This photo provided by Axiom Space shows Axiom-4 crew members (L-R) Shubhanshu Shukla, Peggy Whitson, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, and Tibor Kapu. | Photo Credit: AP The story so far: On June 10, Axiom Space announced that the launch of its Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) would be postponed indefinitely. The mission crew included … Read more
What truly stood out on Sunday was Alcaraz’s extraordinary comeback from being two sets down. | Photo Credit: JULIAN FINNEY Grand Slam finals carry an unmistakable aura. When a Slam final stretches into a five-setter, it signifies an enthralling contest between evenly matched rivals. Add multiple tie-breakers into the mix, and the sense of parity … Read more
Researchers at IIT-Madras and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Faridabad are developing an artificially intelligent (AI) model to use ultrasonography pictures to predict the age of a growing foetus. Called Garbhini-GA2, the model was trained on scans from about 3,500 pregnant women who had visited the Gurugram Civil Hospital in Haryana. Each … Read more
India’s Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, addresses the audience during a plenary session on the second day of the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), in the French Riviera city of Nice, on June 10, 2025. | Photo Credit: AFP India is unlikely to ratify the Biodiversity Beyond National … Read more
Certificate of selection and participation being presented to participants of the Astronomy OCSC at IISER, Mohali, Punjab | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement At the ‘Astronomy Olympiad’ — Orientation-cum-Selection Camp (OCSC) held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, five students were selected on Wednesday (June 11, 2025) to represent India at … Read more
An aerial view of the excavation site at Lakhapar in Gujarat. Photo: Special Arrangement Archaeologists from the University of Kerala have unearthed a 5,300-year-old settlement near Lakhapar village in western Kachchh, Gujarat. The excavation has revealed an Early Harappan habitation site, located near the now-quiet Gandi river, once a perennial water source, spanning nearly three … Read more
After Muhammed Sajjad moved from India to the United Arab Emirates a decade ago, he missed his native Kerala’s monsoon season, so he embarked on an unlikely quest: finding rain in the desert. Using satellite imagery, weather data and other high-tech tools, the amateur meteorologist tracks potential rainfall spots across the desert country and, along … Read more
Several recent articles in the mainstream media suggest that a delimitation exercise — if carried out with population as the primary criterion for allocating parliamentary constituencies (PCs) — would disproportionately disadvantage the southern States. Proponents of this view argue that the southern States, having adhered more rigorously to family planning norms than their northern counterparts, … Read more
FILE PHOTO: An Indian Air Force (IAF) light combat aircraft “Tejas” flies during the “Aero India 2021” air show at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru | Photo Credit: SAMUEL RAJKUMAR In the weeks following Operation Sindoor, there have been discussions on the efficacy of India’s home-grown defence capabilities, and confidence in them. As India’s defence … Read more
In a new study, scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have demonstrated how cells can sense and respond to invisible mechanical patterns—like built-in tensions around them. The research led by Professor Abhijit Majumder, was published in Cell Reports Physical Science. The findings not only add to the fundamental understanding of how cells … Read more
The RBI Bulletin (May 2025) provides foreign direct investment (FDI) figures for the fiscal year 2024-25. Two contrasting narratives have emerged from it. Focusing on the headline number, government sources and many media outlets have reported that India received an unprecedented $81 billion of gross inflows. Looking closer at the same data, others have highlighted … Read more
This handout image released courtesy of SpaceX and taken on September 11, 2024 shows Ax-4 crew members (L/R) Tibor Kapu, Shubhanshu Shukla, Peggy Whitson and Slawosz Uznanski posing inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at an undisclosed location. Photo: SpaceX via AFP SpaceX has said that it is standing down from Falcon 9’s launch of Axiom … Read more
The city Deggendorf in Germany is about 350 km by road from Karlsruhe. Yet when the spectrometer of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) was constructed in Deggendorf in 2006, it took an 8,600-km detour to Karlsruhe. Of this, only 7 km was by land, transported on a truck with great care and police protection. … Read more
In humans, fertility begins to decline in the early 30s, with a sharper drop in the 40s, reducing chances of conception and increasing the risk of miscarriage or chromosomal disorders. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Researchers at the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) have made a significant discovery that could pave the way for … Read more
Gravity is a property of spacetime. | Photo Credit: Johnson Martin/Unsplash A: For a long time, people wondered what makes the planets go around the sun and why anything thrown up comes down. The English scientist Isaac Newton probed the origins of this mysterious force and came up with the laws of gravitation. According to … Read more
(1) 11 die in stampede at RCB cup celebration What began as a day of rapturous celebration over the IPL victory of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) turned into one of crushing tragedy in Bengaluru on Wednesday (June 4, 2025) evening when 11 people died and 33 were injured after a massive build up of fans … Read more
Today, almost every keyboard we use — whether it’s on your personal computer or phone — follows the QWERTY layout. But did you know this arrangement wasn’t the obvious choice when typewriters were first invented? The origins of the typewriter The story of the QWERTY layout begins with the invention of the mechanical typewriter in … Read more
Shubhanshu Shukla | Photo Credit: Visveswaran V Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force is set to be the first Indian in over four decades to travel to space and board the International Space Station (ISS), with liftoff scheduled for June 11 as part of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission. The flight, launching from … Read more
The Axiom-4 mission, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station, has been postponed to June 11 due to weather conditions. | Photo Credit: JOE RAEDLE Even as the launch of Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed, agencies associated with launch activities are … Read more
Manzoor, U., Mujica Roncery, L., Raabe, D. et al, ‘Sustainable nickel enabled by hydrogen-based reduction’, Nature 641, 365–373 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08901-7 Nickel powers everything, from gadgets to green technologies. But getting it currently involves a far from green, in fact, a dirty process. However, a new study has revealed what its authors have said is a … Read more
The team focused on what the BBX32 gene does in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Representative photo. | Photo Credit: Markus Spiske/Unsplash Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, have found that a single protein helps plants time their first step from darkness into light. When a seed sprouts in … Read more
Heeng or asafoetida (Ferula assa-foetida) is an essential ingredient in many Indian cuisines. A pinch of heeng is typically added to hot oil before other constituents when cooking. Despite the great diversity of India’s cuisines, most of them have recipes with heeng. There are mentions of heeng in ancient Indian texts including the Mahabharata and … Read more
As per the earlier plan, the crew was scheduled to dock with the space station on June 11 at approximately 12:30 p.m. ET. Photo: X/@SpaceX The launch of Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed. The Axiom-4 Mission to the ISS, which was scheduled on … Read more
The strawberry supermoon rises behind the village of Imerovigli on Sandorini’s caldera, in Greece’s Cyclades islands, on June 14, 2022. | Photo Credit: Petros Giannakouris The Strawberry Moon, traditionally named after the strawberry harvest season in North America, will peak at 3:44 a.m. EDT on June 11, 2025, equivalent to 1:14 p.m. IST. Although the full phase … Read more
A pair of cryo-electron microscopes at the University of Leeds. | Photo Credit: Hiramano92 (CC BY-SA) Scientists use a powerful technique called cryo-electron microscopy to see the 3D shapes of biological molecules, but it normally needs the molecules to be extremely concentrated in a sample first. But for rare molecules this is hard to achieve. … Read more
The world needs to lower its dependence on fossil fuels. Countries have done so in fits and starts: issues like war, poverty, disease, and inflation have often left climate mitigation on the back burner. Today, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing worldwide. In this situation, some researchers have proposed the use of technologies to directly cool … Read more
Mr. Shukla heaped high praise on his crewmates, describing them as a “fantastic” squad, saying they would be his “friends for life”. File | Photo Credit: AFP Ahead of his historic journey to the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla has termed the preparations for the Axiom-4 mission an “amazing journey” and that … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI) is booming. Various AI algorithms are used in many scientific domains, such as to predict the structure of proteins, search for materials with particular properties, and interpret medical data to provide a diagnosis. People use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM, DALL-E, Gemini, and Midjourney to generate images and videos from text prompts, … Read more
Transmission electron micrograph of multiple bacteriophages attached to a bacterial cell wall. | Photo Credit: Graham Beards (CC BY-SA) If one has a urinary tract infection, for instance, the pathology lab will identify the bacterium to be, say, Escherichia coli. It will also determine the pathogen’s sensitivity to over a dozen antibiotics. It is fine … Read more
Bengaluru: Ambient air pollution is responsible for 7.2% of deaths in major Indian cities every year. There’s reason to believe airborne particulate matter can cut the life expectancy of Indians by up to five years. But traffic-related pollution is usually much worse than what urban sensors report. Researchers have estimated commuting takes up only around … Read more