The computer did not create a virus. It did not touch a test tube or handle a living cell. What it did may ultimately be more consequential: it helped decide what the virus’s genome should be. Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute used artificial intelligence (AI) to design complete genomes of bacteriophages –...
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August 13, 2026August 13, 2026Science & Tech
Science quiz: Patents that changed their industries
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Health, Science & Tech
What we can learn from nature switching off human genes
Some people can live apparently ordinary lives even when both copies of a gene (one inherited from the mother and the other from the father) have stopped working. Until their DNA is sequenced, they may never know that this has happened. A large study from Pakistan, published in Nature (June 2026), has now identified such...
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Science & Tech
Total darkness, then sunset as full eclipse wows spectators in Spain
Spectators across Spain watched in wonder, some whipping off their protective glasses and rising to their feet in unison, as a rare total solar eclipse swept across the north of the country on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) evening, plunging it into darkness. Spain deployed a massive police contingent and set up special viewing spots across...
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Science & Tech
Millions of people in Iceland and Spain set for ‘event of the century’ eclipse
Millions of people gathered in Iceland and northern Spain to witness Europe’s first total solar eclipse in 27 years on Wednesday (August 12, 2026), with Spanish officials warning people to avoid areas where a heatwave has raised the risk of wildfires. Authorities were expecting up to 6 million visitors in mostly rural areas within the...
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Science & Tech
Team led by RRI scientists predicts ‘petal-like’ structures in Sun’s corona during eclipse
As a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Europe on August 12 for the first time since 1999, solar physicists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru, along with collaborators, have predicted the magnetic structure of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or its ‘crown’, called the corona, during the eclipse. On the...
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Science & Tech
Three new cascade frog species discovered in northeast India; one named in honour of Kerala social worker Padmini Varkey
Scientists have discovered three new species of cascade frogs from the biodiverse-rich forests of Northeast India and documented five other species in the country for the first time. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, are the culmination of over 15 years of extensive field research across the northeastern States....
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August 12, 2026August 12, 2026Science & Tech
What psychiatric genetics can and cannot tell an Indian family
When a young man was brought to my clinic after his first episode of psychosis, his parents wanted to know when he could return to college. This is not an atypical first interaction. However, in many instances, after a few consultations later and especially once the immediate crisis had settled, the questions would take a...
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August 11, 2026August 11, 2026Science & Tech
M.P. Parameswaran, renowned nuclear scientist and Marxist theorist, dies at 92
M.P. Parameswaran, former nuclear scientist who later became prominent as a Marxist theorist, people’s science movement activist and writer, passed away in Thrissur, Kerala, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026). He was 92. Mr. Parameswaran was one of the earliest and foremost members of Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP). His ideas on the ‘fourth world’ had...
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August 11, 2026August 11, 2026Science & Tech
M.P. Parameswaran, renowned nuclear scientist and CPI(M) theorist, dies at 92
M.P. Parameswaran, former nuclear scientist who later became prominent as a CPI(M) theorist, people’s science movement activist and writer, passed away in Thrissur, Kerala, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026). He was 92. Mr. Parameswaran was one of the earliest and foremost members of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP). His ideas on the ‘fourth world’ had...
