India has over 3 crore orphans, yet only around 3,000 are legally free for adoption. Why is there such a massive gap between children in need and families eager to adopt? In this episode of The Data Point, we examine India’s adoption crisis, using official data, expert interviews, and state-wise breakdowns. While a significant number … Read more
An interdisciplinary team of scientists from BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus has developed a smart wound dressing capable of killing the infection-causing bacteria and also visually signalling the presence of infection — all without the use of traditional antibiotics. The work has been published in ACS Infectious Diseases, a journal of the American Chemical Society, highlighting … Read more
Flooding events are a major hazard worldwide. According to a 2024 Moody’s report, more than 2.3 billion people are exposed to flooding every year. In India, more than 600 million people are at risk of coastal or inland flooding. However, there is a lack of comprehensive data on vulnerable communities’ flood exposure risk, especially in … Read more
If fresh fish is already a rich source of protein (17-19%) depending on the fish variety, dry fish with up to 70% protein is a far superior source of protein. Besides high protein content, dry fish is also a rich source of omega-3 fatty acid, calcium and iron. Since the protein content is high, a … Read more
A view of the NASA-ISRO’s joint satellite NISAR in Sriharikota on July 28, 2025. Photo: X/@isro via ANI Ahead of the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite scheduled for July 30, 2025, the ISRO on Monday (July 28, 2025) announced that the satellite had been mounted on a geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle … Read more
A view of the NASA-ISRO’s joint satellite NISAR following its launch on July 30th at 5:40 p.m., in Sriharikota on July 28, 2025. | Photo Credit: X/@isro via ANI Photo Ahead of the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite scheduled for July 30, the ISRO on Monday (July 28, 2025) announced that … Read more
(1) India and U.K. sign trade pact India and the U.K. signed a significant trade pact, reducing import tariffs, supporting cross-border service sector activity and streamlining social security payments for Indian temporary workers in the U.K. on Thursday (July 24, 2025) last week. The India-U.K. CETA, while reducing tariffs across several tariff lines, has also … Read more
The unique Earth observation satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will be launched through the GSLV-S16 on July 30, said ISRO chairman V Narayanan. Weighing 2,392 kg, NISAR is a unique Earth observation satellite and the first to observe the Earth with a dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band) both using NASA’s … Read more
The vagus nerve can be stimulated to manage epilepsy. | Photo Credit: Manu5 (CC BY-SA) Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) is a medical technique where doctors implant electrodes deep inside specific areas of the brain to treat certain disorders. These electrodes are connected by wires to a small device, similar to a heart’s pacemaker, which is usually … Read more
More than a century ago, a 26-year-old Albert Einstein explained Brownian motion in one of four papers he published in his annus mirabilis, the miraculous year, called because these papers shot him to fame. Brownian motion is the random jittering of small particles in a fluid, caused because they’re constantly colliding with molecules around them. … Read more
Where it all began… Did you know that a rough conservative estimate of India’s tiger population at the start of the 20the Century was around 40,000? The top end of the estimates even placed the number of tigers in the Indian subcontinent in 1900 at around 1,00,000! That number, however, nosedived to a mere 1,827 … Read more
The speculation over whether the BJP will support a TDP candidate in the upcoming Jubilee Hills by-poll signals a broader realignment in Telangana’s political landscape. The 2023 Assembly elections marked a rupture in Telangana’s political trajectory. The decade-long dominance of the BRS, formerly the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, came to an end as the Congress returned … Read more
The story so far: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the NISAR satellite from Sriharikota on July 30 onboard a GSLV Mk-II rocket. ‘NISAR’ stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar and is a joint mission of the two space agencies. It is a sophisticated earth-observation satellite designed to study changes on … Read more
Crates of tomatoes lined up at the Rayakottai mandi in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. | Photo Credit: N. Bashkaran/The Hindu The evolution and growth of the humble tomato as an essential ingredient of our daily diet across the world is a fascinating story. Yolanda Evans writes in the June 5, 2025, issue of National Geographic magazine … Read more
The story so far: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the NISAR satellite from Sriharikota on July 30 onboard a GSLV Mk-II rocket. ‘NISAR’ stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar and is a joint mission of the two space agencies. It is a sophisticated earth-observation satellite designed to study changes on … Read more
Android smartphones around the world have been actively helping provide earthquake alerts using their acceleration sensors. Between 2021 and 2024, these phones sent thousands of successful warnings to people living in quake-prone regions in 98 countries. Since 2020, Google has included its Android Earthquake Alert (AEA) system in its phones to detect seismic P- and … Read more
M. Jayashree, second from left, receiving the President’s Medal for overall highest CGPA in B. Tech from V. Narayanan, ISRO Chairman, at the NIT-Tiruchi convocation on Saturday. NIT-Tiruchi Director G. Aghila is at right. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT India has made great strides in space technology and attained global leadership through sheer hard work … Read more
Across India’s coasts, from the languid channels of the Sundarbans delta to Mumbai’s stifled creeks, mangroves form a barrier between land and sea. These coastal forests are critical in India’s pursuit of climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and the empowerment of coastal communities. However, in the face of urban expansion, climate change, and development, how are … Read more
The confusion comes from how our brains interpret the reflection. | Photo Credit: Andre Mouton/Unsplash A: This classic question has a surprisingly interesting answer. The fact is mirrors don’t actually flip left and right, much less up and down. Instead, they flip the image of the world you see front to back. When you stand … Read more
A pedestrian wears a face mask amid a thick blanket of smog in New Delhi, November 18, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP A: Air pollution is increasingly being recognised as an important threat to brain health. Research has demonstrated that exposure to airborne pollutants like fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone can … Read more
In altermagnetic materials, atoms form a regular pattern with their spin and spatial orientation alternating on the neighbouring magnetic sites in the crystal. | Photo Credit: Libor Šmejkal (CC BY-SA) Some materials conduct electricity mainly with one kind of charge‑carrier everywhere: either negative electrons (n‑type) or positive ‘holes’ (p‑type). A rare class can breach this … Read more
In 2010, in the waters of Mono Lake in California, NASA-funded scientists claimed to have found a microbe called GFAJ-1 they said rewrote biology. It had allegedly replaced the phosphorus in its DNA with the toxic element arsenic. The announcement, made at a high-profile press conference on December 2 that year, stunned the world. The … Read more
Agitators being detained during a protest march by members of various student organisations over the death of a college student in Odisha | Photo Credit: Salman Ali Over the past few months, a slew of heinous crimes against women have been reported from Odisha. On Saturday, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, assaulted, and set … Read more
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley Quiz: Easy like Sunday morning | All about proteins What fibrous protein is the main structural material in many animals? START THE QUIZ 1 / 10 | … Read more
When gold is heated really quickly, it seems it remains solid at temperatures far beyond the point where it should have become liquid, a new study in Nature has found. The term for when a solid stays a solid at or beyond its melting point is superheating. Most materials can be superheated only in a … Read more
Bacteria are enclosed by protective cell walls, made from a unique substance called peptidoglycan. This material is absent in other life forms, including humans, which is why many antibiotics target it. A team of scientists led by Manjula Reddy at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, has found that bacteria sometimes make mistakes … Read more
The AIADMK is in a classic Catch-22 situation in Tamil Nadu: the party is damned if it allies with the BJP, and damned if it does not. On the one hand, to consolidate the anti-DMK votes and remain electorally competitive, the AIADMK feels compelled to ally with the BJP. This pragmatic move will prevent a … Read more
From bones to immune cells, vitamin D is everywhere, guiding growth and shaping defence. But could it also have an effect on the mind? A major new study suggests so. Published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study drew from the extraordinary depth of Danish health data to establish whether neonatal vitamin D levels might contribute … Read more
Image for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: E. Lakshmi Narayanan The researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune (IITM Pune) have developed a Smart Irrigation Plan to save 10-30% of irrigation water in drought-prone regions, combining weather forecasts, satellite soil moisture data, … Read more
‘Conducting experiments on laboratory-grown anatomical parts would also help the development of the nascent field of tissue-engineering or regenerative medicine’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto As human beings are superior to animals, and as animals instinctively rely on the benevolence, goodwill, and protective nature of man, we must fulfil our obligation to treat our fellow … Read more