Tag: Science

The story so far: Millions of naturally occurring Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) orbit the earth, posing a constant threat to all spacecraft and space stations. The menace attracted global attention recently when a piece of debris struck the Chinese crewed vehicle Shenzhou-20, causing a minor crack in the window of its return capsule, rendering...

Planarian flatworms are small, unassuming creatures with an astonishing talent. Cut one into pieces, and each fragment can regrow a complete animal. This seemingly magical ability comes from their prolific stem cells, known as neoblasts, which can produce every tissue in the body. In most animals, such regenerative stem cells grow under the care of...

Commemorating December 22 as National Mathematics Day invites memories of biographies, theorems, institutes, and prizes. But India also has mathematical places: built environments that render the mathematical act of measurement public. Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is one of them. It was commissioned by Sawai Jai Singh II and completed in 1724 as an architectural...

NASA has lost contact with its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, the Mars orbiter that has worked for more than a decade to study how the planet’s atmosphere is escaping into space. The spacecraft went silent in early December and engineers are still trying to re-establish communication. MAVEN’s job at Mars has been...

The chilly waters of the Southern Ocean that surround Antarctica like a moat are among the least explored and least understood of all the world’s oceans. This is stark because we also know that this ocean plays an outsized role in regulating the earth’s climate with its moody currents and its tremendous ability to absorb...

A: A superkilonova is a rare kind of cosmic explosion. When two neutron stars smash into each other, the material tossed into space includes heavy, radioactive elements like gold, platinum, and neodymium. Over time the elements decay and the emissions in the optical and infrared parts of the spectrum are called a kilonova. A superkilonova...

ISRO’s upcoming LVM3 M6 mission will carry the BlueBird Block-2 satellite into orbit on December 24, as part of a commercial deal with U.S.-based AST SpaceMobile. The historic mission will deploy the next-generation communication satellite designed to provide high-speed cellular broadband directly to smartphones worldwide. AST SpaceMobile (AST & Science, LLC) is building the first...

ISRO’s upcoming LVM3 M6 mission will carry the BlueBird Block-2 satellite into orbit on December 24, as part of a commercial deal with U.S.-based AST SpaceMobile. The historic mission will deploy the next-generation communication satellite designed to provide high-speed cellular broadband directly to smartphones worldwide. AST SpaceMobile (AST & Science, LLC) is building the first...

The story so far: Parliament has brought into force the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act which repeals legislation that governs nuclear activity — the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010. Why is SHANTI significant? SHANTI encourages private companies to participate and...

The story so far: Parliament has brought into force the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, which repeals previous legislation that governs nuclear activity: the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act 2010. Why is SHANTI significant? SHANTI encourages private companies to participate...