Category: Science & Tech

– Gayatri Chandrashekar Shrubs and trees often flower and fruit more on the sunlit side because the planet’s energy budget on that side is different. Sunlit leaves capture more usable light so they photosynthesise more and make more sugars and starch. Buds and young fruits need that carbon supply to form and grow. On the...

When a sufficiently massive star runs out of fuel, its core collapses and triggers a supernova, a dramatic explosion that scatters the star’s outer layers into space. But scientists have long suspected that sometimes, the explosion fails and instead of a supernova, the star just… disappears. In a recent paper in Science, astronomers have reported...

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...