Tag: Science

A new state of matter appears to be a solid-liquid hybrid, scientists from Ulm University in Germany and the University of Nottingham in the UK have reported in the journal ACS Nano. The newfound material isn’t a slush or a gel in the macroscopic sense but refers to a specific atomic structure where different parts...

Every morning, you perform a small physics activity without realising it. You squeeze toothpaste out of a tube. You apply a force and the paste flows out like a liquid. When you stop squeezing, the toothpaste stays on the brush, holding its shape against gravity. It doesn’t drip, spread or collapse into a puddle. This...

A: In weather science, ‘visibility’ is a colloquial term for a quantity called the meteorological optical range. It’s defined as the distance a beam of light can travel through the atmosphere before its intensity drops to 5% of its original value. In an older time, a human observer would stand at a point and look...

The story so far: On January 12, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) PSLV-C62 mission lifted off from Sriharikota carrying the EOS-N1 satellite along with 15 co-passenger satellites. Within minutes, ISRO said the mission had “encountered an anomaly during end of the PS3 stage”, and that a detailed analysis was initiated. What was the anomaly? In a televised briefing after the launch, ISRO chairman...

Datacentres are a growing share of global electricity consumption, and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving those power demands up. This is because AI datacentres use dense clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) for running machine learning workloads, both when training large language models and deploying them. Since the generative AI boom shows no signs of...

Daily Quiz: On ISRO’s PSLV rocket Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle | Photo credits: ISRO START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | The liquid-fuelled second stage of the PSLV rocket uses the Vikas engine, which is based on the French Viking engine. In 1974, rather than pay cash, ISRO acquired this technology from France in exchange...

A: This is an illusion caused by the way our eyes and brains sample motion in discrete snapshots and the fact that fans have identical blades. Although a spinning fan changes continuously, we don’t perceive every intermediate position perfectly. Our visual system ‘integrates’ information over short time windows and updates its best guess of where...

The story so far: Futuristic space and marine biotechnology research focuses on using underexplored environments, such as the deep oceans and outer space, to develop new biological knowledge, materials, and manufacturing processes. Marine biotechnology involves studying microorganisms, algae, and other marine life to discover bioactive compounds, enzymes, biomaterials, food ingredients, and biostimulants. These organisms have...

Imagine you’re a detective looking for proof of something extraordinary. You find what looks like the perfect clue, a smoking gun that seems to prove your theory. But what if that clue could be explained by something more ordinary? Many physicists around the world are trying to create and identify special materials with unusual electronic...

The V-formation we have all seen growing up is commonly seen in migratory birds like cranes, pelicans, and ducks. It consists of a bird leader up front and the others trailing behind. Each one keeps a precise position relative to the one ahead of them. Now, let’s look at some reasons behind this synchronisation. Firstly,...