A United Nations (UN) body that regulates deep international waters is preparing to elect its next leader, a crucial position as it faces pressure to either ban, approve or place a moratorium on seabed mining. The upcoming election comes as the Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority (ISA) ended a two-week session on July 26 without reaching...
Category: Science & Tech
Peter Higgs, who proposed existence of Higgs boson particle, has died at 94, university says
Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called ”God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday “peacefully at home following a short illness.” Higgs predicted the...
François Englert of Higgs boson fame passes away at 93
The Belgian physicist and Nobel laureate François Englert passed away on June 18 aged 93. Englert’s contributions changed the way physicists understood the fundamental nature of the universe. Englert’s parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. He survived the Holocaust by moving between orphanages and foster homes to evade Nazi persecution. He spent most of his professional life...
Bengaluru to host BRICS heads of space agencies meet on June 23-24
The BRICS Heads of Space Agencies (HOSA) 2026 meet is being hosted in Bengaluru. India, as Chair of BRICS for 2026, is hosting HOSA on June 23 and 24. Heads and senior representatives of the space agencies of the 11 BRICS member countries — Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South...
An industrial risk the Qatar blast shares with accidents in India | Explained
The story so far: An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar, claimed the lives of 12 Indian workers and one Pakistani worker on June 21. While local authorities have just begun their investigation, QatarEnergy, the country’s national energy company that maintains the gas facility, said the blast occurred when workers were...
A Trojan horse has breached the IITs
For a few decades now, a project called the ‘Indian Knowledge System’ (IKS) has sought to integrate traditional Indian wisdom into modern educational curricula. There is a legitimate quest to reclaim India’s indigenous intellectual history and to elevate an informal cultural aspiration into a part of education — but the IKS of today is not...
Laser strums atoms trillions of times in search for better computers
The world is constantly looking for faster and more efficient computers. Since the technologies of today have nearly maximised the use of electric currents for this purpose, scientists are looking beyond. One critical area that may fit our needs is called strain engineering: it uses mechanical pressure at the atomic level to alter a material’s...
The world is moving on from paying publishers — India should too
A number of activities are underway in the global scholarly publishing policy space. Within a span of 18 months, from late 2024 to mid-2026: the United States has placed the economics of academic publishing under Congressional scrutiny, Australia has mandated immediate open access to all publicly funded peer reviewed research, Europe has launched a publicly...
Hypermetabolism linked to early-life adversity can be harmful in long term: Study
Mitochondria, responsible for producing energy in a cell, may have an increased respiratory capacity in adults who experienced adversities in early childhood but the ‘hypermetabolism’ can be harmful in the long term, according to a study. Findings published in the journal Biological Psychiatry suggest that while mitochondria might be better able to respond to cellular...
Capturing sunlight in a bottle and using it when needed
Thanks to the initiatives of UNESCO and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), most countries across the world have adopted ‘green’ solutions that reduce environmental carbon dioxide. The use of solar panels to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity has been a particularly successful strategy. Many countries across the world have...
