Category: Science & Tech

Question from Sahad Chembra A: When smoke gets in your eyes, it is not really the small pieces of the ash that make your eyes water up. Instead, the culprits are mostly the chemicals riding along with them. Smoke from wood, cigarettes, and garbage contains many irritating gases, such as formaldehyde and acrolein. When these...

When the U.S. wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was in his prime, his Body Mass Index (BMI) was around 33 kg/m², technically ‘obese’ by World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Yet no one watching him could call him unhealthy. This paradox is one glimpse of how numbers alone can’t be used to define good...

At first glance, the photograph looks like a scene from a science-fiction film or one of those viral, digitally altered images. A woman lies calm on an operating table under bright white lights, a headset snug over her ears. But it’s real and was taken inside a hospital in New Delhi more than a year...

Many scientists believe at least some animals can have problems that are similar to human mental health disorders. We can’t ask them how they feel, so we look for changes in behaviour, body chemistry, and brain activity that match what we see in stressed or unwell humans. Some companion animals make for clear examples. Some...