Tag: Science

Scientists use AI to design viruses to kill hardy bacteria Scientists have used AI to design entire genomes for bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Using ‘genome language models’, they generated thousands of new DNA sequences, then used them with a well-studied virus called ΦX174 as a template to yield 16 functional viruses. These...

The political scientist Claudine Gay became Harvard University’s dean of social science in 2018 and, five years later, its first Black president and only the second woman in the university’s 387-year history in the post. Later that year, on December 5, 2023, Ms. Gay testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce...

The political scientist Claudine Gay became Harvard University’s dean of social science in 2018 and, five years later, its first Black president and only the second woman in the university’s 387-year history in the post. Later that year, on December 5, 2023, Ms. Gay testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce...

(This article forms a part of the Science for All newsletter that takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Subscribe now!) When a certain brilliantly-coloured butterfly, found halfway around the globe—from India to Japan—closes its wings, you cannot tell it apart from a dead leaf: the ‘dead leaf’ butterfly’s wings turn a...

NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir on Friday (August 6, 2026) concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station to assemble the modification kit for its power channel that would allow addition of solar arrays. The spacewalk – 281st in support of the space station – sixth for Ms. Meir and first for Mr....

The gut microbiomes of eight tribal populations across India have a unique diversity shaped by their traditional diets, and are distinct from those observed in industrialised settings, researchers have reported in Gut Microbiomes. The effects of probiotics depend on a population’s diet and gut composition, and the study offers a baseline for India’s tribal communities....

Five minutes past noon on July 18, the launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota roared back to life after a gap of 187 days. The last launch from the space port was on January 12, 2026, involving the PSLV-C62 mission carrying the EOS-N1 earth observation satellite, which failed to complete its intended...

A four-tonne piece of a SpaceX rocket was believed to have unintentionally crashed into the Moon on Wednesday (August 5, 2026), a collision that posed no danger to Earth but is expected to leave behind a lunar crater. While there is not yet official confirmation that the Falcon 9 upper stage struck the lunar surface,...