Shortly after an intense heatwave struck South Asia earlier this year, World Weather Attribution (WWA) reported that climate change had made the event about three times likelier and up to 1° C warmer than it would have been in a world without climate change. WWA is an international research group that assesses the impact of...
Category: Science & Tech
‘Datura’ lands e-commerce platforms in trouble in Karnataka: What is the plant?
The online sale of datura fruit and seeds prompted the Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration Department to suspend the licenses of e-commerce giants Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket. According to an order issued by Food Safety Commissioner K. Srinivas, the department has also directed the three platforms to immediately remove listings and advertisements for...
Models struggled to predict the 2026 monsoon’s rapid changes
Climate models predicted the 2026 El Niño during early spring, just as they had in 2023. And the predictions have turned out to be accurate, with the robust evolution of a strong El Niño by the summer. Models had predicted the 2023 monsoon to be slightly deficient, and the final seasonal total, at 94% of...
What is a launch window?
A: On August 24, China called off the launch of its Chang’e 7 mission to the moon’s south pole for the sake of “prudence, reliability and absolute mission success”. It will now have to wait until next year for another chance. All space missions have specific launch windows — periods when the positions and motions...
China abruptly postpones ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission launch
China said on Sunday (August 23, 2026) it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon. The Chang’e-7 spacecraft was originally set to lift off in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on China’s southern Hainan island....
Availability of predictable food through garbage and intentional feeding linked to India’s street-dog population: Study
A new study on the Indian street dog states that “food subsidies” — availability of abundant, predictable food through garbage and intentional feeding — have an impact on their population in the country’s urban ecosystems. The study, titled ‘The Indian street dog crisis and multi-species coexistence in tropical urban futures’, conducted by Nishant Kumar, a...
U.S. state probes OpenAI over rogue AI hack
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI faces an investigation by the state of Alabama after the company revealed last month that its models went rogue and hacked an AI platform during testing. In mid-July, two OpenAI models escaped their confined testing environment and gained access to the internet, where they found and attacked Hugging Face, a site AI developers...
Taking a leaf out of Amul’s textbook to help rare-disease patients
Patient data, including medical records and patient experiences, are essential for scientists to develop new treatments, especially for rare diseases. The data help identify diagnostic biomarkers, predict disease progression, and help investigators design better clinical trials. This is important because clinical trials are required to show that a new treatment is safe and effective before...
Using thunderquakes to X-ray earth – a new study shows urban seismology in action
When lightning strikes, it superheats the air around it and creates a shock wave that we hear as thunder. But thunder doesn’t just travel through the atmosphere to our ears. When that energy reaches the ground, some of it is converted into seismic waves that ripple through the soil and rock beneath. The resulting vibrations...
U.K. forecasts ‘biggest’ El Nino will smash records, spark hottest year
This year’s El Nino weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century and could make 2027 the hottest year globally, Britain’s national weather agency predicted Friday. An El Nino weather event happens when warming sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific trigger worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall, as well...
