Category: Science & Tech

A: In the Cryogenian Period (720-635 million years ago), some scientists believe the earth went through through episodes when ice covered even the tropical latitudes, and the world was called ‘snowball earth’. If the oceans were mostly frozen, it was also believed that the usual interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, sunlight, and climate patterns would...

In 1974, Antony Hewish won the physics Nobel Prize for discovering pulsars. His graduate student, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, had actually spotted the first one in the data; she’d also built parts of the telescope herself, analysed the charts, noticed the anomaly, and helped confirm that it was real. But she didn’t win the prize. At...

Every instinct tells you to lean back. You’re standing at the top of a slope that drops away beneath you like the edge of the world, and every fibre of your being screams to press your weight into the mountain behind you. To hold on. To stay safe. And that’s exactly how you fall. Something...

With rising temperatures, longer heatwaves, and a rapidly growing urban economy, cooling in India is rapidly shifting from a lifestyle choice to a basic need, driving up air-conditioner use in homes and workplaces. This surge is now a major part of cities’ power demand, in turn raising concerns about blackouts and higher emissions and about...

Genetic disorders often stem from small errors in the DNA sequence with major consequences. Many diseases like cystic fibrosis and Batten disease can be traced to changes disrupting the cell’s ability to build a complete, functional protein. One particularly common culprit is the nonsense mutation, where a single incorrect DNA letter inserts a premature stop...