For millions battling infertility, the effortless miracle of procreation is a punishing ordeal of tests, treatments and trials, often chipping away not just at their finances, but also their sense of self. Researching embryos and embryo-like models is therefore critical to peering into the earliest moments of human development to understand why conceptions fail. A...
Category: Science & Tech
2025 ICTP Prize awarded to Titas Chanda, Sthitadhi Roy
The 2025 ICTP Prize has been awarded to Titas Chanda of IIT-Madras and Sthitadhi Roy of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) has said. A statement said the award “recognises the winners’ exceptional and original contributions to the theory of quantum many-body systems, at the interface of...
ISRO lines up 7 launches, including uncrewed Gaganyaan mission by March 2026
ISRO has lined up seven launch missions by March next year, including one to demonstrate home-built electric propulsion systems for satellite and quantum key distribution technologies, and the first uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan project. The first of the seven launches is expected to take place next week. India’s heaviest rocket, LVM3, will place in...
What is ‘lunarcrete’?
Lunarcrete is an umbrella term for ‘concrete made on the moon’. As the US and China race to establish long-term lunar settlements, scientists are looking for a suitable building material to protect people from hazardous radiation and drastic temperature swings. Lunarcrete is one promising candidate: instead of sand and gravel, it uses lunar regolith, the...
How mangroves’ cells helps plants survive in saltwater
Saltwater would kill most plants, but it cannot fell the ancient mangroves species distinct for their giant stilt roots. So how do they survive on brine? International researchers and authors of a new paper in Current Biologyhave delved into their cells and discovered what makes mangrove shrubs and trees so different from all other terrestrial...
How mangroves’ cells help plants survive in saltwater
Saltwater would kill most plants, but it cannot fell the ancient mangroves species distinct for their giant stilt roots. So how do they survive on brine? International researchers and authors of a new paper in Current Biologyhave delved into their cells and discovered what makes mangrove shrubs and trees so different from all other terrestrial...
‘Publication retractions from India have skyrocketed since 2022’
Achal Agrawal founded the India Research Watch (IRW) after his observations of grave academic misconduct in India. Dr. Agrawal, now a freelance data scientist in Raipur, told scientific journal Nature how shocked he was when a student spoke casually of using software to publish his work. This amounts to plagiarism, Dr. Agrawal said, but the...
Science Quiz: Remembering Max Born, quantum physics architect
Q: Max Born was the maternal grandfather of this celebrated musician and actor. Name her. A: Olivia Newton-John Q: Max Born made many contributions to quantum theory. This said, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1954 for establishing the statistical interpretation of the ____________. Fill in the blank with the name of...
Why human-rating matters as India prepares for Gaganyaan
As India moves closer to flying astronauts as part of Gaganyaan, human-rating has emerged as a central but oft-unseen part of the story. Launch vehicles like LVM-3 already fly satellites safely but carrying people demands a lower tolerance for risk and a different way of thinking about failure. What’s the definition of human-rating? Human-rating is...
The snail as a model for restoring vision in humans
In Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva’s third eye is said to open only in moments of great transformation. What if this isn’t just a mythic symbol of cosmic vision but also a metaphor for renewal? Ever wondered if there’s a hidden switch that could unlock something just as extraordinary as the ability to regrow our own...
