China’s government has long made efforts to tempt top scientists from abroad, but researchers say its institutions themselves are increasingly attracting talent thanks to their generous funding and growing prestige. State-backed initiatives like the Thousand Talents Plan have dangled fast-tracked hiring and bountiful grants to lure overseas experts in strategically important fields, as China and...
Category: Science & Tech
ISRO to kick off 2026 with PSLV-C62 launch on January 12
ISRO is gearing up for its first launch of the new year with the PSLV-C62 mission on January 12 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. According to an ISRO official, the primary payload of the mission is the EOS-N1, an imaging satellite built for strategic purposes by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). “The Launch...
ISRO to launch PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 Mission on January 12
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is scheduled to launch the PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 Mission on January 12. The launch of the Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-N1) satellite along with other payloads will take place from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 10:17 a.m. EOS-N1 is an earth imaging satellite said...
The perfect flaw: how a diamond defect is changing quantum physics
Imagine a diamond. You probably thought of a clear and flawless gemstone used in jewellery. But to a physicist, a perfect diamond might actually be quite boring. Something magical happens when the diamond is just a little broken. For decades, scientists have been fascinated by a specific type of defect in the diamond crystal lattice...
Science quiz: A millennia-old calendar system
Science quiz: A millennia-old calendar system Visual: Identify this Roman deity associated with gates and transitions, and identified as the tutelary deity of January. START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | Identify this Roman deity associated with gates and transitions, and identified as the tutelary deity of January.
New way to study surfaces brings ‘real world’ pressure to the lab
To understand how materials work, whether a metal in a car’s catalytic converter or the substances in a battery, scientists need to look at their surfaces at the atomic level. One of the best tools for this is X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A device shoots X-rays at a material and measures the properties of electrons...
Not just forests: why grasslands also belong in national climate plans
The United Nations has declared 2026 to be the ‘International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists’. In 2022, a group of scientists from institutions in Tanzania, Zambia, the U.K., the U.S., Germany and Canada wrote an open letter urging the parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) to broaden their goals to be...
Why ISRO’s next big challenge is to succeed on an industrial scale
The record of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) over the last decade has been remarkably broad for an agency of its size and budget. Its rockets, especially the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), have sustained reliable access to orbit, rendering operations with multiple satellite classes almost a matter of routine today. And ISRO is...
ISRO invites proposals from Indian scientists to analyse data from Aditya-L1 mission
On the second anniversary of India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1 reaching the Lagrangian point (L1), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday (January 6, 2026) made the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) soliciting proposals for the first AO cycle observations. The Aditya-L1 spacecraft reached the L1 point on January 6, 2024, 127 days after it...
Does research strengthen teaching?
The 2019 draft version of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 made two sweeping assertions in seven words: “teaching is strengthened through research and vice-versa.” Are these assertions supported by evidence, however? This article restricts itself to the first part of the assertion — that teaching is strengthened through research — because of its direct...
