Mortal combat
Can life be extended indefinitely? There is a renewed vigour among scientists looking for ways and means to cheat death
Seeking many more Hedy Lamarrs
The number of women inventors is finally rising the world over but their percentage is still too small to be celebrated
Four new elements added to periodic table
These elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118 were all synthesised in laboratories
`Aditya-1 will take images every second'
Dipankar Banerjee of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, which is one of the institutions working on Mission Aditya-1, speaks …
Cultural calling
Henrich attempts a thrilling adventure in the fierce interplay between genes and culture in human evolution
Gravitational Waves: Explained
Hundred years after Albert Einstein’s prediction of the presence of gravitational waves in his Theory of Relativity, a team of scientists …
Three scientists share Nobel for Chemistry for research on DNA repair
Tomas Lindahl of UK’s Francis Crick Institute, Paul Modrich of USA’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Aziz Sancar of the …
Pluto flyby: The mystery deepens after New Horizons’ encounter
The NASA mission is the first-ever foray into the “third region” of the solar system, also called the Kuiper Belt, containing …
Roots, barks and leaves
CHANDRA PRAKASH KALA spent three months with the Baiga tribe in the forests of Chhattisgarh. He learnt how they use plants to their advantage
Adam’s luck
Men, after all, may not become extinct. Y chromosome has lost only one gene in 25 million years
Shutting down the particle powerhouse
Even though funds for the Superconducting Super Collider have dried up, particle physicists are determined to prove their theory of, well, everything
Maps of the world
Geographical Information Systems is revolutionising the present and portend a happier future. Or so we hope in the maps of our minds.
Sweet rediscovery
A staple for many Asian and African nations, sweet potato is only now beginning to catch the attention of scientists
Eating oil
Fertilisers accelerate growth not only in plants but also in certain microbes that feast on oil
Antidote to cancer
Scientists have discovered an oestrogen derivative that controls tumours and could be effective against other diseases like arthritis
How much of the world did the muskox see?
Recent evidence suggests that the muskox, believed to have become extinct 10,000 years ago, may have actually survived till much later.
A gene that follows its own drum-beat
A team of Russian scientists have found in mice a gene, which, unlike others, decides when to express itself
Ants take the shortest route to success
An Israeli mathematician offers proof of how ants, without a bird's eye view of their terrain, are still able to follow a straight route to food
Faster than the Concorde, bigger than the jumbo
The aviation industry is working on producing two 21st century aircraft: the HSCT, which can cut flying time by half; and the super jumbo, which …
Just a radio signal to whisk you to office
The concept of teleportation or moving people and objects instantaneously, which was made popular by the American serial Star Trek, is now …
Was the Archaeopteryx: Bird or dinosaur?
An American ornithologist says he has found fresh evidence that the world's oldest bird-like creature, the Archaeopteryx, was undoubtedly a bird. …
Ancient Mexican script yields up its secrets
A hieroglyphic script in which the earliest Central American texts were written has been partly deciphered, thanks to an engraved slab found by …
New form of carbon opens up exciting possibilities
The discovery of a simple procedure for synthesis of a new crystalline form of carbon has opened up immense possibilities in the field of …
A long step forward in nerve communications
Agrin, a protein released by nerve cells, helps in triggering off the formation of a machinery through which neurons communicate.
Geysers can help predict quakes
Erratic eruptions of gushing hot springs have been recorded before the occurrence of tremors. Though scientists are not sure why this happens, …