In the industrial town of Morbi in Gujarat, the air usually hums with the roar of gas-fired kilns producing millions of square metres of ceramic tiles. Today, however, nearly a quarter of the town’s ceramic units have gone silent. Nearly a thousand kilometres away in Ludhiana, Punjab, one of India’s largest hosiery and knitwear clusters...
Category: Science & Tech
IIT Bombay scientists develop solar heat battery for freezing Himalayan homes
In a breakthrough that could reshape winter heating in India’s cold desert regions, such as snow-covered Leh, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) have developed a solar-powered thermal battery that can store summer heat for use in the harsh Himalayan winters. This heat storage system could offer a cleaner, long-term alternative...
Tamil Nadu needs more basic science funding to create green technology
As Tamil Nadu approaches its Assembly elections, its ambition to become a $1-trillion economy and its position as one of India’s leading industrial and knowledge hubs means it’s worth examining how the State has invested in science and environmental issues in the last five years. First, the State’s strategy on environment and climate action has...
The Rearview Podcast | PC Mahalanobis: India’s First Data Cruncher
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) was a Bengali statistician and institution-builder who became one of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century Indian science. Trained as a physicist in Calcutta and Cambridge, he discovered statistics almost by accident through an encounter with Biometrika, and went on to found the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931 out of a...
Earth’s magnetic flips can last 70,000 years, new study finds
The earth’s magnetic field aids navigation but also protects the planet from high-energy radiation from the sun. For decades, geologists believed that when this field periodically flipped, swapping the north and south poles, the process happened relatively quickly, on the order of 10,000 years. However, a new study in Communications Earth & Environment has reported...
ISRO’s Aditya-L1 decodes how solar storms affect earth’s magnetic field
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday (January 10, 2026) said its Aditya-L1 solar mission has provided new insights into how a powerful solar storm can impact Earth’s magnetic shield. “The most severe effects occurred during the impact of the turbulent region of the solar storm,” the space agency said in a statement. In...
What is cheaper to cook with, LPG or induction?
As hotels, hostels, and community kitchens grapple with the unexpected shortage of LPG, those with electric cooking equipment feel they are in a safer position. Achal Sridharan, founder of CovaiCare retirement communities in Coimbatore, says if the situation turns worse, there will be no option but to go for electrical cooking. “It is a question...
Why can’t anything travel faster than light and what would happen if it did?
– Sai Karthikeya Duggirala Albert Einstein’s equation E = mc2 says energy and mass are linked. If you push an object to go faster, you add energy to it. At everyday speeds, this just increases the object’s velocity. But as you approach the speed of light, the extra energy starts adding up to the object’s...
Science Snapshots: March 15, 2026
Test disfavours acrylonitrile cells in Titan lakes Computer models have suggested that acrylonitrile, an organic compound present on Saturn’s moon Titan, can self-assemble into cell-like structures. When scientists mixed it with liquid methane and ethane in cryogenic conditions like those on Titan, and observed no signs of membrane formation. Instead, acrylonitrile interacted with ethane to...
Faunal survey in Kerala’s Vazhachal adds 26 species to checklist of wildlife division in Western Ghats
An intensive faunal survey in the Vazhachal wildlife division in Thrissur, Kerala, has documented 26 species previously unrecorded from the area, highlighting the rich biodiversity of the key corridor in the Western Ghats. The survey was conducted by the Kerala Forest department in association with the Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS) from February 26 to...
