A venerable institution, facing accusations of opacity, decided to stun its detractors with some transparency. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made public the report of a technical committee, constituted to analyse why the NVS-02 satellite, which was launched aboard a GSLV rocket on January 29, 2025, could not be placed in its intended orbit....
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
Decolonising and de-Nobelising science
Every February 28, India celebrates National Science Day to commemorate C.V. Raman’s announcement of the Raman effect in 1928, a discovery that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. Such national rituals are said to be just acts of remembrance, but they are not; they also legitimise what the state says counts as...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
‘Loose connection’ prevented NVS-02 satellite from landing in intended orbit, says panel
After nearly a year’s delay, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made public the report of a committee constituted to analyse why the NVS-02 satellite, which was launched aboard a GSLV rocket on January 29 last year, couldn’t be placed in its intended orbit. The apex committee, as it is called, concluded that the main reason...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Science & Tech
What are carbon capture and utilisation technologies? | Explained
The story so far: Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) refers to a set of technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources or directly from the air and convert them into useful products. This process removes carbon from the atmosphere and puts it into the economy as inputs for fuels, chemicals, building materials, or...
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February 25, 2026February 25, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
Craig the elephant, and the promise and problem of wildlife icons
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....
