In everyday life, cause always comes before effect. A window won’t break before you throw a ball at it. But quantum mechanics has long hinted that this rule can be broken. Physicists from the University of Vienna and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Photonic Quantum Computer have now taken a big step to proving it...
Category: Science & Tech
Large Hadron Collider discovers a new particle
The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new particle, the 80th identified so far by the world’s most powerful particle smasher, Europe’s CERN physics laboratory announced on March 17. The new particle has been named “Xi-cc-plus”. Scientists have expressed hope that the particle — which is similar to a proton but 4x heavier — will...
Assam study sheds new light on sun’s surface tremors
GUWAHATI Researchers from Tezpur University in North-central Assam have found that the subtle vibrations on the sun’s surface could be transporting enormous amounts of energy into its outer atmosphere. The research, conducted by physicists Souvik Das and Pralay Kumar Karmakar from the university’s Department of Physics, examines the dynamics of solar surface waves known as p-mode...
On scientific collaborations in BRICS
The BRICS grouping, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is a globally significant collective defined by its substantial contributions to global GDP, scientific and technological capacity, natural resources, and total population. Since its formation, the group has evolved into a prominent international voice, representing countries that seek to challenge and provide an alternative...
Science Snapshots: March 22, 2026
Oceans more than gases helped earth cool When researchers recently analysed Antarctic ice cores to reconstruct the earth’s climate over the last three million years, they found that the world’s oceans cooled by 2.5 C, most of it around 2.7 million years ago. While methane levels were unchanged, those of carbon dioxide did so barely...
India’s frogs are finding allies from citizen science to sanctuaries
World Frog Day on March 20 celebrates the role of frogs, the world’s most numerous amphibians. They live at the interface between freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, eat insects and in turn get eaten by other vertebrates, and are thus crucial in converting insect biomass into vertebrate biomass. Losing them can mean a boom in insects...
Bibha Chowdhuri: a barrier breaker in STEM
A young girl was born in the early 1900s in Kolkata, an era when girls were barely given an education and were often pushed into marriages at a very young age. She, however, stood out and went on to become one of the first Indian women to obtain a postgraduate degree in physics. This is...
Sex bias: key to a DNA puzzle
For years, scientists noticed that modern humans carry very little Neanderthal DNA on their X chromosomes. To understand why, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania reversed the perspective and looked for early modern human DNA within ancient Neanderthal genomes. In a study published in Science on February 26, they reported that interbreeding between Neanderthals and...
How red marks liminal thresholds between life, death, sacrifice and renewal
In 1823, English geologist William Buckland discovered a skeleton in a limestone cave in Paviland, southern Wales, which he identified as a prostitute from the Roman era, as the bones were coated in red ochre. Nearly a hundred years later, further studies, including that of grave goods, also painted in red, proved that the skeleton,...
Government clears 23 institutions to set up ‘quantum labs’
Twenty-three academic institutions across India have been approved for setting up quantum teaching laboratories under the National Quantum Mission (NQM), with another 100 proposals currently being evaluated, according to details that emerged from the joint monthly meeting of Secretaries of the Science Ministries held in New Delhi on Monday (March 16, 2026). The NQM, approved...
