New bat species discovered by a global research team

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Hipposideros srilankaensis a new species of bats endemic to Sri Lanka has been discovered and described by researchers from Osmania University in a global collaborative effort. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement HYDERABAD A team of researchers led by Bhargavi Srinivasulu of Zoology Department of Osmania University here, have identified and described a new species of … Read more

AI models flunk language test that takes grammar out of the equation

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Generative AI systems like large language models and text-to-image generators can pass rigorous exams that are required of anyone seeking to become a doctor or a lawyer. They can perform better than most people in Mathematical Olympiads. They can write halfway decent poetry, generate aesthetically pleasing paintings and compose original music. These remarkable capabilities may … Read more

Indians living in cyberspace, working on cloud and talking to Artificial Intelligence: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

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Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and others participate in ‘Vigyan Vaibhav 2025’ programme at Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on February 28, 2025. | Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal “Today, Indians are living in cyberspace, working on the cloud, and talking to artificial intelligence,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh remarked … Read more

Aditya-L1 payload captures the first-ever image of a solar flare ‘kernel’

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Aditya-L1 is the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun. | Photo Credit: ISRO India’s first dedicated space based solar mission, Aditya-L1, has made a ground-breaking observation as one of its scientific payloads has captured the first-ever image of a solar flare ‘kernel’ in the lower solar atmosphere. The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) … Read more

Lightning strikes link weather on earth and weather in space 

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There are trillions of charged particles – protons and electrons, the basic building blocks of matter – whizzing around above your head at any given time. These high-energy particles, which can travel at close to the speed of light, typically remain thousands of kilometres away from the earth, trapped there by the shape of the … Read more

Bidar to host State-level traditional medicine conference from March 2

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Forest Minister and Bidar In-charge Eshwar Khandre addressing a media conference in Bidar on February 27, 2025. 11 deliberative sessions would be held at the three-day conference. Traditional healers from across Karnataka and beyond would participate to share their rich healing experiences in these sessions. | Photo Credit: GOPICHAND T. Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre said … Read more

Protein therapeutics in healthcare: current and future trends

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Therapeutic proteins are increasingly becoming an indispensable part of healthcare, with their applications found in treating both infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer. What are they and how do they work? Proteins are the largest class of biomolecules that drive cellular activities essential for life. Any aberration in their synthesis, processing … Read more

NASA launches satellite on mission to detect water on the moon

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An illustration shows NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer approaching the moon as it enters its orbit in this artist’s concept. | Photo Credit: Lockheed Martin Space/Reuters A dishwasher-sized NASA satellite was launched into space from Florida on Wednesday to identify where water – a precious resource for lunar missions – resides on the moon’s surface in places … Read more

Private company Intuitive Machines launches lunar lander Athena to explore moon’s south pole with drone Grace

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Photographers record images of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Intuitive Machines’ second lunar lander as lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on February 26, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday (February 26, 2025), aiming to get closer to the … Read more

Coal power is costing India up to 10% of its rice and wheat crops

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According to new research led by researchers at Stanford University in the US, coal-fired power plants are quietly depleting India’s rice and wheat output, destroying up to 10% of the yield in several states. The emissions from coal power plants include carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, fly ash, soot, suspended particulate matter, and other … Read more

How will Trump’s fund cuts hit the US’s technological competitiveness?

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America has already lost its global competitive edge in science, and funding cuts proposed in early 2025 may further a precipitous decline. Proposed cuts to the federal agencies that fund scientific research could undercut America’s global competitiveness, with negative impacts on the economy and the ability to attract and train the next generation of researchers. I’m an astronomer, and … Read more

Evolution of intelligent life on earth may not have been so unlikely

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A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare. But as experts on the entangled history of life and our planet, we propose that the coevolution of life and Earth’s surface environment may have unfolded in a way that makes the evolutionary … Read more

Why is there so much gold in west Africa?

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Militaries that have taken power in Africa’s Sahel region – notably Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – have put pressure on western mining firms for a fairer distribution of revenue from the lucrative mining sector. Gold is one of the resources at the heart of these tensions. West Africa has been a renowned gold mining hub for … Read more

The Science Quiz | Surviving radiation

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Fragments of an explosive device, a radiation warning sign in the foreground, are displayed by Ukrainian authorities after a drone attack at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, Friday, February 14, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP Questions: 1. There are four ways to measure radiation dose. Of these, gray and X measure the absorbed … Read more

‘Harmful contents in cosmetics, herbicide lead to endocrine disruption, hormonal imbalance’

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Prof. B D Vishwajit and Mahesh Tanwade at work in the animal house in Sharnbasva University, Kalaburagi. | Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI An advanced laboratory studies on rats and mice on reproductive toxicity and endocrine disruptive compounds by two scientists of Sharnbasva University has revealed disturbing facts of how harmful contents in some cosmetics and herbicides … Read more

Researchers spot a clue as to why human and mouse genomes overlap

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Eighty million years ago humans, rats, and mice shared the same mammalian ancestor. More recently, researchers made the astonishing discovery that even today our genomes contain close to 500 segments that have remained totally unchanged since then. These segments are called ultra-conserved elements (UCEs). Nearly all the UCEs are also highly unchanged in the chicken … Read more

Why don’t century years get leap days unless divisible by 400?

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Time measurements and calendars have often been refined over the years. | Photo Credit: Alexey Savchenko/Unsplash A: A tropical year is the time (365.242199 days) the earth takes to revolve around the sun once. By having just 365 days in a calendar year, 0.242199 days are lost each year. To correct this error, Julius Caesar … Read more

The Science Quiz | Unusual materials

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Questions: 1. This material is one of the lightest solids known, since more than 99% of its composition by volume is air. Making it involves extracting the liquid component of a particular type of semisolid by supercritical freezing. Name it. 2. In the 1970s, a British hairdresser named Maurice Ward developed a material his granddaughter … Read more