Category: Science & Tech

In a study published in the journal Clean Water on March 28, scientists reported that extracellular RNA (exRNA) from bacteria can persist in disinfected drinking water. They also found that by studying the exRNA, they could figure out what the bacteria were doing just before they were damaged or killed, releasing the exRNA. This way,...

GUWAHATI A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) have developed energy-efficient bricks designed to keep buildings naturally cool, offering a solution for sustainable construction. The researchers are Bitupan Das, Urbashi Bordoloi, Pushpendra Singh, and Pankaj Kalita of the IIT-G’s School of Energy Science and Engineering and the School of Agro...

Microgravity can alter sperm’s ability to navigate Researchers used a device that mimicked the weightlessness of space to check how microgravity affected human, mouse, and pig cells. They found microgravity impaired sperm’s ability to navigate but also that high doses of progesterone could partially reverse this impairment. Up to 24 hours of microgravity also delayed...

Canopied with vibrant little star-shaped flowers, the tropical milkweed shrub is a favourite of millions of migrating monarch butterflies in America, which lay their eggs on them, feed on their leaves and stems as caterpillars, and then as strikingly patterned butterflies, feast on the flowers’ nectar, among other plants. The plant does more for the...