After a long day at work, it’s easier to flop on the couch than hit the gym. Scrolling over social media wins over reading a book. Our exhausted brains favour easier tasks, even if — according to a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience — those tasks offer fewer benefits. Even sedentary work can … Read more
In a significant breakthrough in the study of limbless locomotion, an international team of scientists has documented and modelled a previously unrecorded escape movement used by newborn yellow anacondas. Dubbed the ‘S-start’, the motion represents a novel, non-planar locomotion that the snakes employ briefly to flee from perceived threats. The discovery opens new avenues in … Read more
Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu India will be able to address the apprehensions of the private sector globally about investments in the civil nuclear sector, which was opened up to achieve the ambitious target of producing 100 GW of atomic power by 2047, Union Minister Jitendra Singh … Read more
An aircraft passes in front of the moon, with a red glow attributable to smoke particles in the upper atmosphere from North American wildfires, a day ahead of the full super moon, August 18, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters A: International Moon Day is celebrated every year on July 20 to commemorate humankind’s first landing … Read more
Proteins aren’t rigid sculptures. They twist, flex, and sometimes unravel — movements essential to understanding their function. Some proteins, like enzymes, open like clamshells to grab molecules. Others such as signalling proteins shift shape to control cell processes. Still others briefly reveal hidden gaps where drugs can bind. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools like AlphaFold have … Read more
Dr Aviru Basu’s research group. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) in Mohali, IIT-Dharwad, and IIT-Kharagpur have designed a cheap, reusable water filter. Industrial plants release dyes such as Congo Red and Methylene Blue into rivers and groundwater, from where they can cause stomach, skin, and … Read more
Microscopic image of cross-sectional calf muscle from a person with Duchenne muscular dystrophy showing extensive replacement of muscle fibres by fat cells. | Photo Credit: US CDC About 10,000 rare diseases have thus far been identified in the world, and new ones are discovered every now and then. Some 80% of these conditions are genetic … Read more
Up, up, and away! The question of whether Mars supports life, or if it has in any point of its history, has been on the minds of people – both scientists and common folk – for a very long time. Flyby explorations of the red planet in the 1960s ended hopes of an inhabited world. … Read more
Image used for representative purpose only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto In a first, starting this year, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) will award negative scores to higher educational institutions for papers that have been retracted from journals in the last three calendar years and their corresponding citations. “This year, we will award some … Read more
The complex pattern of gravitational waves emitted by a pair of black holes circling each other before merging. | Photo Credit: Henze/NASA Scientists working with a network of observatories located around the world recently reported that they had detected a powerful and unusual burst of gravitational waves, which they called GW231123. The signal was traced … Read more