Two devastating earthquakes struck Venezuela within seconds of each other on the evening of June 24, reportedly affecting several of the country’s States and bringing entire buildings down in the capital Caracas. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the first quake of 7.1 magnitude had its epicentre off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and the second, which...
Tag: Science
Venezuela’s deadly history of earthquakes — and how they affected its politics
Why does wet paper tear so easily?
As the southwest monsoon sweeps over India, people brace for storms, floods, and the occasional sight of a damaged bookstore or library. What makes the last a particularly sad sight is that paper tears easily when it’s wet. Paper is made primarily from wood pulp, which contains a dense network of cellulose fibers. Cellulose consists...
A black market for ‘fake patents’ is a new poison in Indian research
A worrying new trend of ‘fake patents’, in which education companies sell thousands of patents registered in the U.K. to academics from India and elsewhere, has raised concerns among research integrity experts. The issue of ‘fake patents’ was flagged in a report published in the International Journal of Educational Integrity. Its authors, from the U.K....
BRICS space agencies meet begins in Bengaluru
The two day BRICS Heads of Space Agencies (HOSA) 2026 meet began on Tuesday in Bengaluru. India, as Chair of BRICS for 2026, is hosting HOSA and heads and senior representatives of the space agencies of the 11 BRICS member countries — Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and...
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is much older than the solar system itself
Scientists studying the comet 3I/ATLAS have determined that this interstellar visitor is remarkably ancient – formed an estimated 10 to 12 billion years ago in a primordial planetary system – and has a composition unlike anything in our solar system. An evaluation of the chemical make-up of 3I/ATLAS – only the third interstellar object ever...
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS found to be up to 12 billion years old
Scientists studying the comet 3I/ATLAS have determined that this interstellar visitor is remarkably ancient – formed an estimated 10 to 12 billion years ago in a primordial planetary system – and has a composition unlike anything in our solar system. An evaluation of the chemical make-up of 3I/ATLAS – only the third interstellar object ever...
The strange link between AI hallucination and creativity
In the prologue to his 1989 book The Emperor’s New Mind, the Nobel laureate Roger Penrose narrates a story. At a grand public ceremony, an ultimate supercomputer is switched on for the first time before a packed auditorium. It is the most powerful machine ever built, designed to answer any question put to it. The...
Peter Higgs, who proposed existence of Higgs boson particle, has died at 94, university says
Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called ”God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday “peacefully at home following a short illness.” Higgs predicted the...
François Englert of Higgs boson fame passes away at 93
The Belgian physicist and Nobel laureate François Englert passed away on June 18 aged 93. Englert’s contributions changed the way physicists understood the fundamental nature of the universe. Englert’s parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. He survived the Holocaust by moving between orphanages and foster homes to evade Nazi persecution. He spent most of his professional life...
