Souvik Das, a researcher under the DST-INSPIRE programme, is attempting to examine how gravity behaves under the Sun’s extreme heat and pressure. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement The Sun may be doing more than warming planet Earth. It may also be helping scientists rethink one of nature’s most fundamental forces. Researchers at Tezpur University in … Read more
Coconut is one of the largest horticultural crops in peninsular India, and an increasing number of farmers are taking up coconut plantations due to a lack of labour availability and the intensive attention required to raise annual crops. The three States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala together account for about 82-83 % of India’s … Read more
In an “extra layer of protection,” image creation and the ability to edit photos via X’s Grok account was now only available to paid subscribers, the statement added. | Photo Credit: Reuters Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday (January 14, 2026) announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, … Read more
Four International Space Station crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday (January 15, 2026), NASA footage showed, after the first ever medical evacuation in the orbital lab’s history. A video feed from NASA showed the capsule carrying American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya … Read more
Wikipedia unveiled new business deals with a slew of artificial intelligence companies on Thursday as it marked its 25th anniversary. The online crowdsourced encyclopedia revealed that it has signed up AI companies including Amazon, Meta Platforms, Perplexity, Microsoft and France’s Mistral AI. Wikipedia is one of the last bastions of the early internet, but that … Read more
Datacentres are a growing share of global electricity consumption, and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving those power demands up. This is because AI datacentres use dense clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) for running machine learning workloads, both when training large language models and deploying them. Since the generative AI boom shows no signs of … Read more
Daily Quiz: On ISRO’s PSLV rocket Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle | Photo credits: ISRO START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | The liquid-fuelled second stage of the PSLV rocket uses the Vikas engine, which is based on the French Viking engine. In 1974, rather than pay cash, ISRO acquired this technology from France in exchange … Read more
Although a spinning fan changes continuously, we don’t perceive its blades’ every intermediate position perfectly. | Photo Credit: Delaney Van/Unsplash A: This is an illusion caused by the way our eyes and brains sample motion in discrete snapshots and the fact that fans have identical blades. Although a spinning fan changes continuously, we don’t perceive … Read more
The story so far: Futuristic space and marine biotechnology research focuses on using underexplored environments, such as the deep oceans and outer space, to develop new biological knowledge, materials, and manufacturing processes. Marine biotechnology involves studying microorganisms, algae, and other marine life to discover bioactive compounds, enzymes, biomaterials, food ingredients, and biostimulants. These organisms have … Read more
On December 28th, traders in Tehran went on a strike following the Iranian rial crash, leading to sudden inflation and high commodity prices. In the two weeks since, the protests have spiralled into nationwide unrest–the largest demonstration Iran has seen since 2022–claiming more than 2,000 lives. While Iran has intensified its crackdown in its attempt … Read more
Imagine you’re a detective looking for proof of something extraordinary. You find what looks like the perfect clue, a smoking gun that seems to prove your theory. But what if that clue could be explained by something more ordinary? Many physicists around the world are trying to create and identify special materials with unusual electronic … Read more
Back to school | Photo Credit: Si-Gal A school bus approaches, and even from far away, its bright yellow coat catches your eye, gleaming in the sunlight. There’s a reason you rarely see school buses in red, blue, or green. And it’s all yellow In the VIBGYOR spectrum, yellow falls in the mid-to-long wavelength range … Read more
Bar headed goose (Anser indicus) in a V formation. | Photo Credit: K.V.S. Giri The V-formation we have all seen growing up is commonly seen in migratory birds like cranes, pelicans, and ducks. It consists of a bird leader up front and the others trailing behind. Each one keeps a precise position relative to the … Read more
Bar headed goose (Anser indicus) in a V formation. | Photo Credit: GIRI KVS/The Hindu The V-formation we have all seen growing up is commonly seen in migratory birds like cranes, pelicans, and ducks. It consists of a bird leader up front and the others trailing behind. Each one keeps a precise position relative to … Read more
A new study has found that genes related to heart function, the nervous system, and the senses of vision and smell became overactive during spaceflight. Representative image of a NASA astronaut working outside the International Space Station. | Photo Credit: NASA As humans prepare for longer missions to the moon and eventually Mars, scientists need … Read more
Q: This ‘infographic’ from an 18th century work explains the famous rule of ________, by which heralds may be designed. Fill in the blank. A: Tincture Q: The half or edge of the flag nearest to the flagpole is called the hoist. In vexillography, this is considered to be the leading edge. The fly is … Read more
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, right, with Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair. File | Photo Credit: ANI Space is for everybody, and space is going to epitomise what deep tech is going to be, said Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Indian Air Force Group Captain who is one of the astronauts selected for India’s first crewed spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan. He was speaking at the third edition of Deep Science Forum, a … Read more
Why does the idea of eating insects provoke discomfort, even before taste or nutrition enters the conversation? At an edible insects stall during a food mela at the Science Gallery, Bengaluru, this question surfaced repeatedly as visitors negotiated curiosity, disgust and the boundaries of what they considered “normal” food. Many assumed they were encountering a … Read more
(From left) Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch greet the crowd at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, April 3, 2023. | Photo Credit: NASA A: Artemis II is the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis programme. It will be the first time humans will travel to the vicinity of … Read more
(1) Supreme Court denies bail to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam The Supreme Court on January 5 declined to grant bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, notwithstanding their incarceration for nearly six years without the commencement of trial. A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria, however, granted … Read more
Many think the idea of ‘dumping’ in global trade is a red herring. The reason is obvious: if country A is able to dump certain goods in country B, it’s not because A has smuggled them in. It’s because someone in country B was interested in receiving those goods, and B’s laws allowed for them … Read more
While number of active loan accounts have decreased, there’s a steep rise in outstanding amount | Photo Credit: Andrii Yalanskyi Although students from Tamil Nadu remain the leading recipients of educational loans across India, there has been a significant decline in the number of active loans they hold. Given that this student group has been … Read more
Scientists at a nuclear fusion reactor in China recently surmounted an important obstacle in operating reactor vessels at high density. They pushed plasma density 65% beyond a special threshold, entering a stable state that overcomes a long-standing barrier to achieving burning plasma, the stage where a fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining. Fusion power mimics what happens … Read more
On January 12, as the PSLV-C62 mission rose from Sriharikota into the morning sky and its third stage kicked on, the live telecast abruptly stopped showing the rocket’s performance and trajectory. As it became evident that its third stage had suffered an anomaly, putting paid to the C62 mission in a manner similar to the … Read more
On May 18, 2025, the PSLV-C61 mission was a rare launch failure for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The rocket has a reputation as a ‘workhorse’ because ISRO had had a string of successes with it and each of those launches had been thoroughly as intended. Today, however, ISRO faces two PSLV mission failures … Read more
DRDO’s Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, successfully flight-tests Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile with top attack capability against a moving target, in KK Ranges in Ahilyanagar on Monday. | Photo Credit: ANI The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Sunday (January 11, 2026) successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed third-generation fire-and-forget Man Portable Anti-Tank … Read more
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams | Photo Credit: AP The organisers of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) have announced the participation of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, one of the world’s most accomplished explorers and a global icon of space science, at its 2026 edition to be held on the Kozhikode beach. The festival will be held … Read more
Von Daeniken addresses a press conference in Bern, Switzerland, in October 1999. | Photo Credit: REUTERS Best-selling Swiss author Erich von Daeniken, who built a lucrative career on his argument, rubbished by scientists and archaeologists, that humanity owes much of its development to the intervention of extraterrestrial beings, has died aged 90. Chariots of the … Read more
On May 18, 2025, the PSLV-C61 mission was a rare launch failure for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The rocket has a reputation as a ‘workhorse’ because ISRO had had a string of successes with it and each of those launches had been thoroughly as intended. Today, however, ISRO faces two PSLV mission failures … Read more
PSLV-C62 will carry EOS-N1 and 15 co-passenger satellites. Photo: YouTube/ISRO Official The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 Mission encountered an anomaly during end of the PS3 stage, following lift-off on Monday (January 12, 2026). A detailed analysis has been initiated, ISRO said “Today we attempted the PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 Mission. The PSLV is a four stage vehicle with two solid stages … Read more