Tag: Science

The pounding is a neurological reflex as well as due to a physical effect. When we are startled by a sound, the reflex can be activated within 150 ms, which is faster than acting due to conscious thought. This is because the sound travels from the cochlea through the brainstem to the amygdala, which treats...

Failure is part and parcel of research but many scientists consider discussing it in a scientific forum to be taboo. Laboratories are littered with unfinished experiments and inconclusive facts and theories that failed to stand the test of study. However, when science is being communicated — whether to funding bodies, professional journals or audiences —...

The particle physics rulebook, called the Standard Model, predicts the properties of most subatomic particles with such precision that those few properties found to differ in experiments have frustrated physicists. This is why they’re keenly looking for cracks in the Model — parts where it can be updated — that could cover the anomalous findings...

It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust. A faint spark appears in the darkness; then another, brighter one. Soon, stars, planets and entire constellations emerge. Before long, a whole galaxy stretches across the sky, visible to the naked eye. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, the night sky feels infinite. Considered the driest place on...

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, an approach that modifies a patient’s own immune cells to hunt down cancer, has transformed treatment for blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma. But the same strategy has struggled when applied to solid tumours such as kidney or ovarian cancer. One of the biggest obstacles is antigen heterogeneity....

NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has launched an initiative called ‘Your Name in Landsat’ as part of their Landsat programme to help pique interest in geological and space science  The tool can find one’s name (or any other text) among the vast geological structures of Earth. For example, the letters that make...

Imagine your houseplant sending you a message: “I’m thirsty — could you water me?” Or a rice  field alerting a farmer to a disease outbreak before a single leaf shows visible damage. These scenarios may sound like science fiction but researchers around the world are actively working to make them real. Welcome to the emerging...

Pursuing the mystery of how the Neanderthals went extinct, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and of Montreal have now asserted that climate change was not the primary reason. Instead, they have reported that Homo sapiens succeeded because of their better social connectivity whereas the Neanderthals’ populations suffered the effects of poor social connections. The...

An Indian government notification on April 17 tapped ethanol to make Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Aviation has been hard to decarbonise because aircraft can’t use batteries or hydrogen at commercial scale yet, leaving SAF to be the primary way to comply with international emissions frameworks. To be usable in jet engines, however, ethanol is subject...

The story so far: On April 21, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said India should try to achieve 100% ethanol blending in the near future. He was speaking against the backdrop of India’s quest to become self-reliant in its energy needs. One-hundred percent blending refers to pure ethanol. It has the same...