Tag: Science

Since scientists discovered jumping genes in maize in 1950, they have known that bits of DNA can move around the genome, mostly within the cell nucleus. Scientists have also found evidence of genes having jumped across species. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany have reported a remarkable observation: they...

Anil Menon, a NASA astronaut of Indian heritage, is scheduled to begin an eight-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS), launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan alongside two Russian cosmonauts. The Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft is scheduled for lift-off from the Baikonur spaceport at 8:17 p.m. (IST) on Tuesday (July 14, 2026) and...

Hindi and Tamil differ in far more than just vocabulary. Languages differ in how they are organised, and these differences are not spread evenly around the world. In some regions, neighbouring languages like Basque and Spanish differ dramatically from one another. In others, they share many of the same features, like Tamil and Kannada. A...

Hindi and Tamil differ in far more than just vocabulary. Languages differ in how they are organised, and these differences are not spread evenly around the world. In some regions, neighbouring languages like Basque and Spanish differ dramatically from one another. In others, they share many of the same features, like Tamil and Kannada. A...

In 2023, Japan began a decades-long and controversial process — it began releasing treated wastewater from the ruined Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. The water had been filtered to remove most heavy radioactive elements, yet one particular contaminant remained: tritium. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. When it bonds with oxygen,...

A single mosquito carrying malaria parasites can infect dozens of people. A single gene in that mosquito can spread slowly through its population. Gene drives aim to bend this inheritance in our favour by ensuring that a particular genetic change passes to far more than half of the offspring, helping reduce the disease burden. Whether...

Dams make rivers warmer downstream: satellite data Satellite data from 2013 to 2024 revealed that 71% of 287 large dams across the U.S. significantly altered water temperature downstream. In most cases, the water became warmer and — notably — maintained that temperature for at least 20 km downstream. The most extreme shifts occurred at dams...

On July 9, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorised a company named Reflect Orbital to launch and operate a test satellite designed to deploy a large mirror in orbit around the earth, despite the controversy and debate surrounding its aims. Eärendil-1 — named for a character in the Tolkien fantasy epic The Silmarillion —...

Kerala has long taken pride in its literacy, scientific temper, and environmental consciousness. Home to the biodiverse Western Ghats and centuries of traditional knowledge, it should have emerged as India’s leading hub for biological research and the bioeconomy. But instead, many of its premier biological research institutions are today on the decline. The reasons are...