Early this year, when Craig, one of Africa’s “super tusker” elephants, died in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, tributes poured in from across the world. Photographs of his very large ivory tusks, nearly brushing the ground as he walked with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background, resurfaced online. Tourists shared memories of sightings and safari guides recalled...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
Why do so many flowers have five petals?
— Ajith Kizhakkethil Many flowers are indeed pentamerous — but across flowering plants as a whole, the petal number varies widely. Monocots often have flower parts in threes. Eudicots have four or five. Many species also have fused petals, others have several petals, and yet others lack them altogether. In the flower bud, new organs...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
Aliens and America: Why is the U.S. obsessed with the search for extraterrestrial life?
Aliens are real. Or maybe not. The possibility of mystical beings watching over us or even walking among us is not just the ramblings of the fringe and Reddit users, but a key political and societal debate in the U.S. President Donald Trump, on Thursday, February 19, 2026, announced that he was directing the Pentagon...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
Scientists change how El Nino is labelled to keep up with temperature spikes
The natural El Nino cycle, which warps weather worldwide, is both adding to and shaped by a warming world, meteorologists said. A new study calculated that an unusual recent twist in the warming and cooling cycle that includes El Nino and its counterpart La Nina can help explain the scientific mystery of why earth’s already...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
The science of taste
The science of taste The Miracle Berry contains a compound called miraculin that binds to sweet receptors and can make acidic foods like lemon taste sweet for about an hour. START THE QUIZ 1 / 5 | You don’t ‘taste’ most of what you call taste. Instead, a large share of the flavour comes from...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
A machine has verified the maths that won a Fields Medal: why it matters
Mathematicians have announced a milestone in the effort to thoroughly verify the solution of the sphere-packing problem — for which the Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska won the Fields Medal in 2022 — using a machine. This version of the problem asks what the best way is to pack a bunch of spheres in eight dimensions....
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Children, Science & Tech
Uncovering the world of science fiction!
Science fiction has been a popular genre throughout generations and continues to occupy the hearts of young fans even today. Whether it be the words in a book or the clips of a movie, the genre always has something exciting and unique to showcase. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where a man’s journey to create a...
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February 24, 2026February 24, 2026Science & Tech
Blue: the colour that moved kings before poets
When Isaac Newton wrote Opticks, published in 1704, he divided the colour spectrum into the now famous VIBGYOR, a set of seven colours (the decision was not, as such, scientific because Newton’s choice was dictated by ‘7’ being a significant number in alchemy.) What Newton observed was a series of hues merging into one another,...
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February 24, 2026February 24, 2026Science & Tech
What does the India-Brazil critical minerals MoU mean for the two countries?
The story so far: India and Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on rare earths and critical minerals during President Lula da Silva’s state visit to India on February 21, 2026. The joint statement said the two countries want to work together across the full mineral “value chain” and that the understanding includes exploration,...
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February 24, 2026February 24, 2026Science & Tech
Scientists confirm HIV capsid is a good drug target despite resistance
In 1987, four years after the discovery of HIV as the causative agent of AIDS, scientists reported the first drug effective against the virus, called zidovudine. Zidovudine targeted a viral enzyme called reverse transcriptase, and prevented the virus from completing its life-cycle. However, zidovudine was no magic bullet. It could hold the virus at bay...
