Manzoor, U., Mujica Roncery, L., Raabe, D. et al, ‘Sustainable nickel enabled by hydrogen-based reduction’, Nature 641, 365–373 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08901-7 Nickel powers everything, from gadgets to green technologies. But getting it currently involves a far from green, in fact, a dirty process. However, a new study has revealed what its authors have said is a … Read more
The team focused on what the BBX32 gene does in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Representative photo. | Photo Credit: Markus Spiske/Unsplash Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, have found that a single protein helps plants time their first step from darkness into light. When a seed sprouts in … Read more
The story of how heeng came to be successfully cultivated in India
As per the earlier plan, the crew was scheduled to dock with the space station on June 11 at approximately 12:30 p.m. ET. Photo: X/@SpaceX The launch of Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed. The Axiom-4 Mission to the ISS, which was scheduled on … Read more
The strawberry supermoon rises behind the village of Imerovigli on Sandorini’s caldera, in Greece’s Cyclades islands, on June 14, 2022. | Photo Credit: Petros Giannakouris The Strawberry Moon, traditionally named after the strawberry harvest season in North America, will peak at 3:44 a.m. EDT on June 11, 2025, equivalent to 1:14 p.m. IST. Although the full phase … Read more
A pair of cryo-electron microscopes at the University of Leeds. | Photo Credit: Hiramano92 (CC BY-SA) Scientists use a powerful technique called cryo-electron microscopy to see the 3D shapes of biological molecules, but it normally needs the molecules to be extremely concentrated in a sample first. But for rare molecules this is hard to achieve. … Read more
The world needs to lower its dependence on fossil fuels. Countries have done so in fits and starts: issues like war, poverty, disease, and inflation have often left climate mitigation on the back burner. Today, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing worldwide. In this situation, some researchers have proposed the use of technologies to directly cool … Read more
Mr. Shukla heaped high praise on his crewmates, describing them as a “fantastic” squad, saying they would be his “friends for life”. File | Photo Credit: AFP Ahead of his historic journey to the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla has termed the preparations for the Axiom-4 mission an “amazing journey” and that … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI) is booming. Various AI algorithms are used in many scientific domains, such as to predict the structure of proteins, search for materials with particular properties, and interpret medical data to provide a diagnosis. People use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM, DALL-E, Gemini, and Midjourney to generate images and videos from text prompts, … Read more
Transmission electron micrograph of multiple bacteriophages attached to a bacterial cell wall. | Photo Credit: Graham Beards (CC BY-SA) If one has a urinary tract infection, for instance, the pathology lab will identify the bacterium to be, say, Escherichia coli. It will also determine the pathogen’s sensitivity to over a dozen antibiotics. It is fine … Read more