Category: Science & Tech

A sentinel species is a species whose members’ health signals the condition of the ecosystem in which they live. Scientists monitor them because they are among the first to respond to stressors in their environment, such as pollution and disease, and their response also tends to be more apparent than most other species. In other...

Men experience more skin infections than women — doctors have known this for a while. They have proposed both behavioural and physiological reasons for this difference but the exact mechanism has been unclear. Recently, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Centre in Texas in the U.S. reported that the male sex hormones, androgens, which include testosterone,...

Tea is the world’s most popular drink, except for plain old water. Whether we’re talking matcha, Earl Grey or oolong, it’s all made from the leaves of one species of plant, Camellia sinensis. (Any other tea-like brew is technically a tisane or herbal tea.) That one tea plant yields teas in an astonishing rainbow of...

Night time lights are not just getting brighter New data challenge the traditional view that nightlights are becoming brighter everywhere. Based on satellite data from 2014 to 2022 of artificial nightlight, researchers found a nightscape both brightening and dimming. While global brightening, mainly due to urban expansion and rural electrification, increased radiance by 34% from...

From admiring rocket launches as a child growing up in Houston to steering the operations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), scientist Amit Kshatriya has had a stellar innings at the space agency that has set on a mission to land astronauts on the moon. As NASA’s Associate Administrator, Wisconsin-born Mr. Kshatriya serves...

A fast breeder reactor (FBR) gets its name from two features. First, it ‘breeds’ more nuclear fuel than it consumes. Second, it uses fast neutrons — ones that haven’t been slowed — to initiate nuclear fission. France began building an FBR called Superphénix in 1976. After spending around $10 billion, the reactor became critical in...

From admiring rocket launches as a child growing up in Houston to steering the operations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian-American scientist Amit Kshatriya has had a stellar innings at the space agency that has set on a mission to land astronauts on the moon. As NASA’s Associate Administrator, Wisconsin-born Mr. Kshatriya...