Once upon a time, the thunder of footsteps from lakhs of mighty rhinoceroses echoed across the savannahs, grasslands, and tropical forests of Africa and Asia — but things have gotten pretty quiet lately. As of 2024, fewer than 28,000 rhinos remain on the planet, all five species combined. Relentless poaching has been a major threat...
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December 18, 2025December 18, 2025Science & Tech
Why has the claimed dark matter discovery sparked debate, caution?
Is it a false alarm or a discovery that solves one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology? This is the question weighing on astronomers as they examine a study published recently in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, which claims to have finally detected the elusive ‘dark matter’. Dark matter is believed to have...
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Science & Tech
U.S. Senate confirms private astronaut, Musk ally Jared Isaacman as NASA chief
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday (December 17, 2025) confirmed billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become President Donald Trump’s NASA administrator, making an advocate of Mars missions and a former associate of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk the space agency’s 15th leader. The vote on Mr. Isaacman, who Mr. Trump removed and then renamed as NASA...
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Science & Tech
Making sense of DHRUV64 indigenous microprocessor | Explained
The story so far: On December 15, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) announced the launch of DHRUV64, an indigenous microprocessor that it said would strengthen the national indigenous processor pipeline. Its purported applications span the breadth of consumer electronics to industrial automation. What is DHRUV64? The DHRUV64 chip is a fully indigenous...
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Environment, Science & Tech
‘Extremely exciting’: the ice cores that could help save glaciers
Dressed in an orange puffer jacket, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Iizuka stepped into a storage freezer to retrieve an ice core he hopes will help experts protect the world’s disappearing glaciers. The fist-sized sample drilled from a mountaintop is part of an ambitious international effort to understand why glaciers in Tajikistan have resisted the rapid melting...
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Science & Tech
Why does spicy food make our nose run?
When we eat spicy food containing chillies, a substance in them called capsaicin binds to receptors on the nerve endings in our mouth and nose. These receptors work like sensors. When a specific molecule attaches to them, they send a signal that triggers a response. Capsaicin attaches to receptors that normally react to actual heat....
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Science & Tech
Counting electrons reveals thorium’s nuclear tick in a solid clock
Atomic clocks keep time by counting the ‘ticks’ of electrons moving between two energy levels. Physicists have long wanted to count a nuclear tick instead. A nucleus is more shielded than an atom’s outer electrons, so its energy levels are expected to be less sensitive to disturbances. The main candidate for a nuclear clock is...
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December 17, 2025December 17, 2025Science & Tech
How India established its first research station in Antarctica
Dr Harsh K Gupta remembers the sequence of events that led to the establishment of Dakshin Gangotri, India’s first permanent research station in Antarctica, as if it happened yesterday. A year after he had moved to Thiruvananthapuram as director of the Centre for Earth Science Studies in 1982, a call for proposals to carry out...
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December 16, 2025December 16, 2025Science & Tech
Watch: Explained: All about India’s new nuclear energy bill
Script and presentation: Suhasini Haidar Editing: Shibu Narayan
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December 16, 2025December 16, 2025Science & Tech
Why do we have wisdom teeth?
A: The wisdom teeth are the third molars that sit at the very back of the jaw. They usually start forming in the teens and try to erupt in the late teens to the mid-20s, hence the name ‘wisdom’. We have wisdom teeth because of our ancestors, whose lives demanded more chewing to get through....
