid to ensure Americans can return to the Moon’s surface by 2028. That goal remains unchanged, but the US space agency is shifting its flight line-up to include a test mission before … Read more
From childhood inspiration to working at the Institute for Advanced Study — once home to Albert Einstein — she reflects on curiosity, challenges, and uncovering the Sun’s deepest secrets. The Sun is right under our noses, so to speak, and when one thinks of astrophysics, one thinks of more distant celestial objects. What made you curious … Read more
A prodigious student Born on November 7,1888, in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman displayed remarkable brilliance from the beginning. As Physics and academia ran in the family (his father, R. Chandrasekhar Iyer, was a lecturer in Physics and Mathematics), he was drawn to Physics. He went on to earn gold medals in his Bachelor’s and … Read more
*Note: The answers are from A to Z (that is, the first question’s answer would start with A, the second one’s with B, so on and so forth. Please note that in case the answer is a person’s name, it would be the last name that would start with the designated letter. Reference image for … Read more
More often than not, in the larger Indian context, students learning science at school follow a formulaic manner of engaging with the subject. There is a strict syllabus, way of learning, way of grading that learning, and even an inquisition that’s tied to viewing science as merely an academic subject. Those of you sitting in … Read more
Science fiction has been a popular genre throughout generations and continues to occupy the hearts of young fans even today. Whether it be the words in a book or the clips of a movie, the genre always has something exciting and unique to showcase. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where a man’s journey to create a … Read more
If there’s one thing that keeps Dr. Srimathy Kesan going, it is her “unwavering desire to create a platform for girls who are curious about space exploration and deep tech”. The CEO and founder of Space Kidz India, a Chennai-based aerospace and defence start-up pioneering in the launch of small satellites and spacecraft, is all … Read more
Science can be fascinating if you approach it the right way. Here, children listen carefully as a volunteer explains at the Quantum century exhibition at the Government College for Women in Thiruvananthapuram. | Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN The scientific method is a mathematical and experimental technique that is used in sciences to build a hypothesis … Read more
Every year, mosquito-borne diseases kill more than 6 lakh people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. | Photo Credit: Getty Images Between 1992 and 2020, a group of intrepid scientists walked deep into the forests of Sundaland, across the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, to collect mosquito larvae of 11 species to understand … Read more
Everyone knows scientists are in the business of “discovering” things. But what exactly do they do? When I was growing up in a small village in Kerala, there were no scientists around to ask this question. Even now, my friends ask me this question, half joking, half curious. I often laugh it off and change … Read more
Saranya J.S., climate researcher. Saranya J.S., a native of Tanur in Malappuram, has been selected for the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA) instituted and funded by the European Commission. The highly competitive two-year fellowship will support her project titled “Indian Ocean Warming Pattern, Surface and Subsurface Marine Heatwaves: Storylines and Mechanisms (IO-WAVE)”, to be carried out in France. Ms. … Read more
According to the Forest Department, the park is equipped with three advanced telescopes for structured sky-watching sessions and solar panels to power onsite operations sustainably. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced the launch of the State’s first Dark Sky Park at the Ariyur Shola Reserve Forest in Kolli Hills, … Read more
NASA’s Artemis II SLS moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft slowly rolls back towards the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center on February 25, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) added a new mission to its Artemis moon programme involving a spacecraft docking test in Earth’s orbit … Read more
Ageing is a major risk factor for most neurological and psychiatric disorders. As populations worldwide continue to grow older, the burden of brain- and cognition-related disorders is expected to rise substantially. There is, therefore, an urgent need to understand the normal trajectory of brain ageing and to develop scientific methods that can determine and predict … Read more
A venerable institution, facing accusations of opacity, decided to stun its detractors with some transparency. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made public the report of a technical committee, constituted to analyse why the NVS-02 satellite, which was launched aboard a GSLV rocket on January 29, 2025, could not be placed in its intended orbit. … Read more
For representative purposes. | Photo Credit: Getty Images The story so far: Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) refers to a set of technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources or directly from the air and convert them into useful products. This process removes carbon from the atmosphere and puts it into the economy … Read more
The Russia-Ukraine war, which began with Russia’s invasion four years ago, on February 24, 2022, has continued despite thousands of casualties and numerous rounds of peace negotiations. A joint report by the World Bank, European Union (EU), United Nations, and Ukraine, published on February 23, estimates the cost of post-war construction in Ukraine to be around … Read more
While upper castes form a modest share of the electorate, their cohesion and concentration in key States enhance their influence | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT In recent weeks, there have been debates and protests in universities across India over the University Grants Commission (UGC) (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, designed to … Read more
Early this year, when Craig, one of Africa’s “super tusker” elephants, died in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, tributes poured in from across the world. Photographs of his very large ivory tusks, nearly brushing the ground as he walked with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background, resurfaced online. Tourists shared memories of sightings and safari guides recalled … Read more
‘National Science Day should become an annual day of discussion of what counts as science, including the work of technicians, field staff, nurses, lab attendants, data collectors, and others whose labour is essential to make new knowledge but is rarely commemorated.’ Photo: dst.gov.in Every February 28, India celebrates National Science Day to commemorate C.V. Raman’s … Read more
The NVS-02 navigation satellite set to aboard the launch vehicle GSLV-F15, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota on January 29, 2025. | Photo Credit: ANI After nearly a year’s delay, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made public the report of a committee constituted to analyse why the NVS-02 satellite, which was … Read more
Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets as he emplanes for a two-day visit to Israel, in New Delhi on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: ANI Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Israel on Wednesday to review with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, the India-Israel Strategic Partnership and to discuss further opportunities in various areas of cooperation, including science … Read more
In the flower bud, new organs begin as small bumps on a ring of tissue, and the petal number is equal to the number of slots this tissue lays down in a whorl. | Photo Credit: Jei Lee/Unsplash — Ajith Kizhakkethil Many flowers are indeed pentamerous — but across flowering plants as a whole, the … Read more
A waste picker drinks water while working during a heat wave at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Jammu, June 19, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP The natural El Nino cycle, which warps weather worldwide, is both adding to and shaped by a warming world, meteorologists said. A new study calculated that an unusual … Read more
Aliens are real. Or maybe not. The possibility of mystical beings watching over us or even walking among us is not just the ramblings of the fringe and Reddit users, but a key political and societal debate in the U.S. President Donald Trump, on Thursday, February 19, 2026, announced that he was directing the Pentagon … Read more