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The earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found a strange increase in the radioactive isotope beryllium-10 during that time. This finding, now published in Nature Communications, opens new pathways for geologists to date past events gleaned from deep … Read more
An artist’s concept shows the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas, in this undated illustration obtained by Reuters on February 18, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is providing the best look yet at the chaotic … Read more
A debate about the age of Saturn’s resplendent rings has been raging for a few decades now, with no end in sight. A new study by researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo and the Paris Institute of Planetary Physics has fresh spin to offer now that could recast the conversation. Saturn’s rings are an … Read more
Only three decades ago, the Indian space programme was a diminutive affair, dominated by the newfound successes of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and a then-fledgling clump of communications satellites. Today, the programme is a large tree with a flourishing canopy. There is a slew of ongoing projects accompanied by projects being ideated, developed, … Read more
Attentive ophthalmologist examines a patient’s eyes using specialized equipment during a comprehensive eye examination | Photo Credit: Getty Images Optics and optoelectronics technology company Zeiss India has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to start a research lab for AI in eye care at the IISc campus. The initiative aims to leverage AI … Read more
In the middle of this image, the fuzzy-looking bulb of light in a warm shade of yellow extends around a small bright spot, nestled within a thin light circle that appears to be drawn closely around it. The circle is an Einstein ring. | Photo Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA More than a century ago, Albert Einstein … Read more
In his inauguration speech in January, United States President Donald Trump declared the US would “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. In 2017, in Trump’s previous term of office, he promised to “establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars”. And his billionaire adviser Elon … Read more
A bell tower of an Orthodox church in the town of Oia on the earthquake-truck island of Santorini, Greece, is visible as the main town of Fira is lit by the sun in the background, February 4, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP An earthquake swarm occurs when multiple seismic events of comparable intensity strike a … Read more
On January 20, Chinese scientists reported that they were able to maintain a plasma at a temperature of 100 million degrees C for about 1,066 seconds in a nuclear fusion reactor called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). In 1938, physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann found that energy is produced when the nucleus of … Read more
In this undated photo provided by Abdelrazek Elnaggar, Emma Paolin, PhD student at University of Ljubljana, sets up active air sampling with sorbent tubes and pumps. | Photo Credit: Abdelrazek Elnaggar/AP At first whiff, it sounds repulsive: sniff the essence of an ancient corpse. But researchers who indulged their curiosity in the name of science … Read more