A fire officer stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. | Photo Credit: Adnan Abidi Earlier this month, a London-bound Air India plane crashed soon after take off in Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people aboard. This was one of the deadliest … Read more
Axiom-4 pilot Shubhanshu Shukla and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu enjoy views of Earth from the International Space Station’s cupola. Photo: axiomspace.com Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who is aboard the International Space Station (ISS), is expected to talk to the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru via ham radio on July 4. “Contact upcoming with … Read more
The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently issued an order for holding Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls for Bihar. This exercise will then be carried out in all the States. The order is antithetical to the tradition of this august institution. From the first election held in independent India, the ECI has played a … Read more
Representative image | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto After defence forces realised the need for more precision surveillance during Operation Sindoor, the Union government has ordered the fast-tracking of the launch of 52 dedicated surveillance satellites, enhancing round-the-clock monitoring of coastline and land borders. In October last year, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee approved … Read more
Representative image | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto After defence forces realised the need for more precision surveillance during Operation Sindoor, the Union government has ordered the fast-tracking of the launch of 52 dedicated surveillance satellites, enhancing round-the-clock monitoring of coastline and land borders. In October last year, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee approved … Read more
(1) Shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to hold U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was “in effect”, after the truce, which he announced early morning, seemed unravelling following accusations of violations from both sides, prompting Mr. Trump to curse them and issue a rare public demand to … Read more
An outcrop of metagabbroic rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, that are 4.16 billion years old, in this photograph released on June 26, 2025. A knife is pictured for scale. | Photo Credit: Reuters Scientists have identified what could be the oldest rocks on the earth from a rock formation in … Read more
The rain begins, and for many cities, so does the chaos. Choked roads, submerged streets, endless traffic — a familiar monsoon story. If you’re indoors, you may enjoy the patter on your window. But step outside, and it’s a different world: stalled vehicles, knee-deep water, and helplessness. Year after year, the same scenes play out. … Read more
Are all space travellers astronauts? Astronaut, cosmonaut, or vyomanaut? Here’s why space travelers have different names around the world. | Video Credit: The Hindu On June 26, 2025, Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian ever to enter space, joining the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission. However, … Read more
Women in STEM is a popular term you would have heard, and it is well-celebrated in the modern age. However, what about the women who laid the stepping stones for the term? Women who not only broke gender barriers but also played an important role in laying the foundation in several modern fields. One such … Read more
In wine-making circles, ‘noble rot’ is an exalted name for the botrytis fungus (Botrytis cinerea). It infects grapes, penetrates the skin, causes the berries to lose water by evaporation and shrivel up, and thus concentrates the sugars and flavours in them. Since only a small percentage of grapes in a vineyard are infected, they must … Read more
Are all space travellers astronauts? Astronaut, cosmonaut, or vyomanaut? Here’s why space travelers have different names around the world. | Video Credit: The Hindu On June 26, 2025, Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian ever to enter space, joining the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission. However, … Read more
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla commenced his research activities aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on June 29, 2025. | Photo Credit: ANI Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who is aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has commenced research activities at the orbiting laboratory According to Axiom Space the crew members are fully immersed in their mission … Read more
Light always travels at 3 lakh km per second in a vacuum. It cannot be trapped and solidified because the particles of light, photons, have no rest mass and don’t interact strongly with each other. Generally, light exists only as a particle or wave. But recently, a team of researchers from Italy’s University of Pavia … Read more
A jatropha demonstration plot developed by Labland Biodiesel, a Mysuru-based biotechnology company, near in Mysuru. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Deepening concerns over the warming of our planet have made “green” and “sustainable” popular words. ‘Going green’ means taking steps to lessen harm to the environment, like adopting eco-friendly practices. Sustainability aims for changes that … Read more
India’s vast linguistic, cultural, and social diversity has long been evident, but only now are scientists beginning to uncover the genetic richness underpinning it. In a new study in Cell, researchers reported sequencing the genomes of 2,762 Indians from 23 States and Union Territories. The data captured variation across caste, tribal groups, language, geography, and … Read more
This picture released by the Schmidt Ocean Institute on September 14, 2023, shows a Grimalditeuthis near Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago. These squid were only observed alive in the wild for the first time in 2005. | Photo Credit: AFP Squids are some of the smartest and most agile animals in today’s oceans, but their evolutionary history … Read more
From Instagram reels to supermarket shelves, kombucha — the fizzy, fermented tea drink — has found a growing audience among health-conscious consumers in India. Promoted as a probiotic powerhouse, it’s touted for its supposed benefits to digestion, immunity, and metabolism. According to one estimate provided by Indian company Sbooch, the kombucha market in India grew … Read more
This image made from video shows Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H2A rocket in Tobishima, Japan, Sept. 25, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP Japan on Sunday (June 29, 2025) successfully launched a climate change monitoring satellite on its mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its final flight before it is replaced by a new flagship designed to be … Read more
Former foes cooperate Fuelled by the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the space race saw the two nations compete to achieve superior spaceflight capability. The end of the Cold War, however, saw the Soviet Union collapse and form independent nations, including Russia, which had been at its core. Less than … Read more
An elephant is seen on wayside of the Chandaka Elephant sanctuary just outskirts of Bhubaneswar. File photo | Photo Credit: The Hindu Odisha would lose about 390 sq km of area used by migrating elephants as foraging ground and corridor in one district on account of massive coal mining alone in Angul district, says a … Read more
Cramps can hurt for a few seconds to several minutes. | Photo Credit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya/Unsplash A: A cramp is a sudden, involuntary tightening of a muscle or a group of muscles that a person can’t immediately relax. Because the muscle locks up all at once, it often feels like a sharp knot and can hurt … Read more
The health and wellbeing of adolescents across the world has reached a tipping point, a Lancet Commission report has found, with focus on obesity, overweight, and mental disorders as significant causes for concern. Developed by 44 Commissioners across geographies and disciplines with inputs from 10 youth Commissioners, the report projects that in 2030, 42 million … Read more
India is the world’s largest groundwater guzzler. It extracted around 245 billion cubic metres (BCM) for irrigating cropland alone in 2011 – about 25% of the world’s groundwater consumption. More recently, as of 2023, the annual groundwater recharge was around 449 BCM while the extraction rate was 241 BCM, meaning India is drawing roughly 60% … Read more
The story so far: A major new investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published by The Hindu has revealed that cancer drugs shipped around the world to more than 100 countries have failed quality tests. But what are these drugs and how are they used? Cancer is a disease characterised by uncontrolled cell growth. … Read more
Deaths due to liver diseases have been rising steadily in India. While this trend has been evident for some time, three patterns — across sex, age, and States — may offer some clues as to why. Diseases of the digestive system, with liver diseases accounting for a substantial share, was the eighth leading cause of … Read more
What the AXIOM-4 Mission aims to achieve at the International Space Station India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts entered the International Space Station to warm hugs from the crew members of the orbital laboratory on Thursday. The space station crew welcomed Axiom-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson as she floated into the station soon after … Read more
Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with Crewmates — veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson (U.S.) as commander, Polish engineer Sławosz Uznański, and Hungarian researcher Tibor Kapu — during the welcome ceremony aboard the International Space Station on June 26, 2025. | Photo Credit: X/@Axiom_Space via ANI India’s Shubhanshu Shukla became the 634th astronaut to travel … Read more
IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla carrying a soft toy swan during an in-flight update onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, on June 26, 2025. | Photo Credit: ANI A new ‘crew’ member of the Axiom-4 mission — a toy swan named Joy — was seen floating in the Dragon spacecraft as astronauts interacted with the mission control … Read more
Daily Quiz | On Charles Messier’s objects 1 / 5 | How many objects are there in the Messier catalogue? 2 / 5 | Messier objects are classified as what? 3 / 5 | M45 is an asterism seen in the constellation Taurus. What is its more common name? 4 / 5 | Which constellation … Read more