Category: Science & Tech

There is a bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae. It comes in at least a hundred different forms, or serotypes, and lives in the tissue lining our nose and throat. S. pneumoniae is normally harmless. But when your body’s immune system becomes weaker, for example when you have a viral fever, these bacteria may invade your lungs...

— Akarsh A: People often make oddly tense facial expressions when putting eye drops in their own eyes because the activity significantly tasks the nervous system. To place a drop in your eye, you need to control yourself while something approaches a sensitive part of your face. People instinctively tense their facial muscles and may...

In the imagination of children, flying holds a special place. Folded pieces of paper become airplanes ready to be launched, eager gazes follow soaring eagles, and dragonflies are the helicopters of their fantasies. Dragonflies (called sitara in Hindi) are indeed wonders of flight. These insects belong to a lineage whose members were among the planet’s...

India’s laboratories are expanding, research funding is growing, start-ups are emerging, and Indian researchers are increasingly contributing to scientific knowledge. Amid this expansion, who is preparing scientists to become leaders? A researcher may spend years mastering experimental techniques, analysing data, publishing papers, and writing research proposals. But when that researcher becomes a principal investigator, a...

(This article forms a part of the Science for All newsletter that takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Subscribe now!)  Birds have long fascinated scientists and nature lovers alike with the rich variety of sounds they produce. From melodic songs to sharp alarm calls, bird vocalisations serve a variety of...