Science

Aaron Carlisle grasps a white shark alongside a boat off the coast of Delaware (Reuters photo) Scientists in the US are testing an unusual way to collect ocean data that could eventually help improve hurricane forecasts, by using sharks as mobile ocean sensors.Researchers from the University of Delaware are attaching small electronic tags to sharks…

What started with concerns about access to clean drinking water eventually led three Indian teenagers to an idea that could offer a remarkably simple way of tackling microplastic contamination. Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta, all 16, developed Plas-Stick, a biodegradable powder made from discarded tamarind seeds that can bind tiny plastic particles in…

While one might assume that lowering huge white blocks of concrete into the sea was an attempt at dumping construction waste offshore, in Britain’s North Sea it is a conservation effort. The country is dumping 20 carefully designed structures into the deep waters to restore the population of the European native oyster, Ostrea edulis, along…

In an age of constant notifications, endless scrolling and instant entertainment, Leonardo da Vinci’s centuries-old warning about an inactive mind feels surprisingly modern. “Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation… even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind,” Leonardo wrote in his notebooks. The Renaissance polymath used familiar examples from…

Quote of the Day by Albert Einstein (Representative image) Two people can be told they have no special gift for something and respond in completely different ways. One takes it as a verdict and stops trying. The other decides that gift was never really the point, and keeps going anyway, driven by something that has…

A packet of meat can look fresh on the supermarket shelf even while bacteria are already multiplying inside. By the time a spoiled smell, discolouration or slimy texture becomes obvious, indicating that the meat has gone stale, the food may no longer be safe to eat.To find a solution to this, researchers at Kyushu University…

Cloud aerosols on Venus contain far more water than scientists have assumed for decades, alongside comparable amounts of iron sulfate and sulfuric acid. Researchers led by R. Mogul revisited previously uncharacterised data from the Pioneer Venus Large Probe, which descended through the planet’s atmosphere in 1978, and found that the probe’s instruments had unknowingly captured…

To identify a suitable industry partner, IN-SPACe has issued an expression of interest (EoI) inviting proposals from eligible Indian entities to operate and manage the new launch complex, which is being built primarily for launches involving small rockets. BENGALURU: Space promoter-cum-regulator IN-SPACe has begun the process of handing over the operations and management of the…

In 1849, Italian-born inventor Antonio Meucci began developing an early voice-transmission device that would later be known as the “teletrofono.” Decades of experimentation, financial hardship and a lapsed patent caveat meant that credit for the telephone ultimately went to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. Meucci’s story, however, did not end there. Nearly 113 years after…

Photo credit: Jstage.jst.go.jp A small dinosaur bone discovered in Fukushima, Japan, more than two decades ago has given scientists a new glimpse into the diversity of ancient life along East Asia’s coast.The fossil, found in 1999 and left largely unexamined for years, has now been identified as part of the breastbone of a plant-eating dinosaur…