From the lapis-laden trade routes of the Bronze Age, blue travelled east and west, carrying with it power, devotion, and value. By the Kushan period, between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE, ultramarine pigment was extracted from Afghan lapis lazuli through a complex and painstaking process of crushing it carefully and treating it with beeswax...
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March 2, 2026March 2, 2026Health, Science & Tech
How the next major breakthrough in cancer could come from India
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, nearly 20 million new cancer cases were recorded in 2022, with the figure projected to surpass 35 million annually by 2050. The surge in India is just as stark. While the Indian Council of Medical Research has estimated the incidence of cancer in 2024 at 1.5 million,...
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March 2, 2026March 2, 2026Science & Tech
Science Snapshots: March 1, 2026
Radio whistles are first clear sign of Mars lightning Scientists have reported the first clear evidence of lightning on Mars. Using data from NASA’s MAVEN mission, they detected a type of radio wave called a whistler. On earth, whistlers are created by lightning strikes and get their name because they sound like a descending whistle...
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March 2, 2026March 2, 2026Science & Tech
Team aims world’s smallest QR code at long-term data storage
By shrinking a QR code to the size of a microbe, researchers from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the German-Austrian start-up Cerabyte have shown that the future of the digital world could depend on ceramics, one of the oldest and most durable materials known to humans. On December 3, the team secured...
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March 2, 2026March 2, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
How landscape memory, hysteresis shape the way Indian cities flood
Rain comes down steadily, painting the skies a dull grey and sending a chill breeze wafting through the windows of high-rise buildings. On the street below, water creeps out of cracks and pores. Next to the highway lies a lake but the boundary between water and land has blurred. What was once contained spreads across...
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March 2, 2026March 2, 2026Science & Tech
How do astronauts return from space and survive re-entry? | Explained
The ascent of a launch vehicle is a battle against gravity to gain the immense velocity required to stay in orbit — while re-entry is a struggle against the atmosphere to shed that same energy in a systematic way. Initially, aerospace scientists believed that surviving atmospheric re-entry would be impossible because the massive kinetic energy...
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March 1, 2026March 1, 2026Science & Tech
‘India had opportunities to reform federal structures during long stints of coalition governments’
A webinar on Constitution Under the Microscope: Federalism, Free Speech and the Indian Republic, jointly organised by the SRM Institute of Science and Technology and The Hindu, focused on strained Centre-State ties in many States, the role of Governors, and the importance of free speech. Responding to a question on whether the Constitution requires amendments...
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March 1, 2026March 1, 2026Science & Tech
How do astronauts return from space and survive re-entry?
The ascent of a launch vehicle is a battle against gravity to gain the immense velocity required to stay in orbit — while re-entry is a struggle against the atmosphere to shed that same energy in a systematic way. Initially, aerospace scientists believed that surviving atmospheric re-entry would be impossible because the massive kinetic energy...
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March 1, 2026March 1, 2026Science & Tech
What water turning to vapour and the way AI learns have in common
Artificial intelligence (AI) models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini often give the impression that there’s a mind at work within the machine. These days they “think” in response to queries, go back and correct themselves, apologise for mistakes, and mimic many tics of human communication. There’s no direct physical evidence to this day that a...
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March 1, 2026March 1, 2026Science & Tech
Lunar Eclipse 2026: When, where, and how to watch in India?
A total lunar eclipse will occur on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), and many places in India will be able to view the celestial event. Here is everything you need to know about the event! What is a lunar eclipse? A lunar eclipse is a celestial event that occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun...
