Category: Science & Tech

Since their synthesis by the chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland and the explanation of their structure by Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger, and their use since the 19th century, plastics have become convenient materials for daily use and are preferred over glass, which breaks easily. Plastics are manufactured by industry and used every day for their convenience...

A fungus that can cause severe pneumonia in people with weaker or weakened immune systems appears to have become resistant to a drug that never intended to kill it, according to the findings of a study by researchers from around the world published in Science Translational Medicine. The study focused on mycophenolic acid (MPA), an...

On September 14, the U.S. Space Force said the country has deployed “on-orbit space control weapons” in space that could “defend against hostile adversary action”. The statement confirmed for the first time that such capabilities existed in orbit, although neither the Space Force nor other branches of the U.S. military provide specific information on the...

For a long time, fungal infections have meant itchy skin, discoloured nails and sometimes hair loss. These symptoms are collectively called dermatophytosis and are caused by a group of fungi called dermatophytes. ‘’Unfortunately, immunocompromised patients can get lesions all over their body. The itchiness and the lesions can get so severe that people even get...

On July 20, mathematician Levent Alpöge, who works at the artificial intelligence company (AI) Anthropic, dropped a casual tweet on X. He claimed the company’s advanced large language model Claude Fable 5 had produced a counterexample to an 87-year-old open problem in algebraic geometry called the Jacobian conjecture. By working on it during the FIFA...

The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently released a 125-page policy document titled ‘Science: A New Golden Age’, which presents a renewed vision for American science. It positions itself as a sequel to the American inventor Vannevar Bush’s 1945 report, ‘Science: The Endless Frontier’, which laid the foundations of the famously successful...

A new event at the California Institute of Technology, called ‘Mathathon’, pulled together by a group of undergraduate students to “promote the responsible use of AI in mathematics” quickly ran into controversy last week. Scheduled for October 30 to November 1 this year, its first round will have 100 teams of mathematicians work on open...

Among people, it is common knowledge that privilege is often inherited. But according to new findings, hyenas also inherit resources and status, and not just their forebears’ genes, from their parents. The findings were published recently in Science Advances — and they challenge the traditional evolutionary theories that assume males always face greater reproductive competition....

Scientists have discovered a new species of subterranean, legless amphibian — commonly known as a caecilian from Maharashtra. The species named Gegeneophis chandgadi has been discovered by a multi-institutional team of researchers from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), WRC Pune, Yashwantrao Chavan Mahavidyalaya (Halkarni), Savitribai Phule Pune University, and the Mhadei Research Centre (Goa). The...