While the world’s coffee drinkers favour Arabica or Robusta, a newly identified hybrid called Coffea x libex (the X denotes its hybrid status) — or just Libex — could be their brew of choice in future. The world drinks roughly 17,000 tonnes of Arabica and 10,000 tonnes of Robusta beans (pre-roasting) every day. Together, they...
Category: Science & Tech
Why France has banned alcohol in places with high heat
In response to a new heatwave alert across Europe, France has partially banned the consumption of alcohol. Why? The restriction is a public health measure as part of reducing heat-related illnesses. Alcohol affects the body in many ways that become more dangerous if the person is also exposed to extreme heat. It causes the body...
Biochar offers a way to turn India’s farm smoke into ‘black gold’
India’s agriculture faces a serious paradox: a large amount of biomass that could improve soil health is instead being burned. This threatens soil health and food security. Punjab and Haryana burn more than 20 million tonnes of paddy straw in their open fields every year. This is due to the short post-harvest periods and a...
Teaching consent
This week, Himanshu Jangra apologised for making derogatory comments towards women during a comedy show. He was there as an audience member. .Another clip on X of another Indian comedian also caused a stir recently. He said that of the 10 rape cases we read about in the news every day, nine involve “just” rape,...
Science Quiz: Counterintuitive effects
Interview | Steve Brusatte on why India could be the world’s next dinosaur hotspot
Roughly once a week, a creature dead for tens of millions of years is introduced to science for the first time. Around 50 new dinosaur species are named every year — a pace the species might have struggled to match even at their peak in the Cretaceous period, between 145 and 66 million years ago. Steve...
ParSEC Whitefield in Bengaluru is a science museum where anyone can innovate anything
A clock made entirely of mathematical equations, a robot dog named Muffin, and even an alien species attempting to understand humanity. These were some of the first things we encountered at ParSEC Whitefield, PARAM Foundation’s science experience centre in Bengaluru. Unlike most science museums, where exhibits are designed to be observed, nearly everything here asks...
What is downblending, the process at the heart of Trump’s Iran agreement?
In the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran to end the war, Tehran has pledged never to develop a nuclear bomb in return for U.S. sanctions relief and access to a $300 billion development fund. Beyond that commitment, the MoU offers few details on how the U.S. and Iran intend to solve...
Many roads to reading: what vision can reveal about dyslexia
Every classroom has children who look ready to read, yet when print appears on the page, something slows down. To parents or teachers this struggle can look puzzling: at times it can present as poor intelligence or motivation, and oftentimes, the first guess is that the child has a problem in seeing the text. That...
