Museum specimens, the Zoological Survey of India used to unlock morphological mysteries of the South Asian treeshrews. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT GUWAHATI Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have resolved longstanding taxonomic ambiguities surrounding South Asian treeshrews – small, insectivorous mammals often misidentified due to their superficial resemblance to squirrels. Drawing upon…
Former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan passed away on Friday in Bengaluru, officials said. “He left for heavenly abode this morning at his residence in Bengaluru. His body will be kept at Raman Research Institute (RRI) for paying last respects on April 27,” as per a PTI report quoting officials. Kasturirangan, who was 84 at the…
A file photo of Dr. K. Kasturirangan (centre) visiting Gundya in Sakaleshpur taluk of Hassan district in Karnataka. He was the author of the Kasturirangan Committee report on Western Ghats, which in 2013, identified an area of 59,940 sq. km of natural landscape of Western Ghats, spread across 6 States as ecologically sensitive. | Photo…
April 25 has been recognised globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day (previously African Malaria Day), since 2006, to highlight the need for continued investment and innovation. The “butterfly effect” from chaos theory might result in a tornado, but the “mosquito effect” (through the parasite it carries) has fundamentally altered human…
Can insulin-dependent diabetics stay in space? This will be one of the areas of research by astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), probably this May, as part of the Axiom 4 mission. Indian Air Force pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla, will be among the four astronauts part of the space-flight – the first…
Ashley Dayer’s dream of winning a National Science Foundation grant to pursue discoveries in bird conservation started when she was an early-career professor with an infant in her arms and a shoestring laboratory budget. Competition is intense for NSF grants, a key source of funding for science research at U.S. universities. It took three failed…
Megan Dixon went to the hospital for some tests. She was discharged after two years. The teenager, who started feeling sick at 13, was eventually diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) at 16. She was left completely paralysed after a hospital stay meant for tests. Once unable to walk, talk or open her eyes, she…
Scientists have found something strange under the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. And, it may change a lot about how the Earth looks in future. Earthquakes usually happen close to the surface, about 10 to 18 kilometres deep. But recently, researcher Deborah Kilb noticed quakes happening much deeper, around 20 to 40 kilometres underground. This…
Our bodies are made of cells. Each cell is a soup of smaller components, all working together to execute the body’s various functions. Perhaps the most well-known of these components are proteins — long chains of amino acids that cells make with instructions from the DNA. When the DNA changes, the cell is able to…
V. Naryanan, ISRO chairman (fourth from left), and other dignitaries at the commissioning of O-ARM in Chennai on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: R. Ravindran  By 2040, India will be among the developed nations in the field of space and would have its own space station, V. Narayanan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),…
