A: Many rice-growing systems deliberately flood the fields and most of the water is lost to the air or to the ground. Farmers often maintain shallow flooding to stabilise some nutrient dynamics. In many paddies, water also moves sideways or down the soil unless the field is rich in clay or well sealed. Flooding is...
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January 21, 2026January 21, 2026Science & Tech
Narrating stories of the world’s women mathematicians, in portraits
“Solving mathematical problems gave me a unique sensation of freedom that did not depend on what happened around me,” confessed Irina Kmit, a Ukrainian mathematician, now a professor in the mathematics department at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research topics include hyperbolic differential equations and boundary value problems. And she described maths as a...
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January 21, 2026January 21, 2026Science & Tech
Why only female Darwin’s bark spiders weave the toughest webs
One of the strongest materials on the earth isn’t made in a factory or synthesised in a laboratory but spun by a creature barely two inches long. The Darwin’s bark spider (Caerostris darwini), found in the forests of Madagascar, weaves silk that outperforms steel and most human-made fibres in both strength and toughness. Larger webs,...
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January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
As Trump floats buying Greenland, Arctic island still holds toxic US waste
Since the end of World War II, the US has established a global military network consisting of around 750 bases in roughly 80 countries. While the US government has characterised this presence as a stabilising force, the local populations have often paid for the military’s presence with displacement and long-term exposure to hazardous industrial waste....
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January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
As Trump covets Greenland, Arctic island still holds toxic US waste
Since the end of World War II, the US has established a global military network consisting of around 750 bases in roughly 80 countries. While the US government has characterised this presence as a stabilising force, the local populations have often paid for the military’s presence with displacement and long-term exposure to hazardous industrial waste....
Post
January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
As Trump covets Greenland, Arctic island still holds toxic U.S. waste
Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has established a global military network consisting of around 750 bases in roughly 80 countries. While the U.S. government has characterised this presence as a stabilising force, the local populations have often paid for the military’s presence with displacement and long-term exposure to hazardous industrial waste....
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January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Science & Tech
What happens if you have a medical emergency onboard the ISS?
A: On January 15 morning, Crew-11 to the International Space Station (ISS) performed a rapid evacuation, with NASA getting the astronauts back to the earth around one month early due to an undisclosed medical concern with one crew member. When a medical emergency occurs on the International Space Station (ISS), the crew has a strict...
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January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Science & Tech
Scientists plan to build a graviton detector. Why is it so hard?
The Stevens Institute of Technology in the US recently said some of its scientists plus a group at Yale University will be building “the world’s first experiment explicitly designed to detect individual gravitons”. The announcement has already drawn sceptical attention from the physics community — but also $1.3 million from the W.M. Keck Foundation. The...
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January 19, 2026January 19, 2026Science & Tech
Apple leaf waste yields green anti-corrosion solution for metals
GUWAHATI Apple farm waste may soon help protect metal pipes, machinery, and infrastructure from corrosion. An international research team led by Nagaland University (NU) has found a way to turn discarded apple leaves into a highly effective, eco-friendly corrosion inhibitor, offering up to 96.2% protection for copper in harsh chemical conditions. The study, carried out...
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January 19, 2026January 19, 2026Science & Tech
New state of matter is a solid-liquid hybrid
A new state of matter appears to be a solid-liquid hybrid, scientists from Ulm University in Germany and the University of Nottingham in the UK have reported in the journal ACS Nano. The newfound material isn’t a slush or a gel in the macroscopic sense but refers to a specific atomic structure where different parts...
