The moon’s surface is covered by ancient lava flows that are often different from those found on the earth. While volcanic rocks on the earth rarely contain more than 2% titanium dioxide (TiO2), some lunar basalts — common volcanic rocks — carry up to 18%, a fact that planetary scientists have struggled to explain for...
Category: Science & Tech
Moon was formed around 4.51 billion years ago: study
Evidence to support an older age for the formation of the Moon, around 4.51 billion years ago, as per a paper published in the journal Nature. This new analysis suggests that a ‘remelting’ of the Moon’s surface around 4.35 billion years ago may have masked a far older history. The Moon is thought to have been formed through...
Biotech industry driving both human and animal nutrition: experts
Biotechnology graduates are the architects of the next animal science revolution in the country, experts said at a webinar on “Biotech Careers: Food and Nutrition” on Sunday (March 22, 2026). The webinar was jointly organised by the Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, and The Hindu as part of the series titled “Biotechnology: Role in Industry...
Heart disease kills 28.6 lakh Indians every year and yet, treatment is uneven and erratic
On a cold February morning, Jassuram Khanna, a farmer from Sujau village in Chakrata in Uttarakhand, felt a tightness in his chest on his way to the market. After waiting a few minutes, he called his son Suresh to come and take him to the doctor. They hired a private car and went to the...
How do we know climate science is credible?
On March 10, a journal called Science of Climate Change published a paper calling into question the foundations of climate change. The paper concluded that after accounting for some sources of uncertainty in the climate data, the ‘correct’ changes in the oceans’ heat content and Earth’s energy imbalance are practically zero. In other words, the...
Can nations save the shorebird that flies 30,000 km a year?
Chasing an endless summer, one shorebird species undertakes a gruelling annual journey from the Arctic to the tip of South America and back — a feat increasingly fraught with peril. The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world’s most remarkable travellers, but its population has plunged 95% in four decades due to a...
Daily Quiz: On World Meteorological Day
New technique helps superconductor break 33-year temperature record
For more than a century, physicists have looked for a material that conducts electricity with zero resistance at room temperature — practical enough to transform how the world generates and uses energy. But for a long time, the highest temperature at which a material became superconducting at room pressure was -140 °C. Some other materials...
What is the Minor Planet Centre?
Last week, the Minor Planet Centre (MPC) announced 15 new moons had been found, four around Jupiter and 11 around Saturn. The Jovian moons were found by the U.S.-based Scott Sheppard and David Tholen and the Saturnian ones by a team led by Edward Ashton in Taiwan. The MPC is the world’s primary repository for...
How humans came to inhabit every corner of the world
From African deserts to the Arctic circle: humans spread across the planet faster and farther than any other wild vertebrate, making us outliers in the animal kingdom. While we occupy 132 million sq. km of land, a typical wild mammal occupies 165 sq. km. How did humans achieve this feat? The answer lies in...
