By shrinking a QR code to the size of a microbe, researchers from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the German-Austrian start-up Cerabyte have shown that the future of the digital world could depend on ceramics, one of the oldest and most durable materials known to humans. On December 3, the team secured...
Tag: Science
How do astronauts return from space and survive re-entry? | Explained
The ascent of a launch vehicle is a battle against gravity to gain the immense velocity required to stay in orbit — while re-entry is a struggle against the atmosphere to shed that same energy in a systematic way. Initially, aerospace scientists believed that surviving atmospheric re-entry would be impossible because the massive kinetic energy...
How do astronauts return from space and survive re-entry?
The ascent of a launch vehicle is a battle against gravity to gain the immense velocity required to stay in orbit — while re-entry is a struggle against the atmosphere to shed that same energy in a systematic way. Initially, aerospace scientists believed that surviving atmospheric re-entry would be impossible because the massive kinetic energy...
What water turning to vapour and the way AI learns have in common
Artificial intelligence (AI) models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini often give the impression that there’s a mind at work within the machine. These days they “think” in response to queries, go back and correct themselves, apologise for mistakes, and mimic many tics of human communication. There’s no direct physical evidence to this day that a...
Lunar Eclipse 2026: When, where, and how to watch in India?
A total lunar eclipse will occur on Tuesday (March 3, 2026), and many places in India will be able to view the celestial event. Here is everything you need to know about the event! What is a lunar eclipse? A lunar eclipse is a celestial event that occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun...
Missile interceptors in U.S.-Iran war | Explained
The outbreak of fresh hostilities between the U.S.-led coalition, including Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Iran seems to have triggered a newly integrated regional air defense network different from the one these actors deployed during their brief yet intense conflict in June last year. The Twelve-Day War in 2025 was until then the...
Why are scientists studying gypsum in the Salar de Pajonales?
One of the best places to practice hunting for life on Mars could be in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Scientists recently studied the Salar de Pajonales, an incredibly dry and freezing salt flat located 3.5 km above sea level. Together with the fact that it is blasted by ultraviolet radiation, the Salar is a...
NASA announces overhaul of Artemis lunar programme amid technical delays
NASA on February 27 abruptly said it was shaking up its Artemis lunar program that has suffered multiple delays in recent years, a bid to ensure Americans can return to the Moon’s surface by 2028. That goal remains unchanged, but the US space agency is shifting its flight line-up to include a test mission before...
Tamil Nadu launches its first Dark Sky Park in Kolli Hills for stargazing
The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced the launch of the State’s first Dark Sky Park at the Ariyur Shola Reserve Forest in Kolli Hills, Namakkal district. The initiative was inaugurated by Forests Minister R.S. Rajakannappan in the presence of senior officials, including Environment, Climate Change and Forests Secretary Supriya Sahu, Principal Chief Conservator of...
Kerala scientist bags Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship
Saranya J.S., a native of Tanur in Malappuram, has been selected for the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA) instituted and funded by the European Commission. The highly competitive two-year fellowship will support her project titled “Indian Ocean Warming Pattern, Surface and Subsurface Marine Heatwaves: Storylines and Mechanisms (IO-WAVE)”, to be carried out in France. Ms. Saranya’s research will examine how...
