Despite covering less than 1% of the world’s ocean area, the Bay of Bengal provides nearly 8% of global fishery production. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Strong and weak monsoons can influence marine productivity in the Bay of Bengal, a study exploring fluctuations in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) over the past 22,000 years has … Read more
Axiom Mission 4 crew, from left to right, European Space Agency astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. Photo: X/@NASASpaceOps via PTI Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be launched on May 29 … Read more
Image for representation. | Photo Credit: Getty Image/iStockphoto Only about one in four public-funded research and development organisations in India give incubation support to start-ups and only one in six provide support to ‘deep tech’ startups. Only 15% collaborated with industry overseas and only half of them opened their facilities to outside researchers and students, … Read more
(1) Terrorists kill 26 people in Pahalgam Between 2:40 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, a group of at least four terrorists selectively killed 25 tourists and injured 16 others on the basis of their religion. A ponywala, one of about 150 who ferries people up to Baisaran, was also killed when he tried … Read more
A: The colour of an object is determined by the spectral composition of the light reflected by it. When a surface is dry, the reflected light rays corresponding to the colour of the surface are superposed with diffused white light arising out of random scattering resulting from the roughness and irregularities of the surface. In … Read more
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bengaluru. C-CAMP said that the national Anti-microbial Resistance (AMR) Challenge was launched in August 2024. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Four Bengaluru-based institutions, including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), are among the winners of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) Anti-microbial Resistance (AMR) Challenge 2024-25. … Read more
Despite covering less than 1% of the world’s ocean area, the Bay of Bengal provides nearly 8% of global fishery production. | Photo Credit: L. Balachandar Strong and weak monsoons can influence marine productivity in the Bay of Bengal, a study exploring fluctuations in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) over the past 22,000 years has … Read more
Rajeev K. Varshney from Murdoch University with a clutch of peanuts. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement A team of 19 researchers from Australia and China have unlocked the genetic key to developing higher-yielding varieties of peanut or groundnut, a major food and oilseed crop in India. Their pan-genome analysis, revealing the structural variation associated with … Read more
The next time you sweep away a cobweb without a second thought, consider this: the silken structure is an engineering marvel. According to new research published last week in Current Biology, a North American spider species can change how its webs transmit vibrations. The authors have reported that spiders in urban environments can build webs … Read more
Assorted brands of honey are seen at a supermarket in Vienna, Austria, on April 3. | Photo Credit: AFP At a laboratory in Austria’s mountainous Tyrol province, scientists are DNA testing about 100 honey samples a month to learn about their composition — and in some cases to determine whether they have been adulterated. … Read more
The International Space Station (ISS). The experiments will be conducted during the upcoming Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4). | Photo Credit: NASA TV Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shortlisted seven microgravity research experiments, which are expected to be conducted on board the International Space Station (ISS) during the upcoming Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4). The upcoming Ax-4 mission, … Read more
Data Point: U.S. denied half a million student visas in two years | Video Credit: The Hindu International students, especially Indians, in the United States are facing an unprecedented crisis. Over 4,000 international students have received visa revocation notices, and an analysis by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reveals that half of them are … Read more
Every year, farmers battle an invisible, relentless, formidable enemy: plant viruses. Unlike bacteria or fungi, which can be controlled with pesticides or fungicides, there is no straightforward way to cure crops of viral infections. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), plant pests and diseases destroy nearly 40% of the world’s annual crop, … Read more
According tothe World Organisation for Animal Health, as of February 20, 2025, H5N1 has been found in 99 cats and has killed 18 cats. | Photo Credit: Reuters The Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) has shared the H5N1 genome sequence data with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), a public database, … Read more
Employees stand next to Heat Shield of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark II inside a manufacturing facility of the Larsen & Toubro Precision Manufacturing and Systems Complex on the outskirts of Coimbatore, India, February 26, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a short duration hot test … Read more
A newfound species of carnivorous caterpillar, left, uses a protective case made with insect parts, near a spider in Oahi, Hawaii. | Photo Credit: AP A new carnivorous caterpillar that wears the remains of its prey has been dubbed the “bone collector”. The odd insect is only found on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It … Read more
The urban heat island effect contributes to an increase in human heat exposure and subsequent death globally during hotter seasons. | Photo Credit: AP Cities having higher ambient temperatures than rural surroundings (known as the urban heat island effect) could offset some of the negative effects of increased heat-related mortality by reducing the number of … Read more
DBT has completed the proposal call without disclosing what phenotype data are available. | Photo Credit: istockphoto On January 9, 2025, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) called for proposals on ‘Translational research using genomeIndia data’ from scientists based in India. On February 20, eight days before the February 28 deadline for submitting proposals, DBT extended … Read more
A study found that preventable Caesarean sections or C-sections constitute between 3.1% and 8.4% of all deliveries in the southern States of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Among the 21,499 women studied, the percentage of preventable C-sections was 6.2%, and the percentage of C-sections was 44.3%. The percentage of preventable C-sections among … Read more
What is a scientific zoo? Also called zoological gardens, scientific zoos are park-like areas housing animals primarily for the purpose of scientific study, conservation, and public education. Research and conservation efforts are often a priority for such scientific zoos, and they play a pivotal role in studying animal behaviour and genetics, and nurturing breeding programmes. … Read more
The Science Quiz: Entities that lie at the edge of physics 1 / 6 | Name the man in the picture. The mass of a subatomic particle named for him is very close to a figure that, if that had been the actual mass, could have destroyed the universe as we know it. Credit: Bengt … Read more
Former ISRO chairman Dr. K Kasturirangan passed away in Bengaluru on April 25, 2025. File | Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Dr. K. Kasturirangan passed away in Bengaluru on April 25, 2025. He was 84 years old. The former space scientist’s health had been deteriorating for a week … Read more
China was able to make up for the fall by finding newer markets or selling more to other trade partners. Trade data shows that despite facing tariff headwinds from the U.S., the world’s largest importer, China, the world’s largest exporter, has managed to increase its overall exports, till at least 2023. A series of tariff … Read more
K. Kasturirangan, the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who passed away in Bengaluru, was once known as the “Chairman with golden fingers” in the ISRO community, G. Madhavan Nair, who had succeeded him to the top post in 2003, recalled on Friday. Dr. Kasturirangan was a “very meticulous person” who did … Read more
DRDO demonstrated long-duration Active Cooled Scramjet Subscale Combustor ground testing for more than 1,000 seconds. Photo: PIB The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday (April 25, 2025) announced a significant milestone in the field of hypersonic weapon technology with the demonstration of long-duration Active Cooled Scramjet Subscale Combustor ground testing for more than … Read more
Museum specimens, the Zoological Survey of India used to unlock morphological mysteries of the South Asian treeshrews. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT GUWAHATI Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have resolved longstanding taxonomic ambiguities surrounding South Asian treeshrews – small, insectivorous mammals often misidentified due to their superficial resemblance to squirrels. Drawing upon … Read more
A file photo of Dr. K. Kasturirangan (centre) visiting Gundya in Sakaleshpur taluk of Hassan district in Karnataka. He was the author of the Kasturirangan Committee report on Western Ghats, which in 2013, identified an area of 59,940 sq. km of natural landscape of Western Ghats, spread across 6 States as ecologically sensitive. | Photo … Read more
April 25 has been recognised globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day (previously African Malaria Day), since 2006, to highlight the need for continued investment and innovation. The “butterfly effect” from chaos theory might result in a tornado, but the “mosquito effect” (through the parasite it carries) has fundamentally altered human … Read more
This year, India might receive an ‘above normal’ monsoon for the second year in a row, according to the first monsoon forecast for 2025 by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The country is likely to receive about 105% of the long period average (LPA) rainfall this year with an error margin of ± 5%. The … Read more
Can insulin-dependent diabetics stay in space? This will be one of the areas of research by astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), probably this May, as part of the Axiom 4 mission. Indian Air Force pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla, will be among the four astronauts part of the space-flight – the first … Read more